New and stupid! Help if yah can, ASUS, Linksys, Orbi and Netgear (yah i know!)

[mmacfn123]

Hey all

Great forum and ive done alot of searching but still not clear on what I need to do.

So I have a gigbit line with cable one. I was using their hitron modem (as just a modem wireless turned off). I noticed the netgear CM1200 modem and it looked alot better than the hitron so i bought it.

So my house is large about 5K sq feet and we use alo of bandwidth, the whole setup is this:

Hitron has 4 ports in the back.

One port to ASUS 88U which sends out a 5G and a 2G

One port via RJ47 across the house (under it) to living room to a NETGEAR Nighthawk S8000 Gaming & Streaming Advanced 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch on which is a linksys 5400 which covers the rest of the house on that side. Plus other devices in the switch (apple tv, amazon etc)

One port to a NETGEAR Nighthawk S8000 Gaming & Streaming Advanced 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch OR a NETGEAR GS108 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Network Switch (for some reason one is sometimes faster than the other for no apparent reason). (plus other devices on the switch).

From the Nighthawk S8000 another RJ47 goes to an ORBI system with 2 satellites which are dedicated to house cameras (two of which outside reliable range of other wireless) and garage door.

Everything worked OK without the new netgear CM1200 but the speeds were not always great and highly variable. Randomly the asus would be 50-100 down randomly the same would happen to the linksys. The best i could get with my macbook pro (2019) was 700 ish wired and 400-500 sitting within 7 feet from the routers. This seemed extremely variable and sometimes either wireless gets at best 200-300 down. Seems low?

So fast forward to yesterday, I bought this netgear CM1200. Get it setup with the cable company and attach it to the asus. Speeds wireless were nearly 750 and plugged in 900. It was a big jump up from the hitron to the asus only. However, tho the cm1200 has 4 ports none of the other devices seemed to work. I reset, rebooted etc etc.

Then, nothing worked. Asus said ISP DHCP not working and stayed solid red. Linksys did nothing, orbi same. Nothing was working. Called cable company who confirmed they saw the modem and it had great signal. Even saw when i attached the mac directly to it tho the mac would get NO internet. Hell, i couldnt even login to the modem admin page. Network details on mac said it was connected but not to the internet. No matter what port i plugged into or rebooting the mac it never worked. 2 hours on the phone with netgear and no resolution.

So now im back to the hitron and disappointed as speeds are back to slower.

My questions then are:

1) What happened?

2) Can i fix it?

3) What can i do better with this setup? I considered mesh system but my experience with orbi is that it isnt super reliable and speeds are not great.

Any help appreciated! Yes ive searched but not seen all these issues and really am a novice.

 

[thiggins]

You need to plug your Ethernet connections into whatever is acting as a router and DHCP server for your network. My guess is that the Hitron was doing that and the NETGEAR CM1200 is not.

 

[mmacfn123]

You need to plug your Ethernet connections into whatever is acting as a router and DHCP server for your network. My guess is that the Hitron was doing that and the NETGEAR CM1200 is not.

Hey thanks for the reply!

Sure the hitron was. But plugging the MacBook Pro directly into the modem should work. Yet it does not.

Even plugging the asus directly into the mode should cover the dhcp and yet it does not regardless if I plug the MacBook directly into the asus or use the WiFi.

Something isn’t right with the cm1200 and I’m not sure what

 

[ColinTaylor]

Sure the hitron was. But plugging the MacBook Pro directly into the modem should work. Yet it does not.

Sometimes you need to completely power off the modem and wait a few minutes before turning it back on. That way the laptop's MAC address is properly registered with the ISP's equipment.

Also, you might have to plug into a specific port on the modem (#1). [EDIT: confirmed in the manual, you must connect to port #1 only unless you're using link aggregation]

 

[mmacfn123]

Hey

Yup did all that. Tried every port, powered down for 5 min per netgear support but nothing changed. Even called the ISP per netgear as they thought the registration of the modem might have been lost. ISP confirmed it was still on network and register. They could even ping the modem and see that I had the computer connected to a port.

Crazy huh?

Sometimes you need to completely power off the modem and wait a few minutes before turning it back on. That way the laptop's MAC address is properly registered with the ISP's equipment.

Also, you might have to plug into a specific port on the modem (#1). [EDIT: confirmed in the manual, you must connect to port #1 only unless you're using link aggregation]

 

[ColinTaylor]

Crazy huh?

Indeed.

So from what you've said, everything was working fine up until the point when you plugged other devices into the modem's ports 2, 3 and 4. Since then nothing has worked, even after reverting to the previous configuration.

The only idea I have (if you haven't already tried this) to do perform a factory reset on the modem as per the user manual.

 

[mmacfn123]

Hey

Pretty much yah.

Did a factory reset no change.

I think it’s broken?

 

[ColinTaylor]

I think it’s broken?

It may be as simple as that. Can you easily return it for a replacement or refund?

It might even be an opportunity to get a different modem as this one doesn't actually do what you think it would. So this could actually be fortuitous.

 

[mmacfn123]

Hey

Yah I got it from amazon.

Do you have a suggestion for either a modem which is better or a modem / wireless that’s better ?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Do you have a suggestion for either a modem which is better or a modem / wireless that’s better ?

Sorry, no. I'm in the UK and things are different here with regards to cable modems. Just be aware that in your previous setup you were using a cable modem/wireless router combo device. So if you want a drop-in replacement you'll need another combo device. If you buy another modem-only device you'll either need to add another router or redesign your network.

 

[mmacfn123]

Well thanks for the help!

Hopefully someone from North America can chime in on best option to replace it

 

[starrynite]

Well thanks for the help!

Did you get any sort of resolution from this issue? I am having the exact same problem.
Asus AC88U was working without issue with Netgear CM500. Upgraded speed with my ISP and installed the Netgear CM1200.
Now Asus router gives me the "your ISP's DHCP does not function properly" error.