New R7000 Firmware Version 1.0.11.100

Final words: 
Dear R7000, it's been a journey in good and bad times. But like any relationships lasting seven years, it's time to look for new opportunities. I wish the faithfuls to R7000 best of luck and hopefully you will survive with a stable and seamless connection.
Signing out.

Disclaimer: This was written in pure boredom during corona time and have no meaning to offend or judge anyone in a healthy relationship :smileywink:

Netgear R7000 - FCC approval date August 7, 2013

source: http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Netgear_R7000

ThornadoSir...

Before you sledge hammer that **bleep** Bass-Tard, I would love to accept it, even temporarily in order to exercise my proposed testing and see if it's possible to discover anything rationale'.

I promise to return it in the same condition I receive it, albeit FW updates, etc.

Would you consider it?

I already have a spare R7000 here that I am not using and that is a great opportunity for doing comparison tests.

What say ye?

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Thornado wrote:

Final words: 
Dear R7000, it's been a journey in good and bad times. But like any relationships lasting seven years, it's time to look for new opportunities. I wish the faithfuls to R7000 best of luck and hopefully you will survive with a stable and seamless connection.
Signing out.

 

Disclaimer: This was written in pure boredom during corona time and have no meaning to offend or judge anyone in a healthy relationship :smileywink:

 

Netgear R7000 - FCC approval date August 7, 2013

source: http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Netgear_R7000

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What did you end up getting?

I think a lot of people (including myself) wants to move on from the R7000... but the problem is there are just too many options on the market.  And to find one that was as reliable as the R7000 in the past may be a hit or miss... so even though i'm using a really old .42 fw with security flaws.. I will continue to use it until I can find a better solution.

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spcrick wrote:

I think a lot of people (including myself) wants to move on from the R7000... but the problem is there are just too many options on the market.  And to find one that was as reliable as the R7000 in the past may be a hit or miss... so even though i'm using a really old .42 fw with security flaws.. I will continue to use it until I can find a better solution.

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I think the Asus AC88U will check all my boxes.  Too many broken things in .42.  I can't even use QOS... device naming is all bunged up.... can't set prioritys. 

We have a very busy network with 2 kids and us.  

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additude wrote:

shoman94 

 

"I don't understand it....How do I go from 3 days solid to 1.5 days solid, then 6 hrs this morning and then losing it every 15 minutes...."

 

That is a very interresting observation....

 

In the qwest to further localise the cause of the issue you can try this.

I know that what I am about to say is based on a "Lab" environment type of troubleshooting and it is definately outside the scope of what should be expected of a purchaser and I myself, am just a purchaser like your self and I'm really curious...

 

So I present:

Do you have any type of fan that you could direct at the unit to force cooler air over it just to see if the unit is possibly having heat issues?

 

Have you tried a "Prescribed Schedule" of powering the unit off then on again. Set an alarm to remind your self to reboot it or maybe you can have a spare wall timer device designed to turn lights on and off automatically turn it off and on. Just see if a scheduled reboot diminishes the problem. I'd start with once every 12 hours just before peak times like 4am and 4pm and monitor that the equipment is functioning properly prior to each reboot.

 

Check the logs frequently. Are the logs filling up and growing larger? Try disabling all of the log writing settings. Keep the log file as small as possible.

 

Do a complete FW upgrade following this procedure:

1. Factory Reset

2. Update FW via hardwired computer

3. Another Factory Reset

4. Enter all settings manually and in this case, just change the very absolute minimum amount of settings from default. Just see if you can get an extended period of time between lockouts with the absolute barest of connected equipment. If you can, then add settings individually one at a time and see if adding a specific setting causes the issue. Verizon just added 15GB of data to my phone for this pandemic. For the time being while you are testing minimal settings, maybe you could substitute your phones LTE Hot Spot feature...

 

The other things that I can think of at the moment are radio interferrance. Interferrance from possibly a microwave oven, any close proximity radio transmitting device, another WiFi router, a Ham radio, walkie-talkie, etc; possibly someone in the neighborhood or a secondary device that is transmitting the same SSID.

 

Another is take the router to a different location, a friends house, relative's house, brother, sister, Mom & Dad, etc. and set it up there in a completely unique and isolated from it's current environment and see if it behaves in the same manner as it does now. Be sure that if you place the router into a new environment that you do the FW upgrade outlined above. You can do step 1 & 2 & 3 locally before you take the router to a new location. Then boot the router and enter the new settings manually.

