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Forum Discussion
RAX200 2.4 band issues
Hello,
Since purchasing the Nighthawk RAX200 router I have been having connetivity issues with some of my 2.4ghz band devices. These devices only connect to this band. The devices more specifically are a Nokia weight scale, and a WEMO wifi plug. The scale outright says my password is incorrect, and the plug intermittently has connection ( does not have connection more than it does ) The only fix I have found to resolve this issue is turning off the ax features and OFDMA... This is partially fine with me being that it has not affected wifi performance; however bothers me 1) because it's a cost benefit feature of the router, and 2) I had the RAX120 and upgraded to the RAX200 for the Tri-band. With the RAX120 I did not have these same issues with the ax OFDMA feature turned on. The other problem I had when moing to the RAX200 is using the NAS and DLNA features, it hardly worked and I finally got so frustrated with it I bought a readynas system. This feature also had no issues with the RAX120. So the question: Is this a firmware problem? Possible hardware defect? Or is there any other logical explanation that maybe I am not understanding. I'm more apt to think a firmware issue since it's a new router; as well as some of the other weird glitchy issues I have been having with this product.
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Could be firmware or hardware or both. The RAX200 is a Broacom platform which is still behind the RAX120 which is a Qualcomm one, especially on the AX front. Broadcom still needs to get its act together on WiFi6. It's hard to diagnose but since you say turning off OFDMA partially fixes the issue, I guess it interferes on some driver level. Broadcom's SDK is a mess and so are its drivers which are all closed source so we can only guess what is wrong with them
Thanks for the reply. Although not a solution, it makes sense. Seems as though I may be better off going back to the RAX120 or another brand altogether as I am getting tired of some one these firmware quirks with Netgears newer routers.
I had the same type of problem after 2 factory resets nothing, so I reninstalled the latest firmware did a factory reset and it finally worked.
- I ended up returning the RAX200 and going back with the RAX120 minus slightly lower 5Ghz band speeds at range it is far less glitchy. I actually had the RAX200 randomly reboot a couple times, power cycle and not have it turn back on. Very frustrating.
- Well this router is terrible. When it decides too "act up" it doensn't hand out IP addresses (instead provides 169. addresses which means the devices can't speak to the router), won't allow the admin to connect to the console via the "speedy" app that takes forever to load, especially if you tell it to query attached devices, and lately with the latest firmware it just drops the wifi connection, doesn't allow you to connect, and doesn't stay stable for more than a few hours.
On with technical support, had to pay $50.00 for what I feel is cheap hardware at this point. Never had so many problems as I have with this model. Restored the firmware with the L2 tech. Stable for a couple of hours then boom. Wifi stops working and all devices are dead in the water.
Also started to run debug captures - here's another lame issue with support - they only allow up to 10MB. The capture was 30 MB and oh yeah, you NEED TO BE CONNECTED TO RUN IT FOLKS - so what do you do when the router isn't shelling out IPs and Wifi is down. They said get a laptop and connect it. Ummm, most laptops now don't have ethernet ports anymore. So thanks for that not helpful recommendation. I sent 3 captures under 30 MB, no response from support. This is what I feel like what happens when support is outsourced overseas. It's bad enough their product doesn't just work - serve up stable wifi (and I'm sitting 3' from the router) - no walls, microwaves, anything. No router changes than the most recent firmware with "Circle" and "Armor" support which is cool but clearly this firmware is an issue as it wasn't a problem prior. So... if you restore to factory settings, it simply re-updates once you reset your entire router up again! This is CRAZY frustrating. A router that costs this much should NOT be this unstable period.
Model: RAX200|Nighthawk Tri-band AX12 12-Stream Wi-Fi 6 Router Had exactly the same issue - solution was to run in access point mode and turn off the 2.4 radio. Using another AP for the 2.4 band. I know not a solution
however - the latest firmware appears to be more stable and I have reverted to using the 2.4 band without any issues in 2 days. So solution may be in the firmware now.
Scottish wrote:Had exactly the same issue - solution was to run in access point mode and turn off the 2.4 radio. Using another AP for the 2.4 band. I know not a solution
however - the latest firmware appears to be more stable and I have reverted to using the 2.4 band without any issues in 2 days. So solution may be in the firmware now.
I've updated to latest firmware; I'm still having the same flaky (non-existent) support for the 2.4 band. And worse, the Admin app and phone app aren't able to connect anymore. This device is GARBAGE.
100% Agree the RAX200 is garbage. Maybe Netgear should recall it. $100 routers outperform this thing
It's mid August '20 and I'm having this issue. The workaround was to disable all OFDMA features AND MU-Mimo. I also had to forego my original SSID and disable SmartConnect. I finally now have stable wifi on all 3 bands, but my gosh what a mess of a beta router this is. Get your firmware together Netgear and allow us to use all the features we're paying for!
