WN2000RPT - Internet Access Keeps Dropping

Edwe wrote:
I have strugled a long time now, this appear to be a wery bad product. Using a WNDR3700 that I want to extend with the WN2000RPT (do not now if ver 1 or 2). Internet ceeps droping, peering them again with WPS works until next drop. We inly use phones, Ipad and sometime a notebook so its minimal trafic. Werry unhapy with Nutgear at the moment :(

I have the same setup with a WNDR3700 and WN2000RPT, and the same problems with the extender dropping out --> restarting the extender --> working for some hours and then drop out again.

I have just now updated the FW from V1.0.1.20 to V1.0.1.24, and i hope this helps... will report back.

same problem here. And, in addition, firmware upgrade is not working ("error firmware region"), altough it is for the right rpt-version (v1) and appropriate region (outside NA).

desesperating...

UPDATE TO MY EARLIER POST

Well I sent all three of my routers in to Netgear to swap out for refurbished ones. All three exhibit the same exact problem behavior with firmware versions 20 and 24 upon being returned to me.

However, after testing them, I started to play around with the settings on my WNR3700 router. Instead of setting the WNR3700 to "auto", I set the WNR3700 to a specific channel.

Previously when the extender would connect to the router (with router set to channel as "auto") the extender would indicate the current channel as "2 auto".

So in this case I set the WNR3700 to specifically use channel 3. THEN, I reconnected the extender to the WNR3700 wirelessly (re-enter security pass phrase and all) and the extender then displayed the channel for its connection as (3)p + (7)s (or something like that). Re-establishing the connection with the router (re-entering the pass key for the extender) is crucial as I don't think the channel setting in the extender will adjust otherwise.

At any rate, this attempt also dropped connections when using firmware builds 20 and 24. HOWEVER, I then rolled the firmware back all the way to version 1.0.0.2 and retried the stress test (transferring about 50 Gb wirelessly through the extender usually generates the error in about 30 min to 60 min). However, this time with WNR3700 set to channel 3 (not auto) and extender firmware 1.0.0.2 I've been able to continuously stream now for two separate sessions for several hours without a drop in connection.

Long story short. If you are having problems you may try these steps:

1) Make sure your router is NOT set to auto select a channel and take note of which channel you set the router to use.
2) Re-setup your extender with the router (re-establish connection with the router and re-enter the network key etc.)
3) Verify that the channel the extender says it is using is the one you setup with your router (and that it doesn't say "auto")
4) Roll back the firmware version for your extender to version 1.0.0.2

This particular set of steps seems to be working fairly well for me.

It appears that whatever they claim to have fixed in extender firmware version 1.0.1.24 (regarding dropping connections) in fact doesn't resolve all the drop connection issues.

Otherwise, I've noticed there are several other range extenders on the market out there (I've seen range extenders from Belkin and Cisco/Linksys) which might be more robust.

Good Luck, (btw - I'll update again if I prove that the fix above in fact is not a valid fix after several days of testing).

Just for clarification on the above for a few things:

1) I did not send routers back for refurbishment, it was the WN2000RPT extenders
2) I also have a static IP address setup in the router and extender (i.e. the extender is not set to receive a different IP address evertime it connects to my router.

Finally, after continued testing it appears the extender is stable (able to maintain connection at continuous data transfer for periods of several hours) and does not appear to drop connection any more applying the 4 step remedy above. That is, using firmware version 1.0.0.2 and ensuring that the router doesn't have auto-channel selection configured.

In reply to Scoob.

I've tried just about everything else on this forum to try to get a stable and usable connection out of this device.

Your advice to roll back to the initial firmware release has done more for me than anything else.

Since installing it, I've had a good connection, with a green light and good speed. I was able to stream Netflix via this for a bit without problems.

I do have my primary router locked on channel 9 which is the clearest channel in my area, with WPA AES. DHCP is turned off on the extender.

I'll update the forum any further if I notice

So, I did find something that seemed to have really made a difference in my connectivity.

