New Firmware Released RAX80 1.0.3.88

I posted the following in the LAN disconnects discussion thread... here are steps I took to get mine working fairly well since have also had trouble with RAX80 for over a year now.

My RAX80 is fairly stable on newest firmware after backup settings and then reset & restore settings. There are still quite a few bugs remaining since purchase around February 2019, but I am not seeing any major issues.

I have SmartConnect disabled and as many devices hardwired as possible using two unmanaged switches. The WiFi devices are locked to either 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz. I put all important phones, tablets, and laptops on the 5GHz network and moved to 5GHz DFS higher 80 width channel to reduce interference.

I put SmartHome devices such as lights, Sonos Move or security camera on 2.4GHz lower 20 width lower channel since speed is not required and prefer range for those devices. I also purchased an EAX80 hardwired over Ethernet in AP mode to help spread the load so all Roku devices connect to it on 2.4GHz middle 20 width channel. I put non essential tablets and phones on 5Ghz DFS lower 80 width channel on EAX80 to also help lower interference instead of trying RAX200.

Main issues I still see is temporary LAN disconnection once a day or so. I also sometimes see 5Ghz network disappear, but I think that is due to radar detection forcing router to move off of DFS channel sometimes. Usually switching to another DFS channel gets it back up running quick.

I also see the QoS prioritization levels for devices sometimes change from what I set them too, so have to periodically check to make sure certain devices are low priority such as SmartHome devices and keep Smartphones and tablets at high priority. I get faster speeds on wireless and WiFi with QoS enabled even though I have gigabit service.

Highest wireless speed I have seen was between 700 and 800... average speed for wireless is 500 to 600 depending on time of day and possible interference. Wired speed I routinely see 900 unless issue on Comcast's end.

I had some issues with IP leases being assigned to multiple devices, so took time to reserve an IP for every device on network since don't have many. I removed External HD from router in effort to offload the amount of things it has to juggle. I keep just a small thumb drive plugged in for temporary file storage.

I would like to get a Synology DS198 hardwired over Ethernet to use as NAS, but I don't really need it since I don't have a lot of files to store... until then I have been working on setting up headless Raspberry Pi to handle some NAS functions, smart home hub, DNS server, and possibly a VPN server.

I have two Pi setup for redundancy now since set the PiHole DNS servers in DNS settings of Netgear Router. I have not tried using Pi as DHCP server yet, but may give it a try in order to offload more functions from RAX80.

I don't use Parental Controls, traffic meter, internal VPN service, or Remote Management in RAX80. I have enabled AX, OFDMA, Beamforming, MU-MIMO, and WPA2/WPA3... I tried WPA3 only on 5GHz network since all my 5GHz devices support it but ran into frequent disconnects so switched back to hybrid WPA2/WPA3.

I also enabled the new Bitdefender Armor feature and have not seen drop in performance. Hopefully they will be able to fix remaining the issues soon. I have tried to be patient over last year since spent a lot of money on this thing.

I swore off buying more Netgear equipment at end of last year, but decided to try EAX80 to see if it would help since many of other competitors have issues too or less config options such as no manual channel selection, no DFS support, fixed DNS, single name 5Ghz & 2.4Ghz network, etc...

I originally was going to switch to Amplifi Alien, but after reading the Amplifi forum saw many issues similar to Netgear with less options to work around then due to lack of config options such as DFS or manual channel selection. Some Alien users even had RAX series and saw even worse speeds after switching, so seems like overall these new routers aren't finished.

All we can do is be patient it seems... I work in tech so understand it is hard, but just wish Netgear would communicate more with users so important issues can be resolved sooner. I don't have time to call tech support and seems like a waste since mostly firmware issues that only engineering team can fix. Hopefully Netgear employees following the threads can relay some of our findings and fixes so that a solution can be worked on.