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Forum Discussion
C7500 Authentication Error
NETGEAR NIGHTHAWK C7500 CABLE MODEM/ROUTER
FIRMWARE: V1.01.32
ISP: NEW WAVE COMMUNICATIONS
Please somebody help me!! Netgear will not respond to my numerous support tickets. Working from home and depend on WiFi and having constant dropping device issues. ISP has been out and tested and everything is fine on their end. They do say however this Nighthawk cable modem/router is an expensive NIGHTMARE in their experience.
Every single day devices drop connections. "Authenication Error Occured" is the buzz wrod in our house. Rebooting the device, forgetting the network does not work. It is like this POS router picks a device on a daily basis as the "stinky kid" and it has the problem until moving on to the next. Rebooting the router does work with the device in question, but after a few hours another device goes down with the same problem. It does not discriminate either...phones, laptops, smart switches, and even Alexa. I have an android phone and my wife a a Iphone and it does it to both equally. "Authenication Error Occured" constanly. Just keeps trying to connect and will ask for password multiple times...even though we are entering the right one.
Netgear did send me a replacement back in 08/2019 for this same issues, but within a few months...same old problems. And now will not respond to my support tickets. I know we are in a national crisis and they are probably over loaded, but I paid $400 for this POS and expect it to work...I am part of this natioanl crisis and depend on the internet to to my business during my shelter in place order. I have done an extensive search on the internet for a solution and tried everything and nothing works.I am begging for help at this point!!!
3 Replies
What wireless mode are you using on the modem? What UP too settings are set?
What wireless security modes are you using? WPA2 and AES only or something different?
Is smart connect enabled on the modem? If this feature is present, try disabling it.
Also set 40Mhz only coexistance if you see this.
What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?Thanks for reaching out my friend. To answer your questions:
2.4Ghz (Not Auto...Set to Channel-4)
5Ghz (Not Auto...Set to Channel-153)
Guest Network 2.4Ghz
My devices pick up about a half dozen neighborhood routers in a sporadic fashion.
I constantly monitor the Channel Usage monitor o nthe router to make sure somone is not bleeding over into the channels I set.
There is no UP TO or SMART CONNECTION SETTING.
I have tried both WPA2-PSK [AES] & WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]. Problem exists in both settings. Currently set to WPA2-PSK [AES].
Regarding the 40Mhz question. THe only choise this router has is Enable or Disable 20/40 MHz Coexistence...it is currenltly enabled.
One interesting bit of information. My phone was connected with no problems this morning. Lef the house, connected to a friends network at his business with no problem...cam back home and would not connect again...same Authentication Error. Decided to try something totally different and connected to the troubled WIFI network via WPS and it connected. I do not view this as a solution, because not all my devices have a WPS option and even if they did...how much trouble would that be to do everytime devices needed to reconnect.I think this is a clue, butneed more info why it will not password connect after leaving network and coming back. Thanks again for reaching out!!
Is this the only devices that sees this problem when you return home?
Use channels, 1, 6 or 11. Channel 4 is a sub channel only used by the modems wifi system.
Take the check mark out of the check box for 20/40Mhz coexistance, save and apply, this will set 40Mhz only.
