NETGEAR Nighthawk R6900 Initial Setup & Config

This guide will help you setup the Netgear Nighthawk R6900 AC1900 wireless router for the first time.

How To Setup NETGEAR Nighthawk R6900

1. Plug in a LAN ethernet cable from your modem (there is only one port that will fit) to the yellow WAN port on the router.
2. Plug in the power and wait for it to boot up
3. Connect to the router’s LAN or WiFi
4. Visit routerlogin.net in your browser
5. Select “No, I want to configure the internet connection myself.” Click Next
6. If you get an alert that warns you that you need networking experience, click OK. (Don’t worry, I’m here for you!)
7. The default name is admin and you will set the password. This is for the administrative interface and is NOT for WiFi.

If all is well with your internet service provider, you should be able to get online at this point. If you are having issues getting online, you may be able to use MAC spoofing (aka MAC cloning) to get online. If this MAC cloning process does not work, you will need to contact your ISP to have them help you get online.

How To Configure MAC Cloning on Nighthawk R6900

1. Login to the router’s administrator interface
2. Click on Internet in the menu on the left hand side
3. All the way at the bottom, look for Router MAC Address
4. Select Use This MAC Address
5. In the box provided, enter the MAC address of the router you previously had installed, in the format XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
6. Apply the setting and wait for the router to update

How To Connect To NETGEAR Nighthawk R6900

Via physical LAN cable:

1. Plug an ethernet cable into a black port on the back of the router and the other end into your computer.
2. Visit routerlogin.net to access the router’s administrative interface.

Via WiFi:

1. The default WiFi network name will be “Netgear##”. It will not have the quotes and ## will be a two digit number.
2. The network named “Netgear##-5G” is the 5GHz network. You will not be able to “see” this network if your device does not have a 5GHz WiFi adapter.
3. Default WiFi password will be printed on a sticker on the bottom of the router (it will be different for everyone).
4. Visit routerlogin.net to access the router’s administrative interface. Make sure you are on the router’s WiFi network in order to access the admin interface. This step WILL NOT WORK over your data connection.

Default Passwords For Nighthawk R6900

For the administrative interface, default username is admin and password is set by you when you first set up the router.

For WiFi, the default password is printed on a sticker on the back/bottom of the router. This will be different for everyone.