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Nighthawk (RAX200) Connectivity Issues with Some Devices
WiFi connections have been inconsistent with some devices, Amazon Echos mostly, but there are other devices as well. The issues started immediately after setting up the router.
The router is using the latest firmware (V1.0.1.12_1.0.41) at the time of this post. I have Smart Connect enabled, the equivalent setting was enabled on the Samsung Smart Things WiFi router that I replaced. This feature is very important to me due to the number of devices I have around my house.
DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert :)
but think that I have narrowed the issue down to the second 5Ghz band. My previous router had only two bands 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. I think I recall reading something about some devices not working well with higher channels, unfortunately I don't recal where I saw this (I will update if I find it)
Setting the power of the second 5Ghz network to 25% seems to have helped but I still have issues. I can't seem to find a way to disable the 2nd radio, but even if that worked I would consider it a work around, not a solution.
Has anyone else experienced similar issues?
Any suggestions other than disabling Smart Connect and manually updating WiFi settings on each device?
8 Replies
I found a similar post about RAX80 https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Routers-with-WiFi-6-AX/Alexa-not-supported-on-RAX80/td-p/1740058
Everything I thought I knew, I think is wrong. All radios at 100% and I am having no issues at the moment
I believe that disabling 40/20mhz coexistence and setting radio to 100% power were my only changes.
Other than the "I'm no Expert" part I believe this part can be disregarded.
mbonetti wrote:DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert :)
but think that I have narrowed the issue down to the second 5Ghz band. My previous router had only two bands 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. I think I recall reading something about some devices not working well with higher channels, unfortunately I don't recal where I saw this (I will update if I find it)
Setting the power of the second 5Ghz network to 25% seems to have helped but I still have issues. I can't seem to find a way to disable the 2nd radio, but even if that worked I would consider it a work around, not a solution.
I guess I was lucky for a day or so. I'm still having several issues with dervices staying connected to WiFI. I really hope this can be resolved, I don't want this to end up in my box of junk routers, especially considering the price.
1) Turn off smart connect,
2) Choose a unique SSID for each of the 3 bands
3) Manually choose a channel for each band - I'm using ch 6 for 2.4ghz, ch 44 for 5ghz1 and ch 157 for 5ghz2
4) Manually connect each wifi client for your chosen band
Well this router is terrible. When it decides too "act up" it doensn't hand out IP addresses (instead provides 169. addresses which means the devices can't speak to the router), won't allow the admin to connect to the console via the "speedy" app that takes forever to load, especially if you tell it to query attached devices, and lately with the latest firmware it just drops the wifi connection, doesn't allow you to connect, and doesn't stay stable for more than a few hours.
On with technical support, had to pay $50.00 for what I feel is cheap hardware at this point. Never had so many problems as I have with this model. Restored the firmware with the L2 tech. Stable for a couple of hours then boom. Wifi stops working and all devices are dead in the water.
Also started to run debug captures - here's another lame issue with support - they only allow up to 10MB. The capture was 30 MB and oh yeah, you NEED TO BE CONNECTED TO RUN IT FOLKS - so what do you do when the router isn't shelling out IPs and Wifi is down. They said get a laptop and connect it. Ummm, most laptops now don't have ethernet ports anymore. So thanks for that not helpful recommendation. I sent 3 captures under 30 MB, no response from support. This is what I feel like what happens when support is outsourced overseas. It's bad enough their product doesn't just work - serve up stable wifi (and I'm sitting 3' from the router) - no walls, microwaves, anything. No router changes than the most recent firmware with "Circle" and "Armor" support which is cool but clearly this firmware is an issue as it wasn't a problem prior. So... if you restore to factory settings, it simply re-updates once you reset your entire router up again! This is CRAZY frustrating. A router that costs this much should NOT be this unstable period.