Netgear R6300 -- "No Ethernet cable plugged in" even though it is...

[ashiklom]

I have a Netgear R6300 router connected to a Zoom 5341J modem. My ISP is RCN.

As of this morning, my Netgear stopped recognizing that it was connected via Ethernet to the modem. I'd been having intermittent issues with the connection before, but nothing that couldn't be quickly fixed by power-cycling the modem. Doing so worked fine multiple times before, but this time, after resetting the modem, the light indicating an internet connection went out. In Netgear's web-based router setup, any attempt to change the internet settings was met with a message that the Ethernet cable wasn't plugged in. I got the same result using 3 different Ethernet cables. I also tried doing a factory reset (holding the reset button with a paperclip for ~30 seconds; this reset all my networks to the Netgear defaults, etc.) to no avail.

Connecting my laptop directly to the modem works just fine, as does using a different router (an old Linksys E1000 we had lying around), so this must be an issue with the Netgear. I grimly suspect that the issue may just be a physical one with the Ethernet jack, but it seems very strange that it would just give out randomly after just one year of normal use. I did buy the router on eBay, so maybe it inherited some issue from the previous owner, but again, it worked perfectly for over a year and wasn't taking anything I'd consider physical abuse.

Any thoughts? Should I give up and just buy a new router? Or is there something else I could try?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I have had good service from Netgear stuff - - but it's only been short-lived unfortunately. 1 year was the most I got from my last one. They only cost two-thirds the price of your model however, I would expect the more expensive ones (those over £100) to be more reliable but it seems that is not the case.

I bit the bullet six months ago and splashed out on a 'Billion' model costing almost £200 -- not the easiest brand to set up but it has behaved faultlessly in line with all the user reviews I read prior to purchase.

I'm not suggesting you buy that brand but you've already proved it's a router issue so you'll have to replace it with something.