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Forum Discussion
RAX120 Router Random Disconnects
Hey everyone, I know that I'm not the only one with problems on the Nighthawk WiFi 6 devices, but thought I'd post my most recent headache. My hardware consists of a Motorola MB8600 DOCS 3.1 modem w/ 1Gbps service from my ISP, the modem links a RAX120 router via a single 3' CAT6 (i know, overkill), and I have a single 100' CAT5E connecting the RAX120 to a RAX80 in AP mode on the other side of my property. I have a dynamic IP address provided to my modem from my ISP, the modem provides a single address to the RAX120 WAN connection via DHCP, DHCP is configured on the RAX120 to provide a separate NAT for all clients, and the RAX80 has a static IP address set within that NAT subnet. When the problem began today the RAX120 was running FW 1.0.1.114 and the RAX80 is running V1.0.1.70_1.0.30. Nothing in my environment has changed for a month and this issue arose out of nowhere.
Anyway, this morning I noticed that none of my TV streaming devices were able to connect to their streaming services. The streaming device in one side of the house is connected via WiFi (802.11ac) and the device on the other side is connected directly to the RAX80. I found that I was unable to ping any web sites (www.google.com) from my laptop when connected via 5Ghz or 2.4GHz on the router or AP, but I was able to ping the IP addresses for these sites (172.217.0.36). I could ping DNS server IP addresses for my ISP and other public DNS server addresses, yet I couldn't query DNS running on the RAX120 to get a non-authoritative response. However, I did get an authoritative response when I ran an nslookup and specified an external DNS server. After logging into the RAX120 I could see that it was pulling the DNS server IP addresses from my modem as expected, which were some of the same that I was able to ping without issue. I checked the logs and nothing abnormal popped up. Just the standard logins of MAC addresses and some BS DoS from known services. So after kicking the RAX120, everything began functioning again and I was able to query the router get DNS answers.
Issue solved with a simple kick of the router right? Wrong… 20 minutes later the issue reoccurred. This time I took it a step further and sequentially powered down and up the hardware. Modem, router, and AP. Again, the issue was resolved for a short time, but then randomly came back. I dug into the RAX80 logs to see if it was causing the pain and saw the following.
[Time synchronized with NTP server] Sunday, Mar 08,2020 19:50:31
[Internet connected] IP address: X.X.X.X, Sunday, Mar 08,2020 19:50:20
[Initialized, firmware version: V1.0.1.70_1.0.30] Sunday, Mar 08,2020 19:50:20
[Time synchronized with NTP server] Sunday, Mar 08,2020 19:47:26
[Internet connected] IP address: X.X.X.X, Sunday, Mar 08,2020 19:45:57
[Initialized, firmware version: V1.0.1.70_1.0.30] Sunday, Mar 08,2020 19:45:57
[Time synchronized with NTP server] Sunday, Mar 08,2020 18:54:28
[Internet connected] IP address: X.X.X.X, Sunday, Mar 08,2020 18:54:08
[Initialized, firmware version: V1.0.1.70_1.0.30] Sunday, Mar 08,2020 18:54:08
[Time synchronized with NTP server] Sunday, Mar 08,2020 14:27:44
[Internet connected] IP address: X.X.X.X, Sunday, Mar 08,2020 14:27:04
[Initialized, firmware version: V1.0.1.70_1.0.30] Sunday, Mar 08,2020 14:27:04
The FW reinitializing without me intervening with a reboot is a bad sign, so I isolated it out for a factory reset and rebuild. As an aside, the RAX80 has been problematic in the past with it basically corrupting it’s ARP table and not forwarding L2 traffic, so I thought it definitely could be horked once again. Nevertheless, after a rebuild and a few hours later the problem resurfaced.
The next troubleshooting step I took was to upgrade the RAX120 FW to the latest security patch 1.0.1.118, which still didn’t resolve the issue permanently. Now I’ve downgraded the firmware back to 1.0.1.108, and stepped back to .114 and .118 hoping it won’t resurface. It’s been about an hour, so my fingers are crossed. I don’t want to go down the path of a factory reset of the RAX120, cuz it’s a major PITA to redo all my settings with ACLs and port forwarding. I could just restore from the backed-up firmware after a reset though, which is the next step I’ll take if this crops up again.
Thoughts? Let me know if you guys have seen oddities like this and if Netgear is doing anything to actually solve customer problems. I liked the RAX120 cuz I have a system connected via the 5GbE port and NAS via LACP and the performance is great. But this is only one of many problems that I’ve had with these devices and I’m on the verge of giving Netgear the finger to go with a 10GbE switch and some Ubiquiti APs… and thrown psfense back in while I’m at it.
232 Replies
- I did factory reset and the problem returned within the hour.
Did you import a backup of your configuration? I had the problem return after completing a factory reset and importing my settings from the cfg file I had backed up.
