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Forum Discussion
R6260 Bridge Mode Woes
I am trying to use a Netgear AC-1600 R6260 to provide an ethernet port in a room which is only accessible by wifi. I am trying to join a wireless network provided by my ISP's EXOS fibre to wifi-6 router.
I had not used the R6260 in four years and initially had problems resetting it to gain access to the admin web manager. The R6260 was unresponsive to it's mechanical pinhole reset and a tftp reset. I have only been able to reset using nmrpflash which I have done several times during the process of trying to get bridge mode to work.
Initially, I tried setting up in bridge mode with only a computer connected directly to the R6260's lan port. There was nothing connected to the WAN port. This was unsuccessful and led to it being hung and my having to use nmrpflash. If I connect the WAN port to my ISPs router the R6260 appears to come up properly as a router or access point. However, when connected to the WAN the router really wants to insist on one trying the Nighthawk app which appears to not provide any capability for managing advanced features. Also, the web manager form seems to have a hard time staying on the advanced tab. It frequently and repeatedly with no input from me reverts to the basic tab. In any event here are some screenshots of what I am seeing.
Note I have tried this both without and with a connection to the R6260's WAN port. I am clicking on "Setup Bridge Mode Wireless Settings" which provides a popup where I specify the SSID of the wifi network to join and the password. This never results in the IP address boxes being populated. Nor does it join the network when I look at the admin page of the EXOS router. Also, note as a test I've purposely provided a bad password in the popup dialog and the R6260 does not generate an error message indicating the password is wrong. I have also tried this with the wireless networks of the R6260 both on and off. I'm not sure how this should be set. I only want a 5ghz connection so I am thinking I should have the 2.4ghz radio off.
In any event I would appreciate any insights into what I have been doing wrong in trying to get my R6260 to join an existing WIFI network and provide an ethernet port in a room which is only accessible via wifi.
2 Replies
I have also tried disabling security on the wifi network to see if the R6260 can join the wifi netwok without any success
R6260HAL wrote:
I had not used the R6260 in four years and initially had problems resetting it to gain access to the admin web manager. The R6260 was unresponsive to it's mechanical pinhole reset and a tftp reset. I have only been able to reset using nmrpflash which I have done several times during the process of trying to get bridge mode to work.
These moves exist to mend broken firmware. Do it once and the router should work as expected. If the power LED is on and solid green you have to work hard to break it again.
Initially, I tried setting up in bridge mode with only a computer connected directly to the R6260's lan port. There was nothing connected to the WAN port.
That is not bridge mode. At least, it is not wireless bridge mode, which is probably what you are looking for. Getting that to work depends as much on the source of the wifi as on the receiver. Have you checked that your router will play ball with this?
Have you considered an alternative to plug your wifi gap? Put the R6260 into access point (AP) mode and use Powerline Ethernet to connect the router to the AP.
Just another user with time on their hands.