On my DLink Dir-655 under wireless is a setting to change WPA mode, with the settings of Auto, WPA, or WPA2.

I changed mine from AUTO to WPA2 and have yet to again have a connection issue.

Caveat, I did place the repeater on an outlet timer that resets it once a day at 4am. But, without the change above, I was still continuing to have connection issues.

same here but my light stays green but i lose internet connection. i have tried everything that i can find on the web but nothing works. i downloaded the new firmware and it seems worse. this is the second and last netgear product i have bought. im using my verizon jetpack with the wn2000rtp v2 to use wyfi to ethernet but pc loses conect very quickly but my xbox 360 runs about 15 mins. this really sucks because i have 6 gb a month and ive used 2 gb just to figure this out.

i feel since netgear hasnt reponded they dont know whats the problem. well netgear heres your problem TEST YOUR PRODUCT BEFORE ADVERTISE AND SELL YOUR PRODUCT.

i really feel shafted if this doesnt get fixed soon then i want my money back. I PAYED FOR IT AND NOW I AM STILL PAYING FOR IT WITH TRING TO FIX IT.

it says in exacyt words from the box THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN TESTED FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE AND THIS PRODUCT OR IT COMPONENTS MAY HAVE BEEN RECYCLED. WHAT WAS THE TEST A 10 SECOND TEST!? THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED ADVERTISEMENT WHICH IS FALSE AND ILLEGAL. DO I NEED TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION?

Ondart wrote:

I have resolved this issue. My Netgear WN2000RPT Bridge would disconnect randomly from my DLink DGL-4500 Wireless Router. The lights on the bridge always stayed green when this happened and it would occur about every hour more or less. All wireless and wired devices on the bridge would still be able to ping each other but no internet access was available. All wireless and wired devices on the Netgear router could ping each other and could access the Internet. The connection between the bridge and the router was the problem. Looking at the router statistics, i was able to tell that the bridge MAC address was registered properly on the router as an active connection but the connection was not functional. I decided to start changing the Wireless Channels, there are 12 channels in the 2.4 GHz band for 802.11N. I started with channel 1 and I was suddenly able to ping a device on the bridge. I began with copying a 100MB file over the bridge to the remote device. Within 5 min, the connection would drop. I kept changing the channel until the bridge stopped disconnecting. I ended up setting the router to "Auto Channel Scan". This also worked so I left it at that. It's been up 24 hours now with heavy traffic over the bridge and no drops. I found another problem and this is likely the root cause. I have an RF Logitech MX mouse and RF keyboard. Mousing around was intermittently jerky and keys would not consistently function properly when heavy traffic, i.e. copying a 100MB file over the bridge, was performed. I changed the router to each of the 12 channels on the 2.4GHz band with no change. When the traffic was low from the router to the bridge, the keyboard and mouse issues would go away. So i have a conflict on the 2.4 GHz band and the darn Logitech RF devices are not channel configurable unfortunately. I don't want to replace my $180 keyboard/mouse combo so I am not sure what to do about it yet. Here are a few other things I did during troubleshooting that may also be of some help: - Turn off DHCP on the Bridge (http://www.mywifiext.net/cgi-bin/hidden_dhcpd.html) - Configure the Bridge with a Static IP address, i.e. 192.168.0.10. - Change the wireless range on the Router to something like 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.200 for DHCP clients and set the Bridge to use a range of 192.168.0.201 - 192.168.0.254. This will prevent DHCP IP conflicts. - Hard code devices that you want to have the same IP addresses in the lower range on the router, i.e. 291.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.99 for example. Anyway, I struggled with all this and these changes resolved my problems. I hope this can help others with the same issue. Got any ideas about my RF keyboard conflict? Please speak up! Joe

