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I just received my Netgear Orbi mesh AXE11000 Quad-Band WiFi 6E RBRE960 on 11/15/2021 and spent most of 11/16/2021 dismantling my old Netgear Nighthawk X6 AC3000 Tri-Band WiFi R7900 network and installing the new network with brand new Cat8 cable.
So far, looking good! With my ISP's 1 Gigabit fiber, I'm getting nearly 1 Gigabit speed on my wired devices, even those wired to the satellite units, something I achieved previously only when I connected my computer directly to the Gigabit fiber modem, bypassing the old R7900 router. And even my 3-year old Pixel 3 XL is showing near 1 Gigabit speeds on WiFi near the main Orbi router!
I went into the Orbi's web interface to view the attached devices and to rename those that were not correctly identified. While there, I noticed something interesting. My old Nighthawk router always assigned IP addresses in the 192.168.1.x series. And the new Orbi AXE mesh router is assigning wired devices to the 192.168.1.x series as well. However, all the WiFi connected devices have been assigned addresses in the 192.168.2.x series.
I was wondering about the reason for the 192.168.2.x series. Will this create any issues for my network, for the ISP, or for my individual wireless devices?
Re: IP address assignments with Orbi WiFi 6E (AXE)
I have not used Guest Network for any of my IoT devices. Yes Guest Networks give a different .2.# address and is by design.
I also have mixed mode WPA2 and WPA3 set on my RBRE. Been working well. Not using Guest Network.
The Orbi 7 and 8 series did not and does not have mixed mode WPA2 and WPA3 so if your friend set WPA3 only on the Orbi AX system, then this would be one reason why his other devices would not connect to the main wifi. He would have needed to use WPA2 settings on the main there.
Orbi 9 Series has a IoT wifi network that NG setup specficially for 2.4Ghz IoT devices that historically had problems connecting to any Orbi system in the past. Hopefully this will help for users of the 9 series Orbi and these IoT devices.
Re: IP address assignments with Orbi WiFi 6E (AXE)
@FURRYe38 Thanks for your question. I have assigned most of the media streamer wireless devices (e.g., Chromecast sticks, Google Home Mini devices, Nest Hub Gen 1, etc.) to the Guest network.
The reason I did that is that a friend of mine, retired from a large Bay Area networking company, told me that when he purchased a non-6E Orbi AX (WiFi 6) system earlier in 2021, he had problems connecting his devices with that system. He attributed the problem to the WPA3 security in the main WiFi network, which he said older devices were not capable of handling. So, I chose the Guest network for the wireless devices I listed above, where one of the security options does not include WPA3.
I have not yet connected my Google Nest thermostats, cameras, and smoke/CO monitors to my new Orbi system, but I was planning to use the IoT network for those. It uses WPA2, hopefully avoiding any incompatibility issues.
Do these details give you more information about why those wireless devices have been assigned to the 192.168.2.x series of IP addresses? What IP assignments might I expect to see when I connect my Nest devices to the IoT network?
Re: IP address assignments with Orbi WiFi 6E (AXE)
I have not used Guest Network for any of my IoT devices. Yes Guest Networks give a different .2.# address and is by design.
I also have mixed mode WPA2 and WPA3 set on my RBRE. Been working well. Not using Guest Network.
The Orbi 7 and 8 series did not and does not have mixed mode WPA2 and WPA3 so if your friend set WPA3 only on the Orbi AX system, then this would be one reason why his other devices would not connect to the main wifi. He would have needed to use WPA2 settings on the main there.
Orbi 9 Series has a IoT wifi network that NG setup specficially for 2.4Ghz IoT devices that historically had problems connecting to any Orbi system in the past. Hopefully this will help for users of the 9 series Orbi and these IoT devices.
Orbi 9 Series has a IoT wifi network that NG setup specficially for 2.4Ghz IoT devices that historically had problems connecting to any Orbi system in the past. Hopefully this will help for users of the 9 series Orbi and these IoT devices.
Clever - So this is the AXE solution for setting up home cameras and other IoT devices, where their poorly-written apps get confused if the SSID is shared between 2.4Ghz and 5G? With a separate IoT network. set to 2.4Ghz-only, such apps will work. Meanwhile, regular (human) usage of WiFi can continue to benefit from one shared SSID.
Of course, we will still get posts here from AXE customers struggling to setup their IoT camera but using their regular, shared WiFi. They will need to be told to leverage the extra AXE SSID and set it to 2.4Ghz.
Re: IP address assignments with Orbi WiFi 6E (AXE)
Yes I believe NG implemented this to help those poorly written IoT setup apps in hopes to help people with IoT issues since over years. Seems like those IoT mfr don't want to actually fix there code. Hopefully that will help. I haven't had a need to use it, yet. Though i still use same SSID and password so migration of my devices has been seemless since using Orbi anything. Hopefully will be better experiences wtih IoT devices. If it works out, maybe NG will do something for Orbi AX systems. I'm pressing them to at least bring back mixed mode WPA2/3 since it works now on the 9 series orbi.
Orbi 9 Series has a IoT wifi network that NG setup specficially for 2.4Ghz IoT devices that historically had problems connecting to any Orbi system in the past. Hopefully this will help for users of the 9 series Orbi and these IoT devices.
Clever - So this is the AXE solution for setting up home cameras and other IoT devices, where their poorly-written apps get confused if the SSID is shared between 2.4Ghz and 5G? With a separate IoT network. set to 2.4Ghz-only, such apps will work. Meanwhile, regular (human) usage of WiFi can continue to benefit from one shared SSID.
Of course, we will still get posts here from AXE customers struggling to setup their IoT camera but using their regular, shared WiFi. They will need to be told to leverage the extra AXE SSID and set it to 2.4Ghz.
Thanks for sharing your review with us and the community.
As what @FURRYe38 mentioned, devices on the Guest network will get 192.168.2.x IP addresses. In addition, devices on the Main, IoT and 6GHz network will get 192.168.1.x.
