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Forum Discussion
Problems w/ New WiFi 6 Nighthawk 8AX - EAX80 Range Extender w/ New WiFi 6 Nighthawk AX12 - RAX200
Please help.
I am a long time Netgear customer, and have been buying Netgear products since the early 2000s. Upon receiving my Nighthawk AX8 (EAX80) and configuring it I found myself fairly disappointed. I'm hoping to find a solution to my issue, or a promise it will be resolved soon or else I'm going to return this product.
A little background about my home and myself. I have 1gbps internet fiber connection from Sonic.net, a smartTV, AppleTV, several game consoles, apple "I" devices/ watches, and IoT devices, kindles, etc... You might say I'm a heavy user, we even have port forwarding and static IPs set up as well for game servers. I also have a background in computer engineering, and reguallarly do software web architecture level work as part of my job. I understand IP4 really well, and have set up a few dozen networks in my life.
Over the last few years I've set up 2 Orbi systems and saw how amazing Mesh Networking was and couldn't wait to get it in my home, however, the Orbi system does not have the configurability that I need -- it's great for basic internet, but it can't handle the features that I am used to on a full featured router.
With the announcement of WiFi 6 I was excited to upgrade to increased range, and improve the peformance with the 40-50 devices on my local network. Again Orbi seemed targeted to more modest users, and so I waited for the Netgear Nighthawk WiFi 6 AX12 ( RAX200 ). I also bought a Netgear Nighthawk SX10 Pro Gaming Switch ( GS810EMX-100NAS ), because the AX12 didn't have enough ethernet ports on it. The AX12 has been a modest upgrade from the X10 ( R9000 ) that it replaced.
In the month that I was waiting I updated some of the cables so I could get the 2.5 Multi-Gig bandwidth that the SX10 Switch and the AX12 router support.
Now comes the AX8 Extender and it comes with minimal instructions, it seems to only have 4x 1 Gig ports, and so far it's performance has been poor at best. I have tried the device in a few different configurations and locations and here is what I have found, with my iPhone 11 Pro using Speedtest to Sonic.net's servers.
Placed the Ext in the kitchen, the router is 1 room away separated by 1-2 walls or about 25-35ft. In this case I get about 15-30% (100-200mbps) of my max performance standing right next to it. To the Master Bedroom 1 room / 2 walls away / 15-20 ft away, the bandwith get's cut to 5-8% ( 40-80mbps ).
Placed in the Office, the router is 1 room + a hallway away, separated by 2-3 walls or about 35-50 ft. The bandwidth stadning right next to it was 2-6% of my available bandwith ( 20-60mbps ), and stadning in the bedroom was about 20 mbps.
Placed in the Bedroom, the performance was about the same as the office, just flipped.
Since, I have a 1gbps Cat-6 connection in the Office, I tried to connect the AX8 Extender in the ethernet connection, but then the bandwith drops to ZERO (0). I think this is because of a loop that's created, and the SX10 Switch might be killing the port.
I looked for a wired back haul ethernet setting in the AX8's web interface but there is not one. I know that even the Orbi's now support a wired backhaul.
Netgear my Goal was simple, get WiFi 6 level performance under ONE Single SSID for my whole home. As of now I have switched back to using the AX12 (R9000) Router, and using my Nighthawk AC1900 (R7000) in AP Mode with a second SSID.
How do I get to WiFi 6 level performance ( 300mpbs - 1gpbs+ ) on a single SSID, and keep the ability to have port forwarding?
- Is it possible to have a wired backhaul with the AX8? Will it ever be possible?
- Is it possible to have my R7000 in a Mesh Networking mode so I can have a single SSID?
- Is it possible to run the ORBI WiFi 6 edition nodes and have a wired backhaul with my R9000 and have a signle SSID?
- Is Netgear coming out with a new product that better addresses these needs?
- Will the AX8 be improved, was it launched in a buggy state and these issues will be fixed soon?
- Does the AX8 dedicate WiFi lanes from my AX12 ( R9000 ) and reduce the maximum bandwidth of my other WiFi 6 devices?
66 Replies
- I'm having the same issue. I have a RAX120 and the EAX80. The EAX80 can only get about 50mbps on the 5gbz., doesnt matter if it is sitting right next to it. Netgear support verified the issue doing remote desktop to show them. Sent me a brand new EAX80. Guess what, doing the exact same thing. EAX8P 5ghz is slower than 10% of 2.4ghz.
Hello david85297,
Welcome to the community! Curious to know if you gotten a chance to get in contact with our support team again after receiving your replacement?
Thanks,
Christian
- There is no point, it isnt hardware related, it is software related. Both devices act the same way.
Hello david85297,
If you can send me a private message with your case number and email address and I can see if we can get your case escalated. Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Best,
Christian
- Please let me know if you’ve found a viable solution. I have a very similar setup, except that I have the RAX80 as my main router. Performance with the EAX80 is horrible at best. I would love to find a solution before I return this supposed mesh extender.
I returned mine, and I'm on two SSIDs, I'm fairly disappointed.
