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Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

Shadowninja
Guide

EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

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!

Model: EX7700|AC2200 Nighthawk X6 Tri-Band WiFi Mesh Extender
Message 1 of 13
plemans
Guru

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

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.)

 

Message 2 of 13
Shadowninja
Guide

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

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.
Message 3 of 13
plemans
Guru

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

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. 

Message 4 of 13
Shadowninja
Guide

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

I also want to mention that I lost the virtual MAC on my second Windows PC once. Typically I lose the virtual MAC for my Samba server, VPN server and second test server. First test server and main Windows PC never lost their virtual MAC. When I rolled back my firmware to 206, I lost the virtual MAC on everything but my 2 Windows PCs.

It's been almost 24 hours and everything is good but I've done nothing differently so I don't expect the issue to be resolved.

I'm going to try your suggestion since I don't care for the 2.5 backhaul. Router is broadcasting 5 GHz on channel 161. Extender is not located too far from the router. Directly through ceiling and walls, I would say about 3-4 meters max. Extender reports 780 Mbps currently and I've disabled the wifi being broadcast by the extender since I don't need that either. I'll make the changes today and report back in about 5 days. I always end up losing the virtual MACs within that time frame. I'm open to other ideas too.

I hope the chipset on my extender isn't faulty 😞
Message 5 of 13
plemans
Guru

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

When you rolled back the firmware, did you factory reset the extender? Make sure to do that whenever rolling back firmware. 

Message 6 of 13
Shadowninja
Guide

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

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.
Message 7 of 13
Shadowninja
Guide

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

I was really hoping things would work out this time but it looks like we are back to where we started. Everything was fine a few hours ago. I've disabled all the signals accept for the 5G backhual to the router. Only 2 devices that currently have a network is my network switch and one of my test servers. 3 of my devices are not accessable to the rest of the network but is accessible if I ssh to my test server then try to access the "inaccessable" servers as they all live on the same network switch. I'm open to any other ideas.

 

Thanks.

Capture.PNG

 

Message 8 of 13
plemans
Guru

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

What firmware is on the XR500? 

I haven't heard of issues with the xr500--->EX7700 but stranger things have happened 

Message 9 of 13
Shadowninja
Guide

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

Latest according to the router. Haven't checked the actual product site. Currently the firmware is XR500 V2.3.2.66.

 

I was about to give up all hope on the EX7700 but the only reason I'm troubleshooting this is because someone, you, is willing to help out.

Message 10 of 13
Shadowninja
Guide

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

Nevermind. Looks like there is a firmware update that released just 5 days ago. Time to update that. I assume factory reset after frimware upgrade?

 

Message 11 of 13
Shadowninja
Guide

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

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.

 

Message 12 of 13
Shadowninja
Guide

Re: EX7700 Virtual MAC Disappearing

So I lost the virtual mac on one of my devices again. I'll be honest, I didn't factory reset either of my devices after the firmware update as I was and will be really busy for the next few days. I can most likely (90% chance) do a factory reset on both devices next weekend. However, will a factory reset really make a difference at this point? I hope it does but I would appreceate any other solutions/insights to help me resolve this strange problem.

Message 13 of 13
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