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Forum Discussion
Nighthawk M1 Drops Internet Overnight....why?!
I'm on week 2 of trying to get this device to work as advertised or expected. I finally have it working as a pure modem.....kinda. I have a TP Link Router that is my main home router. The M1 ha...
I’m waiting on my Nighthawk to deliver. If I decide to buy the charger you say is needed can you tell me exactly what it is and where you got it?
thanks,
George
After reading a few messages regarding the need for a more powerful mains charger than the 2A charger supplied by Netgear, in order to run the M1 reliably without its battery, it seems that any 2.4A charger would probably work. However, as I stated above, it appears that the M1 has a Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 chip in it, so I looked for a charger that implements this technology. As I also mentioned above, there are many very badly designed, cheap chargers on the market that could potentially damage the equipment they're connected to. Using a non-standard charger with the M1 could affect your warranty. So I decided to pay a bit more and buy a charger that looked well-made. I chose an American-designed unit from Anker called "PowerPort+ 1", which is an 18W, single port, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 charger. I have no connection with this company and I'm sure there are many other reputable companies supplying good chargers. I bought mine on Amazon.
Anker have a range of different chargers most of which have multiple ports. One port was all I needed. Here's their website: https://www.anker.com/products/108/203/Wall-Chargers. I'm based in the UK, so the PowerPort+ 1 that I received looks slightly different from the photo on the site and obviously has a UK plug. This charger is backwards compatible with the Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 chip in the M1. Although these chargers are American-designed, they're built in China, as so many of our electronic devices are these days. While I haven't dismantled the charger, externally the build quality is excellent.
In order to maximise the power getting to the M1, I also decided to buy a low resistance charge cable from Anker. This might not be any better than the charge cable supplied by Netgear but the one I bought is very robust, being nylon braided, and is longer than the one supplied. You probably wouldn't need to buy a different cable - I'm just a geek :smileywink:.
Since installing the Anker charger and cable about 6 weeks ago, I've been running the M1 without a battery 24/7. It has rebooted about 3 times in that period. More accurately, the internet connection/session has been terminated about 3 times in that period - I guess this could just as easily be the mobile network terminating the connection rather than the M1 actually rebooting. Prior to installing the new charger, my M1 was definitely rebooting multiple times every day - I watched it reboot immediately as I started downloading large files. I'm using both the M1's WiFi and Ethernet port (which is connected to an unmanaged Gigabit Ethernet switch that feeds 2 dual-band WiFi access points and an Ethernet-wired PC and printer), so perhaps my M1 is being pushed harder than others. I'm now very happy with this set-up. The one remaining problem is the Ethernet port going to sleep after periods of inactivity, but this will hopefully be resolved by a firmware update that according to one of the Netgear moderators on this site will be made available in Feb.
If you find this info of use to you, I'd of course welcome your Kudos :smileyhappy:. Thanks.
I was planning on picking one of these up and using the LAN for a vonage box for phone calls. Until the firmware fixes the ethernet port for shutting down, are there any other options to use the port? Maybe connect the vonyage off a separate access point off the wireless instead?
I see no reason why you couldn't use the Vonage box connected either directly to the M1's Ethernet port or via an Ethernet connected switch. In my set-up the M1's Ethernet port doesn't sleep very frequently - I have access all day. Even when it does sleep, you only need to tap the power button once to wake it - after around 20 seconds you will have internet access again. You could try a WiFi connection from the M1 to an access point with your Vonage box connected to it, but I wouldn't have thought this would be necessary. Also, it seems the Ethernet sleeping issue may be solved in a few weeks' time so your worries will be over :smileyhappy:.