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Forum Discussion
Is Nighthawk a scam? Dangerous? Data collecting? Seems like it.
I bought this router/extender 3.5 months ago. Every single month so far, it shut down my internet access and the only way to get it back was to load that **bleep** app on my phone. As soon as I loade...
You detailed the issue you're having. Thanks for that. A couple questions.
1. What modem do you have from xfinity?
2. what router do you have? And what firmware is on it?
3. what extender do you have? And firmware on it?
I dislike the app and so rarely use it. Half the time, if I'm not testing something, I uninstall the app from my phone anyway because I don't use it. Its never caused an issue with connection. And you don't specify what app it is you're installing? The nighthawk app? Orbi app? Do you have bitdefender/armor? Just wanting to clarify.
When you're having issues, does it say "connected, no internet"? Does the SSID stop broadcasting entirely? Do wired devices drop? What happens when it comes back?
We're not there to see all that's going on or you experience so the better you describe what happens and is going on the better we can help.
Just an FYI, you're posting on the community forum where members of the public help out. We're not Netgear. Not trying to say you're not having issues. Just keep in mind that WE aren't Netgear and are trying to help you. So you can say whatever you want about Netgear and we don't care. But try to be courteous to the ones helping you and you'll get more help.
I don't know what modem xfinity gave us, it shouldn't matter in the slightest, its also the router too.
The extender is the EX7300v2, Nighthawk app on android.
As per the other questions, I've posted on reddit about it as well but it was unhelpful. I have screenshot proof of the fact that they give you a 3 month only warranty and support, which is absolutely terrible. Right after the 3 month period I start having major problems too. A little searching online and you find that Netgear is actually really badly rated by a lot of people. Which I should have done before I got one but didn't because I remembered over a decade ago when I used one and it was a great piece of hardware.
So lets describe what exactly happened when I got fed up with all this finally.
First time I set this up, I used the app. I then found the IP address to load the router page on PC because the app is too limited to set up the device fully so I used the web page version to fix my network settings a little bit better. Xfinity was terrible and constantly going out at the same time every night claiming it was a hardware malfunction on our end, as if malfunctions occur at the same time every night... Most of the time, the extender would reconnect just fine when the connection came back on. However, there were times when it just wouldn't, and even with a reboot, it wouldn't. I found out that I had to load the android app Nighthawk, and connect it to the extender, just to get my network back. The connection would appear fine, everything would connect to the extender, but the extender would not provide internet until the android app made a successful connection to the extender.
Keep in mind I may call it a router on occasion because router, extender, same thing. I'm used to that, but I have to call it an extender here because people get all confused if I don't.
So a few days ago xfinity comes out and replaces our modem/router all-in-one system. The extender wouldn't connect anymore even though the network name and pass were exactly the same. I had to factory reset the thing. So I used the app to set it up, but it used the same network name so I couldn't tell if I was connected to the xfinity router or the extender. I couldn't access the extender's web page either... So I factory reset it once more. This time I tried to set it up via the web only as people claimed it was possible. It worked, my laptop set it up and connected to the internet. But no other devices could connect. They connected to the extender, but the extender would not give network access to anything. I was confused, so I loaded the android app Nighthawk, it couldn't find a device, I selected the extender from the list. It connected, suddenly every device connected to the extender had internet access while the app said it was an unconfigured device that needed to be set up, but wouldn't allow me to set it up either.
Yesterday, we had an 8 hour outage caused by a tornado that destroyed a lot of stuff in the area. The internet came back online on the xfinity device, but the extender wasn't giving internet access. I reboot it. Still nothing. I loaded the app on my phone. Suddenly the internet comes back on all devices connected to the extender even though the app still says its an unconfigured extender.
Every single case, in which the extender was broadcasting the proper network name for me to connect to but wasn't providing internet even though the main router was providing internet its self, I had to load that **bleep**ty nighthawk app to connect my devices to the internet.
