Netgear WAN port issues (Nighthawk and ORBI)

[murphymj68]

My Nighthawk XR500 fails to connect via its WAN port to my Huawei ONT. I have exactly the same problem with The Netgear Orbi router (model RBR50v2)) that I own. My older TPlink (AC750) and ASUS (RT-AC5300) routers suffer from no such problem. Also, if I put the either the Nighthawk or ORBI into bridge mode and connect the WAN port to one of the LAN ports in the ASUS router, the WAN ports of both connect fine. If I connect the WAN port of either device to the TPlink router then both fail to connect. I've tried every possible sequence of ONT and router power ups but to no avail. I've also replaced the ethernet cable that I'm using to connect the routers with a number of times - the cables are fine because they work perfectly with the TPlink and ASUS routers. I'm guessing now but it appears to me that the Netgear routers are sensitive to signal strength/power over ethernet or something along these lines and this is causing the connection problem to the ONT and the TPlink. Anyone else have a similar problem?

[murphymj68 · Accepted solution]

Victory has been declared!!! 🙂

I installed the unmanaged switch and hey-presto the Netgear Routers now establish connections with the Huawei ONT. Many thanks Netduma-Fraser for the recommendation. Months of frustration and unnecessary expenditure wasted on a problem that was solved by a $50 switch - sigh. Hopefully others in this community suffering similar issues will benefit from this post.

As an aside, I tried the other recommendation - factory reset the router while it is connected to the ONT. Unfortunately, this did not work.

Thanks again for your help. It is much appreciated.

[plemans]

Are you sure its not an issue with your huawei ont having an integrated router and causing issues with double nat? 

https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-Double-NAT

[murphymj68]

Thanks for the prompt response. I've reviewed the article that you linked me too and noted the following: 1. The Huawei ONT is the "modem" in the illustrations,not the non-netgear router. 2. To quote directly from the article "Double NAT does not prevent your devices access to the internet". 3. If it is a double NAT problem why would the TPLink and Asus routers not suffer from the same problem?

[plemans]

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Which ont is it? model? 

[Netduma-Fraser]

Do you require PPPoE or any specific connection details that you need to enter to get it working? Double check the Asus internet settings and try to mirror that on the XR.

[murphymj68]

Hi there, the ONT is a Huawei EchoLife HG8040H. Whilst neither of my Netgear routers are able to establish a connection to the ONT via their WAN ports (connecting to the ONT's active LAN1 port), it's also worth re-mentioning that they can also not establish active connections to my TPlink router either (when I have placed the Netgear routers in Bridge mode and connected their WAN ports to functional (tested) LAN ports on the TPlink - for some reason they are able to establish these connections under similar configuration to LAN ports on the ASUS router).  Also, the problem I'm having is not that I can't establish an Internet connection to my ISP but that there is ZERO connection between the Netgear devices and the Huawei ONT's active LAN1 port - the light does not come on. I do not have this problem with either the ASUS or TPlink routers when I connect them to the ONT - they both light up the LAN1 port on the ONT). One other thing worth mentioning is that both the ORBI and the Nighthawk routers have previously connected to the ONT and established an Internet Connection - the PPoE settings are 100% the same across the Netgear, TPlink and ASUS routers. However, I was only able to get the Netgear devices working by first connecting my MacBook directly to the ONT (via an ethernet cable), leaving it for 5-10m, then unplugging the cable from the MacBook and plugging it directly into the WAN port on the Netgear Router(s). On a handful of occasions, this seemed to force the Netgear routers to "recognize" the ONT's WAN port (or perhaps vice-versa?). Once this was done the internet session worked fine until the routers were rebooted and then they would once again fail to connect to the ONT's WAN port). This Heath Robinson solution worked a handful of times but no longer does the trick. Besides the ASUS and TPlink routers, I have used other routers to connect to the Internet and have NEVER EVER had a problem with any of them. It is ONLY the Netgear Routers that suffer this problem. As you may know, these are not cheap devices but appear to be worth less than the scrap value of the plastic they contain.

[murphymj68]

Hi there, I posted a long response to a reply I received a bit earlier from someone else. I have reposted it here for you. Long story short, the PPoE connections are 100% the same across all of the Router models. 

