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R8000P dropping wifi connection
Hello, I own a Nighthawk X6S (R8000P) and I've been having an ongoing issue where after I've been surfing via wifi for some time the wifi connection will remain active however there is no data up/down being transmitted. Further when attempting to go to 192.168.1.1 and I enter my username and password the entire page will not load entirely.. It just sits there for several minutes before it finally appears. It's also worth noting that I used the app to connect to my router and I tried a router reboot remotely, and it never rebooted the router.. I had to do it manually.
I have Centurylink Fiber 1G going directly from my ONT into the WAN port on the router. I then have a Netgear Nighthawk switch that handles all my wired devices.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
So I updated to Firmware V1.4.0.10 5 days ago. So far no internet drops :smileyhappy:
Haven't tried installing my USB hardrive to see if network storage works again. Just updating everyone.
192 Replies
I only wish I could help, but I'm having similar issues. Do you have an external drive attached to the router's USB port? My R8000P is very unstable, and recently, after a relatively good day, I attempted to use SyncToy to copy files to the attached USB drive, and, maybe coincidentally, I could no longer connect wirelessly to the router nor access the internet with my wired computer. I could no longer access the router's web page, either. Inspection of the router seemed to show activity, but nothing was accessible. It's gotten so bad that I have the router on a digital timer to shut it down (hard reboot) for a minute each night. Also, although accessing the drive seems to have caused the meltdown this time, it's not consistent; many times the router becomes inaccessible for no reason whatsoever, besides actually expecting for it to do its job and get me on the internet. Hopefully, someone else in the community, or Netgear themselves, have some idea what's causing our issues.
I am also having the same issue with my router. It is very frustrating to say the least since I rely on WiFi calling in my home due to a poor cellular connection. I have to powercycle the router by upluging/pluging in order to fix the issue. My ISP is AT&T Uverse. All available firmware updates have been insttalled. Any help will be aprreciated.
Thanks,
Rob
I'm having the same issues. On my second one, same issue. Any Netgear reps with advice before I scrap this and switch brands?
I have the exact same product with the exact same issue. I have posted and asked for any help on this but got no reply at all,not even from netgear. I’ve only had this pos for 60 days and have yet to be able to have it work properly. It locks up every 24 hours,even though it thinks it’s connected! The only way to get it going again is reboot. I’ve put my old R6300v2 back online and I have no issues! I wasted $320.00 on this piece of junk!!
Hi All,
Just want to verify the following.
1. Are the devices still connected to the wireless network but no internet access or the network disappears?
2. If it is still connected to the network but no internet access, is wired connection working?
3. Does disconnection happens on both bands?
4. Have you tried changing channels for both networks?
5. I assumed most of you has done factory reset but just want to verify it the said step has been done.
- Good morning James,In answer to your questions:1) The connection details vary. Most times my wireless devices can "see" the network, but cannot connect to the network, and if I try logging in using the router's IP address, the laptop times out trying to connect. Wired devices lose internet connectivity and also time out when trying to log into the router using the router's IP address.2) As for the different bands, I've tried separating the bands as well as using the router's smart connect (I forget the official term) where the router decides which band to use for a particular device. It doesn't matter, as I detailed above.3) One thing I haven't tried is changing channels.4) I have done a factory reset, to no avail. The router has exhibited this behavior from the start, and I've updated the firmware whenever possible, not only hoping to relieve this issue, but also keeping up with the security aspects.One thing I do notice is that many of these issue happen when trying to access the USB drive on the USB 3.0 port. On my last router, I had a 1TB drive which worked splendidly. On this router, I started with the same drive. Problems occurred, but I didn't attribute any issues to the drive. I upgraded to a 6TB drive on the USB 3.0 port for more storage and backup. The problems with the router increased. I downgraded to the 1TB drive, and, although the issues decreased, they didn't disappear, and one specifically happened while I was accessing the router attached 1TB drive.
Netgear users,
A montth ago (November 2017) I have received an email from Netgear, urging me to update the firmware on my router. I followed Netgear's instructions and succesfully upgraded the firmware to the latest version. Promptly, my router started freezing, dropping the internet connection on all my devices. I called support, and was told that since I purchased the unit in December 2015 I am out of warranty and, basically luck.
I argued that my router would have worked just fine if I would have ignored their urgen plea to upgrade the firmware and so they have decided to give me some free support. After reseting the unit to factory settings, change a few setting values, and finally revert to the previous firmware version the support specialist decided that "unfortunately I'm gonna have to purchase a new unit"
Netgear, this is on you. You prompted me to make an update that rendedred my router useless. Based on many other users facing the same problem, one can only wonder. How convenient for Netgear to put out a malicious "update" and simply turn their back on the customers not covered by the 1 Year warranty, giving them the option of buying a new unit. I will buy a new unit, but you better believe it it will not be a Netgear brand. As far as I am concerned, you just lost me, my business and my circle of influence business as customers.
Liviu A Dordea
New user in the UK with exactly the same problems.
In my case my router is connected to a Netgear DM200 Broadband modem, but otherwise I get the same connection drops on either WiFi or wired.
