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

Polls
What is your Experience with NETGEAR Insight cloud management?
Top Contributors

WAC5xx Series - Native dedicated 5GHz Band for Bridge Backhaul

Hi,

 

I purchased 2x WAC540 units with the absolute expectation of being able to dedicate/reserve/lock the 5GHz High Band for Bridge backhaul only, given that this is mentioned as a headline feature. However it appears that even though a particular Band is used for Bridge mode, normal clients can pick this band for their connectivity, and since it's a more performant band, all 5GHz-capable clients prefer it. I don't want to use the 5GHz Low Band for Bridge mode since it's half the bandwidth of the 5GHz High Band, and as we know already with Bridges, badnwidth is halved by their very nature.

 

I raised a ticket with NETGEAR and the reply was that this feature is only available with the Insight Subscription, and that I should raise it as a feature request. This feature "lockout" to paid subscription is NOT mentioned ANYWHERE in the documentation for these models which is really poor form. If it is, it is not easily found!

 

For now I have set the max number of clients on the 5GHZ High Band to be 1 to reduce contention.

 

The simplest thing for NETGEAR to introduce in a firmware update is allowing the max clients setting to be zero but that would not be very intuitive. A better option is to be able to choose which 5GHz Bands can be used for client SSIDs; at the moment we have radio buttons (which is single choice) to choose between:

2.4GHz

5GHz

Both

 

It needs to be checkbox buttons (so multiple choice) to choose a combination of:

 

2.4GHz

5GHz Low

5GHz High

 

You could drop the Both (All) option since checking all of them is the equivalent.

 

An equally better option would be able to click a button that says "Dedicate this Band for Bridge mode only" when creating a Bridge.

 

I get that these APs a designed for Business/Enterprise WiFi where Insight subscriptions 100% make sense, but the features they provide just aren't available in SOHO/Home WiFi models and my setup is such that I need to Bridge between 2 houses only, for sharing internet, NAS, printing etc. I am a home consumer buying Business/Enterprise kit.

 

Thanks