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ThreeAs's avatar
ThreeAs
Follower
Feb 20, 2021

MR60 - How do I split my wireless network into 2.4GHz and 5GHz?

A few weeks back I purchased Nighthawk MR60 for my house and am very pleased withh its functioning. It has both frequencies 2.4 and 5 GHz. When I installed the Skybell for my front door, it automatically picked up the required 2.4 gHz on the MR60 and works very well. Now, I have installed a wifi light dimmer switch which also requires a 2,4 GHz connection. When I was configuring it I was expecting that it will also automatically connect to the 2.4 GHz frequency of the Nighthawk router. Unfortunately, it did not. I need help on how to fix this issue.

When I go to Device Manager, I see 2 items under 2.4ghz. One is taken, most likely by SkyBell. The other shows N/A. So, apparently, this MR60 can only have two devices which can be connected via 2.4 ghz. 

What should I do to connect my wifi dimmer switch to the Nighthawk MR60?

 

Thank you.

14 Replies

  • Talk to the vendor of this magic IoJ wireless dimmer. If the supplied discover and config App does allow to configure the IoJ without nonsense enforced requirement to connect to the 2.4 GHz (the typical problem with many IoJ devices) it's more likely the IoJ device has a problem with the additional bits on air from the WiFi 6 system and/or the system does not like the 802.11k (that what makes up a Mesh device...)  data and fails to see or connect.

     

    The ubiquitous nonsense like "How do I split my wireless network into 2.4GHz and 5GHz?" won't help here. 

     

     

    • JDS7426's avatar
      JDS7426
      Initiate

      "The ubiquitous nonsense" So you are saying his post was nonsense? Ok can you answer the question another way. Is there a way to show for connection purpose two separate SSID's for 2.4 and 5-Ghz. Hardware Version MR60 and Firmware Version V1.0.6.110_2.0.49. 

      If you could answer that It would be nice. Can it be done yes or no? If so how? I'm not finding this so ubiquitous.

      • sclawrenc's avatar
        sclawrenc
        Apprentice

        I would like to determine manually what radio my devices connect to.  For this reason, I like to have the 2.4 Ghz band broadcast on one SSID and the 5 Ghz band broadcast another SSID (usually same as 2.4 Ghz but with 5G at the end).  

         

        This has been proven to work better time and time again in my home where I would like to force my devices to connect to the 5G network all of the time unless I go way out of 5G range in which case I can simply connect to the standard 2.4 Ghz.

         

        I used to be able to do this with my Orbi AC3000 through Telnet, but then some updated firmware removed that option.  Now I would like to still support Netgear and purchase the Netgear MK63 (my house is wired so dual band is fine), but I really do want the ability to give separate SSIDs to my 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz bands.

         

        Is this supported?  If not, can we please add it in a future firmware update?  Asus does support this, but like I said, I would like to support my local Netgear company, if possible.

    • Paul_D999's avatar
      Paul_D999
      Aspirant

      Hi @in2ndo and @FURRYe38  thank you for your help.

       

      I have been away for a few days and finally got back to sort out my issue.

       

      In the end to save time and effort I bought a cheap (£20) TPLink 2.4Ghz Wifi Access Point and plugged that in to my Broadband router.  Within 5 minutes had it configured with a new SSID and had the IOT heater device connected and working.   Not the most eloquent solution but saved me hours of time messing around.

       

      Does make me think whether to keep or recommend the Netgear Mesh solution (colleagues & friends).

       

      Once again thanks for your help and support it is always appreciated from a newbie.

  • Oddly enough, when I connect my 2.4GHz devices (23 of them) to my MR60 guest network, they all connect and operate at 2.4GHz with no problem.  Not sure why, maybe guest  network default is 2.4GHz.

    • TheBigRod's avatar
      TheBigRod
      Aspirant

      I dug through my collection of old cell phones and found one that only connects to 2.4GHz networks.  I had to install all the IOT apps onto the old phone (not easy when you're running 8GB memory!), and reconnected all of them to the MR60.  I have visibility of all of them on my 5GHz devices now.  Not the easiest workaround, but prevents you from having to set up a secondary 2.4GHz network and constantly connecting/reconnecting networks on your smartphone to control your IOT devices.

       

      Still, for the MR60 to lack such a simple splitting option in it's firmware settings is a huge miss, IMO.  They need to roll that one out, pronto.