EX7300 extender - cannot connect to existing 5G network

[bl1085]

Hello

Been fighting this for several hours with no progress.

I have an ORBI RBR50 which works well.   I have it set to 192.168.2.1.   I turned off access control for the purposes of this connection (it is usually on).   Firmware is current at 2.3.5.30.

I have an EX7300 plug-in extender which used to work and stopped working at some point.   It is running the latest firmware 1.0.2.140

I used a paperclip to reinit the extender.   I can connect to it.   It appears to work.   It sees the 5G broadcast name from my ORBI router.   I follow the setup (I have done it before) and no obvious issues.   However the EX7300 will not connect to the ORBI no matter what I try.   The "Client Link" LED at the top right goes orange.   If I connect to the extender I see "The extender was not able to connect to your existing network".   It shows me the password, which I recheck, but it is correct.  It says to recheck the password and try again, but no change.

I tried manually setting "FastLane", 5ghz to ORBI, 2.4Ghz service, but same error.

It says to try moving the devices closer together, but they are about 5 feet apart and the signal strength shows as 100%..

I have two other extenders that are working fine - they are EX7000 rather than EX7300.

I think I signed up for a free trial of the ORBI security software - does that block new connections in some strange way?

Any suggestions much appreciated.   thx

Ben

[bl1085]

thinking this over some more, I think my next step is to try backing down the firmware back by 1 or 2 versions.   This used to work, and I cannot think of any reason for it not working now other than a firmware upgrade at some point.

Ben

[bl1085]

OK - my hunch worked - I downgraded to firmware version 72, and now it is working.

not sure exactly what my next steps will be, but probably just sit for a few months and see if Netgear figures out the latest firmware has issues, then if they publish something higher than 140 I might give it a try.

[dtdfusion]

I thought it was just me.  i upgraded orbi to V2.3.5.30 last night and now my ex7300 couldn't connec to orbit router whereas my other netgear extender connecting fine.

[bl1085]

Interesting to hear others are having the same problem. I resolved it by downgrading the EX7300 firmware rather than the ORBI firmware. Interested to hear if downgrading the ORBI firmware is an alternate solution.

[dtdfusion]

i rolled back the orbi firmware to 2.2.1.212 and everything works like before until orbi auto update to newest firmware again and ex7300 stopped connecting right away.  i guess i will roll back the ex7300 firmware as temporary measure.

[dtdfusion]

i stand corrected on the auto update of orbi.  after i rolled back to previous version of on orbi router/satellites, the ex7300 works again and everything as before.  in conclusion, V2.3.5.30 does not work with ex7300  V1.0.2.140