NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
EX6200 Acting as a DNS server
Purchased a EX6200, upgraded to latest firmware. Connected to a business network and configured as an access point. Issue I am having is that two PC's on the business network which is on a 160.0.1.x ...
Precisely what I am saying. It should NOT be acting as a DNS server, but it most certainly is.
Chicken/egg. To set the unit up as access point you need to connect to your network so it can find the router otherwise cannot setup. Do this and any PC that does not have a fixed DNS in network settings potentially will get 192.168.1.250 set as its DNS. So you need to connect to your network and then go as quick;y as possible to fix the IP settings for the unit before it knocks out every PC that does not have a fixed DNS.
Bear in mind that the two PC's affected had been on all day with internet access, plugged in the ex6200 and the PC's lost internet connection, yellow exclamation mark and ipconfig showed 192.168.1.250 as DNS. I have seen units affected on reboot but not while booted up.
Units going back.
I don't think see the chicken and egg situation. When you first set it up, it should have connected to the existing network and created two new Wi-Fi SSIDs by concatenating _2GEXT and _5GEXT to the existing SSID. At this point, there's no way any other PC would have connected to the EX6200 since the new SSIDs were different. When the EX6200 connected to the router, it should have picked up a new IP address in the 160.0.1.X subnet as well as the proper DNS server address, 160.0.1.7. You could have confirmed this by connecting a PC to the EX6200 and checked the DNS server address. It it was still wrong, you could have changed it in the EX6200 settings.
From that point onwards, any PC that connected to the new SSIDs should have picked up the correct DNS server.
Anyway, if you haven't already sent the unit back, give it another try.
Quote "When you first set it up, it should have connected to the existing network and created two new Wi-Fi SSIDs by concatenating _2GEXT and _5GEXT to the existing SSID."
I am setting it up as a Access point not as an extender.
I think you are implying that during initial setup you changed the Wi-Fi SSIDs to be broadcast by the EX6200 to match the SSIDs broadcast by the main router. But the EX6200 should have already been connected to the main router and DHCP'd for its own IP address and picked up the correct DNS server. The step to set up the EX6200's own SSIDs comes after this, so I don't see the window where PCs can connect via Wi-Fi and get the wrong DNS server address.
Are you connecting PCs to the EX6200 via Ethernet before initial setup? You shouldn't do that.
Or are you connecting the EX6200 into the main network via Ethernet? That's not supported by the EX6200. See page 115 in the manual.
No not implying anything I am clearly stating I am setting the unit up as an Access point. P115 of user manual
I assume you mean question 1. This is out of date. The unit when initialy shipped could only be setup in this way. However - the lastest firmware allows you to set the unit up as an extender or an access point. It is the first question the configurator asks.
Please bear in mind I have setup dozens of AP's over the years. Its quite simple at no point in any way or configuration should the unit be acting/advertising it is a DNS server. It did, this caused the problems stated. Units gone back.