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Forum Discussion
Rax80 smart connect issue wifi dropping
Ive been having issues with my RAX80 since purchasing it , if i leave the router with the seperate bands (2.4ghz &5ghz) it runs fine but once i activate smartconnect all i get is intermittent connection all the devices connected wirelessly disconnect and reconnect randomly .
If anyone else has had this issue and has found a way to fix it i would greatly appreciate it .
If anyone else has had this issue and has found a way to fix it i would greatly appreciate it .
206 Replies
Hi Greekst - Welcome to the NETGEAR Community! Would you mind telling us what firmware version the router is on and how long it takes for each device to reconnect?
~Christianhello
the current firmware is v1.0.1.62
when this happens devices disconnect and reconnect every 30-60 seconds , its very random and inconsistent.
currently having to leave the router without smart connect on to alleviate this.
Greekst - Thanks for confirming. I'd like for our Support Team to look into this for further investigation. Please send me a message with your contact info and serial number.
~Christian
I just upgraded to this router today and updated the firmware to the newest V1.0.1.62_1.0.26 and I am having the same issues with smart connect. When I first booted up the router and connected to it with my phone it was crushing speed tests. Then I decided to enable smartconnect because I had been using a two network setup and thought what the heck. Immediately my phone started dropping connectivity very frequently and all the devices on my network were locked to 2.4ghz. Speed was obviously affected along with the connectivity. My phone would barely make it a couple minutes without a webpage not loading and me having to refresh it for 10-15 seconds until it reconnected. I couldn't even barely log into the nighthawk app to turn smart connect off because it kept disconnecting on the app. Anyway I disabled it and it has been working flawlessly on all devices. Also all the devices that were locked on 2.4 are now on 5ghz except one smart home device that is 2.4. Thought I would share since this seems to be an issue with this firmware.
Hi Team
I have a same problem before and after update the firmvare to the als version V1.0.162_1.0.26..
Two o more times at day lost the 2.4gh wifi .... how can I fix this. I work by internet and this get a lot of troublem with my clients.
Juan
I am having this same issue. I disabled the Smartwifi (2.5 -5ghz auto switching). It got better. I did notice another poster in this thread was soley in Access Point (AP) mode. This is how I keep my configuration. I wonder if this issue hasn't really been uncovered because the primary use for this is in router mode. I still get issues with my RAX80 AP just dropping. Its like the AP stops working and reboots and disconnects all clients. On my phone Ill attempt to reconnect but it will give me a "password incorrect" error. I will enter the correct password (even though its stored in my phone) and it will still give me the error. I will go and reboot the AP and once it comes back up everything reconnects back to normal with no issues. I ran wifi analyser in my house and while the 2.4 ghz network is slightly congested, the 5ghz is virtually wide open and my 5GHZ has its own channel. with no others nearby.
I am running V1.0.1.64_1.0.27 which is the latest version I have automatically avaialbe from my router's software (as of 09/29/2019).
Also, a side issue, when I attempt to configure my 5GHZ from long preamble to short preamble, the configuration will not save. The 2.4Ghz network applies and saves just fine. I have done this serveral times. I have attempted this before and after a restore
- I have the exact same problem as AGJ. Hard connection works, however my WiFi is exactly as previously described since the last update. Please patch this soon, my WiFi is not reliable at all.
- Terrible connection reliability!!! Really frustrated! I’m going to revert to a lower model! It worked way better than this one!!! Weird!!!
I just purchased this router yesterday, and after a painful setup process it works fine now - but I also cannot get the preamble on 5GHz to save when I change it to Short Preamble.
Has anyone found a fix for this?
I found that after updating the firmware, some settings turned themselves off/on (Coexistence on 2.4Ghz, as an example, turned itself off).
Also getting really poor performance on the 2.4GHz range with the channel set to Auto. Going to flip it to Manual and see how I go.
It's not working fine now by your own admission. Poor performance on 2.4 isin't working fine.
Welcome to the mess that this router is on a daily basis, like I said before, if you have the opportunity to return it do it and save yourself a lot of headache and money.
My night Hawk AX8 yesterday after I turned of smart wi-fi so that the 2.4 and 5g would be seperate I,set up for the 2.4 and a little while later it started to lose connection then came back and I sat there and watched it fade away to nothing and I had to connect to 5g and so far it is holding but before that the router updated itself when it got installed I am thinking that that mighjt be the problem ? or maby I just got a bad one but on the 5g nothing has needed to be reconnected
- I think you are correct because this was the same behaviour I experienced with the RAX80 out of the box (after an automatic update).
Try performing a factory reset & setting up your router again.
This seemed to work for me.Thank you for the reply and I will give that a try witgen the next 2 days
I'm having this exact same issue with my brand new RAX200 - enabling Smart Connect makes the devices drop and reconnect every couple seconds/minute. I've tried permutations of almost every setting and nothing seems to help. Now I turn off Smart Connect and it seems to have fixed things to a degree but not entirely.
I'm AMAZED that you can buy a TOP OF THE LINE router from an established company and have this many pervasive errors! I would LOVE netgear to contact me because I have a LIST of bugs from their Android app, router setup, router web interface, etc, but I know I would talk to some wage slave who is simply reading a script to me. I'd need to talk to a developer or a business analyst that takes ownership and CARES about the success of the product and not just the units sold per quarter.
It's like they haven't QAed this thing AT ALL.
Very frustrated - this will be the LAST Netgear product I ever own! Shame!
So I'm not alone with my RAX120 (firmware version 1.0.0.84). You buy top-of-the-line, so you think, and get this. How this made it out of testing is a mystery? I can't keep a consistent connection (Wifi), on any of my devices, and the router is literally on the same floor, just one plaster wall away, maybe 20ft, maximum bars for signal strength. Also the speed, which should have been around 240Mbps down, was more like 40 on most devices.
