MR60 Separating 2.4Ghz and 5.Ghz

[jlopez91901]

I am trying to figure out how to separate my 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. My TV supports both but i need it to lock onto the 2.4Ghz band so i can have it connect to my phone and smart home assistant.

Model - MR60

Firmware - 1.1.6.122

I've tried using both the web interface and app interface.

[plemans]

No, the MR60 doesn't have that option. 

Your phone/home assistants should still work if the router is on 5ghz and your other devices aren't. 

Whatt modem/gateway do you have? 

What firmware is on the router? 

What is actually happening in detail?

[MNSnowman]

Same issue here- I purchased the Nighthawk MR60 mesh system, and while setup was a breeze with the app, my wireless Brother HL-2170W printer is now a paperweight. Created a guest 2.4Ghz network on the router, and even though I loged on to that network with the laptop, it still does not "see" the printer. Support tickets open with both NetGear and Brother, but still nothing. Thought I'd try the Community....

Modem is an older NetGear CM500. Was using the NetGear 750 Dual Band Router, which worked perfectly, but had trouble pushing WiFi to all corners of the house. Firmware on the MR60 is up to date.

What is frustrating is the MR60 clearly connects on the 2.4Ghz band (see photo)- but of course defaults to the 5Ghz band. Why doesn't the MR60 see the printer on this network??

[plemans]

Half the time these devices don't see the network because their drivers aren't updated/maintained properly for the AX spec. Try disabling AX on the 2.4ghz.

[plemans]

I have that same hl-2170w printer. It does have an ethernet port. you could hardwire it into the router or satellite

[MNSnowman]

Seems worth a try. I'll need a longer ethernet cable for the permanent printer location, but for now, I can temporarily relocate the printer. Just spent 90 FRUSTRATING minutes on the phone with "support"....

[fredboer]

I struggled to connect my brand new Epson ET-3830. Had several conversations with tech support for both printer and router. Here are things that were suggested:

Do all the firmware update... and...

1. Manually set channel for 2.4Ghz. (Auto may use channels that conflict/don't work. Try 1, 6, 11)

2. Set a reserved IP address for the printer. 

3. Turn off AX features. 

4. Disable Implicit Beamforming

None of these worked.

Then, when talking to Netgear tech on an unrelated issue (Documentation says you can disable MU-MIMO, but you can't), the tech suggested turning off SSID Broadcast (under 5Ghz settings). I can't remember why this might help (I think he said something about this forcing connections to *start* with 2.4Ghz), but I did this and it seemed to work. Of course, this makes your network "hidden" so you have to be ok with that... 

FWIW.. Good luck!

Fred

[FURRYe38]

https://kb.netgear.com/000063027/Can-I-create-separate-2-4GHz-and-5GHz-SSIDs-on-my-Nighthawk-Tri-ban...

[plemans]

once you have the printer connect, usually you can turn the 5ghz ssid broadcast back on. 

[fredboer]

I suppose so! Thanks for that suggestion. For me, I didn't care that the network was hidden. Also, if the printer *did* still disconnect, leaving the wifi network hidden means that that printer can re-connect automatically without issues. But yes, if you didn't want a hidden network, for sure!

Cheers!

Fred

[MNSnowman]

To the community:

I have hardwired the router to the printer with an ethernet cable, reloaded the original installation disk and rebooted everything. I now have a functional printer from any connected device, and since the cable is hidden, no unsightly cables to belie the installation.

I thank each of you for your ideas and support! Bravo Zulu!

MNSnowman

[Barbino]

i have spent over 20 hours on tech support to try to connect HP6500e printer with MR60 router without success. I have spoken with so many people who cannot seem to help me. I had my ISP check to make sure all is correct so thats not the problem as some have suggested. Both  products tech teams have remotely taken over my computer to attempt to fix this issue, which has not helped.  I have spoken to many HP tech support people also, maybe those two companies should share data to find a solution.  I am at a loss what to do next. Do i have to return the router to the store which is 150 miles away? do I have to replace my 6month old printer that worked fine until this router installed? I have written to Netgear with no replies. I have asked what printers would be compatible with this router...no answer and my internet search said my printer would be compatible. Any suggestions? i am so frustrated.

[fredboer]

I feel for you - I had the same issue. I mention some of the possible solutions earlier in this thread. I also say that creating a "hidden network" solved my problem. It turned out later that that actually didn't do anything - so I'd ignore that. I *think* what solved it in the end was setting the 2.4 Ghz channel to "Short Preamble" - so I'd encourage you to try that.

But really, even though that seemed to do the trick for me, I was lucky enough that my printer had an ethernet port and, in the end, I decided that connecting via ethernet was the most stable, reliable and effective thing to do. 

Good luck!

Fred

[gabula]

Just FYI the latest firmware allows you to do this under Advanced Setup > Customize Wifi Network

[EternalStudent]

Yeah, I'd read something about short preambles being "better", but that long preambles should be more compatible.  Long was the default last I looked, and my iRobot 980 wouldn't connect (known to be unhappy when 5GHz and 2.4GHz share a name).  Switching to short on a whim made them connect fine the next time I tried...

