Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Firmware update for Range extender?

I'm using the Netgear range extender to connect my printer to my network. I have a password set and the SSID off. For whatever reason, it is set to do firmware updates automatically but it hasn't been doing that. So, I found a listing of the firmware updates on their website but what isn't there is what the update is for. Is there ANY chance that doing the latest update will change my setup and be a problem or make the two incompatible? What started happening following the firmware update on my Mac, should have nothing to do with it, is but when I restart the Linksys, the Netgear changes its IP to a different IP range and throws my printer offline.

The Linksys is doing the updates correctly and everything is working right since I set a static IP to the extender.

The best way to configure any network service, be it a file server, printer, scanner, IP camera, whatever, anything you connect to, is to set it to a static IP address. This prevents it from becoming a "moving target" when the device, the router, or whatever is providing DHCP gets power-cycled. I even recommend this for services that "advertise" on the network and are supposed to be able to follow the devices around if they change addresses.

There are two common ways to accomplish this. One is by simply configuring the device manually and keeping a list somewhere to track your static IP address usage. This requires you to make sure the address you are using is not within the range of the DHCP server's address pool. Otherwise you risk the DHCP server handing out the service's IP address to another computer. Most service devices support manual network configuration. (if this happens, it can cause maddeningly difficult to track down problems in the service) If it offers a "Use DHCP with manual address", use that because you just have to plug in the IP address. Otherwise you'll also need to enter the subnet mask and router address, and possibly DHCP servers as well, making setup slightly more complicated. You also cannot use the router's address, 0, or 255. So if your DCHP is configured to pass out 2-100 and the router is on .1 (common airport setting), you can use anything from 101 to 254 as the last digit, keeping the first three the same.

The other option is to use DHCP IP Reservation, if your router supports it. (it's a new'ish feature, that most old routers don't support, but many new ones do) This allows you to enter the IP on the router, and associate it with the service's M.A.C. (machine address code) address. These are world-unique, and let the router recognize the service when it asks for an IP, and give it the one you specified. This is usually easier to set up than manually on the service, but does require you to get the MAC from the service, which is often on the box or somewhere in the network menu on the device. This also eliminates the possibility of the router handing out the reserved address, and allows you to keep the service on full DHCP and even do full a factory reset it without having to reconfigure it.

These configurations work the same on wifi as they do on wired ethernet.

I set the router to assign a static IP to the extender, but the extender allows you to do that too. I chose to do it through the router, and thought it might be a problem to do both.




Not quite sure I understand this.

Best to skip that option if you don't understand it, things start getting complicated with the router. It ends up being a more robust solution in some cases though.

I see the option listed as a tab in the router software. I didn't assign the IP that way, tho. I just looked at the network map and did a drop down link that said edit DCHP. Under troubleshooting tab it has a column list for MAC address and IP address. I can refresh it when a guest hooks up and then leaves. It seems like a good thing to do.

Back to the original question: Do I need to update the extender firmware for any security reasons? When I had the router and extender back to factory defaults after the firmware disaster on my Mac (which Apple assured me was just a coincidence and something else happened that changed my network settings) I did have to hide the SSIDs again, there were four networks being advertised in my place instead of two, just the router.

In other words, the extender can't be seen on the network and is that secure enough?

Btw, they did check the gsx and the computer is not vintage yet, the motherboard is still available, but firmware is updated to Mavericks. With every problem I have approached them with, the answer is Mavericks. Not even a push to Yosemite.