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Can EX3700 connect to hidden SSID?

gotnorice
Aspirant

Can EX3700 connect to hidden SSID?

I cannot connect my EX3700 to a hidden SSID.  I've tried using WPS as well as entering the information manually.  It simply won't connect to it, and i'm not sure why or if there is anything I can do to make it work.

 

Background:

 

I have an EX3700 that I would like to use.  I have a special 5Ghz network, with a hidden SSID, that is separate from my main 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi networks and not used for much.  I would like to use this hidden SSID as the backbone for the EX3700 to connect to, so that the EX3700 can broadcast the same wifi SSIDs as my main WiFi (obviously it can't do that if it's connected to my main wifi).  But I can't get it to connect to this Hidden SSID.

 

It's not the only device I have that doesn't like the hidden SSID.  My Amazon FireHD 8 tablet won't see or connect to the hidden SSID either, but my Samsung S8+ can see and connect to the hidden SSID network just fine.

 

Thanks

 

 

Model: EX3700|AC750 WiFi Range Extender Essentials Edition
Message 1 of 6
plemans
Guru

Re: Can EX3700 connect to hidden SSID?

What channel is this "hidden" ssid on? 

What device is broadcasting it? 

Message 2 of 6
gotnorice
Aspirant

Re: Can EX3700 connect to hidden SSID?

It looks to be on an 80Mhz channel, usually centered on channel 138 (5Ghz).

 

It's an AP that was setup by DISH (Satellite TV Service). There is a main Satellite TV box, and two remote TV boxes that interface with the main box over the network. Even though all three boxes are on my main network (they all pull IPs from my main DHCP server, no double-nat, etc), DISH insisted on supplying their own WiFi Access Point instead of simply connecting the remote boxes to my main WiFi. The DISH installer also said that he couldn't use Ethernet for the remote boxes, even though they both have Ethernet ports on the back. He was just following some script and clearly didn't have any idea what he was doing. So the moment he left I just switched both remote TV boxes over to Ethernet myself, since I have Ethernet in both of those locations. That left me with this DISH 802.11ac (5Ghz only) AP that was literally being used by nothing. I can't adjust the settings at all, but I was able to determine the SSID and WPA2 passphrase by connecting one of my computers via WPS. I have it setup on a few devices as a backup network but in practice it's almost never used, so it seemed like it would be the perfect network for my extender to connect to.

 

Message 3 of 6
plemans
Guru

Re: Can EX3700 connect to hidden SSID?

what firmware is on the extender? 

The channel 138 is a dfs channel. 

What happens if you change it to a standard channel 36-44 or 149-165?

 

does it work if you enable the ssid broadcast?

Message 4 of 6
gotnorice
Aspirant

Re: Can EX3700 connect to hidden SSID?

Unfortunately I have no ability to change settings on this particular AP, so I have to work with the settings it already has.  I know the access point works though, as my phone and several computers can connect to it.

Message 5 of 6
plemans
Guru

Re: Can EX3700 connect to hidden SSID?

I'm not arguing if the access point works or not. but the EX3700 might not work with DFS channels. 

I don't have one to test with and its a base model AC750 device. so its not going to have any extra features. 

Message 6 of 6
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