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RAX80 regularly disconnects devices, then they reconnect
I recently “upgraded” from an R8000 thinking I would have better connectivity and faster speeds. Since purchasing the RAX80 I continually have devices drop their connection at random, then they reco...
My experience with this problem is slightly different. In my case, the RAX80 simply slows a specific (random) system's connection down to a crawl. Rebooting the system dows nothing to fix this. The only fix I've found so far is to reboot the router and problem is gone.
Tech support has suggested changing the MTU setting to 1468. (Advanced>setup>Wan Setup) So far, I haven't noticed any improvement from this.
So they made another suggestion I haven't had the opportunity to check out yet. Here it is:
">>click on advanced on the top of the page
>>Then Select Advanced Setup
>>under Advanced Setup click on Advanced Wireless setting
under Wireless Advanced Settings (2.4GHz b/g/n) under Fragmentation Length (256-2346): changed the number 2346 to 2300
for CTS/RTS Threshold (1-2347): change the number from 2347 to 2301
do the same for Wireless Advanced Settings (5GHz a/n/ac)
Hit apply.
After this please observe the connection at least six hours."Perhaps this is worth a try. I have some other problems with this box. If they can't resolve them, I'g going to ask NetGear to buy the RAX80 back or replace it with something that is stable enough to actually work correctly. - My own optinion is that they shouldn't be messing with public domain code to run this box, generally, this has too many glitches and security issues. - You'd think they could afford to have professionals writing the firmware for these systems.
I to have a Netgear RAX80 router and for the first 5-6 months it ran great. I make sure to keep up on the firmware and for the last few months I have been having problems with it kicking all devices of line. I will see that there connected to the router but have no internet access. First it was once or twice a week and I would have to pull the power cord, count to 30 and plug it back in, and it was working again. then as time passed it would become once every 2-3 days and I would have to hard boot it again. Now it happens sometimes as often as 2 or 3 times a day.
Then on Saturday night 6/6/20 I up dated to firmware 1.0.3.88, and by the next day the RAX80 disconnecting about every 2-3 hours. By Monday it was disconnecting so bad I could not even go online. I spent over 2 hours on the phone with my ISP and we were both thinking their modem had stopped talking to the RAX80 router and they sent me a replacement modem. After doing multiple factory resets and no luck.
I rolled the RAX80 back to firmware 1.0.2.76 and It started kicking everything off once every 2-3 hours.
So, I called up Netgear tech support as I am convinced that the router is having a hardware failure. The first tech support rep refused to help and only wanted me to sign up for a contract that would give me phone or email tech support. As if I am willing to pay for something that the hardware was still under it 1-year warranty. She claimed that this was a common problem and that they have a software fix for it. So, I said great, send me the fix and I would let them know if it works. But there was no way I was going to pay for something that was still within it 1-year warranty. She never sent me the fix. So, I called again and the next tech support went a try to do the same thing and sell me a contract for extra support, and also said they had a fix. But when I again refused to pay more money for something that is within its 1-year warranty and also cost me about $400.00 he hung up on my and closed the case.
So, by this point I am fit to be tied, and I hunted down the email address for Netgear CEO. I sent him an email out lining the details of what was going on, I got an email a few hours later saying that my case had a new case number and I saw in the email notes that my case was reopened per Executive Escalation.
So, I worked with another support tech and he said that I had done all the normal trouble shooting steps and that he said it sounded like I had bad hardware. But then he comes back and tells me his level 2 wanted more trouble shooting done. So now I have given them screen shots, driver information, copies of a firmware back up, and debug files. And I have not heard a word back.
So based on what I have seen online and what the support techs have said, Netgear knows there is either hardware problems or firmware problems, are unwilling to do anything about it other than try to charge the consumer more money and give them really bad customer service.
My old Nighthawk R7000 worked like a champ. So, I am very angry with Netgear over the RAX80 router, and unless they make this right, I will never buy another Netgear product again.
Okay, so my first hunch was absolutley correct. I will explain my findings. I pulled the router out and dusted it off again. After update to the new firmware, (.88), I fired it up as I always have, but DID NOT connect the USB drives. It actually ran flawlessly for 11 days without any attention needed. This was a sucsess IMO. So my next hunch was that it would fail if I were to plug in my Passport USB drive. So after 11 days of sucsessful operation, I pluged it in without rebooting or changing anything. As I thought, within 12 hours, I had WI-Fi issues and lots of things began to disconnect and loose connectivity. So in conclusion, It looks like the issue is somehow related to the USB itegration. Since I do have a netwo
william_shreffl wrote:I to have a Netgear RAX80 router and for the first 5-6 months it ran great. I make sure to keep up on the firmware and for the last few months I have been having problems with it kicking all devices of line. I will see that there connected to the router but have no internet access. First it was once or twice a week and I would have to pull the power cord, count to 30 and plug it back in, and it was working again. then as time passed it would become once every 2-3 days and I would have to hard boot it again. Now it happens sometimes as often as 2 or 3 times a day.
Then on Saturday night 6/6/20 I up dated to firmware 1.0.3.88, and by the next day the RAX80 disconnecting about every 2-3 hours. By Monday it was disconnecting so bad I could not even go online. I spent over 2 hours on the phone with my ISP and we were both thinking their modem had stopped talking to the RAX80 router and they sent me a replacement modem. After doing multiple factory resets and no luck.
I rolled the RAX80 back to firmware 1.0.2.76 and It started kicking everything off once every 2-3 hours.
