Hi everyone. I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure this out and I'm hoping someone from Netgear and the community can help out.I bought an EX7700 to act as a wireless bridge for my Ethernet devices because running wires through the house is a huge mission since the house is old. Setting up the EX7700 was easy and everything was working great until my devices started losing internet connection. When I checked the extender, my devices that lost internet connection, no longer have their virtual MAC addresses. Here's my setup: EX7700 setup as a range extender connected over 2.5 and 5 GHz to my XR500. Since I'm not using the extender for wifi, I've disabled the extended wifi's. Via ethernet, the EX7700 is connected to a network switch. All my devices are connected to the switch. What I've tried: Factory resets, latest firmware and one firmware before the latest.The only thing that works temporarily is to reboot the extender. But after 1-3 days some of my devices will lose their virtual MAC along with their internet connection again. At the time of posting, I updated to latest firmware and factory reset right after and everything looks fine for the past approximately 12 hours. Any ideas are appreciated cause I'm losing hope in the EX7700 but I really want it to work. Thanks!

I don't remember if I factory reset after the rollback. I'm going to try your suggestion on firmware 210 first and I'll update you in 5 days or earlier if it happens again. Then I'll rollback and try your suggestion on firmware 206.I heard firmware 210 has been problematic but most of those issues relate to the extended wifi connections. I haven't heard anything about Ethernet ports or the backhaul connections.

Lollz today is an interesting day. Firmware update released for extender today. I guess I'll update and factory reset both. May take an hour or so to update and reconfigure. That will also reset the connections so I guess my next update will be in 5 days; earlier if virtual macs disapear again.

What actual firmware are you on?Did this just start recently or has it been doing it the whole time? The EX7700 is a triband and so can use either the higher band 5ghz or lower band for the backhaul. Have you tried changing which one you use? (you'd change it on the router and the ex7700 would have to reconnect.)

I'm currently using 1.0.0.210. I tried 206 about a week ago but only my windows desktop had it's virtual MAC. Extender saw other devices, although it just labeled it as unknown, but no virtual MAC assigned.I believe it's always been happening. Usually I access my Samba server from my PC which is on the same switch. A VPN server, another Windows PC and test server 1 & 2 is on that switch as well. I first started noticing the issue once I finished configuring my Samba shares and VPN server but I couldn't access it from devices not on the switch.I checked the settings but I don't see any options for configuring the backhaul on the router or extender. Unless you mean I should connect the extender to the router via 5ghz which is already the case. I have the router and extender connected via both 2.5 and 5 GHz.

So during setup of the extender, disable the "extend 2.4ghs signal" option. it uses this as a backup for the 5ghz backhaul. But 2.4ghz is slow and sensitive to interference. If the extender is to far away and sometimes defaulting back to that, it can cause issues. To change which 5ghz channel it uses, you change it on your primary router. The EX7700 can use either the low band or the high band channels for backhaul and it uses the other for front haul. So if your router is on channel 36, change it to the higher 149+ channels. Or vice versa. you might have to re-setup the extender. Again, during the setup, uncheck the "extender 2.4ghz signal.You'd still be able to use 2.4ghz as extender if you wanted, it just wouldn't use it as a failover option if the 5ghz was having issues. How far from the router is the extender.

EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing | NETGEAR Communities

12 Replies

plemans
Guru - Experienced User
Feb 07, 2021
What actual firmware are you on?
Did this just start recently or has it been doing it the whole time?
The EX7700 is a triband and so can use either the higher band 5ghz or lower band for the backhaul. Have you tried changing which one you use? (you'd change it on the router and the ex7700 would have to reconnect.)
- Shadowninja
  Guide
  Feb 07, 2021
  I'm currently using 1.0.0.210. I tried 206 about a week ago but only my windows desktop had it's virtual MAC. Extender saw other devices, although it just labeled it as unknown, but no virtual MAC assigned.
  
  I believe it's always been happening. Usually I access my Samba server from my PC which is on the same switch. A VPN server, another Windows PC and test server 1 & 2 is on that switch as well. I first started noticing the issue once I finished configuring my Samba shares and VPN server but I couldn't access it from devices not on the switch.
  
  I checked the settings but I don't see any options for configuring the backhaul on the router or extender. Unless you mean I should connect the extender to the router via 5ghz which is already the case. I have the router and extender connected via both 2.5 and 5 GHz.
  - plemans
    Guru - Experienced User
    Feb 07, 2021
    So during setup of the extender, disable the "extend 2.4ghs signal" option. it uses this as a backup for the 5ghz backhaul. But 2.4ghz is slow and sensitive to interference. If the extender is to far away and sometimes defaulting back to that, it can cause issues.
    To change which 5ghz channel it uses, you change it on your primary router. The EX7700 can use either the low band or the high band channels for backhaul and it uses the other for front haul.
    So if your router is on channel 36, change it to the higher 149+ channels. Or vice versa.
    you might have to re-setup the extender. Again, during the setup, uncheck the "extender 2.4ghz signal.
    You'd still be able to use 2.4ghz as extender if you wanted, it just wouldn't use it as a failover option if the 5ghz was having issues.
    How far from the router is the extender.

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EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing