topic Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected in Roaming

Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

DIYDave66 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 07:41:49 GMT

Hi Everyone

I’ve been using a Netgear Nighthawk M2 with an unlimited data sim for the past couple of years and it has worked perfectly. A week ago it has decided not to connect to 4g and is constantly ‘searching’ and displays a message “Mobile Broadband Disconnected - your data connection is disconnected”. Initially I thought this was a signal/locality issue as I was away on holiday, but have returned home today and it’s still refusing to connect to EE. I’ve carried out a full factory reset on the Nighthawk M2 but nothing I do works. Is it likely to be an APN issue? Perhaps a firmware update? Any help/advice will be gratefully appreciated as I’m going away again next week and really need to get the router up and running. Thanks, David

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

Christopher_G — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 09:56:57 GMT

Hi @DIYDave66

Welcome to the community.

Are you able to try the SIM card in a different mobile device to see if you can get a stable data connection on that?

Chris

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

DIYDave66 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 12:02:00 GMT

Hi Chris

Yes, I took the data sim out of the MiFi & put it in my iPhone. The iPhone worked perfectly on 4g/5g. I put my iPhone sim in the MiFi & same problem - could find a network. Might be a hardware/hardware setting issue?

Regards

David

[Mod edit: Please do not share personal details as your posts are visible to the public. Thanks!]

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

Christopher_G — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 12:06:30 GMT

OK, thanks @DIYDave66

Do the APN settings show correctly?

Chris

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

DIYDave66 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 13:04:41 GMT

Hi Chris

APN settings are as follows:

Name: EE

APN*: everywhere

Authentication: None

PDP: IPV6

PDP Roaming: IPV6

And there is a SAVE button at the bottom of the screen after editing settings.

Regards

David

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

Christopher_G — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 13:41:49 GMT

Thanks @DIYDave66

Are you using a VPN at all? If so, it may be worth trying IPv4 instead of IPv6.

Chris

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

DIYDave66 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 14:08:08 GMT

Hi, not using a VPN. I’ve changed both PDP & PDP Roaming to IPV4 but no success. Cheers

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

Christopher_G — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 14:52:33 GMT

OK, thanks @DIYDave66

You've tried everything that we'd usually recommend here. It may be worth having a chat with our Technical Support team so they can look into this further for you.

Hope you get sorted.

Chris

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

DIYDave66 — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 14:55:12 GMT

Cheers Chris

Will do

Regards

David

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

mikethebike147 — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 17:02:33 GMT

Hi David

I am curious to know if you got to the bottom of your problem with the Nighthawk?

I bought a used one on ebay and as you know they are not cheap, cost me £240 even used! But I had heard such good things about them, particularly their ability to pick up very weak mobile signals. I'm out in rural France at present, and my wife who was at home at the time, brought it back with her.

Initially it seemed fine, and connected to Orange which is the only decent signal here, between 1-3 bars generally though at times it just drops out comepletely! We also sometimes pick up BT (Boughgy Telecom) and Free, but they are very poor signals. Anyway to cut a long story short I started having the same problem that you described, constantly 'searching' and finding nothing, tried auto and manual searching, no difference.

But I was fortunate enough to still have my old router, it's a Huawei mains powered model, still the same idea you insert the sim card and away you go. So I had the advantage of being able to compare them side by side as it were, as I also have two EE sims and the one I use in the router has unlimited data. I also tried antenna, though the old huawei (that cost me less than £20 on ebay last year) was just using the little stick antenna on the back. I tried that and two outdoor antenna that I have, shoved 15 feet in the air to try to get some coverage, but nothing doing. It was like chalk and cheese, the Huawei connected to Orange straight away with 1 or 2 bars and was fine for watching iplayer, Netflix etc. The Netgear Nighthawk still 'searching'.

I did all the usual reboots, even factory reset, to no avail. On exploring the menu I noticed something interesting. When you go into advanced settings and then I think cellular, it brings up the page where you can choose auto or manual scanning. And on that page there are two little boxes that you have to have ticked, one is data and the other is roaming. But with both of them ticked, you go into the page called diagnostics and the info says Roaming: Off. What? Go back a page, yes the boxes are still ticked but when you look at diagnostics it says Roaming: Off. I decided that was the crux of my problem.

So I decided that the thing was faulty and fortunately I'm well within the time frame to return it to the seller so I'm in the process of that now. But naturally I looked up the problem and hence saw your post and it seems there are a few people complaining of exactly the same problem. I just wonder if there is an answer or if when they are a few years old they develop this fault? Anyway I thought I'd share my experience with you!

Cheers

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

DIYDave66 — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 18:26:47 GMT

Hi

I didn’t get anywhere with Netgear support. They wanted to charge me for a telephone support contract before they would discuss, which I didn’t think was particularly helpful. After numerous resets etc the Nighthawk still refused to work, I even bought a data sim with another provider to test it.

I then asked Amazon for a refund, & after explaining the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to them they agreed to a full refund. Secured full refund from Amazon (£329) & them bought a ZTE MU5001 MiFi which (in my opinion) is superior to the Nighthawk, £100 cheaper & has lightning fast 5g. Very happy with the ZTE & can’t see me going back to Netgear again - way overpriced, unreliable & poor after sales support.

Regards

David

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

mikethebike147 — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 20:02:50 GMT

Hi David

Thank you for taking the time to report your findings. In this day and age you come to expect top notch customer service from tech companies, they must be aware of forums like this and the impact that negative opinions will have. But you have shown that Netgear clearly didn't get the memo! I am glad yours was a happy ending, as mine was because ebay have already confirmed that my refund is being processed. They are very good like that whenever you buy something that turns out to be faulty. It's one of the reasons why I prefer buying like that instead of forking out twice as much for a new product, and then often struggle to get a refund. But Amazon also have a good reputation in that regard so well done. I have made a note of the ZTE that you mentioned and that may well be my next purchase.

Mike

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

rög — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 17:09:11 GMT

I had exactly the same problem - I believe it is in the EE network

I spent several hours over a few days talking to Netgear Hogh Level support in California

In the end it transpires that the only UK network that Netgear certified in the UK was Vodafone

Changed to Vodafone and it worked OK

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

ColinTynan1 — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 20:01:59 GMT

Turn off 3g 👍🏻

Re: Netgear Nighthawk M2 on EE Data SIM - Mobile Broadband Disconnected

XRaySpeX — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 20:05:16 GMT

@ColinTynan1 : 3G is off anyway. The 3G network was switched off a year or 2 back.