Nighthawk App / Genie Do Not Recognize R7000 - Help?

> They put a (non wi-fi) router in my condo's telecom box,

   It might be nice to know what that "a (non wi-fi) router" is.

> [...] and allowed me to bring my own R7000 as the wi-fi router. Look
> at the back of the unit, they've plugged the ethernet jack into #1 on
> the rear of the Nigthhawk - not the "internet" jack.

   That might have made a limited amount of sense, but it may or may not
be the right thing to do with an R7000.  Probably not, but that would
depend on how the R7000 was configured.

> When I plug the ethernet jack into "internet", although the networks
are available there is no actual connection.

   I'll assume that by "the networks" you mean the wireless networks
(SSIDs).  I don't know what "no actual connection" means.  No internet
access?

> Meanwhile, I can't connect to the router using either the Nighthawk or
> Genie apps, and the routerlogin.net doesn't work either.

   "can't" and "doesn't work" are not useful problem descriptions.
They do not say what you did.  They do not say what happened when you
did it.  As usual, showing actual actions with their actual results
(error messages, LED indicators, ...) can be more helpful than vague
descriptions or interpretations.

> P.S. Apparently the router has to be in "bridge" mode for their
> services to function - whatever that means. [...]

   Says who?

   Can you connect a computer (your Mac?) directly to the ISP's router
(and get to the Internet properly)?  If so, then what is the IP address
of that Ethernet interface?  (On a Mac, System Preferences > Network
should show that in "Status:".)  If that's a private IP address (like,
say, "192.168.x.y" or "10.x.y.z"), then that really is a NAT router, and
you probably ought to configure your R7000 as a wireless access point,
rather than as a full-function router (its default mode).  That might be
what someone meant by '"bridge" mode', but Netgear normally uses the
term "bridge" for something else.

   With an ISP-supplied router between your ISP and your R7000, you can
expect to have some problems with names like "routerlogin.net".

   For details on configuring your R7000 as a wireless access point,
visit http://netgear.com/support , put in your model number, and look
for Documentation.  Get the User Manual.  Look for "Use the Router as a
Wireless Access Point".  To make that change, disconnect the R7000 from
everything but power, and connect your computer to it (wirelessly, if
necessary).  In that case, "routerlogin.net" should work, and you should
be able to put the R7000 into WAP mode.  Then connect it to the ISP's
router as shown in the R7000 documentation (using its WAN/Internet
port).  When that's done, you should have Internet access through the
R7000 and the ISP's router.

   With the R7000 configured as a WAP, names like "routerlogin.net" will
not work, and you'd need to access the R7000 management web site by its
IP address.  You'll probably need to get that from an
"Attached/Connected Devices" (or "DHCP Clients", or similar) report from
the ISP's router.  With no information on the ISP's router, it's tough
to provide specific advice on that part.