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Forum Discussion
Performing hardware diagnostic on Nighthawk RAX50
I am trying to determine cause of slow and intermittent internet access. ISP test showed that their cable modem is working correctly and suggests that I do a diagnostics test on my router. When I log...
Not sure how to answer all of the questions.
1. Modem is a Spectrum supplied cable modem
2. V1.0.16.132_2.0.92; router is set to update automatically.
3. 300 Mbps
4-6. Not sure how to find that information. Recent speed test showed 374.60 download; 11.85 upload; 15ms ping. Test completed using Nighthawk app (SPEEDTEST powered).
7. Home computer is hardwired to the router. All other devices (televisions, phones - iPhone 11 and 14 - and induction stove - IoT) are wireless.
8. Slow and intermittent most common when streaming movies or shows on TV (with only one TV on). We see this probably every few weeks, and when it occurs, the annoying buffering gizmo appears as often as every 5-7 minutes. This seems to go away if I cycle power (minimum 30 seconds) to modem and router, or just the router. The signal strength indicator on our phones also shows less than 3 bars at the same time we see the buffering issue on the TV. Not sure this is an internet drop out, but occasionally (typically when signal strength drops), the picture on the TV will freeze without also showing the buffering gizmo. When the TV recovers, it picks up where the show is in progress (we miss what was happening at the time the picture froze). During the buffering, the show resumes where the buffering started, after which, the picture is often very low resolution (even though we have 4k service through YouTubeTV, which, of course depends entirely on how strong the wireless signal is at the time).
The modem model is important. The label should have it on it.
Are you sure you don't have an RAX48? The RAX48 has that firmware version on it but no either V1 or V2 of the RAX50.
Is it only the one device with issues? You say streaming on a tv. What tv? is it streaming on a roku/apple tv or what are you using for streaming?
Are you on the 2.4ghz or 5ghz while streaming?
How far from the router is the tv with issues? And what is between the 2? (walls/appliances/etc)
I am absolutely sure that the Router is an RAX50, which is what appears on the router's label.
We see the internet issue only on our main TV which is a Sony Google TV less than 2 years old. We have other older TVs in the house that are not used very often, so we do not know if the issue also appears on them.
I don't know how to determine whether the TV is on the 2.4ghz or 5ghz while streaming. Both of the indicators for these on the router are always illuminated. The router is in a second floor room, less than 20' from above the TV on the first floor. The only thing between the router and TV is the floor and open staircase.
There also is a Netgear extender (AC750 WiFi Range Extender Model EX3110) less than 10' from the TV.
guess you do have the RAX50. Must be a pre-release version or you got an earlier version.
If only 1 tv is having the issues, I tend to look closer at the tv.
A couple things.
1. Don't connect the tv to the extender. Extenders drop throughput (speed) and increase latency. Which makes tv's buffer more
2. You should be able to log into the tv and see what band its connected to. Most tv's have a way to do so. You should also be able to log into the router through the browser and check if its on the 2.4ghz or 5ghz on the attached devices page.
This is a little key as 2.4ghz is a low network and sensitive to interference. The TV should be on the 5ghz, provided its close enough and doesn't have to much material in the way (certain materials do a great job of blocking wifi).
3. Have you noticed a difference in what its streaming? What I mean by this is live tv struggles more with speed/interference/latency than something you stream from netflix/youtube. The reason why is life tv doesn't have as much streaming buffer (can't load information ahead of time). So they're more sensitive
Pretty sure that it is not the TV. Last time the slow wifi occurred, we turned off the TV and cycled power to it. When we returned to streaming, the latency was still a problem. We see the latency when are streaming from Netflix and Amazon Prime.
I checked the devices tab of the router. It show all non-wired devices (including the Sony TV) connected at 2.4Hz. How do I change that? I though that the router was supposed to automatically connect at the fastest speed available.
Though the extender is in the same room as the Sony TV, the wifi connection page on the TV shows that it's connected directly to the router and not the exender.