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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 oth...
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!
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!