WiFi 6 in the front of the house and WiFi 5 in the back, and when WiFi 6 goes into power save mode, devices switch to the farther away router.
I also seem to be having issues with a very recently purchased EAX80. It was set up as an extender with the RAX80 and evrything looked great, but after about two days my WiFi internet speed dropped to nearly zero.
In two instances when this happened, I powered down the EAX80 and the speed immediately jumped back up to normal. I am also noticing that the EAX80 drops out of view in the Nighthawk app.
I originally just wanted the EAX80 as a fast access point for my ethernet printer, and I saw the range extending capabiliy as a plus. Now I am not so sure. If the EAX80 silently disables my WiFi, it is certainly not worth the aggravation.
Any ideas?
Every owner of the EAX80 is experiencing the same issue. And Netgear clearly has no resolution... after 10 calls nothing is posted here. It's time for a revolt... or a class action lawsuit.
Hello brian5s,
Welcome to the community! I'd like to work with you on the issue you're reporting. If you're interested, please send me a private message with your network topology and the firmware versions of the the extender and router.
Thanks,
Christian
- Thank you for the offer to help, but I got so fed up that I returned it today. My X6S works much better. Just reconnected that one in extender mode to the RAX80. I thought that an AX to AX mesh extender would perform much better than the X6S. Not the case.
- I'm having the same issue. I have a R9000 with ddwrt and the EAX80. The EAX80 can only get about 56mbps on the 5gbz in WiFi N in vht160. Even if I put the extender near to the router or far to the router.
Is my second Netgear extender (I’ve migrate from ex8000) and the two have a lot of problems.
I have the same issue - bought the RAX200 and EAX80 with great confidence that surely products from the same company will work well together. Frequent drops - cannot get Airprint to work - products not showing up in the app - just maddening to spend that kind of money to have these kinds of issues. Mine two devices are going back tomorrow unless there is some miracle over night
I have an RAX80 Wifi6 router and just got the EAX80 in hopes of performing better than the EX8000 tri-band mesh extender. Boy was I wrong. After reading all of these complaints about the EAX80, I totally can relate to all the poor performance problems. After rebooting, it seems to be performing well but test after test shows that the wifi performance is actually poor despite it showing a high connection status. It cannot even perform as good as the EX8000 X6S that it was SUPPOSED to replace. The X6S is a solid rock compared to this over-priced EAX80. I will hold on to it and hope for a firmware update after seeing all of these complaints but will be using the X6S only for now. I'm really disappointed in Netgear for releasing this EAX80
I have exactly the same issue as everyone else on this thread. I bought the EAX80 over a week ago and its very poor, it gives only 52% signal 6ft 5ghz away from the router setting up even next to the router you only get 83% 5ghz. I am on a bt 900/110Mbps package I've ran several tests and only get 260/100Mbps speedtest.net I bought this to upgrade from my EX8000 extender I have now reverted back to my EX8000 which is so much better I get 690/110Mbps on the same setup and same position for both extenders. Is Netgear goig to fix this issue in an update does anyone know thanks
carys4 wrote:I have an RAX80 Wifi6 router and just got the EAX80 in hopes of performing better than the EX8000 tri-band mesh extender. Boy was I wrong. After reading all of these complaints about the EAX80, I totally can relate to all the poor performance problems. After rebooting, it seems to be performing well but test after test shows that the wifi performance is actually poor despite it showing a high connection status. It cannot even perform as good as the EX8000 X6S that it was SUPPOSED to replace. The X6S is a solid rock compared to this over-priced EAX80. I will hold on to it and hope for a firmware update after seeing all of these complaints but will be using the X6S only for now. I'm really disappointed in Netgear for releasing this EAX80
- FYI - AirPrint would not consistently pick up my HP8020. I figured out that it was because the printer was connecting to two bands at the same time. I turned off one of the bands on the print we config and can now reliably AirPrint.
Also, I disallow any devices that I want to run Sonos from the extender. That defeats the purpose of the extender but it did fix my access to all Sonos devices.Well I finally pulled the plug (literally) and got an ASUS RT-AX92U WIFI6 mesh router. Zero problems after 3 days. SONOS is still a pain to setup but everything else went flawlessy. No IP passthru - no isolating devices to the main router .....
For those of you having connection problems and possibly channel problems, I used a WiFi Channel Analyzer like "WiFi Commander" to analyze what channels my neighbors were using.
I am no longer using the EAX80, I returned in it within the 30 day policy like a year ago, but I used an analyzer to see which channels were open. From what I saw, many of my neighbors' wifi routers were using the same channels and I was able to manually set my channels and improve my connection reliability, range, and bandwidth. I'm still using 2 SSIDs, which is stupid in 2020. NETGEAR FIX THIS!
Here is the app I was using to monitor wifi channels, but it's got some 'license authentication error' right now. I blame the pandemic, but if you find a different app that does the same thing and works today, this should help you choose the best channels in your range.
https://wifi3d.app/
I'm deeply frustrated that NETGEAR still hasn't resolved this, added wired backhaul to the EAX80, and using wireless backhauls seem to really limit bandwidth.
