NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Connecting Orbi router to a Nighthawk?
Hello. I'm sure someone may have already asked this but I could use some help. I am trying to connect my orbi router with a cat7 ethernet out to an outside building. I have the cable ran from house outside but when i plug it into my nighthawk i dont get any internet signal. I wondered what port do i plug it into the nighthawk? Or, would it be easier/better to hook the cat7 cable i to another orbi device versus the nighthawk. I have spent some hours troubleshooting and testing to ensure the nighthawk is functional. The firmware is up to date. The nighthawk works find separately but when i hook it up to the cat7 coming from the orbi router, its a no go. Thanks for any/all assistance.
30 Replies
The cable should be connected to the WAN port in the Nighthawk.
Will Nighthawk's radio range interfere with Orbi's? If yes then you have to use a different SSID and r adio channel for the Nighthawk than the one in Orbi to avoid degradation in the Orbi.
- Thank you for your fast reply. I dont understand your statement. What do I need to know/do to figure that out? Inside my out building I cannot get the orbi signal from my house. the outbuilding is about 120 feet away and it is a metal building. This is why I chose to run the cat7 underground and hardwire devices in order to ensure i can get internet in the outbuilding.
mirama44 wrote:
Thank you for your fast reply. I dont understand your statement. What do I need to know/do to figure that out? Inside my out building I cannot get the orbi signal from my house. the outbuilding is about 120 feet away and it is a metal building. This is why I chose to run the cat7 underground and hardwire devices in order to ensure i can get internet in the outbuilding.120 feet is quite a long distance, so I don't think you need to worry about the radio interference from the Nighthawk.
If there is not continuity between the Orbi system and the distant house there is not much advantage if you get an Orbi Satellite instead of the Nighthawk. The only advantage would be that you will be able to manage the whole network from one place (your browser or the Orbi phone app).
Regardng the cabling the color coding of cat7 cable is the same as cat6. But I think there are special modular plugs (shielded) for the cat 7 cables that are slightly different than cat 6.
A common mistake (that I once did) is to not use the small canal piece (see picture below) that comes with the plug without which the wires will never be in place. :)
- Would it easier if I went out and bought another orbi device to connect the orbi router with the cat7 cable?
The only other thing I'm questioning is that I had to put a new rj45 connector on the cat7. I wondered if cat7 cable accepts the same rj45 connector as a cat7. I wired it all up and used a tester to check. according to the tester everything is wired correctly and it is grounded.
I think all you need to do is to ensure and verify the CAT lan cable from the main router out to the remote building is correctly wired and if so, then use the Orbi in AP mode in the remote building:
https://kb.netgear.com/31218/How-do-I-configure-my-Orbi-router-to-act-as-an-access-point and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7LOcJ8GdDo&app=desktop
mirama44 wrote:
Hello. I'm sure someone may have already asked this but I could use some help. I am trying to connect my orbi router with a cat7 ethernet out to an outside building. I have the cable ran from house outside but when i plug it into my nighthawk i dont get any internet signal. I wondered what port do i plug it into the nighthawk? Or, would it be easier/better to hook the cat7 cable i to another orbi device versus the nighthawk. I have spent some hours troubleshooting and testing to ensure the nighthawk is functional. The firmware is up to date. The nighthawk works find separately but when i hook it up to the cat7 coming from the orbi router, its a no go. Thanks for any/all assistance.- Thank you! Today got by me so fast and I will try some more troubleshooting after work tomorrow. I am going to go ahead and order some cat7 connectors. It appears in the online diagrams that the wiring is same as cat6. When I tested the line with the tool I had, it said everything was wored correctly. That is why I was worried that maybe I need specific cat7 connector... Do you recommend any specific cat7 connector? I saw a 10 pack on amazon, and I emailed the company who I bought the cat7 from (haven't heard back). Thank you for the video. I haven't gotten to watch it yet, but I am eager to watch the video and hopefully find a resolution tomorrow. I will send an update. Thank you both for your help. ***fingers crossed***
mirama44 wrote:
......... When I tested the line with the tool I had, it said everything was wored correctly. That is why I was worried that maybe I need specific cat7 connector... Do you recommend any specific cat7 connector? I saw a 10 pack on amazon, and I emailed the company who I bought the cat7 from (haven't heard back). ............If the cable works fine with the current connectors then you should be fine. The shielded cat7 connectors just improve the capabilities (range and frequency) of the cable. Please test that you have good signal on the remote side of the cable by a tool or by connecting a laptop and seeing the LED's on the LAN port of the laptop are on when the cable is connected to Orbi LAN port on the other side.
- Real quick I was able to put the router into AP mode but then I couldn't connect to internet at all? I ended up resetting the orbi back to factory just so I could have internet. Just got done setting everything back up. Not sure what I should have done after changing it into AP mode?
mirama44 wrote:
Real quick I was able to put the router into AP mode but then I couldn't connect to internet at all? I ended up resetting the orbi back to factory just so I could have internet. Just got done setting everything back up. Not sure what I should have done after changing it into AP mode?No, you don’t need to use AP Mode in the main router. It has to be in Router mode.
Please get the Ethernet cable working and connect it to the WAN port of Nighthawk and hopefully everything will be working after that.
If the Orbi is acting as the main host router, then they can configure the NG router for AP mode and connect it to the Orbi router at the remote location. The NH router needs to be connected via its LAN port to the Orbi's LAN port, not the WAN port when in AP mode. This will work.
IF the NH router is the main host router, then the Orbi can be used in AP mode at the remote location or a satellite or a Orbi router in AP mode can be used at the remote location.
Yup. That's how I see it.
Choose one to be the router, set the other in AP mode.
As I said earlier, it is not clear to me which box is destined for which role.
If the idea is to have good wifi in the house, then using the Orbi as the router make sense. Then the Nighthawk goes in the "shed".
From what we read here, most people with an Orbi/Nighthawk combination tend to use the Nighthawk as the router, probably because it offers more control but the wifi isn't so good.
