Mac Mini on LAN kills home network when Mac goes to sleep — Nighthawk X6S AC4000
My Mac Mini (and MacBook Pro) when connected by LAN make the home network go down after five minutes of cycling from orange, to off which bumps off the LAN just below it so it has no service, back to white, and then repeats the cycle until the entire system goes down for everyone, LAN and WAN, after about five minutes.
It doesn't matter if I set my computer to wake for network access or not. Same behavior, and it did this immediately the very first time I turned on my new Mac Mini. Ethernet was plugged in and just barely got out of the language setting screen and hadn't even made it to network settings in the startup screen of Big Sur when it did this cycle thing and crashed the whole network. The only way to get it back up was unplug and reboot the system, but it kept repeating this every time my Mac went to sleep. It's done this on Big Sur and Monterey, but it is not the OS because it crashed the system as soon as I turned the computer on for the first time and hadn't even set up the OS.
The only way I've been able to "fix" this behavior is set my computer so it will not sleep when the display goes off and then unplug the ethernet when I put my computer to sleep for the night and plug it back in to use in the morning. Not how things are supposed to be and puts extra wear on my cable and ethernet port.
We have two Nighthawk X6S AC4000 and both exhibit the same behavior. We also tested the lan cable. It works fine with my old Macbook and my husband's Windows laptop; neither shut down the home network upon sleep. We set my Mini in the Netgear software to identify the device as a Mac Mini, but still we see the same behavior.
How do I fix this? It's absurd and has something to do with the way the router is treating my computer.
My Mac Mini (and MacBook Pro) when connected by LAN make the home network go down after five minutes of cycling from orange, to off which bumps off the LAN just below it so it has no service, back to white, and then repeats the cycle until the entire system goes down for everyone, LAN and WAN, after about five minutes.
What do the Mac people suggest you do?
What firmware version do you have on the device?
A number is more useful than "the latest". (It may not be by the time people read this.) There can also be newer versions, or "hot fixes", that do not show up if you check for new firmware in the browser interface.
It might also help if you told people what the modem is in front of this router, if there is one. The model number could be useful. Is it, by any chance, also a router, with a set of LAN ports on the back?
And which Netgear router is this? X6S AC4000 tells us about the wifi technology on it, not the model number. R8000P?
How do I fix this? It's absurd and has something to do with the way the router is treating my computer.
What makes you think the router is behind this? Your description suggests that it is down to the Macs.
Re: Mac Mini on LAN kills home network when Mac goes to sleep — Nighthawk X6S AC4000
Yes, model R800P, firmware V1.4.3.88, app version 2.17.0.174. It is plugged in directly to the Nighthawk, not the modem that services the router.
I already said Apple said it cannot be their device or OS because it happened the first time I turned it on out of the box even before the language screen came up. As soon as the device was powered on, the Nighthawk started its orange bump-off cycle and then crashed the network within minutes. The top tier tech rep I spoke with additionally said it sounded similar to one case he saw with another device where the router was treating it like an extender where whenever the power went off, the router kept trying to connect to it and failing and eventually shut down the whole system.
The link you gave at the end produced nothing relevant.
I think it's the router because when it happens my computer is sleeping with no call for network access and the router keeps trying to connect when it's not available instead of accepting it's not available and closing the line like it should.
I already said Apple said it cannot be their device or OS because it happened the first time I turned it on out of the box even before the language screen came up.
The usual "pass the buck" response which is more normally throw out by Internet service providers.
Turned what on? The Mac?
How does the fact that "it happened the first time I turned it on out of the box" tell us anything about where the problem lies?
Same behavior, and it did this immediately the very first time I turned on my new Mac Mini. Ethernet was plugged in and just barely got out of the language setting screen and hadn't even made it to network settings in the startup screen of Big Sur when it did this cycle thing and crashed the whole network.
I realise that Macs live in a parallel universe, but everything in that description yells "operating system". The router doesn't know anything about that.
The router does not check on the Ethernet stuff you plug in. That is down to the operating system. At least, that's how it works in Windows.
Has this been a router problem, it would have shown up here before no. That's why I posted a search link that you could follow. Did you find anything resembling the problem you see?
The top tier tech rep I spoke with additionally said it sounded similar to one case he saw with another device where the router was treating it like an extender where whenever the power went off, the router kept trying to connect to it and failing and eventually shut down the whole system.
Treating what like an extender? What was this "another device"?
One thing to try would be a reset on the router. That's more witchcraft than science, but at least it would get you back to square one so that you can see if the thing repeats the original errors.
