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When all of the LEDs light up, the Nighthawk X8 optimizes the connection. To get going, all you do is plug the Nighthawk X8's AC adapter in and connect its WAN port to your broadband modem. In addition to being a router, the Nighthawk X8 can operate as an access point, wireless range extender and a media server. It successfully streamed a movie to one device while sending the audio from an Internet radio station to another and moving data back and forth with a file server, all without a hitch or hiccup. The Nighthawk X8 is a power router that delivers data regardless of whether it's for a gaming party, watching the latest episode of Bob's Burgers or both.ĭuring two weeks of near-constant use, the Nighthawk X8 performed well with a wide variety of devices, including an iPad Pro, a Microsoft Surface 3, a MacBook Air and a Samsung TabPro S. While that's better than the 130-foot average for routers we've tested, it still lags behind the R8000's 165-foot range. (*) Highly technical term for device incompatibility.In a suburban house with lots of thick walls, the Nighthawk X8 achieved a range of 150 feet. If it works, you'll have very good evidence that the ONT's and router's Ethernet MACs don't 'like each other.(*)' And you may have a reasonable workaround that doesn't involve sticking another router in the network. A switch can isolate Ethernet MAC incompatibilities. Of course, don't plug anything else into it. If the cables are fine, you could try putting a switch between the ONT and Nighthawk. You'd be amazed at how often issues like this turn out to be a bad cable that was assumed to be fine. Make sure you test with different Ethernet cables, just in case there is something odd with one of your cables. It's clear the Ethernet link is the issue. It's been this way for a few years, so that Nighthawk post for 2017 was probably written before Verizon improved their system.

You can simply unplug one router and plug in another and Verizon's system now handles it nicely.

Further, the need to do a release when swapping routers is no longer needed. If you can't get an Ethernet link, the router can't pull an IP address. The DHCP release/renew process has nothing to do with this issue.

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