7200C ver 2

I attempted this for a friend, since I was Cisco certified back in the day using raw IOS commands.  But difficult to get into the bowels, when you can't get past the "change password" screen.  the GUI screens and wizards of today make setting these up, a breeze.

Yes the actual model number is different : Nighthawk AC1900 WiFi Cable Modem Router - NETGEAR.  So this clears up on piece of information for you.

 the actual address IS 192.168.0.1 - otherwise there would be no connection, and the NETGEAR router is broadcasting, and showing 192.168.0.1 as the gateway/router address.  So we can confirm this address.

Login is using browser - as I iterated in my comments using multiple browsers (Safari, and Edge) - and using multiple devices.

From what I understand in your response, is that there is a problem in the password recovery function.  This would make sense, because I am assuming it is asking me to CHANGE password,and answer NEW questions, and what I hear you saying is that it is in fact asking for PREVIOUS answers to those questions, when it was setup by somebody several years ago.

So this brings us to how to reset.  It is my understanding from the online manual, that I just insert a paper clip end in the appropriate hole on the side of the router, and wait until the lights all blink simultaneously (e.g. rj45 connection lights)  - about 7 to 15 seconds.  It appears that it is rebooting, but when I go to login to the router, it immediately goes to the change password screen - rather than the default factory user and password, as I would expect.  Again this according to the manual instructions.

So it appears that the resetting is not working, or yours truly is not resetting it properly or misreading something.  I found one post from a gentleman who said that he just powered down the unit for an hour, and then the factory user and password screen entry appeared.  I only powered down the unit for a few minutes and tried it (after trying the paper clip)

Realize that have tried many things that any technician would do, e.g. reset, power off for a while, clear out the browser cookies when logging in with the browser, different browsers, different devices... although Apple phone and Apple ipad are ios, and mac book is a cousin. 

In one case from the  Apple Phone, I manually logged in with the password listed right on the router (which the family told me is the default password they use to connect to the wifi), and it got in, and then immediately shut me out, and back to the change password screen.  This confirms, in my mind, what you said about the password recovery issue.

At this point, I believe that the reset is the issue - as there is no way to get past the current screen that is appearing.  As we say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.

It appears that the reset will get us to square one.  Maybe you can correct me on the "paper clip" method I used, or comment on leaving it off for an hour, etc..  Much appreciated.