Excruciatingly frustrating attempted setup experience with an EX6120
Hi folks,
Unfortunately, today [01/11/2020] I experienced an excruciatingly frustrating 4 to 5 hours trying to setup a Netgear EX6120 AC1200 Dual Band WiFi Range Extender. After reading the Quick Start guide it looked pretty straightforward, boy, was I in for a surprise. After following the instructions to the letter and connecting with the Web Browser setup, the extender setup app indicated "Success!" it showed that both my 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks were connected to my router. So I then moved the extender to the proper halfway location, and checked the setup app again for connection speeds: it indicated 2.4GHz at 240Mbps, and 5GHz at 585Mbps, then I proceeded to connect to, and test both the connections.
The 2.4GHz connection was fine, and indeed connected to the internet. Then the PC was connected to the 5GHz network and it connected, but seemingly could not connect to the internet despite having both the Router Link and Device Link LEDs indicating two good green LEDs. Why was the extender giving me a green Router Link light and not able to connect to the internet through the router? So I decided to test the router connectivity at the same location at 5GHz, using two known good mobile devices, and though the throughput was relatively low (thus the need for the extender) they both connected to the router and internet without issues. I didn't think that it was likely that the extender had a bad 5GHz xmitter, so I thought that it might be a s/w glitch.
I did a factory reset on the extender and went through the whole setup procedure again. Again the setup app indicated "Success" but the result was the same: internet connectivity at 2.4GHz, and only partial connectivity at 5GHz (no internet).
Conclusion: an altogether extremely frustrating, and annoying customer experience. I will be returning the extender to Best Buy tomorrow. Has anyone had a similar experience with an EX6120, or other Netgear Dual Band WiFi Extender?
Model: EX6120|AC1200 Dual Band WiFi Range Extender
Re: Excruciatingly frustrating attempted setup experience with an EX6120
A couple things.
1. the router is the key. the router is the backbone of the setup. What router are you using? Some aren't known to play friendly with extenders.
2. Did you set it up via wps or via the smart connection wizard? not all manufacturers code wps properly and it creates issues during setup. If the wps method is giving you issues, try the smart connection wizard. Also, if your password on the router has any special characters or spaces, don't use them. It can create issues.