So, I called up Netgear tech support as I am convinced that the router is having a hardware failure. The first tech support rep refused to help and only wanted me to sign up for a contract that would give me phone or email tech support. As if I am willing to pay for something that the hardware was still under it 1-year warranty. She claimed that this was a common problem and that they have a software fix for it. So, I said great, send me the fix and I would let them know if it works. But there was no way I was going to pay for something that was still within it 1-year warranty. She never sent me the fix. So, I called again and the next tech support went a try to do the same thing and sell me a contract for extra support, and also said they had a fix. But when I again refused to pay more money for something that is within its 1-year warranty and also cost me about $400.00 he hung up on my and closed the case.
So, by this point I am fit to be tied, and I hunted down the email address for Netgear CEO. I sent him an email out lining the details of what was going on, I got an email a few hours later saying that my case had a new case number and I saw in the email notes that my case was reopened per Executive Escalation.
So, I worked with another support tech and he said that I had done all the normal trouble shooting steps and that he said it sounded like I had bad hardware. But then he comes back and tells me his level 2 wanted more trouble shooting done. So now I have given them screen shots, driver information, copies of a firmware back up, and debug files. And I have not heard a word back.
So based on what I have seen online and what the support techs have said, Netgear knows there is either hardware problems or firmware problems, are unwilling to do anything about it other than try to charge the consumer more money and give them really bad customer service.
My old Nighthawk R7000 worked like a champ. So, I am very angry with Netgear over the RAX80 router, and unless they make this right, I will never buy another Netgear product again.
rk server attached, I will leave this drive unpluged for now until the next firmware "FIX" and see how it goes. For now, I encourage you all to give it a try. Seemed rather stable, and I checked wifi speeds daily and didn't have any degragation of signal or speed. Everything worked well........Until I pluged in the USB drive.I absolutely hate that you cant edit a post here once it's been posted. Sorry for the added quote on the last post. I some how screwed up the post and hit the quote button. Another great feature of "Netgear".
My RAX80 is fairly stable on newest firmware after backup settings and then reset & restore settings. There are still quite a few bugs remaining since purchase around February 2019, but I am not seeing any major issues.
I have SmartConnect disabled and as many devices hardwired as possible using two unmanaged switches. The WiFi devices are locked to either 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz. I put all important phones, tablets, and laptops on the 5GHz network and moved to 5GHz DFS higher 80 width channel to reduce interference.
I put SmartHome devices such as lights, Sonos Move or security camera on 2.4GHz lower 20 width lower channel since speed is not required and prefer range for those devices. I also purchased an EAX80 hardwired over Ethernet in AP mode to help spread the load so all Roku devices connect to it on 2.4GHz middle 20 width channel. I put non essential tablets and phones on 5Ghz DFS lower 80 width channel on EAX80 to also help lower interference instead of trying RAX200.
Main issues I still see is temporary LAN disconnection once a day or so. I also sometimes see 5Ghz network disappear, but I think that is due to radar detection forcing router to move off of DFS channel sometimes. Usually switching to another DFS channel gets it back up running quick.
I also see the QoS prioritization levels for devices sometimes change from what I set them too, so have to periodically check to make sure certain devices are low priority such as SmartHome devices and keep Smartphones and tablets at high priority. I get faster speeds on wireless and WiFi with QoS enabled even though I have gigabit service.
Highest wireless speed I have seen was between 700 and 800... average speed for wireless is 500 to 600 depending on time of day and possible interference. Wired speed I routinely see 900 unless issue on Comcast's end.
I had some issues with IP leases being assigned to multiple devices, so took time to reserve an IP for every device on network since don't have many. I removed External HD from router in effort to offload the amount of things it has to juggle. I keep just a small thumb drive plugged in for temporary file storage.
I would like to get a Synology DS198 hardwired over Ethernet to use as NAS, but I don't really need it since I don't have a lot of files to store... until then I have been working on setting up headless Raspberry Pi to handle some NAS functions, smart home hub, DNS server, and possibly a VPN server.
I have two Pi setup for redundancy now since set the PiHole DNS servers in DNS settings of Netgear Router. I have not tried using Pi as DHCP server yet, but may give it a try in order to offload more functions from RAX80.
I don't use Parental Controls, traffic meter, internal VPN service, or Remote Management in RAX80. I have enabled AX, OFDMA, Beamforming, MU-MIMO, and WPA2/WPA3... I tried WPA3 only on 5GHz network since all my 5GHz devices support it but ran into frequent disconnects so switched back to hybrid WPA2/WPA3.
I also enabled the new Bitdefender Armor feature and have not seen drop in performance. Hopefully they will be able to fix remaining the issues soon. I have tried to be patient over last year since spent a lot of money on this thing.
I swore off buying more Netgear equipment at end of last year, but decided to try EAX80 to see if it would help since many of other competitors have issues too or less config options such as no manual channel selection, no DFS support, fixed DNS, single name 5Ghz & 2.4Ghz network, etc...
I originally was going to switch to Amplifi Alien, but after reading the Amplifi forum saw many issues similar to Netgear with less options to work around then due to lack of config options such as DFS or manual channel selection. Some Alien users even had RAX series and saw even worse speeds after switching, so seems like overall these new routers aren't finished.
All we can do is be patient it seems... I work in tech so understand it is hard, but just wish Netgear would communicate more with users so important issues can be resolved sooner. I don't have time to call tech support and seems like a waste since mostly firmware issues that only engineering team can fix. Hopefully Netgear employees following the threads can relay some of our findings and fixes so that a solution can be worked on.