Nighthawk only sees internet when NordVPN is running (Spectrum ISP)

[DonKOtay]

My situation seems odd... 

I use Spectrum and a Motorola modem (not a Spectrum router, just the modem).  I have been running

my network using Google Wifi and I wanted to connect something which used Wifi 6 for some of my

newer devices, so I got the Nighthawk RAX45 (Costco)...

At first I just tried connecting the RAX45 off the ethernet port on the Google Wifi.  And all seemed fine.

I can connect to the Internet and do whatever I need to do.  I can turn my VPN on and off and have no

issues with my internet connection.  

But I wanted to have my Nighthawk as the FIRST router in this chain and piggyback the Google Wifi

off one of its ethernet ports.   I was thinking this might give my WIFI 6 devices the best connection and

overall performance (since that's my goal)

That's when I ran into problems. 

The Google Wifi router STILL WORKS FINE connected off the RAX45 ethernet port.

But the RAX45 connected directly to my modem (Spectrum), won't work.  At least my PC doesn't see

the internet.  

BUT (and this is what seems strange to me...)

I found that if I started NordVPN on my PC I could connect to the internet.  I don't have to do this to

connect through the Google Wifi, so it doesn't seem to be a NordVPN problem (since that SHOULD

be the same since I am using the same PC and the same software)

I also found the same to be true on a Samsung S9+ android phone.  No internet until I started NordVPN.  

I asked my son who has NEVER installed NordVPN on his phone to try to access the internet

by connecting to the Wifi and it DOES NOT WORK EITHER.  

So, I think I've eliminated any problems with the NordVPN software setting up a kill switch or anything

that I cannot turn off from earlier installations.

It's just odd to me that I cannot access the internet while connected to my RAX45 unless I turn on NordVPN.

And this problem only occurs if the RAX45 is the FIRST router directly connected to the Spectrum modem.  If

I switch order and put the Google Wifi router first, I can connect to the Internet WITHOUT running NordVPN on

my PC.

Just downright odd.

Anyone else seen this or have any ideas?

[FURRYe38]

Netgear has set up a community forum specifically for the NightHawk RAX WiFi 6 Router products. Most of the people who watch that forum are more likely to have experience with NH router products and know how to work it better than those of us who follow this router forum. Might be more likely to find someone who has a solution if the question is posted there:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Routers-with-WiFi-6-AX/bd-p/en-home-routers-nighthawk-wif...

Please use this link to the main forum product list to review and choose where to make your posts. 
https://community.netgear.com/t5/NETGEAR-Forum/ct-p/en-netgear

Thank you.

[DonKOtay]

This was the solution I am going with for now... 

Well, I got this thing working by hardcoding the Google DNS servers in my Nighthawk router.

I used 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 instead of getting it from the ISP. 

Still not sure what the issue was and maybe I'll probe more later.    It seems to me that getting it

from the ISP should work for the Nighthawk just as it did for the Google Wifi.  Maybe Google Wifi

uses the same DNS servers.  Anyway, just going to go with what I have because I won't have to 

put NordVPN on ALL my connected devices...  

I also checked the connection with my Samsung and now it works as well, so I'm good for now...

I will trash that Armor software anyway, so maybe I'll switch it back later to test.

But for now, the DNS server change from automatic to selecting the servers works, so I'll go with it.

Thanks to all who gave pointers...

[FURRYe38]

If you had been using automatic DNS then this may have been a ISP DNS issue. Since you changed to different DNS, and now things are working, it may point to a ISP DNS issue...

[DonKOtay]

Possibly an ISP DNS issue, but when I talked to them, they basically said they couldn't

help me with anything beyond the Cable modem since that's all they supplied...

So the extent of their help was to tell me to power everything off and back on in the 

"correct" order.  Which, of course,  I had already done a dozen times as well as with

various permutations of network devices in different orders.

So, yeah...  Good luck getting THAT fixed...

Still not sure why Google Wifi ALWAYS worked no matter what order I plugged them in. 

Maybe they have Google DNS servers hardcoded into their devices, instead of depending

on ISP for DNS.  Google Wifi is not as configurable as far as I can tell.

Anyway, I'll probably re-visit the issue at another time.  For now, though, I can get what I

need by hardcoding DNS addresses.

Meanwhile I also turned off that Netgear Armor software via software switch on router.  It

will time out in a month or so.  I'm not going to buy it, so no big loss.  It didn't seem to make

any difference...

Thanks.