Netgear Nighthawk R8000 - Limited Internet speeds and connection drops

Question

I have been using the Nighthawk R8000 with no complaints until a few months ago.

The main issues were pages not being displayed. DNS not being found and internet connection drops.

The Setup - Virgin media (Hub in modem mode) => Nighthawk router (DHCP and all network protocols ran from this) => develo boxes as wireless access points.

Example of issue.......Click a link from facebook or most social media. 75% of the time the page shows ok.
25% - Page cannot be displayed (Usually DNS not found sometimes internet not available) Leave the page for a second or 2 and it will auto refresh and display the page. Sometimes the css styling isnt there though and it needs another refresh.

Up until recently I had 200mbps broadband and speedtests showed full speeds. I have just upgraded to 500mbps but my nighthawk only shows 250mbps speeds.

I put the virgin hub in router mode, connect my laptop to it with ethernet and I get 561mbps.

Swap back to the nighthawk and I get 250mbps again with the intermittent issues.

I have another property (Sons Flat) with the same setup and he is having the same issues.

So if I run the network through the virgin hub all is fine, Run it through the nighthawk and it has issues.

Can anyone help as I really dont want to purchase more routers when this has been fine for years.

Thanks

Richie-IT · Answer

Thanks for the reply.&nbsp;I have factory reset both while testing but I did have Access Control enabled when I reset them up. I use the mac address filtering to block everything and only allow selected devices to connect to the network.&nbsp;Will try enabling IPV6 as well as the other things tonight and get back to you to see what works and what does not.&nbsp;&nbsp;As a replacement, if things do not work out, would either of these routers give me full speed (550mbps) with access control turned on.&nbsp;Nighthawk AX5400 or the Nighthawk Pro AC2600

Richie-IT · Answer

The models are&nbsp;Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 - AC2600&nbsp;andNetgear Nighthawk AX6 - AX5400&nbsp;So the AX6 would be the better of the 2 and should get over 500mbps with access control on ?&nbsp;&nbsp;

plemans · Answer

A couple things because there's more than likey more than 1 thing going on.&nbsp;
in terms of the dns issue. We've seen it a lot on the latest firmware version. Some were resolved with simply enabling ipv6. For those that IPv6 didn't work, they'd then try a factory reset and new install. If that didn't work, then they downgraded firmware a version. So I'd start with that progression.&nbsp;
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In terms of the speed.&nbsp;
With the R8000, it was released in 2014. To hit gigabit speeds at that time, they needed to use ctf (cut through forwarding). CTF gets disabled when using traffic monitoring, qos, access control, and parental controls. When its disabled, the processor is used to analyze the traffic and it didn't have the grunt for more than 200-250mbps. So to hit speeds over 250mbps, make sure to have those disabled. But where we see issues is sometimes even disabling those services, doesn't re-enable CTF. If that happens, do a factory reset and reinstall. Don't use a backup and during the install, make sure to leave those services disabled.&nbsp;

plemans · Answer

AX5400 and AC2600 are speeds not models. So not sure exactly what models you're referring to.&nbsp;
But you're more likely to get better results with the AX as its going to have a newer/better cpu with more capabilities. I don't have one to test so I can't 100% confirm this. For AX routers i have a RAX200, CAX80, and a RAXE500 and they have no issue. Again, I can't confirm personally the other RAX devices without having used them.&nbsp;
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plemans · Answer

AX5400= do you mean the RAX50?&nbsp;
If so, it should. I'd still check out a few reviews to see how it performs.&nbsp;
I'm a fan of Dong Ngo (dongknows) reviews as he does a great job, isn't paid for it (buys his own products) and even will refuse to review products. Theres a few other good sites too. I used to be a huge believer in smallnetbuilder but there isn't much reviews on there anymore for newer devices.&nbsp;
Netgear RAX50 Nighthawk AX6 AX5400 Review: A Valuable Wi-Fi 6 Router | Dong Knows Tech
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If you don't mind renewed, do a quick search on amazon for netgear renewed products. there's been quite a few on there and you can always buy an aftermarket warranty and still come in pretty darned low for price.&nbsp;

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Netgear Nighthawk R8000 - Limited Internet speeds and connection drops

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