Netgear EX7300 Presale Questions

[mediatrek]

I have a few questions about the Netgear EX7300 before putting down the money to purchase it that I cannot find answers to in marketing materials or support materials for the product:

1. In access point mode, does it support band steering?
   
2. Is transmit beam forming (TXBF) enabled on the 2.4GHz radio?
   
3. Can MU-MIMO be enabled/disabled by the user for the 5GHz radio?
   
4. Does the EX7300 use the same older (circa 2012) QCA9558 802.11n SoC solution that the Netgear EX6400 has? If not, what does the EX7300 have for its SoC?
   

Thank you ahead of time to those whom are able to come up with answers to my questions.

 

[L&LD]

These would probably be best answered on the netgear forums.

 

[RogerSC]

As a peripheral comment in this forum *smile*, what caused me to return the EX7000 was that they used a "virtual MAC address" for devices that connected to my network through the EX7000. Which meant that roaming could never work, since the same device would have a different MAC address depending on if it was connected to my main router or the EX7000. Otherwise, it worked fine.

I'd be curious if the EX7300 uses the same "virtual MAC address" scheme.

 

[mediatrek]

These would probably be best answered on the netgear forums.

I asked on Friday in the Netgear Forms. No replies or answers yet.

 

[RogerSC]

As a peripheral comment in this forum *smile*, what caused me to return the EX7000 was that they used a "virtual MAC address" for devices that connected to my network through the EX7000. Which meant that roaming could never work, since the same device would have a different MAC address depending on if it was connected to my main router or the EX7000. Otherwise, it worked fine.

I'd be curious if the EX7300 uses the same "virtual MAC address" scheme.

Found this on the Netgear FAQ page:

Why does my routers attached devices page display duplicate mac addresses with a different IP from the extenders connected clients?

This is correct as per the extenders design algorithm. All clients connected to the extender will get DHCP IP from the router via the extenders virtual mac address.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/30613/~/ex6400/ex7300-faqs

 

[NETGEAR Guy]

To answer your questions:

1. In access point mode, does it support band steering?
[Ans] No.
2. Is transmit beam forming (TXBF) enabled on the 2.4GHz radio?
[Ans] No. Only for 5GHz.
3. Can MU-MIMO be enabled/disabled by the user for the 5GHz radio?
[Ans] MU-MIMO is enabled by default for 5 GHz with no GUI option to enable/disable the feature.
4. Does the EX7300 use the same older (circa 2012) QCA9558 802.11n SoC solution that the Netgear EX6400 has? If not, what does the EX7300 have for its SoC?
[Ans] Yes, both use the same solution.
5. Is a virtual MAC address scheme used for the EX7300?
[Ans] The EX7300 doesn't use a “virtual MAC”, but uses a “clone Extender MAC”. This is due to the client changing IP with different MAC addresses, ie., by real MAC and Virtual MAC/Clone Mac after roaming.

 

[Marty1781]

To answer your questions:

1. In access point mode, does it support band steering?
[Ans] No.
2. Is transmit beam forming (TXBF) enabled on the 2.4GHz radio?
[Ans] No. Only for 5GHz.
3. Can MU-MIMO be enabled/disabled by the user for the 5GHz radio?
[Ans] MU-MIMO is enabled by default for 5 GHz with no GUI option to enable/disable the feature.
4. Does the EX7300 use the same older (circa 2012) QCA9558 802.11n SoC solution that the Netgear EX6400 has? If not, what does the EX7300 have for its SoC?
[Ans] Yes, both use the same solution.
5. Is a virtual MAC address scheme used for the EX7300?
[Ans] The EX7300 doesn't use a “virtual MAC”, but uses a “clone Extender MAC”. This is due to the client changing IP with different MAC addresses, ie., by real MAC and Virtual MAC/Clone Mac after roaming.

Thanks for these great answers. I've been unable to get a consistent answer from Netgear support on the following and would appreciate your input:

When the ex7300 is in "access point" mode, does it support MU-MIMO? I know it supports MU-MIMO when in extender mode but not sure about access point mode. The unit would be paired with the Nighthawk R8000P router. Thanks for any help you are able to offer.

 

[NETGEAR Guy]

Hi...to answer the question...

MU-MIMO is supported when running the EX7300 in AP mode