Lastly, yes I know this is a community forum. Netgear doesn't give a rats ass about anyone but themselves. If they did, they wouldn't have a scam warranty and scam support system. However netgear may still moderate the forums or have people who do, that try to hide negative reviews as quickly as possible.
From my observations so far, its the app that is required for the extender to connect devices to the internet. As if Netgear has programmed their extender to shut down internet access if it doesn't see the app once every x time or when something goes wrong or has been rebooted. If the internet works now, clearly its capable of working. It doesn't matter what I am connected to, it matters that the internet comes back the very instant I load their **bleep**ty Nighthawk application on my phone. Literally, the very instant Nighthawk connects to the router, the "no internet" symbols on my devices suddenly vanish and everything begins working. I saw it happen on my laptop when it said no internet, I loaded the app on my phone, and within 2 seconds of the app connecting to the router, my laptop connected and my Alexa Echos began working and my robot vacuum's red indicator of no connection went away.
1. it does matter what modem/router/gateway you have. Its the primary for the system.
2. it sounds like you've had a lot of outages in your area. An unreliable router can cause a lot of issues.
3. Try factory resetting the extender and reinstalling it. During the install process, uncheck the "extend 2.4ghz network". You'll still be able to use the 2.4ghz network but it won't use it as failover for the router--extender connection. 2.4ghz is sensitive to interference and slow and when its acting as failover, its pretty horrible.
4. Before reinstalling the extender, make sure to set your primary router's 5ghz channel to a non-DFS channels. If you have an airport/weather radar in your area, it makes DFS channels unreliable and they drop frequently. So set the 5ghz to either channels 36-48 or 149-165. Those are non-dfs and should be more reliable. That ensures the backhaul between router---extender is stable.
5. When (if) you do have issue again, instead of logging in via the app, use a computer and log into the extender using its IP address. This lets you log into it and check its status page. Get a screensnip of that. It'll help tell us if there issues between router----extender or extender---devices.
1. The router, doesn't matter. The extender, connects to the router, whatever model it may be, and forwards its internet. It would only matter if extenders required you to have same company routers to extend or some silly stuff like that, but an extender should not. Nor can I obtain the information about the router model that the extender is connecting to.
2. An unreliable main router can cause issues, yes. It would disconnect and my network would be down too. A properly designed extender, would re-check every x seconds or minutes if the network is back online, and then re-initiate things so that the connection is restored once the network is back online or the main router has been rebooted.
3. As explained. I've already factory reset it, twice. There is no "uncheck the 2.4GHz" option as I last remember, and even if there was, I need it because some devices are still 2.4GHz dependent. I have the network names separated, so I can choose to connect to 2.4 or 5. I always connect to 5. Nor would this explain why the mobile app is required to use the extender.
4. I have no access to the main router, it is in my dad's house and he won't let me near it. Only gave me the password to the network so I can connect things in this house.
5. The extender no longer has an IP address. I explained that it is just gone. It defaults to the xfinity IP address 10.0.0.1, and loads the xfinity login page. I can't get the extender's local IP. I tried various things to try and find it. Yes, I am absolutely for a fact 100% certain that I am connected to the extender and not the main router, as I have named the network "NAME_EXT_5GHz" and am connected to that.
Lastly, before I factory reset it this last time and lost the local IP access, I was on the local IP access to the extender when the network wouldn't connect. I didn't have any way to gain access to the internet from inside that interface. I loaded the app on mobile, and suddenly the network came back.
If I can find out how to gain access to the IP of the extender again, I'll get a screenshot of the status page minus any personal information. I'll try to find a way to get a list of every single IP of every device connected and see if any of them are the extender under some new hidden name of some kind since the factory reset. If I must factory reset again, I will get screencaps or a recording showing the setup process, minus the personal information such as network name. My extender's IP is 10.0.0.215, but nothing comes up when I load that. I can't access the extender's page anymore.