I disabled Smart Connect, AX and 20/40 MHz channel co-existence, in a desparate attempt to stabilize the Wifi. I don't which of the 3 does it, but it's better. What's the point of buying a router with all these features if you have to disable them all just to get a stable connection?
Netgear is about to lose a long-time faithful customer. I wonder if they care.
Yes... the router says I'm on the latest firmware as of right now and has been rebooted AND power-cycled more times than I care to think about. I've yet to do the factory reset.
For what it's worth, someone saw my rant about my RAX200 and Netgear actually called me on the phone last night. It was only a level 2 tech, so they couldn't do anything other than take a ton of notes. I detailed several bugs and still have several more to give them when they call back tomorrow.
They said "this is a young product, so there are probably still issues". Reassuring? For $600, this router should be a Rolls Royce. It's feeling more like a proof of concept product to me.
They were able to offer no assistance other than the canned responses predicted "did you try changing channels, did you do a factory reset". Well the answers are YES and YES.
To be continued...
I am have the same issue I have a AX80, but it's my 3rd device. I and secarching for anotrher device with better reliablity. All of my issue have statred after a firmwear update.
Firmware Version V1.0.3.102_1.0.48
I've been working with various LVL2 techs and (I assume) at least one behind the scenes engineer, and the advice I have received has included:
1) Use old firmware
2) Disable AX
3) Avoid using DFS channels
I'm now doing these 3 things and monitoring the connections. Obviously consumers buy this model because they expect to use AX (the biggest selling point OFDMA), and DFS (for wide band channel utilization = speed) so having to keep these settings disabled really neuters the router.
I can keep everyone posted as to my success but for now you may want to follow suit and disable AX and use non-DFS channels until Netgear figures out what is going on with our routers.
The fact that the same issue occurs in several model numbers makes me think the issue may be in the implementation of the feature itsel f and not a specific hardware configuration, but I'm no RF engineer by trade. Just software.
I returned my unit to the store. Fundamental flaws like this are inexcusable in an expensive router (I had the $600 TriBand flagship monitor), and just demonstrates that Netgear rushed this WiFi-6 series to market in an effort to gain marketshare over competitors like ASUS.
I've been a lifelong Netgear user but this is my last Netgear product. I'll try another WiFi-6 router in 6-12 months when the technology has matured, but I won't be selecting a Netgear model.
I'm having the same issues. Did you get something else?
This is the 2nd time of trying to post, seems my disconnect issues prevent it posting successfully the first time.
I am not able to create a support case, as my 90 days ended last month, however I would like some comment from Netgear support please.
As with others I purchased what should be a top of the range device for a not insignificant amount of money, right now it's useless to me. The disconnects are happening almost every minute at their worst the latest firmware v1.0.1.64_1.0.27 that I applied this morning!
I'm not using Smart Connect, or any of the DFS channels and have disabled AX, with no improvement seen. After 3 efforts to download an old version of the firmware, I'm now going to retro-fit that in the hope I can actually get some work done this afternoon
Netgear support - how are you going to resolve these issues which are impacting your customers? My prefenerce at this stage would be a full refund so I can buy a product that actually does what it says it should!!
Given the lack of traction to resolve issues so far, I encourage everyone to comment on Netgear Facebook and Twitter feeds if they exist, to complaion about this.
Has anyone come across a fix for this issue yet?
When I turn off smart connect the wifi drops are reduced, but still occur.
I have been through two units, Netgear sent me a new RAX80, (same problems on both) I also tried multiple firmware revs.
The last firmware tested was 1.0.1.64 and yes I attempted older versions as well before I got so frustrated I took the router offline until this problem can be addressed by Netgear.
I needed a stable network so I went back to my R7900.
If anyone has found a solution please let me know. I would not mind even hearing that Netgear has finally acknowledged the problem. Their support certainly has not. Sorry for the frustrated post. It is a very expensive paper weight.
Further up in this post there is a message from Christian_R from Netgear that their engineers are looking into an issue.
However, so far theres no confirmation of which issues they are aware of (because there seem to be some many) or a timeline for any resolution.
- GabboCH
Thank you for the reply. I've decided to leave it in the family room (turned off) and I tell people it is a model of a new Star Wars fighter. At least it looks good.
I have never had to look at Netgear Router reviews before because the products have been so good. I now regret purchasing the RAX80 router its so unstable. The router either drops out or drops to a lower band output. Please let me know if a major firmware update is due to correct these problems
Hi Binstead5,
Welcome to the Community! If you recently purchased the device, I would recommend contacting our Support Team using the link below.
https://www.netgear.com/support/default.aspx
Christian
- Well. Went back to the drawing board. Removed my RAX80 and EAX80 went back to my ATT Arris BGW210-700 added their Airties 4920 extender. Not as blazing fast but at least it is stable. Now I have useable internet in my front room and the devices connected to the extender can stream without buffering. Not sure what to do with my $600 in Netgear garbage. If I sell it I am sure I will get a request for a return. Stuck with an expensive paperweight. Months and no solution
- Hey all. I've bit the bullet and returned mine to amazon for a full refund. I was outside of the 90 day full warranty but as it's a 2 year hardware warranty they honoured the refund due to the fact it was not fit for purpose. Being told to disable the AX function to make the router work is just unacceptable. The funds are now back in my account. I will be waiting for black Friday to get another AX router. I wouldn't say no to another netgear but will be making sure I fully check reviews before Re purchasing. I noticed the price of this model has dropped £50 since the recent issues. Hope you all get resolutions.
Excellent, it's good you were able to return it for a refund!
After offering me an RMA, Netgear closed the issue as resolved! Ridiculous.
