Re: Nighthawk AX8, Model CAX80

Foo_King_Dead · ‎2020-08-12

Just purchased the new Nighthawk AX8 - CAX80 modem/router. After getting it set up on my Spectrum internet service I can't VPN into my work.. I've checked all parameters and have spent hours on the phone with my company, but something within the router is blocking my VPN tunneling into work.. Any suggestions? I've tried port forwarding, reseting to factory default, everything and still no VPN. When I try connecting via my work laptop (Cisco AnyConnect) it times out and gives an error "Could not connect to server. Please verify internet connectivity and server address". I know I have internet, so not sure where the holdup is.

vkdelta · ‎2020-08-19

can you please post a pcap capture.

Does it happen on wired connection as well?

did you try with DMZ? (just for test purposes)

Keithg1229 · ‎2020-08-23

I am having the same problem and it's driving me nuts. Netgear tried helping me but to no avail.
I use Cisco Any Connect. 3 other VPNs (different jobs/people in household) work fine. I have tried both wireless and wired, and 2 different computers.
Not sure if it's the specific Cisco VPN or some setup issue on my work side tho they deny that.

vkdelta · ‎2020-08-23

@Keithg1229

can you please post a pcap capture.

Does it happen on wired connection as well?

did you try with DMZ? (just for test purposes)

jlbennettmd · ‎2020-09-15

I had same experience with cax80 and cisco anyconnect. work is not seeing any traffic on port 4500 as they do with old device.

Foo_King_Dead · ‎2020-09-15

I will post pcap. I did try DMZ but no luck. It’s also wireless

Keithg1229 · ‎2020-09-16

I did try forwarding my ports to 4500, but no dice. Mind you, I have no idea what I am doing so there may be more to it.

My version of Anyconnect is old (4.5x) and my company is changing VPNs so we have no support for Cisco to get the newest version. Me wonders if the update is necessary. Pure speculation, but this router is so new and the version of Anyconnect I have is no longer supported.

Keithg1229 · ‎2020-09-16

Sorry for late reply.

I did try wired connection, and DMZ.

My I.T. Dept has determined that since we are changing VPNs at some point that it wasn't worth the effort to keep troubleshooting and gave me a MiFi device for now.

Honestly I do not think Netgear is the problem since every other VPN used works fine.

jlbennettmd · ‎2020-09-16

If I use personal hotspot bypassing cax80 I am able to connect.

jlbennettmd · ‎2020-09-16

Also, if I use C7100V; VPN also works

jlbennettmd · ‎2020-09-23

I also switched to another new router and modem and vpn works fine.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-09-23

Please keep in contact with NG support.

Thank you.

jlbennettmd · ‎2020-09-23

So three modems in two weeks and only the CAX80 fails.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-09-23

Ask for a RMA then. Keep in contact with support.

Theres nothing we can do here in the forums to help you with this.

jlbennettmd · ‎2020-09-23

sorry to trouble you

steverf · ‎2020-11-13

I just purchased the CAX80. everthing worked well except i cannot connect to my Sonic Wall VPN. I spent hours with our outside ITtech on with netgear techs. It IS the modem router. everything else works. we have a NetGear c7000 we have used for years. no problem. when we use hotspots. no problem. We tried everything suggested by tech support at netgear. finally our IT person suggested replacing the unit since Netgear techs said it should work. they have balked at doing so. we went forward and replaced the unit with a brand new unit.

Exaclty the same problem. We were told tech support would call today. We have out staff and IT people waiting. The call was to take place at noon, its now 1:00.

So there must be a setting within the unit that needs changing or an update.

Any one have any thoughts about what has worked.

steverf · ‎2020-11-13

Here is what our IT people did with netgear:

