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apestalménos
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Wireless Extender

Sat May 28, 2022 8:41 pm

Has anyone had success connecting a Netgear AC750 Wifi Range extender to a Mikrotik product? Are the WPA2 protocols compatible?
 
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mkx
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Re: Wireless Extender  [SOLVED]

Sun May 29, 2022 2:40 pm

WPA2 is standard. The big problem with transparent range extenders is that 802.11 (wifi) standard doesn't allow for fully transparent bridges (regardless encryption algorithm, i.e. WPA2, WPA, WEP or even open network). There are different workarounds and vendor-specific extensions that either work poorly or work fine only when both AP and extender are made by same vendor. Which means that using Netgear extender with MT AP will likely cause some problems or other, but it's up to your use case and your expectations if that will actually cause you any problems or not. Beware that even if things cooperate perfectly, introduction of wireless extender means considerable reduction of wireless performance due to how vast majority of low-cost extenders work (re-using same frequency channel for own transmissions).
 
apestalménos
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Re: Wireless Extender

Sun May 29, 2022 4:52 pm

Thanks for responding. I appreciate your time, and the information. I happened to aquire this EX3110 and curiosity dictated that I connect it (it's my nature). I understand the limitions and don't actually need to extend my network. But... I can't let it go! My ESP32 wifi chip connects, OpenWRT works, dd-wrt connects, but the extender won't exchange keys with RouterOS.
The EX3110 connects to the hAP AC with no security profile, but WPA2 between RouterOS and Netgear is a no-go. Every other wireless apparatus in the house will connect to the EX3110, and the hAP AC, using WPA2. It's driving my nuts!
 
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mkx
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Re: Wireless Extender

Sun May 29, 2022 5:27 pm

ROS is sometimes a bit picky about PSKs used and configured. I'm not familiar with EX3110's management UI, but it might have some similar issues. So you might try with a pretty trivial pair of SSID/PSK to rule out potential issues rising from that department.

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