This posting was so helpful. By the time I realized how difficult it was to get my bridge to work with my home network, the Staples return period had expired. So I was stuck with having to make the WN2000RPT bridge work or buy another one. Setting the static IPs was the key. Also, my security settings on my router was causing the initial problem with the broadcast range. When I changed my security settings on the router so that it was set for AES and TKIP, the range doubled immediately. However, my laptop, which I purchased back in 2005 or 2006, wouldn't connect with those router security settings. I reserved the first 100 IP addresses in the router and reserved the next 50 IPs in the bridge. I also assigned the bridge a static IP of ....10. I also change the security settings on the bridge so that the laptop could connect to it. By changing the settings, I was able to move the bridge to the ideal location, my living room, where I had the worst connection problem (about 1 to 2 bars with original router settings), connect my laptop at a speed of 54 to 48 Mbps to the bridge, and use the bridge Ethernet ports to hookup my DirecTV DVR and my Blu Ray device. Life is finally good. It has been more than 24 hours and none of the problems I was getting: Unable to connect laptop to bridge or router when security settings were optimal for wireless transmissions and unable to continually stream videos through Netflix without interruptions. Also, I connected my wireless gaming controller to my other DirecTV console and the bridge, and the stupid can no longer access playlist and DirecTV no longer connected to Internet messages stopped. So far, I'm in wireless heaven! Thank you so much!

scoob wrote:

UPDATE TO MY EARLIER POST Well I sent all three of my routers in to Netgear to swap out for refurbished ones. All three exhibit the same exact problem behavior with firmware versions 20 and 24 upon being returned to me. However, after testing them, I started to play around with the settings on my WNR3700 router. Instead of setting the WNR3700 to "auto", I set the WNR3700 to a specific channel. Previously when the extender would connect to the router (with router set to channel as "auto") the extender would indicate the current channel as "2 auto". So in this case I set the WNR3700 to specifically use channel 3. THEN, I reconnected the extender to the WNR3700 wirelessly (re-enter security pass phrase and all) and the extender then displayed the channel for its connection as (3)p + (7)s (or something like that). Re-establishing the connection with the router (re-entering the pass key for the extender) is crucial as I don't think the channel setting in the extender will adjust otherwise. At any rate, this attempt also dropped connections when using firmware builds 20 and 24. HOWEVER, I then rolled the firmware back all the way to version 1.0.0.2 and retried the stress test (transferring about 50 Gb wirelessly through the extender usually generates the error in about 30 min to 60 min). However, this time with WNR3700 set to channel 3 (not auto) and extender firmware 1.0.0.2 I've been able to continuously stream now for two separate sessions for several hours without a drop in connection. Long story short. If you are having problems you may try these steps: 1) Make sure your router is NOT set to auto select a channel and take note of which channel you set the router to use. 2) Re-setup your extender with the router (re-establish connection with the router and re-enter the network key etc.) 3) Verify that the channel the extender says it is using is the one you setup with your router (and that it doesn't say "auto") 4) Roll back the firmware version for your extender to version 1.0.0.2 This particular set of steps seems to be working fairly well for me. It appears that whatever they claim to have fixed in extender firmware version 1.0.1.24 (regarding dropping connections) in fact doesn't resolve all the drop connection issues. Otherwise, I've noticed there are several other range extenders on the market out there (I've seen range extenders from Belkin and Cisco/Linksys) which might be more robust. Good Luck, (btw - I'll update again if I prove that the fix above in fact is not a valid fix after several days of testing).

Had to register to just ask you this question as I'm having the same problem as everyone else!
For step 4 you say to downgrade the software to the initial release software but I cannot find it anywhere online - My model is WN2000RPTv2 but I can only find firmware for v1 :(
Is there any chance you could please link me to the firmware if you know where to find it?
Thank you so much :)

Hi Guys,

I had the same problem. I thought I will throw it in the thrash. But finally I found solution. For first: I had this problem mainly during movie playback from my Synology NAS (NFS). Solution was/is Port Forwarding: I added manually all relevant NFS port (111, 2049, 892) in my Netgear Router (WNDR 3700 - port forwarding category) for the NAS IP. And now all is smooth without the interrupting for about 4 months :) So try to add your protocol ports in the port forwarding option of your router.