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Gantler's avatar
Gantler
Aspirant
Mar 12, 2021

Bridge or AP Mode on R7900P

I recently purchased a Nighthawk Mesh Wifi 6 router set of 3 and previously had a Nighthawk R7900P router. I removed the R7900P from the network and setup the Nighthawk Mesh network. If possible, I would like to now add the R7900P router into the network as a bridge or access point to increase the range of the network. However, each time I go through the process to set it up it does not work as expected. My assumption is that this is not possible to setup on a mixed network, though want to ask the community to see if there is anything I am missing on how to make this work.

Much appreciate any insight and/or advice! 

3 Replies

  • > [...] I would like to now add the R7900P router into the network as a
    > bridge or access point to increase the range of the network. [...]

     

       "range" to _what_?  A bridge and a wireless access point do different
    things.

     

       Visit http://netgear.com/support , put in your model number, and look
    for Documentation.  Get the User Manual (at least).  Read.  Look for
    "Set up the router as a WiFi access point" and "Set up the router in
    bridge mode".

     

       Which one do you want? Is there some actual problem which you are
    trying to solve?

     

    > [...] each time I go through the process to set it up it does not work
    > as expected. [...]

     

       Think, for a moment, about how little useful information that
    non-description conveys to the non-psychics in your audience.


       "the process"?  What, exactly, did you do?

     

       "does not work as expected"?  What, exactly, happened?  What,
    exactly, did you expect?

     

       "does not" is not a useful problem description.  It does not say what
    you did.  It does not say what happened when you did it.  As usual,
    showing actual actions (commands) with their actual results (error
    messages, LED indicators, ...) can be more helpful than vague
    descriptions or interpretations.

     

    > [...] My assumption is that this is not possible to setup on a mixed
    > network, [...]

     

       "this"?  What/which?

    • Gantler's avatar
      Gantler
      Aspirant

      To the "guru" antinode:

       

      To better help you understand the intent, we were trying to connect WIRELESSLY from a Netgear Mesh Router system to a Netgear R7900P router. It appears that Wireless Distribution System on other routers does not exist on the R7900P router. It seems like the only way to support the 2nd router (R7900P) is to connect it to the Mesh router via an ethernet cable.

       

      Regards,

      Pat

      • antinode's avatar
        antinode
        Guru

        > [...] we were trying to connect WIRELESSLY from a Netgear Mesh Router
        > system to a Netgear R7900P router. [...]

         

           Ok.  I can make sense of that.

         

        > [...] It appears that Wireless Distribution System on other routers
        > does not exist on the R7900P router. [...]

         

           It never was worth much; no worthwhile security alowed.

         

        > [...] It seems like the only way to support the 2nd router (R7900P) is
        > to connect it to the Mesh router via an ethernet cable.

         

           If you want wireless client devices to connect to the R7900P, that
        that sounds right. (See "Set up the router as a WiFi access point" in
        the R7900P User Manual.)

         

           Strictly speaking, "an Ethernet cable (or equivalent)".  There exist
        Powerline adapters which use existing power wiring to carry network
        signals, and MoCA adapters which use coaxial cable similarly.


           The alternative with a wireless connection to the main router is
        wireless bridge mode, but that offers only wired connections between
        client devices and the R7900P.  (See "Set up the router in bridge mode"
        in the R7900P User Manual.)