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murphymj68's avatar
murphymj68
Star
Jul 11, 2020
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Netgear WAN port issues (Nighthawk and ORBI)

My Nighthawk XR500 fails to connect via its WAN port to my Huawei ONT. I have exactly the same problem with The Netgear Orbi router (model RBR50v2)) that I own. My older TPlink (AC750) and ASUS (RT-AC5300) routers suffer from no such problem. Also, if I put the either the Nighthawk or ORBI into bridge mode and connect the WAN port to one of the LAN ports in the ASUS router, the WAN ports of both connect fine. If I connect the WAN port of either device to the TPlink router then both fail to connect. I've tried every possible sequence of ONT and router power ups but to no avail. I've also replaced the ethernet cable that I'm using to connect the routers with a number of times - the cables are fine because they work perfectly with the TPlink and ASUS routers. I'm guessing now but it appears to me that the Netgear routers are sensitive to signal strength/power over ethernet or something along these lines and this is causing the connection problem to the ONT and the TPlink. Anyone else have a similar problem?

  • murphymj68's avatar
    murphymj68
    Jul 22, 2020

    Victory has been declared!!! :-)

     

    I installed the unmanaged switch and hey-presto the Netgear Routers now establish connections with the Huawei ONT. Many thanks Netduma-Fraser for the recommendation. Months of frustration and unnecessary expenditure wasted on a problem that was solved by a $50 switch - sigh. Hopefully others in this community suffering similar issues will benefit from this post.

     

    As an aside, I tried the other recommendation - factory reset the router while it is connected to the ONT. Unfortunately, this did not work.

     

    Thanks again for your help. It is much appreciated.

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    • murphymj68's avatar
      murphymj68
      Star
      Jul 11, 2020

      Thanks for the prompt response. I've reviewed the article that you linked me too and noted the following: 1. The Huawei ONT is the "modem" in the illustrations,not the non-netgear router. 2. To quote directly from the article "Double NAT does not prevent your devices access to the internet". 3. If it is a double NAT problem why would the TPLink and Asus routers not suffer from the same problem?