Have tested everything replacing the R8000P with an old low end TPLink router and no problems with connection from my devices or access to the internet.
I wish I had seen this post before ordering, I am still in the return period so concluding that I should probably return the product rather than downgrade Firmware.
So I contacted Netgear Support.
Here's there answer regarding my router having to be rebooted every 3 days:
Please try three different mtu size in your router, 1400,1492,1472 and monitor each for 2 hours and if you will still face the same issue, then please contact us again.
https://kb.netgear.com/24015/How-do-I-change-the-MTU-size-on-my-Nighthawk-router
please follow the above link to change mtu size.They also stated the router needs to be plugged into a wall outlet not a battery backup as I have mines.
I find the support level here is lacking from netgear as there support is really general and basic trouble shooting. Seems this issue has been going on for over a month and Netgear has not found a solution. What kind of service is this for an expensive router?
I have the same issue. Just bought the router 2 weeks ago and used the latest firmware. I’ve had router freezes at least daily. I had USB3 connected and noticed the lockups when using the drive so i disabled usb function and was ok for 2 days but now the lockups reappered. Tonight i had 2 freezes in the spn of 20 min. This time it was the wifi only. My PC which is hardwired was fine, which is different fom before. When the USB was connected the whole internet would freeze and i couldn’t even access the router page at 192.168.1.1. A hard reset didn’t help. Netgear tech support suggested exchanging for another router but looking at all comments i think this is definitely a firmware issue and not a unit specific defect.
The drops are too frequent, i feel this will have to go back to the store for a different model or brand.
Hi Stan,
May I know the FW version and USB device model name ?
Let me help you~
Hi, the firmware version i use is 1.3.0.8_1.2.1. The hard drive i used was Western Digital WDBKUZ0040BBK-UA Easystore 4TB Portable Backup.
Hi Stan21,
My issue seemed to involve a USB connected device, too. That point was really driven home when the router locked up 'while' I was conducting an operation involving the USB connected device (backing up to a 6TB HD). I replaced the larger HD with the previous 1TB HD (which worked fine with my old 4500), and the lockups diminished, although they didn't disappear. Netgear were very helpful, and eventually I RMA'd the unit. I haven't had any issues with my current unit, but I'll admit that I haven't taxed the USB connected device. Also, I have my router on a digital timer (finer resolution to 1 minute intervals) which forces a reboot every day.
I must also thank you for giving details (USB related problem). I can definitely understand the frustration of people experiencing this problem, so I don't deny them their right to vent, but it's your kind of detail that allows trouble-shooting. Is the USB issue a common thread? It'd be nice to know, not only for us, the users, but for Netgear, too.
Hi Anongw65,
If I were you I would not set the reboot daily so this way you know whether you have a problem or not and I would max out the USB use. It's better to know now than when you need it and it's out of warranty. Just my 2 cents. I also had an issue with the USB3 after the hardwire reset. The router reassigned the drive letters. Initially the drive was set to U: drive and it was called USB_Storage and there was a system files drive named T:\\T_Drive. After the hard reset it flipped the drive letters so the U became T but it was still calle USB_Storage and the T drive becaue U but was still called T_Drive. When that happened. I could no longer do the Map Network Drive as it didn't appear as a valid drive. I aslo had issues with the drive mapping after reboot before that while it worked. As soon as Windows rebooted i got a message saying that Windows can't recognize some of the drives and the drive would be shown with a red X mark. I would have to manually disconnect and then remap. Selecting the SMB1 server option allowed me to just click on the drive link and reactivate it as opposed to disconnecting and reconnecting but from what i've read it makes PCs vulenerable as it's very old technology from the early 90's. I read on another forum that R8500 and R9000 got firmware updates to SMB3 and no longer have the drive mapping issues. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue? To me the USB was definitely a part of the problem as the router would have a total meltdown and nothing would work and sometimes several times a day. I have a ton of music on the drive but i hadn't even mapped it yet to any client software, so the drive was not even in real use. After disabling all USB functions on Saturday night it lasted unitil last night so that's actually 3 days and before the last Wi-Fi only freeze i thought I had isolated the issue. But there is apparently something else causing the Wi-Fi to freeze while ethernet connected devices still worked. I am getting guidence from Netgear tech so I'll update you if this gets resolved.
- I have been having the same issue with the R8000P dropping every 24 hours with tech support no help. They actually act as if they have no knowledge of this issue. Is there a fix yet?
I saw that they released another version, has anyone given it a try to see if it made a difference? Though, 1 day isn't much of a sample size.
- I guess I mistook the e-mail to download the new app that updates firmware as a new version being available. Ignore my comment.
The problems are so bad with this router, that Amazon has dropped the price from $299 to $249.
- With the new firmware version I also activated QoS, after that it began to drop wifi....I believe that is the issue
There's a beta firmware out for our devices.... Let's hope it leans towards solving problems.
https://kb.netgear.com/000058267/R8000P-Firmware-Version-1-4-0-8-Hot-Fix
New update is available.. I hope it helps.
https://kb.netgear.com/000058837/R8000P-Firmware-Version-1-4-0-10
