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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.
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.
Just a follow up. So Netgear finilly RMA'd my RAX80 router, after I raise all kinds of hell. My router by the way disconnected all devices 4 times today.
Now here is the part that worries me. They said after I get the replacement as they can't quarenty that It won't have more problems with the replacement. That they will need me to run another debug and give them those logs.
So this is the way I read that. They are expecting it to fail as well and have problems, and they want me to be one of the people they are useing as test subjects so they can fix their firmware at the user's expence.
So, at this point I am crossing my fingers.
- Read the terms and conditions for the rma because likely you will get a refurbished unit rather than a completely new one.
There are already several users who have had their RAX80 replaced already only to find exactly the same problems.- And yeah, that's modern software companies for you.... I like to call it the Google generation.
Now that we have OTA updates available, most companies reduce their testing to zero because their are millions of people who will do it for them & pay you for the privilege.
Why waste your own money on testing when there are lots of people who will spend hours finding issues, going through the open source code, etc
GabboCH wrote:
And yeah, that's modern software companies for you.... I like to call it the Google generation.
Now that we have OTA updates available, most companies reduce their testing to zero because their are millions of people who will do it for them & pay you for the privilege.
Why waste your own money on testing when there are lots of people who will spend hours finding issues, going through the open source code, etcIt's worse than that... some users test and report and many of the companies gaslight the users by blaming them or ignoring the issues. I gave up on Google Home products after running into so many issues and support doing nothing... issue I reported over year ago still isn't fixed even though many people reported it now. Saw a recent email from Google support asking people to try moving devices closer to router lol... as if no one with the issue uses Ethernet. Google is not the Google I grew up with anymore unfortunately.