- Yeah, to clarify, I did a factory reset and then manually reconfigured it. Did not import my config. But DNS dropped again an hour later.
- Earlier yesterday I flashed my router with the beta patch and 24 hrs later I haven't dropped a connection yet. I'll keep my fingers crossed and will update if the router drops the connection again.
- My router lost Wifi 48 hours after updating firmware. This morning I reset to factory default and will see how long before the next loss of Wifi.
I had this problem. but now it's working good. Here are what I did:
1.Upgrade to .118, reset and then setup router
2.Unplug any thing from USB ports (Critical bug for 2.4G, maybe design fault)
3.Don't use HT160 for 5G （Critical bug for 5G)
4.Enable AX,(lower the ping for 1-3ms)
by the way, 30-30-30 is not working for Rax120, the router won't boot up When I did 30-30-30, That scared me. I thought it's bricked. When I tried to press the reset buttom for 7 sec again, then the router is back without losing any configuration... that's weird.
dcinca wrote:I had this problem. but now it's working good. Here are what I did:
1.Upgrade to .118, reset and then setup router
2.Unplug any thing from USB ports (Critical bug for 2.4G, maybe design fault)
3.Don't use HT160 for 5G （Critical bug for 5G)
4.Enable AX,(lower the ping for 1-3ms)
by the way, 30-30-30 is not working for Rax120, the router won't boot up When I did 30-30-30, That scared me. I thought it's bricked. When I tried to press the reset buttom for 7 sec again, then the router is back without losing any configuration... that's weird.
30.30.30 is no longer needed on modern routers, if anything you will corrupt the memory.
OK, so I have a ticket open with Netgear as well (42483200), for what appears to be this very issue. I am not as tech savvy as most of you, but I do know that my loss of connectivity is similar in nature to what is described by numerous others here. I also note that Windows tells me that when my internet is down, it is a DNS issue. I have isolated the connectivity issues to the router, and a router reboot (via app) always fixes issue, temporarily.
I recently upgraded my internet to Xfinity Gigabit, have a Netgear CM1100 modem connected to the RAX120, firmware 1.0.1.118. I am merely a home user who likes fast internet, and the ability to stream video on multiple devices while simultaneously performing other tasks. We have a variety of devices, including light switches, wall switches, desktop, laptops, iPhones, iPads, Chromecast, and Ring.
Now that I see that this is a pervasive issue with this router, and the unwillingness of Netgear to fix the issue, or even respond to direct questions within this thread, I'm here to ask:
What router do I get in it's place? I'm well within my return timeframe, and the support I've received from Netgear is quite lacking ("24/7 support" apparently means "wait on hold for our 1 customer representative; it may be many hours). I've been using email support instead, which is laborious and choked by inherent delays. I want a router that broadcasts far enough so that I don't lose signal from one end of the house (where the router is) to the other end (our bedroom). I want something that is as future proof as is feasible, within reason. The broadcast distance of the RAX120 is sufficient, and I thought I had a forward-looking router... but it doesn't even work.
Thank you.
- I have the cactus same issue sun this morning, could it be a problem with the recent time change to BST?
Seriously, what router do I get? Customer support just told me to reset my router as if that would resolve the DNS issue.
- Linksys Mesh (which one?)
- TP-Link? (which?)
I wanted to throw out that my RAX120 has started having issues proxying DNS as well. Started last night when it stopped sending traffic to my Pi-Hole for resolution. Nslookup queries to router would return no response, while queries directly to the Pi-Hole would return expected results. Reboots get it going again for a bit, but it eventually drops out after a while.
Router DNS was changed to public servers (Quad 9, Cloudflare, and Google) and was updated to latest public firmware (v1.0.1.118) with no improvements - DNS resolution stopped sometime this morning again.
I currently have a workaround (Pi-Hole is now running DHCP for my network so devices can pick up functioning DNS settings automatically), so I'm not looking for a fix, but I want to make it known to Netgear that this is indeed an issue. FFS, if I wasn't tech savvy I'd be dead in the water having to reboot the router every few hours.
If nothing else, allow users to bypass the stupid DNS proxy and push the actual DNS servers to devices over DHCP. At least the option would allow everyone here to get back to working order.
Same issue on and off for me, too.
To be clear, the problem is that DNS Relay is failing, right? I can manually assign ISP DNS to clients and all is well (or, as mentioned, configure an alternate DHCP Server/DNS Relay Server).
My experience...:
- First noticed it with 1.0.1.114.
- Applied 1.0.1.118 hotfix and neither better nor worse.
- Rolled back to 1.0.1.108 and all was well.
- Applied public release of 1.0.1.118 and no issues for days, perhaps weeks.
- Configured and applied an Upstream QOS policy and rebooted. Now, this evening, I've lost DNS resolution via RAX120 DHCP twice.
- Currently: I removed the QOS and it ran fine for a few hours, no issues and just now re-applied the QOS.