 

Like I related prior, these are just personal suggestions and I'll add that they are spurred on by the "Technical Troubleshooter Instinct" imbedded in me from past years, so if you just want to casually toss my ideas to the wind as frivilous, I will totally understand and you will not bruise my feelings.... I know that some suggestions are not considered "Fixes", but are just related to discovery. Like I said, I'm very curious.

 

 

 

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Many of the things you mentioned I have tried with previous firmware.  One of my disconnects in the recent release was even at 4am when the whole house is asleep.  

Let me know if the Asus AC88U is better.. I need something that has good range if not better than the R7000.  I don't use QOS because I have enough bandwidth to share among the household members and the naming on the devices doesn't bother me as much.  I know every device that is connected to my network and I also keep a list of the mac addresses with devices on a excel spreadsheet if i need to look anything up.

As I mentioned,

I already have an R7000 that for the time I used it presented no problems or issues....

The reason I quit using it was because of the limitation on the number of reserved IP's that I could configure.

additude There is a limit on the # of reserved IPs?  What is the magic #?  I only have one reservered and that's for a wireless printer and my gaming desktop.  

I never heard that limitation.  I'm currently using 5 static IPs currently.

This problem continues to only affect 5ghz wifi so its not difficult to find for netflex.  I also things it related to WPS since when 5ghz drops I usually see an issue in the wireless setting screen that the WPS configuration is unknown or not configured.

That's a very interesting find... can someone else confirm if they see any errors with WPS when their 5g band craps out?

Hey guys, I've been looking through the comments here because I saw that Netgear finally released a firmware update.  While I haven't had a lot of issues with my R7000, and mainly wnet back to my Airport Extreme because I've always liked the Airport routers.  I was willing to try the firmware update to see if i noticed any different.  In my case,  I factory reset the Nighthawk before I put it away, so when I set it up it will be like taking it out of the box brand new.  I just wondered if it was worth it at this point.  The airport is still working fine, Apple's last firmware update that it's running is from may 2019.  So while it's older, Airports typically don't have the security issues as most consumer routers, and they don't use WPS in the same way either.  Most of my network is hard wired with a gigabit switch, so the only wireless clients are smart lights and mobile devices that don't have a wired option.  Just wanted to get soem feedback.

Thanks

iFrog  Well, here's the rub, how lucky are you feeling?

If you read some of the horror stories about the latest firmware and the 5g wireless dropping constantly, then you'd probably be put off from doing it. However it isn't affecting everyone the same way. I for instance, aren't having any issues with the new firmware whatsoever, it's rock solid on both 2.4 and 5g wireless bands, no dropouts, no problems, completely contrary to what others are reporting.

The only thing I would say is, don't bother trying to update over WiFi, use ethernet cable (I'm using Cat7 cable througout) and don't use the Nighthawk App to update, though I'm sure some have successfully ugraded their firmware using WiFi/App but I've always thought it best practise to do upgrade via hardwire.

I'd also say there's no need to do multiple factory resets or reboots either, which some users have stated they have done, probably out of personal preference. I just followed Netgear's advice of rebooting prior to initiating the update. I also disabled my anti-virus, disabled my VPN and unplugged my ethernet enabled devices, but most importantly in my armour of ensuring a problem free update, was disabling WiFi on the router prior to updating so that none of my WiFi enabled devices were trying to connect to the router during the update. That may well have been a totally unnecessary thing to do, but it made me feel better. Upshot was, I had a problem free firmware update, so you can take what you will from my own procedure. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of GUI bugs which have cropped up, but nothing so far that is causing me any serious problem.

I've also this morning just added a Netgear GS105v5 switch to my system and that works absolutely 100 percent too, so I really haven't got a great deal to whinge about.

Thanks for the feedback, I've never had any stability issues with the firmware as a whole on this router.  The main beef I have with stock firmware here is the lack of  profesional user level settings, which is why I ran DD-WRT on my R7000 for most of it's use.  When I've used Netgear's stock firmware it's been OK, I just prefer the Airport because it intergrates nicely into the apple ecco system, and as mentioned it just works.

I will give the nighthawk another shot, since I'll be setting it up again for the first time, i'll be doing it from a hard wired computer and it should do the firmware update as part of the setup, as done out of the box.  For the event this doesn't happen I have downloaded the firmware manually.

I've usually always put into practice the rule of themb "When it comes to Networks, go hard wired when possible" and only use  wireless when absolutely  there is no other option, or the devices, aren't mission crtical.  I'll decide if I want to do it in a bit, and report back with the results.

iFrog  Well good luck with it and I look forward to your feedback. I mentioned in another post, but I'd never done a firmware update on a router before in my life, but this was really quite easy, especially as I ensured I had absolutely nothing attached to it or trying to feed off the router whilst upgrading. Don't forget to reboot prior to upgrading. Keep it simple. I'd be interested to know how old your R7000 is as well? mine is a year old from manufacture.

