It may not matter, but what Netgear device are we talking about here?
AC1900 is not a reliable guide to model number. Many devices come with an AC tag, but it is essentially a label that Netgear, and other brands, attach to hardware to describe wifi speeds. There are a dozen or so Netgear AC1900s, around a half of them are routers.
it's my nighthawk router (Model R7000) that I can't connect to, the app just tells me that the WIFI is not connected.
I have two routers, one supplied by my internet provider which I use as my 'normal' WIFI access point and the other is my nighthawk which is the access point to VPN (ExpressVPN).
This essentially gives me 4 access points - high/low with normal WIFI & high/low with VPN WiFi
I am connecting to the VPN access point on my mobile device, then trying to connect to my nighthawk router via the app.
I have 'Local Network' enabled for the app & I'm definitely connected to the VPN access point.
I have two routers, one supplied by my internet provider which I use as my 'normal' WIFI access point and the other is my nighthawk which is the access point to VPN (ExpressVPN).
There's a likely source of the problem.
Two routers on your network can cause headaches. For example, you can end up with local address problems. Among other things, the other router can misdirect addresses that the Netgear router usually handles, such as routerlogin.net or the usual IP address for a router, 192.168.1.1.
I use a static IP so that shouldn’t be the problem 😀
What do you mean by a "Static IP Address"?
A "Static IP Address" is usually an Internet (WAN) thing. (I commend the manual for the R7000 to you.) It is the fixed IP address that your Internet service provider gives you, often for a fee, as opposed to the more normal "Dynamic IP address".
The IP address that matters is your router.
If you mean that have have a reservedIP address for something or other, or fixing the IP address of your router, then all of the usual things like using apps is likely to fail.
If you do mean that you have a "Static IP Address" from your ISP, that has no bearing on the allocation of IP addresses on your local network. It will not eliminate "double NAT".