Linus did a review of Asus's AIMesh platform (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtDRs434LYQ), and I'm honestly intrigued. It looks interfesting and I might check it out for WiFi 6E/7 when that comes out, or try the new top of the line Orbi that supports WiFi 6E/7. Who knows if WFH lasts longer, I might try the Orbi or ASUS AI Mesh now.
After returing the EAX80 I had a thought that maybe making the wireless backhaul bandwith too large might limit client bandwidth and reliability. The theory is based on the idea that the Backhaul might prereserve wireless badwidth and might prevent those channels from being used dynamicly with the clients.
I hope this helps.I have these issues with the EAX80 and my RAX120 as well, I wish I had seen this forum before my return window was up. I guess I have to hope they release new firmware soon.
I tolerated the issues as long as I did because I was having to reboot the EAX80 once every week or two, but the problem has started happening multiple times every day now since I updated to the newest firmware on the RAX120 with the Netgear Armor functionality.
I was lucky ot still be ble to return both the RAX80 and EAX80 and receive a full refund. After more than a week of uptime and no issues, the Orbi WiFi 6 system (RBR840, purchased from Costco), I finally feel like I have a stable, well-performing system.
I purhcased the new wifi 6 router RAX120 and extender EAX80 thinking that they woud be great and coming from a respected company. EAX80 is just an expensive plastic box with lights. It has no wired backhaul and rarely picks up any device. I can be standing right next to it and it will not even pick up my iphone through wifi. I have received no response or solution from Netgear after trying many times. Two wishes. 1. I wish I had read this fourm before buying. 2. I wish I had not bought anything from Netgear. As a long term customer I have lost all respect an loyalty for Netgear! My solution is to strongly recommned to all my friends is to NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM NETGEAR!
You guys got me crossing my fingers here, but so far no issues other than connected devices churns butter in my old EX8000 now and never shows a list.
Running RAX200 with EX8000 and EAX80 hardwired and set up as APs.
Is everyone here having trouble with extender mode? Or has it bled over into AP mode as well?
All problems are with the EAX80 in extender mode - basically the reason why most people buy it. It is futher complicated as there is no wired backhaul capability and Netgear just ignore the many requests for a fix.
I just got the Eax80 and am having all, kinds of issues too. Took me factory resetting times to get both the 2.4 and 5ghz networks to show up at the same time. I tried smart setup and wps (which never connected both networks, it was one or the other every time) The 2.4 network stutters fairly often and the 5ghz is unusable after about 2 min following a reboot. The app shows it getting a great connections and speeds, but practical use says completely otherwise. It was slowing down my router at times as well before the last reset which got both networks up, and thankfully that issue hasn't come back.
I love netgear products, but they always seem to be 1 software update from working properly. I had the X6s and after the last update it got, it started doing the same thing before it died on me, which led me to the Eax80. I'm going to try to get this working with cust support but if not I'll probably get a link sys extender. The wife needs something that works and I just don't want to have to spend 3 or 4nhours trying to get a netgear product to work every few weeks.
- Download the Beta firmware from the Netgear support website and try it out. I tried it out and it seem to have fixed something. Haven't experienced loss of connection on the 5ghz channel since couple days ago that I installed the beta firmware. Keeping fingers crossed.
I did download it and it's connected now to both the 2.4 and 5ghz. It's just the speed is horrible slow for the 5ghz xtended. It stutters, Google.com takes like a minute to load, other web pages hang and videos don't even load. I don't know if there's anything else I might be able to change on my router thst will help or what.
- I am having the same issue with the eax80 range extender I have finally set it up today to work with my rax120 and replace a r7000 extender I only really use the extender to take the load of all my smart devices I.e lights, sockets and cameras etc as I have a lot!
But when I connected it I get good speed over 5g but over 2.4g is piss poor barely 2-5mbps
When I check my link sped between the eax80 and rax120 it's over 2000mbps! I just can't seem to work this out
So now I am back to using my r7000
I hope some one sorts this soonI have the same set up with a RAX120 and EAX80. Countless problems with both over the last year while working from home. The only way I could get them to sort of work was to change to Extender mode on the EAX80 (not Mesh mode) and switch off Wifi 6 on the RAX120. This is pointless as these features are why I puchased these expensive units in the first place. Netgear Tech could not fix the issues for me other than reduce settings. Unfortunately I could not return both units, otheriwse I would. The main outstanding problem is that the RAX120 still goes to sleep once or twice a week and stops connecting Wifi to everything while I still have a strong internet connection coming into the house. I have the latest firmware (1.2.0.16). You would think this bug could be easily fixed by Netgear - but no! The only way I could fix this was to manually reboot the RAX120 each time.
- It's so terrible. I bit the bullet and sold both on eBay hopefully to someone who had the patience to deal with the issues. I have since moved on to the wifi6 Orbi mesh system and haven't looked back
