For years I have used router login . net to access my router.

But now I cannot. Net gear says I have to use their app and be connected to wifi to access my router.

Are there any other ways to access routers?

Extra spaces added for a reason.

See my sig.

ETA: I followed step 2 on this wesbite (left cold, wtf is avant link?) https://kb.netgear.com/980/How-do-I-log-in-to-my-NETGEAR-router (same procedure I have always used). Using router login . net I was routed to the same website as before. If using http://192.168.1.1 with my VPN on or off, it times out. My computer has a hardwired connection to my router.

Ideas?

If you can't hit it by IP it sounds like there's something wrong with the hardware. I assume you've reset it and tried again?

Open up command prompt and do an ipconfig /all and see what the actual IP is for the router. My last 3 weren't 1.1 like they were for 20 years.

You are correct, mine ended in .12 but even with the updated IP address, I still cannot log in to my router.

Let's talk about DNS for a hot minute...

... because that's where your problem is.

If you haven't already figured it out

These are the 4 I know for netgear unless it is knowingly changed which doesn't sound like you have done.
http://www.routerlogin.net
10.0.0.1
192.168.1.1
192.168.0.1

I can't use 192.168.1.1 because it is assigned to my modem
used to use the http://www.routerlogin.net but it started not working, can't remember why.  Maybe it was one of the firmware updates that wanted it to do something similar to what you are getting or it kept acting like I was trying to set it up for the first time every time I tried to log in?
10.0.0.1 is what I now use to get to the netgear router.

Don't add the http stuff before the ip addresses.  Since you are hard wired, being on the correct wifi network of the device you're trying to access, router/modem, isn't an issue.

You can try https also instead of http.