EAX12 Extender and T-Mobile Home Internet Gateway?

[MisterK]

I have a T-Mobile Home Internet gateway that sends out both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands on one SSID. I setup my new EAX12 Extender yesterday with the help of a Netgear support technician. We could not get the EAX12 Extender to see the 5GHz band transmitted by the gateway. It did see the 2.4GHz band, so we just continued the setup using the 2.4GHz band. After the setup was complete the Nighthawk app shows my 5GHz network. I'm convinced that my both my 2.4GHz band and 5GHz band are both being transmitted by the EAX12 Extender. Has anyone else had this experience? 

[plemans]

You can log into the extender through the browser and setting its status page from front haul/backhaul. 

Log in that route and get a snip of that screen and it'll tell you

[MisterK]

I don't know what you mean by "setting its status page from front haul/backhaul." Here's a screen shot of the browser page. It shows no connection to the router's 5GHz, but it shows all of my connected devices using the 5GHz. It's confusing to say the least.

[plemans]

Correct, you don't have the 5ghz backhaul setup to the router. And 2.4ghz is a really slow network. So everything is running through that and probably not working at very fast speeds. 

I'd rerun the installation assistant and try to get the 5ghz connected. 

what router are you connecting it to?

[MisterK]

I'm connecting to my T-Mobile Sagemcom Fast 5688W Gateway. Like I said, it sends out both bands using one SSID. I talked with support, and that rep felt the extender was working correctly. They told me I could turn off Smart Connect and then I would see the two different networks broadcast from the gateway. I'm not having any trouble with speed or connections to my devices. In fact, the extender is giving my distant devices a much better signal. I think I'm going to assume this setup is correct. I may play with it later to experiment, but at the moment I will let it as is.

[schumaku]

As @plemans already mentioned: Your extender does not make use of the (much faster, lower reach however) 5 GHz wireless connection to your ISP CPE.

Can just guess that the distance to the ISP router for 5 GHz is to high, or the EAX12 failed to detect the 5 GHz Bruce SSID.

Sure, it works for the moment - all traffic is squeezed over the 2.4 GHz band only. And your extender AP is configured to bring up both the 2.4 and the 5 GHz radio as the Access Point side.

[MisterK]

OK, thanks for the info. I will work on splitting the bands on my router and then redo the extender setup.

[schumaku]

That's not what I said...

[MisterK]

Please be more specific. You questioned the distance, but the setup was done 5 feet from the ISP router, and I could not get the extender to recognize the 5GHz band then either.

[MisterK]

I separated my 2.4 and 5GHz networks from my router using different SSIDs. My EAX12 extender cannot see my 5GHz network no matter which WPA version and which WPA Encryption mode I use. In fact it can only see a few of my neighbor's 5GHz networks with a different encryption. Netgear support and I both believe this extender is defective. I guess that's what I get when I buy a reconditioned unit. It's going back to Amazon. Thanks for all of your help here.

[MisterK]

I bought an EAX20 today. Super simple to setup when the device works as it should. The EAX12 is heading back to Amazon.

[schumaku]

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@MisterK wrote:

I bought an EAX20 today. Super simple to setup when the device works as it should.

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As simple as I would expect.

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@MisterK wrote:

The EAX12 is heading back to Amazon.

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Ensure you add a note to the returned device abut the possible 5G client problem....