Netgear EX3700 Range extender can't connect to a hidden SSID.

GotNoRice

GotNoRice

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I have a Netgear EX3700 range extender that I would like to use. I have a special 5Ghz network, with a hidden SSID, that is separate from my main 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz WiFi networks and not used for much. I would like to use this hidden SSID as the backbone for the EX3700 to connect to, so that the EX3700 can then broadcast the same WiFi SSIDs as my main WiFi (obviously it can't do that if it's connected to my main WiFi SSID). But I can't get it to connect to this AP with the hidden SSID. I've tried using WPS as well as entering the information manually.

It's not the only device I have that doesn't like the hidden SSID. My Amazon FireHD 8 tablet won't see or connect to the hidden SSID either, but my Samsung S8+ can see and connect to the hidden SSID network just fine. I don't really understand the inconsistancy 🤷
 
Welcome to the world of buggy consumer hardware, lol. Try making the SSID visible, connecting and then making it hidden again.
 
SamirD said:
Welcome to the world of buggy consumer hardware, lol. Try making the SSID visible, connecting and then making it hidden again.
Click to expand...

I don't actually have the ability to adjust any settings on this AP unfortunately. It's an AP that was setup by DISH (Satellite TV Service). There is a main Satellite TV box, and two remote boxes that interface with the main box over the network. Even though all three boxes are on my main network (they all pull IPs from my main DHCP server, no double-nat, etc), DISH insisted on supplying their own WiFi Access Point instead of simply connecting the remote boxes to my main WiFi. The DISH installer also said that he couldn't use Ethernet for the remote boxes even though they both have Ethernet ports on the back. He was just following some script and clearly didn't have any idea what he was doing. So the moment he left I just switched both remote boxes over to Ethernet myself since I have Ethernet in both of those locations. That left me with this DISH 802.11ac (5Ghz only) AP that was literally being used by nothing. I can't adjust the settings but I was able to determine the SSID and WPA2 passphrase by connecting one of my computers via WPS. I have it setup on a few devices as a backup network but in practice it's almost never used, so it seemed like it would be the perfect network for my extender to connect to.
 
GotNoRice said:
I don't actually have the ability to adjust any settings on this AP unfortunately. It's an AP that was setup by DISH (Satellite TV Service). There is a main Satellite TV box, and two remote boxes that interface with the main box over the network. Even though all three boxes are on my main network (they all pull IPs from my main DHCP server, no double-nat, etc), DISH insisted on supplying their own WiFi Access Point instead of simply connecting the remote boxes to my main WiFi. The DISH installer also said that he couldn't use Ethernet for the remote boxes even though they both have Ethernet ports on the back. He was just following some script and clearly didn't have any idea what he was doing. So the moment he left I just switched both remote boxes over to Ethernet myself since I have Ethernet in both of those locations. That left me with this DISH 802.11ac (5Ghz only) AP that was literally being used by nothing. I can't adjust the settings but I was able to determine the SSID and WPA2 passphrase by connecting one of my computers via WPS. I have it setup on a few devices as a backup network but in practice it's almost never used, so it seemed like it would be the perfect network for my extender to connect to.
Click to expand...
Hehe, I love it. So, my guess is that the dish device is a bit buggy and doesn't implement something right. I would try factory resetting the Netgear and try different firmware versions to see if you can find one that works. More than likely the shipping version of the firmware should be the most bug free ime.
 
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