LAN Setup: MAC address not accepted by AC2300 R7000p Nighthawk

[VBANerd]

I have this router now for some years, never had issues.

Yesterday I tried to add a wireless door lock. Went to LAN Setup to reserve an IP address for my DHCP server. Once I entered the device, I receive this error message from the router: "Invalid MAC address".

Reset router, tried latest and an older firmware version. Same problem. Any ideas?

Tried with older and latest firmware:

Older Firmware: 1.2.0.22_1.0.78

Newest Firmware: 1.3.3.154_10.1.86

With both I have the same issue.

OS: Windows 11 Pro

[schumaku]

Enter the correct MAC address including the : like xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx or try reserving the address from the DHCP table.

Some ideas here

[VBANerd]

Hello Schumaku,

thanks for responding so quickly, but I'm not sure how I should take your response:

"Enter the correct MAC address including the : like xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx or try reserving the address from the DHCP table."

You are joking, right? Of course I entered the correct MAC address. I'm trying to reserve the MAC address in question in the DHCP table, but the router responds with "Invalid MAC address".

I tried a different MAC address, and all is fine. Just with this particular one, it seems that there is an issue. It is valid, I double checked. 21:F6:30:14:C4:F1 is the address I'm trying to enter.

Here is what I found so far: if I change the 21 to 00 or any other, the router accepts it.

So, 21h the DHCP table does not like for some reason. It's very strange.

The link you sent, is kind of useful, and I think a step in the right direction. But the screenshots that are attached to the link you sent, do not reflect the Firefox browser as of today.

I have Firefox 124.0.1 (64-bit), so the browser inspector is very different. I also cannot find the "reserv.cgi?", so I cannot select Edit&resend for that code. I cannot even find one line that includes the MAC address in question.

[michaelkenward]

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@VBANerd wrote:

thanks for responding so quickly, but I'm not sure how I should take your response:

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A start might be to answer one of the usual boilerplate questions. @schumaku was just working from the limited detail you provided.

If there is one it might also help if you told people the make and model number of the modem/gateway/ONT that connects this router to the Internet. Is it, by any chance, also a router, with a set of LAN ports on the back?

I ask because a lot of people turn up here trying to put a router behind a modem that is also a router. That can complicate troubleshooting.

The screenshot you provided – barely readable by the way – suggests that your router has seen something upstream That could explain why you have an IP address of 10.0.0.50. And that could interfere with whatever is going on on our R7000P.

By default your router wants to ise 192.168.1.1. If it sees another router it picks something else. Often it picks 10.0.0.1, with all that that entails.

You could start by explaining what you are trying to achieve. Why do you want to reserve an IP address for your DHCP server?

Start by explaining the final desrtination before you land on a "solution". There may be better ways of getting there.

[schumaku]

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@michaelkenward wrote:

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@VBANerd wrote:

thanks for responding so quickly, but I'm not sure how I should take your response:

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A start might be to answer one of the usual boilerplate questions. @schumaku was just working from the limited detail you provided.

If there is one it might also help if you told people the make and model number of the modem/gateway/ONT that connects this router to the Internet. Is it, by any chance, also a router, with a set of LAN ports on the back?

I ask because a lot of people turn up here trying to put a router behind a modem that is also a router. That can complicate troubleshooting.

The screenshot you provided – barely readable by the way – suggests that your router has seen something upstream That could explain why you have an IP address of 10.0.0.50. And that could interfere with whatever is going on on our R7000P.

By default your router wants to ise 192.168.1.1. If it sees another router it picks something else. Often it picks 10.0.0.1, with all that that entails.

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Two valid points.

One one hand, it's obvious Netgear does have  along-standing bug passing the MAC address parameter from the running system to the CGI-code for making the reservation.

On the other hand, it appears there is another NAT router or whatever other ISP infrastructure, making the R7000P to use a different than the default LAN subnet. Not really a part of the problem. Unlikely a MAC address from another network however.