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DSperber's avatar
Feb 23, 2024
Solved

Need help getting remotely located R6700AX router added to my phone Nighthawk app "products"

This is like a comedy of errors.

 

(1) ISP uses CGNAT, so port forwarding on the router does not work. I am in California and remotely connect to the computer in Florida using RealVNC which requires port forwarding in the router. I can fall back to using Team Viewer to remotely connect, but I prefer RealVNC. So I wanted to solve this port forwarding problem.

 

(2) I got ISP to assign "static IP" and that fixed things. Now port forwarding on the router works perfectly. And so now I can use RealVNC to remotely connect from my client computer in California to the host computer in Florida.

 

(3) Before discovering that CGNAT was involved, I had simply built my standard connection mechanism. This runs No-IP DUC client (dynamic DNS) on the Florida host computer, which "phones home" every hour to provide the current numeric IP address of the computer which is then used to resolve the symbolic host name as facilitated by No-IP. I remotely connect from California to the symbolic host name, which gets resolved to a numeric IPD through No-IP, and now RealVNC can connect to its client running on the Florida machine. But it depends on port forwarding working on the router, and the "phone home" message getting out from the Florida host machine to No-IP in the cloud.

 

(4) Well, technically, now that I've got a static IP at the Florida location, I really don't need No-IP and dynamic DNS at all. But I have not yet uninstalled the No-IP DUC client, so it is still running every hour, "phoning home" with its numeric IP address. Unfortunately, the Armor security software running on the R6700AX is blocking this message from going out:

 

"NETGEAR Armor has detected that HPOmen [which is the laptop on the LAN which has No-IP DUC installed on it] is sending unencrypted authentication information and blocked that page."

 

This happens once per hour, which also results in an hourly notification on my cell phone in California where the Nighthawk app is installed, since the new R6700AX is a new registered product on my Netgear account. It's not present on my Nighthawk app as "My Products" (because I was never in Florida to get it added through being local to the WiFi network so I could add it), but it is on my Netgear products.  So I get notified every hour of this blockage.

 

(5) Theoretically I can "whitelist" the URL for No-IP, so that the blockage will no longer occur. However you cannot use the router itself to do the "whitelisting". And you cannot get to Armor on the router. You can only do the whitelisting using Nighthawk app on the phone. But I cannot manually add the new R6700AX router to my NIghthawk app without physically being local to the router so I can connect via WiFi to it.

 

(6) So there is no way to add the new router to "My Products" to the Nighthawk app on my phone, because I am not in Florida. There is no way to use the router itself to do the whitelisting for Armor. There is no way to get into Armor on the router, except through the Nighthawk app. I appear to be screwed... and obviously must uninstall the No-IP DUC client in order to prevent this all from happening.

 

(7) Netgear says  they can't help, and pass me off to Bitdefender (in Romania, who is apparently the vendor responsible for Armor). Bitdefender says they can't help. Netgear can't help. Great!

 

(8) If I get someone in Florida to add the Nighthawk app to their phone, and sign in with my Netgear account credentials (thus representing a second phone with the Nighthawk app on it for my account), will they be able to add the new R6700AX in Florida to my Nighthawk account? Should I be able to then see it on the Nighthawk app  running on my own cell phone in California which is logged in to the same Netgear account? If so, since "Anywhere Access" is enabled on my Nighthawk app I technicall would then be able to whitelist the URL, right?

 

 

Anybody have any other advice?

  • Ok. I have emerged victorious.

     

    As I described previously, I bought a second R6700AX and had it shipped directly to me in LA so that I could pre-configure it properly using both the Nighthawk app on my phone for "wizard" features available to the app, as well through the web browser UI for the more complex configuration required (i.e. static IP, as well as MAC address reservation for a fixed LAN IP address, as well as port forwarding to that fixed LAN IP address for RealVNC), for its eventual home in Florida running under Hotwire Communications.

     

    The pre-configuration also includes declining any subscription or trial period for Armor, as well as checking "do not bother me ever again" to get rid of it permanently.

     

    And I also set up a refund for the first R6700AX so that when the second one arrives and is swapped in, the net cost will only be for the one final router.

     

    So just yesterday the pre-configured second router finally arrived in Florida and was swapped in. WORKED PERFECTLY! And today the first router was dropped at a nearby UPS store and I've already received the refund.

     

    And, in fact I am now able to connect directly to the router in Florida through my phone in LA using the Nighthawk app:

     

     

    And furthermore, the No-IP DUC client once again works perfectly, not that Armor is not blocking the No-IP URL:

     

     

    Case truly closed!!

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