Nighthawk X6 R8000 - Can’t Play Online

Hi,

This is my first nighthawk router and it arrived today. After setting it up, everything seemed to work perfectly - the internet connection is 100% fine and I can connect to Xbox Live and see my friends online etc. Problems only arise when I actually try to play a game online - whether it be Battlefield, Gears 5 or anything, I always get “Could not connect to X servers” and I cannot play online. I have never experienced this before and it’s incredibly strange as my connection to Xbox Live itself is fine.

My fibre broadband is provided by EE. I have an EE smart hub, which is wired into the ADSL. I have wired the hub (via the WAN connection) into the Nighthawk. I have googled around and (as suggested by Netgear) assigned a static IP address on the hub for the nighthawk, turned off UPNP on the EE hub, forwarded Xbox Live ports on the hub, and left UPNP turned on on the nighthawk. This did not work. I have tried all variations of UPNP on/off with both the hub and the nighthawk, to no avail.

I have also turned the wireless off on the hub, still unable to play online.

I’m a software engineer by profession and this has left me completely stumped. Can anybody explain to me why a GAMING router is blocking access to GAMING servers? The EE hub has never caused me problems with playing online so it must be the nighthawk.

Many thanks to anybody who can help me fix this strange issue - until then it looks like I’ll just have to Ethernet my Xbox into the EE hub and bypass the nighthawk entirely...

antinode
Oct 05, 2019
> [...] purchasing a modem and replacing the EE hub with it [...]

   I have no experience with EE, and I have no idea whether any common
DSL modem will work with their service.

> [...] everything (including Xbox Live) works perfectly, except
> anything which requires UPnP, [...]

   Getting features like port forwarding or UPnP through cascaded NAT
routers is the problem. If the Smart Hub had a DMZ server option, then
you might try setting that up with the R8000 (in router mode) as your
DMZ server. No bets.

> [...] I have done speed tests and the download speed around the house
> has doubled since I have began using the nighthawk, [...]

   But your data are all still going through the Smart Hub that way, so
I'd guess that your bottleneck is the wireless on the Smart Hub, and
you'd avoid that by using the R8000-as-WAP.

> If I was to use the nighthawk as you described, would it no longer
> deliver the increased download speeds I'm currently seeing?

   I don't see why, but it should be a relatively easy experiment to
run.

10 Replies

antinode
Guru
Oct 05, 2019
> [...] R8000 [...]

   Firmware version? Connected to what? (Hint: If a device has
multiple Ethernet ports, then "connected to device" is not enough
detail.)

> [...] it arrived today. [...]

   Why did you get it? Was there some actual problem which you were
trying to solve?

> [...] I have an EE smart hub, which is wired into the ADSL. [...]

   What's connected to it? Does this (unspecified) "an EE smart hub"
have a maker and model number? Does it include a router? Cascading
multiple routers can cause multiple problems, possibly like yours.

> [...] assigned a static IP address on the hub for the nighthawk, [...]

   It sounds as if your "an EE smart hub" is/includes a router.

   And that would be a "reserved" (dynamic) address, not a "static"
address. A static address is configured on the device itself, not on a
DHCP server (in a router).

> I have also turned the wireless off on the hub, [...]

   Disabling its radios does not stop a router from being a router.

   Depending on why you got the R8000 in the first place, you might want
to configure it 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".

   Alternatively, there might be a way to configure your (unspecified)
"an EE smart hub" as a modem-only, so that you could use the R8000 as
your (only) router. But, between your information-free description of
that device, and my weak psychic powers, I don't know if/how that might
be done.
- to6y
  Tutor
  Oct 05, 2019
  Updated the nighthawk to latest firmware version, will update this post when I get home and can check the actual version number. Nighthawk is connected via an Ethernet cable to the WAN port of the EE Smart Hub.
  
  I bought the nighthawk because the signal from the EE hub round the house was very poor. (Admittedly it’s FAR better with the nighthawk now, everything works fine except playing games online)
  
  The EE smart hub is a combined modem and router.
  
  Yes, you are correct - I assigned a dynamic address for the nighthawk on the EE hub. Apologies for the confusion, it was a Friday night when I was trying to get this to work and I’d had a few beers, lol.
  
  Unfortunately the EE hub doesn’t have a bride/modem only mode (which is what I suspect is causing the issue) though I have tried to “fake” this by turning the wireless off and setting the subnet mask to the same as the nighthawk. (Side-note: would buying a separate modem and throwing the EE hub out be a better idea? I think so, but would like to get confirmation on this before I chuck it)
  
  I massively appreciate your input, and whilst a simple idiot like me would have assumed that anyone who has used an ISP-supplied hub before (99% of the population?) knows that they are both a router and a modem, I agree I should have supplied the specs in the original post (despite there being only one single version of the “unspecified” EE smart hub)...) https://shop.ee.co.uk/broadband/smart-hub
  
  Would just like to get this thing working with my consoles. If the hub had a bridge/modem-only mode, rest assured I would have already tried it...
  - antinode
    Guru
    Oct 05, 2019
    > [...] I have tried to "fake" this by turning the wireless off and
    > setting the subnet mask to the same as the nighthawk. [...]
    
    >    Disabling its radios does not stop a router from being a router.
    
       Still true. Fiddling with some IP addresses or other (in some way or
    other) won't change that.
    
    > [...] (Side-note: would buying a separate modem and throwing the EE
    > hub out be a better idea? I think so, but would like to get confirmation
    > on this before I chuck it)
    
       I found little helpful information on this gizmo. Is it some kind of
    DSL modem+router? Determing what else would be compatible with your EE
    service might be difficult.
    
    > I bought the nighthawk because the signal from the EE hub round the
    > house was very poor. [...]
    
       If better wireless coverage was your goal, then configuring the R8000
    as a WAP might provide that. Leaving it in full-function router mode (as a
    second router) can be expected to cause problems.

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Nighthawk X6 R8000 - Can’t Play Online