EX6200 Authentication Error comes and goes

In trying to figure this problem out, I had scoured the internet and read all the reviews on this device (ex6200) from when it first came out (2014) and afterwards. Just yesterday I tripped over the apparent fact that netgear had released an updated version (ex6200v2) in 2018 but had not updated the web pages since and had basically hidden the new device in their product line brochure, to where one would really have to dig to find it. Not, btw, listed as a product available for purchase on amazon, which basically means it doesnt exist.

But after finally retrieving the newer unit documentation, guess what I find buried in it? Yep, an entire section devoted to the potential failure to log in/attach to/through the repeater to the host wifi router, precisely my problem. Now, no real explaination or 'fix' per se, but guess what their idea to potentially help? Right, move the repeater closer to the wifi router and insure that the link rate leds are solid green. That is precisely what I've been trying to accomplish, my structures are such that the furthest away from the wifi router (which is very strong, fills my 1500sqft home with 5ghz wifi over -50dbm from the front door to the master bath at the rear) and closest to one of the out structures (some 25' distance) but my attempt to put the the repeater some 20' away from the wifi router with a flat panel antenna aimed at the out structure didnt work well, the signal out of the repeater with the standard antenna was very low at distance and going through old single pane glass and a wall at the other end, or with the 15+db focus of the flat panel antenna outside not going through the glass only through the far very thin wall with aluminum siding. The RF measured out of that antenna was imo deficient, lower than the signal strength of the rubber antenna going through the glass, so that may have been the downfall of that attempt; I plan on taking that antenna apart soon and see if I can spot any defective construction.

But I had moved the unit back to a shed halfway between the main structure and the far building, where a standard antenna resulted in a 'good' signal on the roku but an 'amber' level on the wifi signal from the wifi router; again, I have extended on of the antennas closer to the main structure where the signal level (through a double pane window + 5ft) at -52dbm, yes a loss of 20dbm through that window but should be well into the green strength wise, yet the 'idiot' led on the repeater stays amber with occasional flashes to green. There is no documentation on the exact dbm level that triggers this led, so who knows; -52dbm should be well above the level to trigger green, even figuring a 7dbm cable loss. However, I have the ability to move the antenna through another window (bathroom, 2-3" single pane window, where I had previously mounted the flat panel antenna) to the inside of the main structure where the signal level is -34dbm; really hot. I had tested the 10m coaxial cable that the original repeater antenna had been attached to, and at 5.5ghz the loss was less than 7dbm, so going back that -52 I measured at the window where it currently is yields -59dbm, one when I opened that window and measured -34dbm means -41dbm at the repeater. Yet the link led stayed amber, so moving it will probably still not improve the link signal. So moving it just simply will not work, I'm back to nothing working.

I realize this unit is not anywhere near a professional device, and I'm throwing 50+ years of microwave engineering at it. But the minimum info I've managed to glean from bits and pieces of documentation has shown that throughput on the device is fairly excellent, it's the firmware and associated systems that are shaky. Some have suggested upgrading the firmware, but have you counted the number of folks whose units have been bricked? And I have updated it once already so dogged it once, like to try again? No thanks. Maybe I'll buy a v2 machine used off ebay....