Hi there, the ONT is a Huawei EchoLife HG8040H. Whilst neither of my Netgear routers are able to establish a connection to the ONT via their WAN ports (connecting to the ONT's active LAN1 port), it's also worth re-mentioning that they can also not establish active connections to my TPlink router either (when I have placed the Netgear routers in Bridge mode and connected their WAN ports to functional (tested) LAN ports on the TPlink - for some reason they are able to establish these connections under similar configuration to LAN ports on the ASUS router).  Also, the problem I'm having is not that I can't establish an Internet connection to my ISP but that there is ZERO connection between the Netgear devices and the Huawei ONT's active LAN1 port - the light does not come on. I do not have this problem with either the ASUS or TPlink routers when I connect them to the ONT - they both light up the LAN1 port on the ONT). One other thing worth mentioning is that both the ORBI and the Nighthawk routers have previously connected to the ONT and established an Internet Connection - the PPoE settings are 100% the same across the Netgear, TPlink and ASUS routers. However, I was only able to get the Netgear devices working by first connecting my MacBook directly to the ONT (via an ethernet cable), leaving it for 5-10m, then unplugging the cable from the MacBook and plugging it directly into the WAN port on the Netgear Router(s). On a handful of occasions, this seemed to force the Netgear routers to "recognize" the ONT's WAN port (or perhaps vice-versa?). Once this was done the internet session worked fine until the routers were rebooted and then they would once again fail to connect to the ONT's WAN port). This Heath Robinson solution worked a handful of times but no longer does the trick. Besides the ASUS and TPlink routers, I have used other routers to connect to the Internet and have NEVER EVER had a problem with any of them. It is ONLY the Netgear Routers that suffer this problem. As you know, these are not cheap devices but appear to be worth less than the scrap value of the plastic they contain.

[Netduma-Fraser]

If you go to http://routerlogin.net/debug.htm and tick the option WAN Port mirror to LAN port1 and then treat LAN Port 1 as the WAN port and connect that directly to the ONT do you get a connection then?

[murphymj68]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll try that this tomorrow morning (07h00 GMT time) and post an update on this forum once done.

[murphymj68]

Hi there, I tried your recommendation but unfortunately, it did not help i.e., I could not establish a connection between the ONT and the Netgear Router when connecting the ONTs LAN1 port to the LAN1 port of the router.

[Netduma-Fraser]

Thanks for checking, in WAN Settings could you switch NAT to open please. This essentially relaxes the firewall, it could be the XR is blocking essential connections from the ONT when set to Secured.

[murphymj68]

Apologies for the delay, negotiating downtime in a full house while under lockdown is not easy :-). Anyhow, I set NAT to "open" as per your recommendation but that too made no difference. I've also tried a variety of cables viz. CAT5/6/7 and that made no difference either. The one observation that hasn't changed is that none of the Netgear devices actually light up the LAN1 port on the ONT - when connected to their WAN ports (or LAN1 port - as per a previous recommendation). The ports on the Netgear routers are fine because I can successfully connect my MacBook to them via an Ethernet cable and access the router config/setup menu. The minute I connect my MacBook directly to the ONT, the LAN1 port on the ONT lights up - the same happens when I connect either my ASUS or TPlink routers to the ONT. My Netgear routers are the common denominator in this equation.

[schumaku]

Have a small non-managed GbE switch at hand? Connect it in between the ONT and the Netgear router.

There must be something uncommon happening with the establishment of the Ethernet link between the ONT and the router WAN/Internet port - must be a rare interoperability issue.

Vaguely remember having read similar posts in the community or the net.

[murphymj68]

Thanks for the recommendation. I don't have one at hand but have ordered a NETGEAR 300 Series Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch. It will take a few days to arrive. I'll update the thread once I've received it and tested it. 

[Netduma-Fraser]

Do keep us updated. Perhaps one thing to try is connect it to the ONT and perform a factory reset, then by going through the setup wizard it will try to make a direct connection.

[murphymj68 · Accepted solution]

Victory has been declared!!! 🙂

I installed the unmanaged switch and hey-presto the Netgear Routers now establish connections with the Huawei ONT. Many thanks Netduma-Fraser for the recommendation. Months of frustration and unnecessary expenditure wasted on a problem that was solved by a $50 switch - sigh. Hopefully others in this community suffering similar issues will benefit from this post.

As an aside, I tried the other recommendation - factory reset the router while it is connected to the ONT. Unfortunately, this did not work.

Thanks again for your help. It is much appreciated.

[plemans]

glad to hear its working!

[murphymj68]

Thanks for the recommendation. I see that I was hasty in my earlier reply and did not give you credit where credit was due. Thanks again for your input. It's great to finally have a solution to this problem.

[schumaku]

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@murphymj68 wrote:

Thanks for the recommendation. I see that I was hasty in my earlier reply and did not give you credit where credit was due. Thanks again for your input.

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Glad to help!