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Forum Discussion
RAX40 Firmware 1.0.3.80 Crash/Bug Log
Hello folks, can everyone please log all the issues they are experiencing with the RAX40 router on 1.0.3.80 firmware under this thread, I see there are several threads going on about the issue, figured if we collect them all under one location, Netgear may take a look at the issues?
My issue are;
- The firmware broke the connectivity with the EAX20 WiFi Extender, extender can not connect to the router
- Same situation doesn't exist with EX7500 Router
- With Smart Connect I experience some wifi connection drops with mobile devices.
389 Replies
I just joined the forum and came here to talk about this. Since I've upgraded (from 1.0.3.64) the router has been unstable.
Initially I thought it was because I was starting to enable some of the wifi 6 features, but after setting everything back to how I had it prior to the upgrade, I still have issues.
Here are the things that don't work properly for me
Smart Connect - when enabled, my wifi devices which support 2.4G and 5G will drop from the network for several seconds. I thought it was a Smart Connect feature, but I disabled it and I still get the issue. This (disconnects) wasn't an issue before this firmware.
I run 2 DHCP servers (primary/secondary) on the network. I have Guest Wifi is a separate SSID but it is "allowed to see devices on my network" - and should get an IP from these servers. However, they connect to the SSID but do not get an IP address. This also was not an issue before this firmware.
The router "stops" responding and the web interface doesn't respond. y that, I mean, I cannot ping the router IP and cannot get on the admin web interface, but can still get to the internet. Devices connected to wifi can ping other devices, just not the router IP. The only way to get access back to the router is by rebooting it. I've done this 5-6 times since I installed the firmware on Sunday 2020-06-14. This ALSO was not an issue before this firmware.
It's very frustrating. I haven't had my router for a long time - longer than 90 days, but less than a year. I'm actual VERY unhappy with it. Granted the amount on money I spent isn't a lot, but I've had cheaper routers that performed better and provided better functionality - I got this one because of 802.11ax. Working with this router makes me think of the scene in the movie Office Space where they smash the printer with a baseball bat. If I had a baseball bat, I probably would have smashed the router by now.
If I didn't actually NEED to use the router, I'd factory reset it and find every single flaw by testing and documenting everything meticulously.
If this router keeps "working" like this, I'm going to order a different router and just bin this one. And NEVER buy another Netgear device.
Sorry that this has become a rant!
I forgot to add another issue I had, though this one I had before this firmware. I'm not sure when it was introduced, but I was reminded of it by reading some of the other posts.
Devices that connect to 5G are sometimes getting denied access even though the PSK is correct but connect fine not the 2.4G SSID. This gets "fixed" with a reboot.
And I said that sometimes the router stops responding but I can still get to the internet, well I had also noticed that sometimes that's not the case, but thought it was my internet provider. It's possible the router crashed and rebooted. Again, this didn't happen until this firmware.
I can't reproduce it so I don't always know when it's one thing or another.
Now this is so frustrating because with COVID restrictions, my wife and I are both working from home and notice these issues more frequently.
Hello,
A brand new issue with 1.0.3.80 : after "some time - less than 2 days" Attached Devices is corrupted : it shows only wired or not the 5GHz or ... or some strange unknown devices with IP address out of local domain...
BR
Ron
agreed. i will NEVER buy another netgear device. absolute garbage and terrible tech support
- Part of our problem is we are posting complaints in here nobody reads them but us with the issues, netgear is not reading these forums. Start complaining social media sites and computer blogs and computer magazine websites. Maybe it will then get attention for a fix
I am experiences the same issues as above, i had to downgrade to .64 so i could continue working from home. very annoying.
I also wanted to add that there's still an issue with devices on 5G getting rejected even though the PSK is correct. They can connect to 2.4G with the same PSK. This issue was happening before this version, but it hasn't been fixed.
Minor thing: They misspelled "unknown" - says "unknow" for detected devices.
I mentioned that sometimes the router is unreachable but the internet is. That's not proven to be the case all the time this happens. There are times when it does drop the internet connection and in fact, if on wifi, non of the other devices are reachable. If I'm on the LAN, I am not connected to the router asI have a switch, and all devices that are NOT on the router are reachable. Those that are on LAN on the router, are not reachable.
I have also noticed that although log is suppose to show everything (all checkboxes are ticked) - there's a lot of things that do not show up. I don't see wifi devices connecting, etc. I only get DOS notifications and access to LAN from internet (port forwarded). And disconnect/connect to internet. Other than that, I don't see anything else.
That's it. This garbage had to go. I downgraded to 64. I am going to start shopping for something else.
- Have the same issue as all the others. Today my ssids won’t allow anything connect clawing wrong password. I get disconnects, reboots, slow connection et al. I’m diasspointed. Went through tech support last week and thought it fixed it. This is a defective product due to firmware, Netgear deserves to give us Our money back. This is a joke. Stand with me all who posted. I don’t like saying 200 bucks for a bad product I owned in six months is a fair loss. This is garbage. Makes working from Home a nightmare.
