I have a reasonably complex home network with a Nighthawk AX4 RAX40 wifi router at the center. My home internet is going to be out of an indeterminate length of time. I can only use wifi devices directly accessing the hotspot mode on my phone at this point. I want to bridge my whole network running on the RAX40 to the phone.
I bought a X6 EX7700 because it has Ethernet ports and an access point mode advertised, so I was assuming/hoping it would have a bridge mode I could use to connect it to the phone's hotspot and wire the EX7700 to the WAN/Internet port on the RAX40.
Well, just trying to find a way to access the EX7700 I used the Android Nighthawk app and it could see the extender, but somehow it soft bricked the router and I couldn't log into the router no matter what. 192.168.1.1 just wouldn't connect to anything. So, I did a hard factory reset and now I can get into the router configuration again. I lost a lot of important, complex IP address Management for a large number of devices, so incredibly frustrating, but I can get that set up again in time.
But before I try connecting the extender again to see if I can set it to a bridge mode and risk freezing up the router again, is this even possible? I assume any $200 Netgear device with wifi and an ethernet port probably has a bridge mode? The paper guide it comes with is of course incredibly limited.
Anyone done this with a EX7700 or similar device?
Googling I see some older info saying all Netgear range extenders have a bridge mode. Is this still the case with a current device like the EX7700?? Googling "EX7700" and "bridge" turns up the info on older extenders, but not anything specific to the EX7700?
Re: Nighthawk X6 EX7700 as bridge to mobile hotspot?
I did a reset on the extender. I connected the extender to a port on the router. I was able to access the extender configuration webpage on a PC hard wired to the router. I see only extender or Access point modes.
I see Netgear routers have bridge modes? Should I return this extender in exchange for a router? Thing is, when not using this as a bridge, it would be great to have an extender. But I have no use for another router. In fact I have a near new Netgear router in a house I plan to sell soon 1500+ miles away. So I REALLY don't need another router. I really could use an extender in the future. So, it will be exceedingly unfortunate if this extender can't be used as a bridge!!
Re: Nighthawk X6 EX7700 as bridge to mobile hotspot?
Try going like this
Hotspot with only 5ghz enabled. (don't setup its 2.4ghz)
Then use the installation assistant on the extender. During the install uncheck the "extend 2.4ghz signal". You'll still be able to use 2.4ghz on the extender but it makes sure it doesn't try to use it as failover.
Once that is setup and working, then you'll connect the router to it.
But you'll need the router to be setup in access point mode when you connect it to the extender or you'll be in a double nat.
That's going to be your best option to setup a home network running off the hotspot.
And not 100% it'll even work as you want it as some phone hotspots limit the amount of connected devices.
