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Solved
NIGHTHAWK M5 5G MR5200 Nintendo Switch Online Not Working With AT&T Wireless
Hello, I'm unable to play any online games with my Nintendo Switch when using this MR5200 router. When I do the connection test for the Nintendo Switch, I always get a NAT Type D, when I need a t...
Since Netgear, AT&T, and Nintendo has been of no help, I created my own solution. I'm finally getting NAT type B with low ping allowing me to play Nintendo Switch Online again. This solution requires a VPN service along with a additional router that is compatible with the VPN service you choose. Because AT&T is so strict when it come to NAT, the VPN will hide what you're doing allowing you to get NAT type B needed for Nintendo Online. You could plug this VPN compatible router directly into the MR5200 so that you have a normal wifi signal and a VPN wifi signal. For me, I used the ethernet of the MR5200 to connect to my mesh wifi system (TP-Link Deco X60 AX3000), and plugged my router running the VPN into another mesh node.
The VPN service I chose was IPVanish, which I paid $45 for the first year. I disabled auto renew so I can get the lower first year rate next year with a different email. I had a Nighthawk R7000 laying around, and it was compatible with IPVanish. Many other routers are compatible with IPvanish which you can check here:
https://www.ipvanish.com/vpn-setup/routers/
Just scroll down to "Manually set up a VPN on your existing router" and see what is compatible. If your router is compatible, they will give you instructions on how to install their VPN service on the router. For me I used the "DD-WRT for IPVanish (FlashRouter Privacy App)" method since you can easily change the VPN server with a drop down box. These are the instructions I used for my R7000 router:
This method required installing custom DD-WRT firmware r40189 or later. I used the latest firmware from 2021 and it didn't work with the FlashRouter Privacy App, so I ended up using the 2019 r40189 build for my Netgear R7000 found here:
https://dd-wrt.com/support/other-downloads/?path=betas%2F2019%2F07-04-2019-r40189%2F
Follow the beginning of this video if you don't know how to install DD-WRT on your router:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XfAFRhijTw&t=1512s
In the video above, I stopped watching after he showed me how to install the custom DD-WRT firmware since using the FlashRouter Privacy App is so much more convenient than his method.
After I got DD-WRT and FlashRouter installed, I signed into Flash Router using my IPVanish credentials. When signing in you have to chose a server. I highly recommend choosing servers close to you and running speed tests here:
Try testing the speed in the closest city servers to you. In America, I'm closest to Miami, but Atlanta had the fastest speeds with the lowest ping. You're looking for low ping (under 100 ms) if you want a great experience with Nintendo Switch Online. Because Nintendo limits internet speed on the Switch, and the games are pretty basic, you don't need ridiculous download and upload speeds. Nintendo says you need a min 3 Mbps download speed, and a min 1 Mbps upload speed. I was getting 21 Mbps download, 19 Mbps upload, and a 59 ms ping. This is plenty for Nintendo Swith Online. Your speed may change with the VPN server load, but my experience has been pretty consistent. Because you're running a VPN, I don't believe you're able to port forward to get NAT type A. But for Nintendo Switch Online, NAT type B works perfectly well.
With this solution, I was destroying the ridiculously good Japanese players in Mario Kart 8. This proves that even through you're running a VPN, you can still play super competitively. I'm sharing this to help others in my situation. Hopefully they can now bypass their carriers block and play Nintendo Switch Online.
kenshin305 wrote:
My Switch is connected MR5200's WiFi (5ghz) and not my home mesh WiFi. I do use an ethernet cable to connect this MR5200 to my mesh (TP-Link) which powers my home internet. The asssigned AT&T IP address for this router is the 10.x.x.x format. UPnP is checked in my Netgear settings, but I have no idea how to configure that.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Looks kind of complicated.
While this problem may be something to do with the "Hotpost" nature of the hardware, "Nintendo" crops up here pretty often, so you might find some pointers in the other sections of this place, where there is a lot more traffic.
Did your research include this?
Search - NETGEAR Communities – Nintendo Switch
Thank you for the suggestion. Not sure if the other forum sections is familiar with receiving strict NAT internet from an AT&T cellular sim cards, but I just posted in the Nighthawk section anyways.
If anyone has any suggestions here, please let me know. Please disregard the part about me connecting this hotspot router to my mesh. The Nintendo Switch is connected directly to the MR5200's wifi to eliminate any other issues. I just need to know what setting to change to get my NAT type A or B.
Thank you.
kenshin305 wrote:
Thank you for the suggestion. Not sure if the other forum sections is familiar with receiving strict NAT internet from an AT&T cellular sim cards, but I just posted in the Nighthawk section anyways.
I was not suggesting that you post a message anywhere else. I was pointing you at similar conversations on Nintendo Switch.
Then again, I would be surprised if your Internet delivery mechanism had much to do with the NAT settings on your hardware. That's why I suggested consulting past discussions.
Look again at those search hits and you will see that they appear in different sections of this community. The Nighthawk section was just one of them.
michaelkenward wrote:
kenshin305 wrote:Thank you for the suggestion. Not sure if the other forum sections is familiar with receiving strict NAT internet from an AT&T cellular sim cards, but I just posted in the Nighthawk section anyways.
I was not suggesting that you post a message anywhere else. I was pointing you at similar conversations on Nintendo Switch.
Then again, I would be surprised if your Internet delivery mechanism had much to do with the NAT settings on your hardware. That's why I suggested consulting past discussions.
Look again at those search hits and you will see that they appear in different sections of this community. The Nighthawk section was just one of them.
Oh gotcha. I previously checked, and there's only 2 other conversations in this section mentioning Nintendo Switch, and neither one of them got their issue resolved. I tried everything they discussed in their thread, but nothing worked. I even tried Nintendo DMZ guide, but that also did not work:
Does anyone know if I'm entering the port range correctly in the screenshot below?
Does anyone else have any suggestions? I've attached a few more of my screenshots below.