Anyone successfully connect GT-AX11000 to connect to Netgear EX8000 Extender on 5 MHz high band?

[josephwit]

If anyone has successfully connected a Netgear X6S EX8000 triband WiFi Extender to an Asus GT-AX11000 using the router's 5MHz high band (5MHz-2) as a dedicated backhaul, PLEASE tell me how!!

My network has 3 stations - main router is my new triband GT-AX11000. I have an Asus RT-AC68U (dual band) connected in Access Point mode with ethernet wired backhaul. I am trying to connect the Netgear X6S EX8000 triband Wi-Fi Extender, using the 5 Mhz high band (5MHz-2) as dedicated backhaul, which both devices claim they can do.

In setting up the Extender, I am asked for the SSIDs of the 2.4 and 5 bands I want to extend. There is no way to enter an SSID and password for the router's 5MHz-2 band that I want to use for backhaul. I have tried the following:

1. GT-AX11000 and RT-AC68U in AiMESH mode. All SSIDs are the same (all passwords are always the same in all of these scenarios). The GT-AX11000 reports that the xxxx-5-2 high band is reserved for Asus AiMESH backhaul (even though though the backhaul is wired, and that shows), so it is not available for the Netgear Extender, or for any device connections. Lame...

2. GT-AX11000 and RT-AC68U NOT in MESH - just primary router and wired access point. The GT-AX11000's 5MHz-2 band has different SSID from the low band 5MHz-1 band and the Access Point's single 5MHz band, which are the same. Since there was no way to tell the EX8000 extender the SSID and PW of the 5MHz-2 band, the extender did not see it, and connected to an upper 5 MHz channel on the Access Point, at half its potential speed. That band is shared by devices, and so backhaul is not dedicated. Best I can obtain so far.

3. Same as #2, but 5MHz radio on the Access Point turned off. SSID of GT-AX11000 5-1 and 5-2 different. I ask the extender to extend 5-1. Again, it does not have the info for 5-2, and connects to low band 5-1 as backhaul.

If I re-enable the Access Point radio and restart the extender, it again connects to higher channel on the Access Point.

4. I give GT-AX11000 5 MHz-1 and 5MHz-2 SAME SSID, AND turn off Access Point 5MHz radio. So now I ask the extender to extend the 5MHz-1 band. NOW, since the info is the same, it sees and connects to the 5MHz-2 band at high speed. But so do my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, macbook). Tried hiding the SSID on 5MHz -2 after connecting, but the Apple devices keep finding it (same SSID that is being broadcast for 5-1. Tried having all those smart Apple devices "forget this network" at once so they wouldn't keep telling each other - but they kept finding it, so STILL not a dedicated backhaul. If I then changed one of the SSIDs to make them different, the extender jumped back to the Access Point.

I am asking this question on Netgear forums as well. I've used Asus routers for years and love them - the upgrade from my old RT-AC68U to the GT-AX11000 was so easy! The EX8000 seemed the most versatile extender at the time, and is advertised as forming dedicated hi band backhaul, and being cross comatible with other bands.

 

[raven-au]

If anyone has successfully connected a Netgear X6S EX8000 triband WiFi Extender to an Asus GT-AX11000 using the router's 5MHz high band (5MHz-2) as a dedicated backhaul, PLEASE tell me how!!

I have an EX7700 but it's implementation is so odd I haven't tried to use it with ASUS routers.

4. I give GT-AX11000 5 MHz-1 and 5MHz-2 SAME SSID, AND turn off Access Point 5MHz radio. So now I ask the extender to extend the 5MHz-1 band. NOW, since the info is the same, it sees and connects to the 5MHz-2 band at high speed. But so do my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, macbook). Tried hiding the SSID on 5MHz -2 after connecting, but the Apple devices keep finding it (same SSID that is being broadcast for 5-1. Tried having all those smart Apple devices "forget this network" at once so they wouldn't keep telling each other - but they kept finding it, so STILL not a dedicated backhaul. If I then changed one of the SSIDs to make them different, the extender jumped back to the Access Point.

So you turn off the Access Point radio so the EX8000 doesn't connect to it, right?
Then what's the point of the Access Point, it's going to get annoying turning off the radio every time you need to reboot the EX8000 or the AX11000 and you might even find the EX8000 will switch connection to it when you turn the radio back on anyway.

Why are you concerned about those Apple devices not immediately connecting to the EX8000?

One thing that I see is the ASUS devices in AiMesh mode behave terribly when it comes to client devices connecting to the best choice and other mesh systems I have used are better but not good at this by any means.

I know your not using AiMesh in this setup so maybe what I'm saying doesn't apply but the selection of the radio to associate with is primarily the client and the router radio can't do a great deal to influence it but it could be worth while trying setup 4 again and waiting for a couple of days before you declare it isn't working the way it should.

And there's always the possibility that the beam forming info seen by the clients is showing that the AX11000 5GHz-2 or -1 is better to connect to than anything else that has been seen in which case you can't do anything about it.

