NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.

Forum Discussion

Art_C's avatar
Art_C
Tutor
Nov 13, 2015
Solved

WNDR3400v2 Access point setting GONE.

I believe this may be a bug in the new firmware I just installed in the router.  It was setup as an Access point before the upgrade.  It is still correctly setup after the upgrade.  The problem is th...
  • Art_C's avatar
    Art_C
    Nov 13, 2015

    Thank-you for the timely response.

     

    I have learned a few things and just wish to note them here for others future reference.

    1)  AP Mode is not available for the --51- update.  It has been removed, but the reason is an error (or memory requirement...), rather than security.

    2)  In standard AP mode, ALL security IS available.  Only if put in base or repeater mode does security drop to WEP Only.

    3)  Strangely, the base and repeater modes still showed up as available, though not accessable due to no AP Mode.  (Solid Bug.  No Matter.  Old Firmware is Fine.)

    4)  The basic AP Mode is mainly useful if this unit IS NOT the device doing direct DNS searches.  I needn't get into details, but without AP mode, it won't work well as an Access point.

    5)  The new update DOES offer better access control, and for normal home use might be desirable for those functions.  IF a Basic AP add-on, don't bother with update.

     

    As a strange little note:  This unit was in AP mode after the upgrade.  It actually noted this on the "Start" page, however it dropped into normal mode all by itself after a few hours.  I was not watching during the time it changed, but there was no power cycle nor reset done.  It did it by itself.  It did NOT change the IP, which confuses me a bit as the AP IP is not stored in the same location as the IP when in normal router/gateway mode.  Very interesting.  Possibly the same internal memory location used, but I'm not about to decompile to find out.  I just reloaded 38 firmware.

     

    Thanks again for the ideas.  After "downgrading" to the "38" version of firmware, all is fine and I get good 5G connections in AP mode.  This really gives me more reason to follow the old addage of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  If the software writers could put basic AP mode back, and remove the Base and Repeater modes to fit it, then THAT is an update I would like as the access control for wireless devices is a great little option to have.  For now, the original "38" firmware works fine and I'll just wait and see what happens.