Here are the things that we tried: 1. Disabled the firewall on the Netgear device2. Put the computer we were troubleshooting with in the DMZ3. Enabled the option on the Netgear to respond to ping on the WAN interface None of these fixed the issue. From the logs on the SonicWall, I could see that the VPN software on your computer was able to send the initial request to the SonicWall but when the SonicWall tried to send communication back to the computer, it never received a response, so the Netgear device is blocking that communication. Port forward could work but it should not be necessary for this type of connection. In addition, if it did work, it would not be considered a solution because it would only work for one computer, due to how port forwarding is required to be setup. I kept reiterating that it was an outbound VPN connection because the tech support agent we initially spoke with thought that we were trying to setup a VPN device behind the Netgear device, which would allow you to VPN into your home network when you are not home. But that’s not the setup that we are working with, it’s the computer that is trying to make an outbound VPN connection to the SonicWall that is at your office. Hope this helps and I’m available for a call, if needed. Thanks, Scott

cashtag · ‎2020-12-01

I have exactly the same issue. My VPN IPSEC connection into work stopped working as soon as I installed CAX80 night hawk. I can connect using my verizon hot spot and another router. I'm using Cisco anyconnect and tech support told me that CAX80 does not support 3rd party VPN software. But that doesn't make sense since I was able to connect to another VPN using TLS.

If this continues, I'm going to have to return it.

vlm8000 · ‎2020-12-18

Same exact issue for me. Router works very well, but work VPN through Cisco Anyconnect doesn't connect. Worked perfectly with my previous Netgear router and with my iPhone as a hotspot. Does not work wired or wireless. Pretty ridicluous.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-12-19

Odd, my work PC with Cisco Anyconnect works connecting thru my CAX80.

cashtag · ‎2020-12-19

Mine works for TLS VPN. Just doesn't work with IPSEC. You can google "TLS vs IPSEC" for more detail. But Netgear customer support is no help. They keep closing my case without resolving it and everytime I call, they have to start a new one and ask me to do the same thing again. Basically, they put me on hold for hours asking me to wait for 2nd tier help - then I get cut off. When I call back, they tell me that the case has been resolved.

For whatever reason, the server is rejecting a connection request from the netgear router. So it's something specific to this particular router. Every single other method I've used (Tlink, previous net gear, hot spot ...) - all works perfectly. It's just this particular netgear router. Somebody in netgear should be able to tell us what the difference is. What makes this router different?

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-12-19

You might reach out to a forum moderator to see if they can review this and foward it to engineering.

@DarrenM

@cashtag wrote:
Mine works for TLS VPN. Just doesn't work with IPSEC. You can google "TLS vs IPSEC" for more detail. But Netgear customer support is no help. They keep closing my case without resolving it and everytime I call, they have to start a new one and ask me to do the same thing again. Basically, they put me on hold for hours asking me to wait for 2nd tier help - then I get cut off. When I call back, they tell me that the case has been resolved.

For whatever reason, the server is rejecting a connection request from the netgear router. So it's something specific to this particular router. Every single other method I've used (Tlink, previous net gear, hot spot ...) - all works perfectly. It's just this particular netgear router. Somebody in netgear should be able to tell us what the difference is. What makes this router different?

kirby30500 · ‎2021-01-06

I have the same problem. I installed this router and when attempting to connect to my work VPN (through Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client), I received "Could not connect to server. Please verify internet connectivity and server address." The internet works fine, the computer just won't connect to the VPN server. The VPN connection works fine on my previous modem ARRIS TG1682G supplied by Xfinity.

I have tried all recommendations in https://kb.netgear.com/966/Troubleshooting-VPN-passthrough-for-home-routers with no success. I will contact my IT tomorrow to see if they can assist. However, based on this thread it seems the issue is on the router side with little that can be done on the VPN server side. This is based on the fact that every other router seems to handle VPN passhthrough fine.

I also noticed that the router appears to be on Firmware Version V1.1.0.41 and is unable to install the latest RG: V2.1.1.4, I need to follow up with ISP to get the latest I guess.

kirby30500 · ‎2021-01-06

What is a "pcap"?

cashtag · ‎2021-01-06

ISP won't be able to help you - they'll blame NETGEAR. I've also talked to helpdesk at work who maintains the server. They said there's nothing they're doing that's blocking the connection - and also blamed NETGEAR. But NETGEAR just doesn't have anybody that knows what's going on. I told them about this thread but they don't seem to care.

btw, pcap is a tool to monitor network traffic. Not sure how that's going to help in this situation. The server is simply rejecting requests from this router. But only this router. Is there somebody out there who can educate us on under what condition server rejects a request from a particular router? Is it a whitelist problem? Meaning, address of the router isn't registered with the server firewall? I'm not an expert - but maybe there's somebody out there who is.