NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
shrews
Sep 17, 2022Guide
RAX120 or Rax200
Hi all, I’m at a loss and need some advice. Current situation: we’re a busy 4 bed 2 storey house, there’s 5 of us, kids all streaming YouTube, we’ve got Google devices in every room, Amazon fire...
- Sep 17, 2022RAX120. It's a Qualcomm device with hardware acceleration (RAX200 has software one). In case the RAX120 get too hot, place a fan or laptop cooler underneat it.. Though it has a built-in fan, that doesn't always kick in.
shrews
Sep 17, 2022Guide
Being FTTP the modem is the ONT box meaning any router with a WAN port is more or less plug and play, so I’m not expecting any problems.
Being a gigabit line, 35+ wireless devices, homeworkers etc etc I’ve no doubt we’re starting to push this Wi-Fi 5 router close to its limits, and to maximise the benefit of our line for everyone and everything in the house I just want the best solution for us.
I’ve taken the plunge and ordered a rax120, I’m a bit nervous seeing all the posts re overheating and will not hesitate to send it back if I start getting problems but fingers crossed these posts aren’t reflective of the majority of rax120 owners… we’ll see!
Being a gigabit line, 35+ wireless devices, homeworkers etc etc I’ve no doubt we’re starting to push this Wi-Fi 5 router close to its limits, and to maximise the benefit of our line for everyone and everything in the house I just want the best solution for us.
I’ve taken the plunge and ordered a rax120, I’m a bit nervous seeing all the posts re overheating and will not hesitate to send it back if I start getting problems but fingers crossed these posts aren’t reflective of the majority of rax120 owners… we’ll see!
michaelkenward
Sep 18, 2022Guru - Experienced User
shrews wrote:
Being FTTP the modem is the ONT box meaning any router with a WAN port is more or less plug and play, so I’m not expecting any problems.
That should be the case, but BT has ways of frustrating users by installing customised equipment that breaks common sense. For example, it implements IPv6 in ways that various routers don't support.
It probably all dates back to the days when the Post Office, BT's nationalised predecessor, liked to design its own telephone exchanges which no one else bought, leading to the demise of the UK's telecoms industry.
A good place to get a handle on these things is the BT community forum.
Search - BT Community – RAX120
There is at least one comment there about IPv6.
- shrewsSep 18, 2022Guide
All setup and online with the new RAX120!
Fairly smooth process, swapped out the BT Smart Hub, just had to enter the bthomehub@btinternet.com / BT account details on PPPoE and it needed two attempts to connect to the internet and the app crashed on the final stage of setup which for a less tech savy user may have caused some problems; otherwise all up and running, performance so far has been great and thanks to the Wifi6 and improved signal the speed of my sons PC's Wi-Fi has shot up from 100mbps to over 400 so he's happy!
Surprised to see it's a RAX120v2 though, as I thought I'd read somewhere these weren't in the UK, but fingers crossed the random re-starts don't take effect.
- shrewsSep 18, 2022GuideThat didn’t last long…
Ended up being a 120v2, within 6 hours we must have had as many random reboots.
It’s going back to Amazon and I’ve ordered a rax200 which don’t appear to have the same issues.
Really impressed with the apps, configurability and it’s performance but there’s a very serious inherent flaw with the 120s and I don’t want the drama of having to install third party cooling or whatever else, if there’s one thing a router needs it’s stability…- muniz_riSep 18, 2022Apprentice
Sorry to hear about that. I unfortunately missed the Amazon return window and am now stuck with an expensive but unusable router. I've since purchased a TP-Link AXE75 and it has been rock solid.
Also, based on posts from those afflicted by the RAX120v2 random reboot issue...none of the suggested workarounds have worked long term. Including flashing the latest fw and setting up from scratch, placing the router on top of a cooling fan, replacing the power plug, and whatever else has been suggested. If the unit is afflicted by the random reboots it's best to send it back asap as you intend to do.