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R6900 Nighthawk AC1900 - 5ghz drops every day
Hi,
I have the Costco router AC1900 R6900. Setup was smooth, however, the 5ghz network drops every day and I have to reboot the router. The network is visible, just won't connect without a reboot. When it's connected, I get screaming speed...
Last night, by mistake, I left my pc on, and this morning the 5ghz network was still connected. I shut off the pc, restarted, and was still able to connect to the 5ghz because my phone was also connected to that network. When I disconnected both devices from the 5ghz, I could not reconnect either device. Only a reboot will allow access.
Ideas?? I was on chat with support last week, they said faulty router and return it... I can do that because it's only 10 days old, but thought I'd throw this out here for any possible solutions...
Thank you!
Hi Guppy,
Try to reset the router to factory default. If same thing, I would suggest contacting support team.
39 Replies
I just installed a brand new R6900P that I bought from (you guessed it) CostCo. I cannot get it to permit a 5G connection. I continue to get incorrect password errors and "unable to join" messages with no other support information. I came out here this evening to see if I could get some ideas and am dismayed to see that I spent good money on a piece of junk that is clearly not being well supported. This issue seems to be pervasive and long standing. I'll be returning this asap, and replacing it with a different manufacturer.
Incidentally, I am a systems engineer who works from home, so I'm not incapable of troubleshooting, but I have no interest in wasting time on a device that should be reliably working out of the box.
- When you return it, don't bother with the comparable Linksys from Costco. It works right out of the box but the speeds are awful, which is why I kept the Netgear until I can afford a bigger better router
R6900p 5Ghz band crashed again, so changing the channel did not improve anything. However, this time post-dropout some more garbage characters showed up on the status page of the router GUI.
Update: enabling Smart Connect appears to make no difference, the 5Ghz drops out and gives garbage characters in the status page's channel information also.
Update - returned it and got another R6900p from Costco. This time, I left it on the default factory firmware without updating, same behavior with 5Ghz becoming unstable then unusable. Updated firmware to latest version, no change in behavior. Same problems with garbage characters showing up in channel information field on the router status screen.
I recomend you return the item to Costco and buy a different router somewhere else. I have returned the same router 3 times now and the person at costco said the routers are junk. he also said that everyone returns that router so i imagine they wont carry it for much longer. After about 12 hours the router stopped working everytime for me.
I'm past the return date - it's still working, with ocassional drops, but that only happens if I don't leave at least one device connected. I'm hesitant to do any firmware updates - it's working, so like they saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Technically, it's broke, but I can live with an ocassional reboot for now.
Just set-up my R6900p router from Costco a few days ago, experienced first spontaneous 5 GHz network drop-out, in which new devices can see the -5G SSID but cannot connect, and an existing laptop which connected (after waking up from sleep) was still listed as connected, but with no internet connection. No problems with 2.4 GHz network during this time, connectivity on this band remained uninterrupted.
Netgear WiFi analytics app on my phone shows zero 5 GHz networks other than my own in range.
Updated firmware version from V1.0.0.58_1.0.50 to V1.0.1.14_1.0.59, appears to be working normally upon reboot, for now.
Anyway, would be interested to find out if anyone has noticed whether or not this drop-out behavior also happens when the Smart Connect feature is enabled (Both frequency bands share same SSID, router automatically assigns devices between the two).
- Hi James,
Been there done that, it doesn't help. 🙁 I have same issues with my router that I bought from Costco. It worked fine for couple months and over last few days I have to reboot it everyday to get the wireless devices connected.
I did however update the firmware today to the latest available 1.0.1.16 hopefully it resolves the issue. Additional issue I faced was that I was unable to perform firmaware version update via the routerlogin directly. Tried multiple times and it would say no internet connection. I had to download the file and then perform the firmware update.
I am happy with router in general as it provides better wifi coverage and some better speeds, but if it keeps dropping connections I may have to return it. Hopefully Netgear is able to address this issue.
Had Apple Airport router for almost 6 years without having to face such connection drop issues i used to reboot it just for the sake of it once every couple months. Wondering If i should return the Nighthawk as its still within Costco return policy.
Hi All,
Try to perform a factory reset on your router and reconfigure it manually. Check and observe after the reset.
I ended up keeping mine. It rarely drops the 5ghz signal now. Probably because I keep one device connected at home all the time. Haven't done the firmware update only because I'm afraid new problems will surface.
You might be having a DHCP problem. Have you tried reserving IP addresses in the router?
FWIW, I'm still having the problem. To their credit, support tried to call me twice but I wasn't home to answer the call. My ticket closed, but there has been no solution to the problem. My 5Ghz network dropped three times in the past week. I do a quick reboot and it resolves, but it shouldn't happen in the first place.
If I try to log on to the 5Ghz network, it keeps asking for the password and then I get the "cannot join the network" (or something like that) error. I reboot, then my devices all connect automatically.
Frustrating, but fortunately rebooting only takes a couple of minutes each time.
You can always make a follow-up on your open case with support even if it auto-closed.
I too have the Costco Router. Had 1st for 18 months with no issues. Then randon drops on 5G, devices won't connect, passwords won't work, etc. Can't get a netgear rep w/o per pay service (free phone support for only 90 days). Finally got another router from Costco. Set up and exact same problem. On phone with Netgear for 60 minutes listening to music (system says all reps are busy). I get frustrated and hang up.
I next decide to try changing the 5GHz channel. Go from 157 (I think) to 161. Same problem. Change to 36 and bingo, 5GHz connects with most all devices. No disconnects arter 24 hours. Will keep checking, but may have found answer.
Not sure if related, but when devices scan, I'm finding a lot of netgear routers in my area; most with both 2.4 and 5GHz signals.
I wish Netgear would mention channel changes in start up guide as a way to optimize signal if connections drop or failure to recognize occurs.
Hope this helps.
- As a side note, ATT is the internet provider and all I did was change from an older netgear router to a newer model.
- I am having the same problem as Maloha. My internet speed will decrease as the day goes along. It is normally around 25mbps and will drop down to two or three and I won't be able to connect to 5g. Sometimes it shows but keeps asking for a password and then says wrong password. Other times you can't even see the 5g and the 2.4 is very slow. I do a reboot and everything works again. I have to reboot several times a day. I just bought the unit at Costco this week.
Hi Maloha,
1. What is the firmware version of the router?
2. Have you tried to reset the router to factory default and reconfigure?
JamesGL
Community TeamHi James,
Firmware Version
V1.0.0.4_1.0.10Which I understand is the latest version.
Via a chat session with support we reset everything back to factory defaults. It miraculously started working for 3 days before doing any reflashing, then the same problem resurfaced. My devices see the network, but I get "incorrect password" and "cannot connect to this network". When I reboot, it connects.
As an update, I bought a 2nd R6900 yesterday and installed it this morinng. I'm having the EXACT same issue - I have to reboot the router in order to connect to the 5ghz network.
If I disconnect all devices from 5G, they will not reconnect without a reboot. I get a "wrong password" or "cannot connect to this nework" errors. If I leave one device connected, the network stays available.
For now, I'm going to keep the 2nd router, return the first Netgear, and live with the reboot situation. I even bought a Linksys 1900ac to try it out - the network stayed available without dropping, but the connection speeds were awful so I returned it.
