Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
Reply

Pace Gateway + R7000 fixed, but should I tell AT&T?

dashr
Initiate

Pace Gateway + R7000 fixed, but should I tell AT&T?

I finally got the Pace 3 weeks after I ordered fiber 1000 and over a week after they ran the line, installed the ONT and left saying there was no signal. Then, being pretty much a nood at this LAN stuff, it took me more hours then it should've to get the Nighthawk to pass that 900+ up/down goodness to all my devices, but I did it. However, after about 12 hrs. bandwidth dropped to 50Mbps at which point I rebooted the Pace. That brought it back up until 12 hrs. later, then another reboot of the Pace, and another etc.

 

But my order wasn't complete as they took another few days to transfer my land line # over to VOIP and finalize my order so I waited to see if that would fix it. It was this morning when I got the 'order complete' email at which point I checked the speed and it was back to 50Mbps and no amount of rebooting, resetting, etc. could get the Nighthawk to pass on the 900+ bandwidth.

 

I got on chat with a tech at Netgear and for about 4 hours we tried everything: ping tests to set MTU, different firmware, and other stuff I don't know much about. And then he had me copy the MAC address of my desktop onto the "Use this MAC address" box on the Nighthawk and the speed jumped to 500Mbps. Great speed and more than adequate but not what I ordered, so we worked a little more. Finally he pronounced the Nighthawk defective and told me to return it.

 

Then somehow it just hit me around midnight (not being one to give up easily) that I read somewhere how ISPs use the MAC address of their router to fix the signal. Was that why copying the computer's MAC onto the router bumped the speed? What if I copy the Pace's MAC onto the Nighthawk?

 

BOOM! 900+ goodness has returned! I guess that's cloning, making the signal think the Nighthawk is home. Do I bother explaining this to AT&T? Is it going to hold up or be trouble down the road?

 

Thanks for reading

 

Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
Message 1 of 2

Accepted Solutions
dashr
Initiate

Re: Pace Gateway + R7000 fixed, but should I tell AT&T?

Went to Netgear chat this morning and asked if it was 'ok' to be using tthe same MAC address as the Pace Gateway on the Nighthawk. A 'higher tier' of support was consulted and the answer was that it was actually a good idea and would help the Nighthawk.

 

So I guess it's problem solved unless anyone here wants to chime in!

View solution in original post

Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
Message 2 of 2

All Replies
dashr
Initiate

Re: Pace Gateway + R7000 fixed, but should I tell AT&T?

Went to Netgear chat this morning and asked if it was 'ok' to be using tthe same MAC address as the Pace Gateway on the Nighthawk. A 'higher tier' of support was consulted and the answer was that it was actually a good idea and would help the Nighthawk.

 

So I guess it's problem solved unless anyone here wants to chime in!

Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
Message 2 of 2
Top Contributors
Discussion stats
  • 1 reply
  • 862 views
  • 1 kudo
  • 1 in conversation
Announcements

Orbi WiFi 7