Full disclosure: I've been trying this on my own for the last 36 hours, so I haven't yet searched the message boards that intensively because I'm ready to pull my hair out. I'm thus posting my issue here and going to close my hotspot and take a LOOOONNNNNG shower and pray (and send good vibes!) for any good Samaritans willing to add some suggestions in here while I decompress. There's my disclaimer for unspeedy responses and my GREATEST appreciation to anyone willing to advise, since I guess it's a year and a half old 😛 (And if the community doesn't work, does anyone know the cost of a one-time visit from Netgear? Or would someone on Thumbtack know enough to help? Okay, getting to the crux now... the pace of this post reflects the frazzled state of my brain. Sorry!)
I am renting a poolhouse/mother-in-law unit for a very large, nice house. In exchange for paying much lower rent than I should be, I play groundskeeper to the bigger house as well when no one else is staying here (currently). Yesterday COX went down for about 6 hours. When it finally went back up, I had cable access restored, but anything internet-related was shot. I'm not an expert, but decent with computers, so I went in through the IP login to try and hit reset. I could get through to a certain point in the process, but no matter what order I did things or how many devices I unplugged (seriously. It's a big house. 13 bathrooms. And I've done my due diligence in unplugging and shutting down any device that could possibly be connected to the wifi) I contnually get stuck on an error that says I haven't power cycled the devices properly. As I said, I've literally tried unplugging everything in every order I've read on the message boards, I've tried changing out ethernet cables, I've tried entering the MAC address from the Netgear box, all ultimatley leading to the same outcome. It is such a large house that whoever set up the system set up not only Netgear products, but there are also pieces plugged into a TP-Link and something called CURB. Those all disappear behind a wall, so I don't even know where those end up. I've just been using the breaker box to power off anything that I can't see.
Oh, and another fun wrinkle: the owners are fantastic people but NOT tech savvy. There is no way they set up this system. They must have hired someone (maybe the Netgear tech when it was still a "complementary service") to set all this up. I asked for the login info to the account and it's incorrect. I understand the app has a nice walkthrough system, but the only password they know they've given me and it doesn't work. (I do have the admin password to login through the IP address though. That's been fine. Just not to the Netgear account itself, so I can't use the app walkthroughs.)
The other weird thing of note is that I've tried a factory reset on both the Netgear box and the primary Orbi router, but even after a factory reset of both, the wifi is still named with the custom name that it had before, not with the default name listed on the devices. The "ORBI67" default wifi name never shows up, even after a factory reset. (With various cables and coaxes plugged in and not plugged in. Like I said, I've tried various iterations of this for the last 36 hours.) I work from home and I'm trying everything I can to get a solid connection going so I don't have to try and attend Zoom meetings from a hotspot, but I'm ready to pull my hair out. (Some of it may already be pulled out just a little.)
If anyone has run into anything similar with factory resets not actually resetting a system or power cycling not being recognized, I'd super appreciate ANY tips! On the other hand, if any of you have bit the bullet and paid for extended customer service to fix a problem like this, were you able to pay out of pocket (I don't want the owners to get a sudden ridiculous charge on their bill) and did they fix the problem? Was it worth the price they charged? I am big into online communities and crowdsourcing knowledge, but I don't know what more to try, so that is definitely also an option right now.
I VERY much appreciate your support--and even just patience, frankly, in reading my post of frustration and befuddlement! I'm shutting down my hotspot to try and defrazzle my brain but will log on in a few hours to answer any questions that will help with troubleshooting. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Model: SRK60B03|Orbi Pro Tri-Band Business WiFi System
Thanks so much for the reply! I ended up removing the entire power strip from the wall before cycling back on modem > router > satellite > extenders, and that ended up doing the trick. Something had stayed plugged in with a hidden power strip that should not have. Thank you for the response!