Hello,
please let us know your choice as I'm/w're bored with this so bad product !!!!
BR
Ron
I'm experiencing the same issues on the .80 firmware i.e. Disconnection of all devices with or without SmartConnect activated. Two different scenarios noted:
1. Auto disconnection if no activity
2. All devices dropped if one device is taken out of range (As stupid as it sounds, after I went out of my apartment and came back, all devices got disconnected while my phone did not connect back)
Reverted to 64 and things are back to normal.
I am running into similar issues. The WiFi becomes unstable once some devices have some drop in signal strength. Did a speed test under these conditions with QoS on and the results are all over the place, very unstable. Wired was ok. Interestingly I haven't really determined a failure pattern on the 2.4ghz signal but it crashes hard, disconnects all devices and freezer the router web interface. Interestingly the 5G side of the router continues to work but the wired portion is random. Somtimes the wired continues to work, other times the port goes dead.
I downgraded to the previous firmware version and all problems dissapeared.
Someone really messed this one up I think.
Also.... how do I get the lights blinking again. It gives me the option to turn off blinking but no option to turn them back on. Is this another firmware omission? Even the manual talks about changing blinking status on and off but the option doesn't seem to exist to turn blinking back on. Let me know if anyone knows about this. I run many devices and sometimes need to troubleshoot communication issues. If would be nice if I could do some of this without opening up monitoring software.
I followed a user's recommendation from another thread and reset the router, installed the latest .80 firmware and reset it again. Set up the router from scratch instead of restoring saved settings.
I then disabled/did not enable the following:
- Smart Connect
- 20/40 MHz coexistence
- Implicit BEAMforming
I enabled WPA2 and WPA3 security.
The router is working fine now. No drops if there is no activity and able to reconnect after going out of range.
Before my earlier post, I had reset the router and setup from scratch and it obviously did not work. I don't know if the combination of steps helped or the change in settings.
If anybody wants to troubleshoot without resetting the router, you could try disabling the 20/40 MHz coexistence (in Advanced --> Wireless Setup) and see if it works. A Google search of the feature led me to an unrelated forum where turning it off helped improve extender connectivity.
Hello Nighthawk AX Community,
Thanks for sharing your feedback. I'll have the information forwarded to our product teams. In the meantime, may you confirm and let me know if reverting to the previous firmware version helps.Thanks,
Christian
Christian_R My EAX20 + RAX40 connectivity issue indeed gets resolved with a lower version of the firmware.
Yes, this is confirmed. Returns back to normal functionality with the firmware before this latest release. Has been running fine now for a few days.
Hello Community,
Thanks for confirming that reverting back to the previous FW helps with the issues. I've forwarded the feedback to our product teams and I'll update the thread as soon as I can.
Shout out to Retired_Member for starting a bug thread as this process helps us and our product teams consolidate the feedback.
Best regards,
Christian
- Yes reverting to previous firmware stabilizes the router. If I upgrade again it will render it useless, I’ve upgraded and downgraded several times. I have spent who knows how many hours on the phone with netgear support and they exchanged router for a new one. Issues still persist as soon as I upgraded to 1.0.3.80. This is a major issue since we are not able to use wpa3 unless we update firmware. Is a fix being worked on?
- Yes.. if you’ve been following the discussion around the forums a number of us have been testing beta versions which include numerous fixes. I don’t use WPA3 so cannot comment on that. However I haven’t had any dropouts with the latest beta I’ve been shared by the Netgear engineer and I have ax enabled and have not disabled anything.
- Posted this back on 9 June:
I updated RAX35 firmware from 1.0.3.62 to 1.0.3.8, wifi stopped working twice in 24 hrs. First time reboot fixed it, second time all lights were green but no wifi so I connected laptop to router and checked status. Everything looked normal, but noticed my 5G ssid had changed to RAX40-PSUEDO5G. I could not reset this - tried several times. Reverted back to 1.0.3.62 and all is fine again. Any thoughts on what might cause this? I will not be upgrading firmware anytime soon. Two major issues after 1.0.3.80 upgrade:
A. Every time after reboot, the saved access control MAC addresses and access rights are completely and randomly corrupted. The only solution so far is to factory reset the router, which is very frustrating.
B. I tried to back up the settings to save some work after factory reset. But the backup file does not contain the saved MAC addresses and access rights at all! That means I have to re-enter a whole list of MAC addresses and names every time after a reboot. Can the support team include access control data into the backup file / restore process please?
A relatively less critical issue is the wrong password problem after switching to WPA3 (Personal). The router fails to recognize saved WIFI password. A fallback workaround is to use the WPA2+WPA3 option instead of WPA3 (Personal). Obviously it is a bug, however.
A 2 GB hard drive is connected to the router, through the router it is not visible on the network
I have an RAX40 in AP mode connected to C7000. Since FW update, the RAX40 just isn't there - it is completely invisible and nothing will connect to it (in AP mode). Super frustrating. Worked fine until FW update.
