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Forum Discussion
2021 R7000 goes offline every couple of months
It's not even a year old yet. I've had the problem twice since October - suddenly computer says there's no internet - wifi router only has orange light on far left. Turning it off and on doesn't ...
My apologies for my short, limited research replies, and I don't know how to reply to everyone. I DO very much appreciate your help!!! My plate has been overflowing for a while and after a month and a half in hospital and rehab my mother was coming home yesterday. I hope to carve out some dedicated time later today to carefully answer your questions and get the firmware #.
I'm not sure what you mean by working hardwired - the wifi? I have the computer hardwired into the modem right now, and that's the only way I can use the internet, there's no wifi. Will check on firmware, etc. later. Ah yes, forgot to say the router died again the next day, that must have been Monday? Haven't been able to get it back with any number of shutdowns/reboots. Have left if off and will try it one more time later and fill in details.
SNOW-DM wrote:
I'm not sure what you mean by working hardwired - the wifi? I have the computer hardwired into the modem right now, and that's the only way I can use the internet, there's no wifi.
Hardwired means plugged in with a cable. Not wifi.
I doubt if you have the "computer hardwired into the modem". At least, it shouldn't be.
The router is supposed to be "hardwired" into the modem. The computer is then hardwired into the router. Anything else is asking for trouble,
You said earlier "I have everything running wireless, so nothing connects to Internet when the router goes off."
That does not tie in with having the PC "hardwired". If it is on wifi, it isn't hardwired.
That takes us back to the earlier question from plemans, "when it drops, do wired devices drop as well or just the wireless?"
As you can see, we don't know what is going on at your end.
You say the PC is "hardwired" but then say that everything is on wifi.
Let's go through the problem.
- The Internet dies occasionally
- What actually happens?
- There are LEDs on the router, what do they look like when the Internet dies?
- Do wired and wireless devices all lose the Internet connection?
Ah yes, forgot to say the router died again the next day, that must have been Monday? Haven't been able to get it back with any number of shutdowns/reboots. Have left if off and will try it one more time later and fill in details.
Look at the LEDs on the router and the modem. If the modem isn't connected to the Internet, then the router has no hope of connecting. Don't automatically assume that any problems you are see are down to the router. As well as the modem, there are the wifi clients that you are trying to connect to the Internet.
Don't just flail around with those shutdowns/reboots. Do it methodically in the right order.
Be sure to restart your network in this sequence:
- Turn off and unplug modem.
- Turn off router and computers.
- Plug in and turn on modem. Wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
- Turn on the router and wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
- Turn on computers and rest of network.
Networks are incredibly dumb. Everything has to be done by the book. Get one thing wrong and they panic.
I appreciate your help. Let me see if I can explain clearly what has been going on.
I usually first notice the internet has dropped when on my laptop (only wifi - no place to plug a cable) and my phone when I use an app that needs the internet. Then I go look at the router. All of the lights are off except the far left one is orange. The router will then periodically turn itself on, a whole bunch of white lights turn on and maybe flash some and then it obviously gives up and goes back to the single orange power light.
This happened twice, on different days, and thru the cycle you have noted I was eventually able to get the router back up and running, and thus have wifi for all of my devices. The third day it happened I was not able to get the router to work. I left it off for a day and came back to it, still no luck. I've left it off while I deal with the rest of life. In the meantime I unplug the cable that is usually plugged into the back of the router, coming from the modem, and plug it into my desktop computer because that's the only way I can get any internet to talk to you folks, read email, do zooms, and other things that are critical to life.
So now I am going to unplug that yellow cable from the back of this computer, thus cutting off my internet communications, and plug it back into the router and see if' it's decided to work. If not, I will do the sequence and see what happens after that. If the router doesn't decide to work I will need to unplug the yellow cable back into the computer so I can report the result back to you.
Fingers crossed!
So I did all the shutdowns and restarted modem and then turned on the router. Initially all the router lights turn on, they are actually not just plain white, some bluish, some pinkish, but after they run thru their routine, it's back to the single orange power light, not working. This is same behavior it exhibited last time.
So what next?
Did you try factory resetting by pushing and holding reset for 7-15 seconds?
An amber power light can indicate hardware or corrupt firmware issues.
You can try recoving it with tftp or nmrpflash.
are you on windows? if so, follow this guide
https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP
just make sure you enable tftp
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-tftp-windows-10
and here's a video walk through using a tftp client. Use the built in one for windows 10 though. the video is more of an example of how its done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9DLrLQrpaw
and if that doesn't work, you can try using nmrpflash
https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash
SNOW-DM wrote:
....it's back to the single orange power light, not working. This is same behavior it exhibited last time.
A clear indicator that the firmware is corrupt.
Follow the advice from plemans.
SNOW-DM wrote:
Initially all the router lights turn on, they are actually not just plain white, some bluish, some pinkish, but after they run thru their routine, it's back to the single orange power light, not working.
Colour vision is a very subjective thing. I just referred to the labels that Netgear mentions in its documentation. It uses what it calls "blue" LEDs to indicate wifi activity and things happening on an Orbi device. It labels the power LED as "white".
I finally had a couple hours I could wait on hold and got an RMA set up. Hopefully by the new year I'll have a new router that works.
Thanks everyone for your help!
SNOW-DM wrote:So I did all the shutdowns and restarted modem and then turned on the router. Initially all the router lights turn on, they are actually not just plain white, some bluish, some pinkish, but after they run thru their routine, it's back to the single orange power light, not working. This is same behavior it exhibited last time.
Sounds like a flaky power supply. Glad you were finally able to get past their "obstruct-customer support" to get an RMA without falling foul to their "paid support" scam!
