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Forum Discussion
Fix for router radio antennas shutting off randomly
Hi:
I've had an R8000P router (Nighthawk X6) for almost 2.5 years (bought new on amazon Dec 20th, 2019). About a year ago, its radios started shutting off by itself for no apparent reason. The only 'solution' was to recycle the power to the router, which worked anywhere for a few minutes (ughh!!!) to a few hours and it'd freeze up all over again. No traffic would be allowed to pass through, unless again, you recycle the power for another session of operation lasting a random amount of time. My roommates, fellow graduate student where NOT NOT NOT happy with me!!! Frankly, I had run out of excuses to tell them. I was ready to junk this things and spend another $250 to buy a new router ...a very steep price for my student wallet.
Imagine having a zoom class or streaming something and voila! ... it freezes as no network access is available until router reboots (about 5 minutes) , then works for maybe 20 minutes, then baam!!! ... another network fritz again. This would be repeated over and over and over again ... for ever !!!
I believe I have a permanent solution to this annoying. My router has been bug free for about 7 months now, when I first implemented this solution ... (via router software) SHUT OFF THE ANTENNAS DURING NON-BUSY HOURS OF THE NIGHT. In my case, I shut off my antennas daily during 3am - 4am. It works beautiful now. I've not had my radios shutoff at all in 7+ months, except once on the day I implemented this fix but has never failed again since that time. Radios have been steady since then and roommates are back to their usual selves. I first started off with 30 minute shut offs (3am-3:30am) and they worked fine but being a bit paranoid, I figures 1 hour of shutdown time would be even better.
I'm not sure why this works as my router is well ventilated. Maybe the radio shutoff reset something in the FW??? Anyways, it works. Please try it.
God bless!
David
2 Replies
David_M wrote:
I've had an R8000P router (Nighthawk X6) for almost 2.5 years (bought new on amazon Dec 20th, 2019).
What firmware version do you have on the device?
A number is more useful than "the latest". (It may not be by the time people read this.) There can also be newer versions, or "hot fixes", that do not show up if you check for new firmware in the browser interface.
It might also help if you told people what the modem is in front of this router, if there is one. The model number could be useful. Is it, by any chance, also a router, with a set of LAN ports on the back?
The reason for asking is that a lot of people turn up here trying to put a router behind a modem that is also a router. That can complicate troubleshooting.Point well taken ...
FW version --> V1.4.2.84_1.3.42
Cable Modem feeding router = Motorola MB6800...Modem only...Not router. Modem has 3 other 'hidden' GbE ports which are not used. Just a simple setup comprising of the RF cable feed --> Motorola MB8600 --> Netgrear R8000p
I pretty much update my FW once its released, so I believe this problem transcends several FW revisions and suspect is hardware related. This is not a new problem as a cursory net search highlights users of several netgear modem types of different generations having this issue. Not an R8000p problem only. Seen in most with also R7000 type modems.
