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I just set up my extender as an access point connected by ethernet to my main router. I set it up to broadcast the 2.4ghz and the 5ghz SSIDs of my router. But my router broadcasts another 2.4ghz SSID that is for guest internet users in my house. Can I setup the extender to also broadcast this third SSID? It seems like this should be possible, either through the GUI or through somehow getting to more advanced settings for the extender by bypassing the GUI. Can someone suggest how I can set this up?
There's no technical reason why an extender can't support a second SSID, or extend the guest network - but Netgear has chosen not to support that feature. There are no advanced settings to do what you want.
In the specific case of the guest network, devices that connect to guest are isolated from the rest of the home network (and there usually is an option to isolate them from each other). Those security features are why you create a guest network in the first place, and they would be lost if you simply created a second SSID for guest.
The workaround is to throw more equipment at the problem. For instance, you can add a second extender, and use that to extend the router guest network. This would only work properly in extender mode (not AP mode), and you would lose the ability to isolate guest clients from each other. If you tried it in AP mode, you'd find that your guests would have full access to your wired network.
Thanks for the response. I guess it doesn't need to support a guest network feature specifically, just the ability to broadcast another network, which I can name the same as my guest network with the same password and everything should work fine. It seems that there should be no reason that the extender shouldn't be able to do this. At least, shouldn't it be capable of broadcasting more that just two networks at once? Even if this option is not available in the Netgear Genie, it seems that somehow getting to directly change the advanced settings of the extender manually should allow me to do this. Otherwise, it would be odd that the extender hardware supports precisely two networks broadcasts, one at 2.4ghz and one at 5ghz and that's it. This seems like a very fundamental tweak to allow on an extender. Why hasn't Netgear programmed this in? Are there third party apps or some other methods to do it?
There's no technical reason why an extender can't support a second SSID, or extend the guest network - but Netgear has chosen not to support that feature. There are no advanced settings to do what you want.
In the specific case of the guest network, devices that connect to guest are isolated from the rest of the home network (and there usually is an option to isolate them from each other). Those security features are why you create a guest network in the first place, and they would be lost if you simply created a second SSID for guest.
The workaround is to throw more equipment at the problem. For instance, you can add a second extender, and use that to extend the router guest network. This would only work properly in extender mode (not AP mode), and you would lose the ability to isolate guest clients from each other. If you tried it in AP mode, you'd find that your guests would have full access to your wired network.