I think it's the router because when it happens my computer is sleeping with no call for network access and the router keeps trying to connect when it's not available instead of accepting it's not available and closing the line like it should.
That does not seem logical to me.How can a sleeping computer throw up errors?
Perhaps I am missing something and we need a more detailed description of what is happening at your end.
The devil is in the details. For example, talk of "it" leaves us guessing about what that really means.
I already said Apple said it cannot be their device or OS because it happened the first time I turned it on out of the box even before the language screen came up.
The usual "pass the buck" response which is more normally throw out by Internet service providers.
Yes, and router companies.
Turned what on? The Mac?
How does the fact that "it happened the first time I turned it on out of the box" tell us anything about where the problem lies?
Yes, as soon as I turned on the Mini for the first time. The same router behavior happened when I plugged in the Ethernet cord into my MacBook Pro as well several months before I got my Mini.
It tells us where the problem does not lie. It does not lie with an interaction between Apple's OS and the router because the OS was not up and running yet nor the Internet settings configured when the problem first presented.
Another Apple tech I spoke with nearly laughed me off the phone with a similar attitude you've given me because his personal Mac Mini is plugged into LAN and has never seen this problem, but he runs his ISP's modem/router.
Same behavior, and it did this immediately the very first time I turned on my new Mac Mini. Ethernet was plugged in and just barely got out of the language setting screen and hadn't even made it to network settings in the startup screen of Big Sur when it did this cycle thing and crashed the whole network.
I realise that Macs live in a parallel universe, but everything in that description yells "operating system". The router doesn't know anything about that.
The router does not check on the Ethernet stuff you plug in. That is down to the operating system. At least, that's how it works in Windows.
Has this been a router problem, it would have shown up here before no. That's why I posted a search link that you could follow. Did you find anything resembling the problem you see?
Agree that everything yells operating system, except my OS hadn't even gotten a chance to run yet on my Mini. The router started kicking off as soon as power to the Mini came on. The router has its own firmware monitoring connections, and that may be the cause of this.
The search terms you suggested weren't appropriate so I searched Mac Sleep Ethernet instead and found posts with similar issues.
...The issues I'm currently seeing is constant power-cycling while the battery is out (but plugged into the included power adapter) and connected via the ethernet jack. On a Win7 PC it happens maybe 1-2 every 8 hours. On a Mac running High Sierra, it occurs almost every 2 minutes. Very frustrating!"
Given that there are other posts from users with similar issues, and not just with the Nighthawk or Mac, it lends suspicion toward Netgear firmware being the problem.
Treating what like an extender? What was this "another device"?
One thing to try would be a reset on the router. That's more witchcraft than science, but at least it would get you back to square one so that you can see if the thing repeats the original errors.
I didn't specify what device seemed like it was being treated as an extender because I didn't remember the exact device he named, but it wasn't a computer. The router behavior seemed like a possibility, though.
Resetting the router is a no-brainer. We've done that, rebooted, made sure firmware was up to date, made sure Netgear software has the right kind of device set for my computer, etc etc. I've changed my computer's power settings, as I mentioned above, but nothing remedies the problem once my computer goes to sleep with Ethernet plugged in.
I think it's the router because when it happens my computer is sleeping with no call for network access and the router keeps trying to connect when it's not available instead of accepting it's not available and closing the line like it should.
That does not seem logical to me.How can a sleeping computer throw up errors?
Perhaps I am missing something and we need a more detailed description of what is happening at your end.
The devil is in the details. For example, talk of "it" leaves us guessing about what that really means.
Exactly. A sleeping computer cannot throw errors, but a router will that keeps trying to use my computer and fails because the computer is offline. Even wake for network access mode won't work either, and it should. I would've thought that OS setting would have told the router to keep the network connection when the computer sleeps so it can update like it is supposed to when enabled, but the router ignores the instruction and still cycles off.
To clarify again what's happening, since you think you might need more detailed description:
1. Ethernet plugged in
2. Let computer go to sleep
3. Ethernet light on router where my Mini is plugged in goes amber
4. The Ethernet line's router light below mine goes dark
5. My Ethernet light goes dark
6. Both pop back up to white after a few moments and stay white for one to two minutes
7. Jump back to #3 and repeat the process
8. At around the five minute mark the router goes down, stopping the cycle
8. No Internet connections for anyone, wired or wireless
9. Reboot router
10. Repeat from step 3 again if my computer is still asleep.
