My Nighthawk switch stopped working. It worked fine for about 2 weeks and then the uplink stopped working. I have reset the switch and that did not help. If I plug the router into position #7 or any other position other than #8 it is detected by my router. It appears that #8 (the uplink that connects you to the internet) is not working. I have callled Netgear Technical support only to be told they did not have anybody on staff that could help me at the moment and they would call me back. I am a little too impatient for that.
The way you wrote up the topology is a little concerning, but if your set up has been working for two weeks and then stopped, it should not be a topology issue. The easy way to detect a port problem on products like the Nighthawk switch is to observe the port activity LEDs when you plug a cable into the port. Since you indicate that the set up works with the router connected to port 7, you should note the port activity LED when it is working, then move it to port 8 and see what happens. If the port LED for port 8 seems to be flashing the same way that it was when it was connected to port 7, then the switch is not the problem. If you have good activity on port 7 LED and then move it to port 8 and it is dead or acts very differently, you probably have a hardware or configuration issue with port 8.
That is the short answer. Here is a little longer one...
A "flat" switch like the Nighthawk switch technically does not have an "uplink" port. What ever port is connected to the "core" (in this case your router) of the network in fact becomes the uplink, but internally to the switch it doesn't differentiate between the roles of the ports other than port specific configurations you might impose on the switch.
You also indicate that your port #8 is the port that is "connected to the internet". This sentence worries me about your topology. The WAN port on your router should be connected to the internet feed into your local network. Putting network devices in the incoming path from the internet (and before your router) is a very complicated network and should only be attempted if you understand exactly what you are doing.
So with that in mind, make sure you bring your internet drop into your router WAN port, then connect the Nighthawk switch to any of the LAN ports on your router (you can connect to any port on the Nighthawk switching) then fan out your other devices from either the Nighthawk switch or the router LAN ports and everything should work fine. If you see differing port functionality in that case (LEDs are the best way to see if the device thinks everything is ok) then check for VLANs being set, or ports being set to a specific port speed, both of which could cause a port to act inappropriately. If everything is at the factory default setting and the LED indicators are not consistent, then you may have a bad port (fairly unlikely but it does happen.)
