I would like to use a Nighthawk RAX6 router to bridge an enterprise wireless network with a small wired network. I applied the settings as suggested in the Netgear KB. After configuration, the router reboots and appears to be connected to the wireless network and bridge traffic to the wired network (based on the flashing LEDs). However, a device connected to the wired network (LAN ports of the router) cannot obtain an IP address via DHCP.
The enterprise wireless network is open (no password), uses 2.4 and 5 GHz, is based on CISCO routers and consists of numerous APs. IPs are assigned by DHCP. As such, I input the enterprise wireless network SSID and configured the "no security" in the security option. I tried both 2.4 and 5 GHz. I believe that some sort of network authentication is active. However, any device can directly connect to the enterprise wireless network without supplying credentials.
By way of comparison, I connected the router to a small wireless network created with my mobile phone (tethering). In this instance the local device obtained an IP via DHCP and was able to browse the internet.
I suspect that the enterprise wireless network has some security features enabled that prevent the connection.
Can someone help me with debugging? One problem I face is that I cannot connect to the router while it is in bridge mode but not successfully connected. Are there known problems with bridging with a enterprise wireless network consisting of multiple APs?
I would like to use a Nighthawk RAX6 router to bridge an enterprise wireless network with a small wired network.
The "bridge" term means different things in different contexts. It also depends on the device you are talking about. (Modems and routers aren't the same, for example.)
RAX6 doesn't tell us which Netgear device you are using. It is just one of the many labels for Wi-Fi technology that Netgear and other brands use. There are about a dozen Wi-Fi 6 devices in the RAX range.
From your message, I suspect that you are trying to use a router to connect two different Internet networks. From what I read here, that is not going to work.
What should be achieved is that a device (without wireless adapter) on the local "bridged" wired network (LAN port of the router) can connect to the enterprise wireless network as if it had a wireless adapter. No modem is involved in the setup.
The experiment with the mobile phone created wireless network shows that the router can in principle achieve this.
I believe the issue here may be security or other policies implemented by the enterprise wireless network that prevent a connection. Since I cannot connect to the router once it is in bridged mode it is difficult to tell what is wrong.