If I remember correctly, I bought mine the beginning of 2019, or a few months in anyway.  I bought it because Apple Discontinued the Airport line of products, so I wasn't sure if they were going to continue to release security patches.  After they released in May I felt better going back to that router for a bit.  While the Airport is rock solid still, I would like to possibly get a newer router at some point, however, for the time being the Airport, and R7000 are similuary speced so either one are good for my current needs.

iFrog  With any luck then, your R7000 is at least a 2018 build, which may or may not have a bearing on the overall success of the update. I only learned the exact build date of mine because I made use of Netgear support whilst I have complimentary use of their support. They very kindly told me within 24 hours of asking. As I say, good luck!

I have put the R7000 into use, I set up the router brand new as in from a factory default setup and all has gone well.   So far no problems  I renamed the respective SSIDs to what the devices were connected to from the Airport Extreme, and everything reconnected, in fact, the Alexa routine that exictues at 4PM turned on the light as expected.

There was only one minor issue, and I don't think it's really an issue.  The 1.0.1.100 firmware was not detected by the automatic firmware updater built into the router.  However, since the computer is hard wired to the router via a gigabit switch i updated that way, and all seems to be working.

As I mentioned, performance wise, I haven't had a lot of problems, it's always been consumer vs enterprise for me when it comes to routers, wanting something in between so i have control over just about anything..  If this doesn't work out long term, i'll go back to the Airport Extreme and look at something different down the road.  Also, one thing I do like about the Nighthawk is, I do have the option, to voice control it with Alexa, not sure if it works with google home or not.

P.S.  I am typing this post with the R7000 powering the network.

iFrog  Pleased to read things went well. The issue about the update not being found on the router has been mentioned before in other threads and it was the same for me. I downloaded the update directly from the Netgear site to my desktop and uploaded the file from there directly to the router.

I'd recommend disabling the auto update feature if you haven't already done so.

You cannot uncheck the 'Enable Routers PIN' in Wireless settings. Well you can uncheck the box, but when you hit the apply button, it just checks itself again, so a bug there.

If the NTP server loses sync, you'll get a warning in red at the top of the admin page, it's got typos in it and looks sloppy. Needs sorting.

I split my networks up and I run Guest Networks on both 2.4 and 5g. Keeps things in order for me.

I find the Nighthawk App useful, but I won't be carrying out any firmware updates using it.

Hope things go well with the new firmware.

I've run into wireless speed issues with my phone, (iPhone 7 Plus) but i'm not sure if it's a router problem as it's the only device that does it.  And , the mobile speeds were always worse even with the airport than wired, or even larger devices such as a laptop.

i have about 400 Mbps down and 23 up  on wired Devices download goes to about 480 down as long as on gigabit.  the iphone is connected to the 5Ghz channel as well as the ipad and macbook pro, while the iMac is hard wired.  According to the speedtest app the iphone only gets about 40 down but the normal 20 to 23 up, the ipad is about 370 to 390 down and the same upload.  So with all things considdered only the phone seems to have a really big issue with wireless.

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iFrog wrote:

 

There was only one minor issue, and I don't think it's really an issue.  The 1.0.1.100 firmware was not detected by the automatic firmware updater built into the router.  However, since the computer is hard wired to the router via a gigabit switch i updated that way, and all seems to be working.

 

As Portwey84 says, this is a well known issue. It actually has a purpose. Netgear, and other outfits that deliver on-line updates, think Microsoft, like to stagger delivery.

Netgear regularly puts updates on the support pages before they hit the update FTP server that feeds the "check for updates" feature.

This has a couple of benefits, first it doesn't men that everyone tries to update at the same time. It also means that the people who keep their eye on the support pages get them first. Then if the sky falls in and it proves to be broken firmware Netgear can keep the release off the FTP server.

Even if you do find an update with the automated system, experienced users prefer the approach that you took. Download the firmware and update manually.

I wanted to let everyone know that I fixed the phone's wifi issue  I toggled wifi off and back on, when the phone reconnected the speed was back, so it may have had something get stuck after changing the routers.

Also, I usually flash the way already discussed here, the automatic check is just a convenience .  Usually works well, but hard wired is just that extra insurance of success.  So, I want to end the post for now saying I've had a successful change over.  I haven't rebooted my network in a while, but overall it feels a bit snappier with the nighthawk vs airport, though neither one are a slouch.

