NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
RAX-15 Router extremely poor wireless performance
I have been having problems with my RAX-15 router wifi speeds. In short, the router performs fine after it is restarted, but gets extremely slow after a short uptime. I haven't found any solution other than restarting it constantly.
I have narrowed it down a router performance issue because the speed on both 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks slows to a crawl of 1-2Mbps, while the wired connection through the router remains at about 45Mbps, which is what I pay for through my ISP. Restarting the router yields speeds on the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands of about 35Mbps in any room of the house, but only for a short time before it slows down again.
Other diagnostic details:
I am using a secured network and I can see no unexpected devices connected.
I am using the latest firmware V1.0.11.112_2.0.77
CPU loads for the router read about 2-5% and memory at 312MB of 497MB used
QOS is OFF
Auto channel select is OFF (formerly on, I thought it may have been causing the issue)
inSSIDer reads that my signal is -48dbm (near the router) and my channel is relatively clear
Wifi signal strength on any device reads good
I'm kind of going crazy trying to think of anything that could be causing this. My TV pretty much has to be on WiFi and at this speed, streaming video will not load at any quality.
After some experimenting, I have found that the problem can be solved by reverting to older firmware. Firmware V 1.0.4.100 (and earlier) seems to work normally, my speed is good after more than 24 hours of uptime. Firmware V 1.0.10.110 and V 1.0.11.112 both have the problem, so it seems to have originated in V 10.0.10.110 and not been fixed since.
This is more of a workaround than a solution, but at least I can use my wifi. I also assume that most people are using the latest firmware without issue, so I'd still love to know what combination of settings or hardware with the latest firmware is causing the problem. But I'll just post this for now in case anybody else is having this problem:
If your RAX 15 WiFi is fine on a fresh start but suddenly slows down after a few minutes, and your connection still reads strong, revert to firmware V1.0.4.100!
6 Replies
How long have you had the router?
Did it always do this or is it a new thing?
What modem/gateway is it connected to?
- I've had the router for about 18 months and performance has been bad intermittently the whole time although I usually blamed it on the ISP. My ISP is Comelec local wireless, we receive internet from a radio tower a mile or two away which then passes to their fiber network. The modem is an ISP proprietary device which is integrated with a receiver dish, I don't have any access to it or its settings.
However, because I can receive good speed over ethernet I am fairly confident that the problem is isolated to my router and its wifi network. I am also fairly confident that interference is not responsible for the slow speeds because my signal strength is good and it seems to be tied to router uptime.seems like I see a lot of people posting on here who use broadcast internet having issues.
any idea what proprietary router/gateway its connected to?
After some experimenting, I have found that the problem can be solved by reverting to older firmware. Firmware V 1.0.4.100 (and earlier) seems to work normally, my speed is good after more than 24 hours of uptime. Firmware V 1.0.10.110 and V 1.0.11.112 both have the problem, so it seems to have originated in V 10.0.10.110 and not been fixed since.
This is more of a workaround than a solution, but at least I can use my wifi. I also assume that most people are using the latest firmware without issue, so I'd still love to know what combination of settings or hardware with the latest firmware is causing the problem. But I'll just post this for now in case anybody else is having this problem:
If your RAX 15 WiFi is fine on a fresh start but suddenly slows down after a few minutes, and your connection still reads strong, revert to firmware V1.0.4.100!
A short update: Reverting to firmware 4.1 improved the amount of time for which my WiFi is functional, to more than 24 hours, but the symptoms are essentially the same. The WiFi is useable after a restart, but at some point abruptly drops in speed, which is a night and day difference, despite indicators of good signal quality. Often it affects the 2.4Ghz network first, and then the 5Ghz at a later time, rather than both at once as on later versions.
I've been slowly working with Netgear official support. They've suggested that I may need to repeatedly attempt installing the firmware, or factory reset and then update again. I've done both of these with no improvement. I'll probably next try running the factory firmware version despite the security concerns just to see if it works; if that does not resolve it then there is probably no firmware version which can help, although it is interesting to note the slight difference in versions.
In a fit of paranoia I've tried disabling my wifi enabled printer and ring doorbell to no effect.
I also noticed an additional symptom that my 5Ghz network briefly drops from my phone's list of networks when I attempt to use it, so I cannot connect to it and only can use the 2.4Ghz network on my phone, and my PC wireless card also "cannot connect' to the 5Ghz. I'm not sure if this is helpful but in practice it's a bit redundant to the fact that the speed makes either network difficult to use at all.
Hopefully I can escalate to some kind of useful advice with Netgear support, otherwise my advice to anyone reading this with a similar problem, is to RMA if you still can!
