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BigBlue_007's avatar
BigBlue_007
Aspirant
Mar 29, 2018

EX7500 - need help to understand link options

Hello,

 

I need some help to simply understand how this thingy works.

 

When I first set it up, I used the manual setup mode. My main router (Non-Netgear) is a dual band device. I use the same SSID for both bands. In the setup wizard of EX7500, on the page where the Wifi networks are being listed that should be repeated, I choosed both my 2.4GHz network on the left and my 5GHz network on the right side. After the wizard was complete, the status sceen on the setup start page was green on all 4 corners, i.e. the repeater was connected to my main router with both bands, and the repeater itself also offered both bands for clients to connect with the repeater.

 

In this configuration, I observed various issues with the repeater. The main issue was that clients connected to the repeater didn't received an IP adress from the DHCP server of my main router (which would be 192.168.1.x), but a 169.255.x.x adress, and of course there was no internet connection available.

 

I then decided to reset the repeater and use the WPS method this time. As instructed in the manual, I performed the WPS link process twice so that the repeater connects using the 2.4GHz band as well as the 5GHz band. When I now look onto the status page, the upper part on the left of the repeater is now grey:

 

 

... which means that the link between my main router and the repeater uses the 5GHz band only, but not the 2.4GHz band. On the other side, the repeater offers both bands for clients as it did before.

 

In this configuration, it would seem that all issues that I had before are now gone.

 

So my simple question is: Is it intended behaviour that the repeater should be connected to the main router using one band only? And if yes, why is it being offered to connect to the main router with both bands when using manual setup in the first place? Wouldn't make much sense then.

 

Many thanks in advance!

Installation

3 Replies

  • jvasanth1984's avatar
    jvasanth1984
    Virtuoso
    Apr 01, 2018

    Hi BigBlue_007,

                                  It is designed to extend both bands. WPS failed on one of two instance is what it results in extending 5GHz alone. Try WPS again or use browser method to setup the extender with both bands and check if it works. Also, upgrade firmware of extender to latest and modify wireless channel on your router to have better connectivity to the extender.

    • BigBlue_007's avatar
      BigBlue_007
      Aspirant
      Apr 06, 2018

      Thanks!

       

      Firmware was on the latest level already of course. And I had already tested the browser method before, with the results that I had mentioned (repeater was connected to router with both bands but clients connected to the repeater had various issues).

       

      My assumption that the repeater works better with only the 5GHz band connected to the router was wrong. The 2nd info display I posted above (where the repeater is connected to the router using 5GHz only, but at the same time the repeater itself offers both bands for clients) is wrong. Actually, when the repeater is connected to the router using 5GHz only, it also only offers 5GHz band to clients. I noticed this later when I saw that only very few of my devices (those with 5GHz support) connected to the repeater.

       

      What I now did was to execute the browser setup again, but without resetting the repeater and beginning from scratch (tried that before with no luck). I enabled both bands to be repeated (as I did initially when I first set it up), and now it's again connected with both bands to the repeater, but I see no more issues with any of my clients.

       

      Don't know what exactly went wrong intially, but it works now.

       

      Thanks!