I wanted to let you know, I've gone back to my 2013 Airport Extreme for the time being.  I encountered some very strange issues with the R7000 which I never had with either the earlier stock firmware, or DD-WRT, so i'm leaning between failing hardware since it's just sat collecting dust not use, or bad wireless drivers in the latest firmware, or a conflict between the wireless chipset in my iPhone and the router.

Either way, what happened was this:

the iPhone 7 plus would only get about 40 Mbps down on the speedtest app, and my connection is 400 Mbps down.  The funny thing is, initally when i first had the issue, i was able to simply toggle wifi off in the settings for the phon, then the speed came back normal when toggling back on, and reconnecting.  The other thing I noticed was the speedtest app was sluggish on LTE as well, so there could be an issue with the phone, since all other wireless  devices were working.  The problem(s) I observed were:

Turning on the guest network seem to have introduced the second problem, at least it looks that way.

The second problem was after using the phone, my other devices such as Google Home, and Alexa were no longer able to access the internet.

So, either the guest networking feature has a bug, or there is something wrong with the iphone wifi chipset that's crashing the router.  Since it's the only wireless device I observed problems with.  Other than that, the router seems to work normally.  I went back to the Airport and the iphone no longer has Wifi issues.  I wonder if it's an apple thing.  I've heard more so years ago from now, but apple devices don't always play with third party routers in the nicest way at times.

The other people here reporting 5Ghz issues diesn't seem to suggest they  had only certain devices fail, but rather the whole network was gone, while I experienced  problems with specfrici devices, or in this case, the phone seems to have triggered the problems here.

FYI, i haven't used my iphone with the R7000 since it's been on ios 13, the last time i had the R7000 in use was when ios 12 was still the current public release, so that should tell you how long I haven't used the R7000, and have been relying on the Airport Extreme.

iFrog  Sorry to read you've had so many issues. I wish I had your download speeds lol! My max download speed on fibre, is just 37mbps and an upload of just 9mbps and I have no issues with it, more than fast enough for Netflix etc.

As for compatibility issues with Apple, my Wife and I both have iPhone XR's both on the latest iOs update and they both work absolutely fine on 5g wireless. Currently, I have 10 devices utilising 5g band, 4 Amazon Echo/Dots, 2 iPhones, 1 Android phone and 3 media streamers, one of which is a now rather ancient Apple TV I recently brought out of retirement. Those 10 devices are split so some are utilizing the 5g Guest network, i.e the media streamers.

Anyway, here I am, 8 days in on the new firmware and no problems, i.e no wireless drop outs of any description. Maybe I'm just lucky?

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Portwey84 wrote:

iFrog  Sorry to read you've had so many issues. I wish I had your download speeds lol! My max download speed on fibre, is just 37mbps and an upload of just 9mbps and I have no issues with it, more than fast enough for Netflix etc.

 

As for compatibility issues with Apple, my Wife and I both have iPhone XR's both on the latest iOs update and they both work absolutely fine on 5g wireless. Currently, I have 10 devices utilising 5g band, 4 Amazon Echo/Dots, 2 iPhones, 1 Android phone and 3 media streamers, one of which is a now rather ancient Apple TV I recently brought out of retirement. Those 10 devices are split so some are utilizing the 5g Guest network, i.e the media streamers.

 

Anyway, here I am, 8 days in on the new firmware and no problems, i.e no wireless drop outs of any description. Maybe I'm just lucky?

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I know, it's really strange, From day one, the Router has usually been stable as far as performance.  As I've mentioned before, it was more a matter of software for me, when it comes to options, and features (hence why I switched from Netgear's stock firmware to DD-WRT) last year for a bit.  To give you an idea of how long the R7000 sat unused was probably since May, or June of 2019, and I only fired it up again a couple days ago to try the new firmware.  In years past before deciding to stick with AirPort products, most of the third party consumer routers I would get, would either have really bad firmware, or if they worked, they would eventually overheat and die.  My first airport extreme lasted about 7 years without any problems.  Then I got the 2013 Airport Extreme, that I have now, and it's been rock solid, I got the R7000 mainly because I wasn't sure if Apple was going to still provide frimware updates, and thought Netgear would have better support than actually turned out to be the case.  Now I'm considering a Synology Router, it looks to be more of the prosumer product I'm looking for, and people have said good trhings about both their routers and NAS units.  Has anyone here had experience?

Anyway, maybe this is just a bad firmware, or at worst case the hardware has finally failed.  The good news is, when I plugged the Airport back in, and power cycled the modem and airport, everything is stable again.