So far so good. We'll see. If it craps out again I have my config backup and FW 1.0.1.108 ready to go if need be. Fingers-crossed :)
Thanks!
Hi,
I too have the same problem. I use the Cloudflare Dns service 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 and after a period of time the router doesn't seem to handle the dns resolving very well. I get a dns resolving error on all of my devices. A change of dns servers or a new apply does go well for a while and after that I get the dns errors again. Where can I get the beta?
Kind regards,
Stephen
FW 118, router randomly disconnected, had to reboot the router.
It is completely disappointed for a high price router like RAX 120.
When will netgear release a 'real' fix for this?
This is not the first time.
As others also mentioned, what also did work, was a factory reset and complete input your settings from scratch(manually). This also worked for me, 36h and counting..
- Already reset it on 4/2
Will see if this fix the problem later.Sditt, FYI: While the date of the .IMG file for the RAX120 1.0.1.118 firmware has changed, the 21 FEB and 25 MAR 2020 versions are byte-for-byte identical.
I got the same issue, came after config by Nightawk app and did some modification over the web UI. Quickly said, RX120 lost is DNS mind, was ok okay for few hours after reboot.
So, do a "factory reset", reconfig it by config by Nightawk app and go to www.routerlogin.net and modify JUST ONCE and ONLY what it need to be modified.
Now my RAX120 is running well since 48 hours, thanks to the commnunity!!!
@ Netgear team,
Can it be fixed please?
In case you all were wondering, after a bit of reading and decising on a mesh network instead of this flaming hunk of junk, I ended up with Google Nest. No, it's not OFDMA, nor is it WiFi-6. The router is only AC2200 and the satellites AC1200.
The sad part is that independent speed testing puts the Google Nest almost as fast in close proximity to the router (~500 Mb/s vs. ~600 Mb/s), but at longer distances, I have increased speed 2-3x. Sad that an "old technology router mesh network" can trounce something as allegedly fancy as the RAX120. I'm also noticing less connectivity issues with my Goole Chromecast and Chromecast Audio netowrk. My tune might change when we actually get WiFi-6 devices, but for the next few years, I imagine I'll be quite happy with this setup.
For the record, I was going to get the Orbi mesh setup (reluctantly because it's Netgear too, and their CS has proven to be a joke), but fortuitously Costco was out, and having done enough reading, I learned that Next was pretty damn good, so 1 impulse purchase later, I'm quite happy. Not to mention that I no longer have a giant Star Wars-esque spaceship cluttering my office.
Yes, I have had similar issues and appreciate your explination of what is going on. My router just lost complete connection again about 5 min. ago. I too have a similar setup but use AX6000 as my WAP. I can still access the GUI and then I have to restart. It is extremely random. I down graded to the hotfix a few months ago, FW V1.0.1.97 to see if it would fix it. It was stable for about 48 hours and then started dropping again. I really wish they would work on a stable FW for such an exensive router.
Ever since the firmware update on my router it has been shutting down every 3 hours and now I'm unable to use any ethernet ports on it also. This is the third replacement I have had, I don't understand how much worse it could get. For a router that is so high priced and no support just blows my mind. I have factory reset and rebooted so many times I don't even get to use my internet. When i do speed test it just sticks and then shoots up to 300 back down to 12 stops for 3 secs and shoots back up. Why hasnt there been an update to this?
V1.0.1.122
There are certian apps and site that no longer seem to let me connect on WiFi since I got this router. It is highly disappointing.
I have finally figured out the issue I am facing. In the advanced tab under WAN setup I checked the box to disable port scan and DoS protection. I then checked the logs to make sure nothing was being added. I tried to log into Pokemon Go and it worked without issue.
I enabled it and it still seemed to work without issue.
I restarted the router, and started to have the similar issue. Once I disabled the Port Scan and DoS protection things worked again. I have it enabled, and I see things in the logs. So I am presuming it is working. I think the Scanner is over zealous. My chrome cast audio is doing Dos Attack: IP Spoofing. The Chrome cast audio only streams music, so I have no idea why its reporting this. Along with my brand new Google Nest Mini, Google home, and all of my chrome casts. IT would be nice if the Logs included a Destination. Then a simple fix would be if there was a way to allow it.
So I am not sure which issue is causing the problem but it is horrible, that a router this expensive has these issues. I had the R7000 before this and it was awsome. As it aged I did install DD-WRT. Now all I want is the R7000 back with DD-WRT.
So right now my options are disabled the Protection and then hope when I enable it, it is really working as expected, or not have the router work as expected.
If support would like to talk about it I would be more than happy to go over it.
(Side note why does it take such a long time to restart)
- I also went from R7000 to RAX120, before everything was perfect, now it's a disappointment. I changed to switch to Wifi6, but the result, given the expense, is unsatisfactory. In all this, seeing that none of Netgear intervenes in this discussion to support a solution leaves me dumbfounded.