 

[Flooded]

I had a very bad experience trying to use a Netgear EX7700 with a GT-AX11000. It was a complete disaster, the kit does not play well together. The EX7700 went back to the supplier and the GT-AX11000 had to be completely factory reset to get it to work again.

 

[josephwit]

Thanks for response.

Turns out if I force the access point to stay on the low band (assign a fixed control channel rather than "auto"), the EX8000 will reconnect to the GT-AX11000 high band again if I restart it. It likes the highest channel .

All our Apple devices (iphones, ipads, macbook pro, Apple TVs) are connecting to the GT-AX11000 high band as well - directly, not thru the EX8000, since the extender is only connecting to devices on its low band. Only issue is that sharing the router's high band with the Apple devices reduces the performance of the extender, since the backhaul is shared.

The setup is working quite adequetely. I just stood next to the EX8000 and turned my iPhone wi-fi off and back on; I confirmed that was connected to the EX8000 on its low band (ch 36) and got a Speedtest download speed of 545MBps (I have gig internet). So really not a problem. I am just trying to get it to work the way the EX8000 is supposed to be able to - with a dedicated backhaul to a triband router. All just for fun...

Ya, I am not impressed with Mesh having any advantages over router and access points with good backhaul. My stationary devices connect to the closest radios, and the devices that move around are mostly Apple, and are very good at finding the strongest signal anyway. And Asus AiMesh appears to remove the 5MHz high band from being available for anything except backhaul for other AiMesh nodes, and a Netgear EX8000 apparently cannot be an AiMesh node. Since my only other device (access point) has wired backhaul, and I don't NEED the high band for AiMesh, it would be nice if Asus software allowed releasing it for other use if it is not needed. But I get that by turning Mesh off.

Learning a lot - that's the goal.

I have an EX7700 but it's implementation is so odd I haven't tried to use it with ASUS routers.



So you turn off the Access Point radio so the EX8000 doesn't connect to it, right?
Then what's the point of the Access Point, it's going to get annoying turning off the radio every time you need to reboot the EX8000 or the AX11000 and you might even find the EX8000 will switch connection to it when you turn the radio back on anyway.

Why are you concerned about those Apple devices not immediately connecting to the EX8000?

One thing that I see is the ASUS devices in AiMesh mode behave terribly when it comes to client devices connecting to the best choice and other mesh systems I have used are better but not good at this by any means.

I know your not using AiMesh in this setup so maybe what I'm saying doesn't apply but the selection of the radio to associate with is primarily the client and the router radio can't do a great deal to influence it but it could be worth while trying setup 4 again and waiting for a couple of days before you declare it isn't working the way it should.

And there's always the possibility that the beam forming info seen by the clients is showing that the AX11000 5GHz-2 or -1 is better to connect to than anything else that has been seen in which case you can't do anything about it.

 

[josephwit]

I had a very bad experience trying to use a Netgear EX7700 with a GT-AX11000. It was a complete disaster, the kit does not play well together. The EX7700 went back to the supplier and the GT-AX11000 had to be completely factory reset to get it to work again.

Wow that sounds extreme. It locked up your router? I guess one should stay with one company...

 

[raven-au]

Wow that sounds extreme. It locked up your router? I guess one should stay with one company...

With those EX<DDDD> Netgear devices, even with a Netgear main router, they behave badly.
I tried using two EX7700 with with a couple of different Netgear routers (eg. R8500) as a main router and everything went pair shaped really fast.
I think there is some sort of conflict, with the odd virtual MAC addressing scheme they use, between the two access points that causes all sorts of wierd problems.
I did find that using a single one worked ok with a Netgear router.

 

[coxhaus]

Try syncing the time on both units. I heard of someone having a problem with a ASUS router and a Netgear extender and syncing the time fixed it.

 

[josephwit]

OK Interesting FYI about AiMesh performance.

Recap main router Asus GT-AX11000 which replaced RT-AC68U, wired access point another Asus RT-AC68u in AP mode, trying to hook up Netgear EX8000 extender. So I said the heck with it, turned off the EX8000, reset my now extra RT-68U and put it where the EX8000 was. Went into Asus AiMESH mode with 2 nodes - the one with ethernet backhaul. and the second with AiMesh dedicated 5MHz hi band backhaul.

It looked great, my devices were distributed appropriately between nodes. Thought I was going to love it.

Then I found that connecting my phone to the 5MHz-backhaul node (standing right next to it), my Speedtest download speed on my phone was 50-60MBps.

I have gig internet with download speeds over 500Mbps when connected to main router or wired access point.

Removed that Mesh node, and put the Netgear EX8000 back in same location. Extender now connects to 5MHz low band, since Mesh lock high band to other devices. Still, iPhone download speeds on the EX8000 400-500, with GUI showing excellent signal strength all around.

AiMesh wireless backhaul doesn't seem to be very impressive...