Netgear Nighthawk RS300 Set Up Issues

edlad1972 — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:00:12 GMT

I have just acquired a Netgear Nighthawk RS300 WiFi 7 router to replace my Plusnet Hub Two to get better coverage in my house, and I have been having an absolute nightmare getting it to connect to the internet. I am on Fibre 900 and have a Openreach ONT which I am connecting directly to the router. It (the RS300) is acknowledging the presence of a cable and the broadband service, but it stubbornly refuses to then authenticate the service so will not provide internet. I have spent 3+ hours on the phone to a Level 2 tech support rep from Netgear (wow! The privilege I hear you cry!) and short of opening the thing up with a screwdriver we have not been able to solve the problem.

It is clearly not a technical issue with the RS300, as it works just fine serving up internet if I connect it to the Hub Two via ethernet (effectively bridging the connection and using the Hub Two as a modem), so there is clearly some kind of authentication problem.

I have spoken to Plusnet about this, obtained all the conceivable settings (static IP address, subnet mask, Primary and Secondary DNS, Default Gateway) but to no avail.

Has anyone had this issue with this router and was there a solution? I have a workaround but I would rather have just one router doing everything so I get the greatest performance from my connection.

Thanks!

Re: Netgear Nighthawk RS300 Set Up Issues

MisterW — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:30:40 GMT

@edlad1972

It is clearly not a technical issue with the RS300, as it works just fine serving up internet if I connect it to the Hub Two via ethernet (effectively bridging the connection and using the Hub Two as a modem), so there is clearly some kind of authentication problem.

The Hub 2 wont be a modem, its still a router so your RS300 will be getting a private WAN IP via DHCP

I have spoken to Plusnet about this, obtained all the conceivable settings (static IP address, subnet mask, Primary and Secondary DNS, Default Gateway) but to no avail.

You can forget all that! When connected directly to the ONT , the RS300 must make the PPPoE connection. So configure its WAN connection for PPPoE and enter your Plusnet credentials. Username is <youraccountname>@plusdsl.net and password is the one you use to access the member centre https://www.plus.net/member-centre/login. If there's any option for VLAN ID then make sure its disabled (or set to 0 )

You can find the help here https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/broadband-connection-settings/ , you need the 'settings for a router connected to an Openreach modem' ( the ONT is effectively a Fibre modem)

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Netgear Nighthawk RS300 Set Up Issues

Re: Netgear Nighthawk RS300 Set Up Issues