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R7000 dropping 5Ghz randomly
I was transitioned to work from home so I was able to finally notice this, but my 5Ghz connection on my router occasionally drops. During the course of my 9-10 hour shift, the connection drops around...
the general agreed upon decent firmware for the R7000 is 1.0.9.42.
the recently released version is still waiting feedback but the initial results aren't any better from what I've seen.
What modem is it from xfinity?
Try installing that firmware, factory reset again, and make sure to manually install.
rpzky8 Well this isn't really going to help you any, but welcome to the club of all of those R7000 AC1900 users who also state that they are suffering exactly the same issue you are experiencing.
No one knows for sure, but the more this crops up, it might appear that this is an issue that seems to affect older R7000 units. I'm begining to wonder if this is a hardware issue within older routers that pre-date v.64. I realise that a 2 year old router isn't exactly that old, but some of us aren't having any issues whatsoever and I'm on the latest firmware and my router is just a year old having left the factory on v.64. I can't say that personally I have seen anyone stating that a recently manufactured R7000 AC1900, is dropping WiFi frequently after a firmware upgrade. To make a point also, most users won't know exactly when their router was manufactured. In order to find out that information, you have to raise a support ticket and ask and this is best done in the first 90 days of purchase whilst the support is complimentary.
Did you make a note of what firmware you were on before you upgraded to the latest firmware? Was the router behaving itself prior to updating? If so, it might be worth rolling back to your original firmware. You will read lots of users heavily advocating firmware v.42. This is fine if your router came out of the factory with that firmware, but if your router never had that firmware because it pre-dated your own router, then you might want to think very carefully about rolling back to an older firmware the router never had in the first place.
How many devices have you got using 5ghz WiFi at any given time?
Portwey84Hey thanks for the response! I haven't been keeping track of the firmware that it's on way before I noticed this issue, especially since the router is just set on auto-update. One thing I'm sure about though, is that before I attempted to do a reset and installing the latest firmware, the device shows that it's already IN the latest firmware which is the V1.0.11.100_10.2.100. I haven't noticed issues before, but I may have had experienced a couple of disconnects while online gaming back then, just not as frequent as this. For the 5Ghz network, I only have 3 devices at most connected at any given time, an iMac, PC and iPad.
plemansI will definitely try installing it after work and post here some results. I own my modem, which is a Netgear CM1000.
The connection for my 5Ghz network definitely died now by the way. It's still showing up but unable to connect to the internet. 2.4Ghz and wired connection has no issues though.
I got my R7000 two days ago, shipped with 1.0.9.88 and I did have the 5Gz drops every few hours. Based on all the advice, I downgraded to the .42 firmware and I've been rock solid for about 36 hours. Hard to believe they can't get simple 5gz working with their firmware.
Can someone list instructions for how to downgrade to the .42 firmware? Thanks in advance!
Go here https://www.netgear.com/support/product/r7000.aspx
Select "downlaods"
It will show the current versions. on the bottom of that it says "show more" This will expand and show ALL the firmware updates. Select the one you want and download it to your computer.
Log into your router.
Go to the Admin portion and select firmware.
In that menu you hav the option to upload firmware from your computer. Select the file you downloaded. At some point it will warn you that the firmware you're installing is older than what you have. Ignore this and continue the install. Router will reboot and you will have your old firmware.
Understand this is a rough tutorial, but I think I hit all the bullet points.
- In fear of sounding dumb, how does one go about downgrading to .42?
I have been having these issues pretty consistently for the last week.
Thanks in advance.> [...] how does one go about downgrading to .42?
Visit http://netgear.com/support , put in your model number, and look
for Downloads. (For older versions, under Firmware and Software
Downloads, look for "View Previous Versions".) Find the kit(s).
Download the kit(s) you want. Read the "Release Notes" file for
instructions.> Model: A7000|Nighthawk AC1900 WiFi USB Adapter - USB 3.0
That has nothing to do with anything?
Those that don't notice it probably have smart connect setup. If you split the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands into seperate SSIDs and hook to the 5GHz band I wonder if everyone would have the same problem.
I first noticed the problem when I had my wifi networks seperate so I tried the smart connect but I get the same problem. I have down graded to V1.0.9.88_10.2.88 and I haven't had any problems with the 5ghz band since the rollback. I'm on the wifi all day with the work laptop and my wife has her laptop on most of the time as well. We started to notice the problem last month maybe late april. I use to have the router set to auto update. So its definitely the latest firmware V1.0.11.100_10.2.100 causing the issue for me. I've never had an issue with the router before the update. Its been very stable and high performing for me and I would probably buy a newer netgear model even with this one issue. I dont know what's different with the users who dont have the issue, but for me definitly a 5ghz band issue on the firmware V1.0.11.100_10.2.100 and manually rolling back to V1.0.9.88_10.2.88 seems to have solved the issue. If they come out with an update to the firmware I will give it a try.
DragonWarrior The more I read through the posts, the more I'm of the opinion it's a hardware issue within some routers themselves. The problem is proving it.
I'm currently furloughed and I have been spending far too long on my laptop browsing the www. My laptop is connected via 5ghz WiFi for around 14 to 16 hours a day, every day. My email program is open the entire time. I just don't get a single drop. In the background, I'm watching films etc via streaming sticks, Wife is using her iPad and she's also working from home, her work computer connected wirelessly up to 8 hours a day, again, zero drops.
All that and several other devices all continuously connected, either on the 5ghz or 2.4ghz bands, all on firmware v.100.
Going back to V1.0.9.88_10.2.88 solved my issues. 1.0.11 is no good. I've had no issues with any other firmware except this one and I bought my router in 2016, so it's one of the first batches.
TOOMUCHSAUCE wrote:Going back to V1.0.9.88_10.2.88 solved my issues. 1.0.11 is no good. I've had no issues with any other firmware except this one and I bought my router in 2016, so it's one of the first batches.
And therein I suspect lies the problem. Your 2016 built router? 3 years older at least than my 2019 built router. Have they been built in the same factory/country? Exact identical hardware inside?
That's why I don't think it's a firmware issue entirely. If certain components in your router vary from mine, which quite frankly we'll never know unless we put them side by side and tear them down, if components do differ and are unable to cope with firmware changes in one router supposedly identical to another, then perhaps that is the issue? Who actually knows?