And yeah, I came here to mention the .124 update has the ability to name your networks differently under an even more advanced area (ugh...why not just put it in the "advanced" wifi settings area?).  http://192.168.1.1/ads_start.htm

[fredboer]

Well, that is good news - I'm pleased that functionality has been added. Isn't firmware an amazing thing, how it can change the abilities of a device like that? For an old guy like me that still seems like magic. Anyway, can anyone tell me if my understanding of the following is correct? 

So, now 2.4 Ghz devices can connect to a concurrent, separate 2.4 Ghz network. That's great for IoT devices and solves a big problem with the MK60 mesh system. However, that won't really solve printer connection issues, right? Because you can only be signed into one network at a time, and if you put the printer on the 2.4 Ghz network, than anytime someone wanted to print (assuming they normally reside on the 5Ghz network) then the would have to log out of one network and log in to the other. Have I got that right?

Thanks!

P.S. I've actually ordered a second satellite. My plan is to put that one upstairs, and use its ethernet port to connect to the printer. I think this will give me the connectivity I want to the printer without running cable. That should work, right?

[gabula]

Yes to all your questions. However switching networks is fast, it's not really logging out. Takes a couple of seconds to change your network to the 2.4 on any device in order to print. Not a big hassle I think.

[fredboer]

Thanks! 

Fred

[GADGET2002]

I've been struggling with the same issue where my IoT GU10 lamps and IoT cameras have been connecting and falling off the network since installing the MK63 (MR60 and 2x MS60 satellites) because the bulbs need a 2.4ghz network connection and aren't happy with the Dual band SSID.

Happily, I found that there's an update to the router software in Advanced Wireless Setup which now does allow the WiFi to be split into 2.4ghx and 5ghz.  I'll be connecting everything IoT I can to the 2.4ghz and then hide the SSID for security.  Everything else which uses 5ghz will connect fine anyway.

[GADGET2002]

There's been an update (MAY2022)  to the MS60 software which now does allow splitting 2.4ghz and 5ghz.

[chtxk1]

Suggest that you reinstall your printer drivers from scratch. I had same issue with Brother L2380DW and MR80 system not connecting. Deleted and reinstalled printer software - connected right away..... good luck

[RyanRouter]

Hey all, Ryan here - My background is networking (physical and wireless) and software development. I recently upgraded my shaw router to an xb7 (returning my xb6) and the performance was poor. I picked up the MR60 w/ 2 satellites to get better coverage in my home (1600 sqft).

After I setup the MR60 w/ 2 satellites I was very frustrated that I couldn't control which band (2.4Ghz or 5Ghz) my device was on. After spending a bunch of time I've figured this all out. In short, you need to manually flash your firmware to get the ability to split your SSIDs by band. There's extra confusion in this comment thread because at one point you couldn't split the SSIDs with any firmware versions, but now you can. I can confirm with 100% that you can split the bands if you upgrade your firmware to version '1.1.6.124' as of August 28, 2022.

By default the router I purchased came with the firmware version '1.0.6.102'. This version doesn't include the ability to split SSIDs. You can confirm your version by going to the web portal (http://routerlogin.net), click the Advanced tab -> click the Administration area -> click Router Update and look under the column heading "Current Firmware Version". You'll see your current version. The super confusing part is that you'll also see that it says 'No new firmware available'. 

What you need to do is go to this URL: https://kb.netgear.com/000064880/MR60-MS60-Firmware-Version-1-1-6-124 and follow the instructions and manually update your firmware to version '1.1.6.124'. Make sure to update your satellites first. After you do that you'll be able to split your SSIDs by going to the web portal (http://routerlogin.net), click the Advanced tab -> click the Administration area -> click Advanced Setup -> click Customize WiFi Setup and click "Customize 2.4 GHz WiFi Network" and "Customize 5.0 GHz WiFi Network".

If you try and name either of the customized bands the same as your existing wifi name you'll get an error. What I had to do was go to the Basic tab -> Wireless and change the wifi name.

At the end of the day your wifi will look like this (assuming you want your wifi to start with SuperWifi ‌😀‌ 😞

• SuperWifiAll - This will support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz - Wireless tab
• SuperWifi24 - This will support 2.4GHz - Advanced Setup - Customize WiFi Setup
• SuperWifi5 - This will support 5GHz- Advanced Setup - Customize WiFi Setup

I don't know if this will solve the printer issue that people were having (I don't know if it shares the same network behind the scenes, I'd have to do more digging to see if they're on the same network to communicate with each other) but this solved my problems of:

• Older IOT devices on 2.4GHz not connecting to "SuperWifiAll", the old tech doesn't let them connect to the right band. They all connect through "SuperWifi24" now.
• New devices sometimes using 2.4GHz instead of 5Ghz. This causes really slow downloads. I can connect them all to "SuperWifi5" to make sure they're on 5Ghz.
  • My PS5 allows me to pick the 5GHz band through the interface but my Nintendo Switch seems to always default to the 2.4GHz network (using "SuperWifiAll") and you can't override it. After some troubleshooting the Nintendo Switch seems to pick based on signal strength or something but now I just put it on "SuperWifi5".

I found that the performance of the new firmware (124) is much better overall (connectivity and speed). I also saw that the recent firmware added support for 'MU-MIMO' which is some new fancy WiFi6 functionality... But I need more wifi 6 devices before I turn it on and try it out! Let me know if this helps or if you need help troubleshooting.