NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.

Forum Discussion

greenlife802's avatar
greenlife802
Novice
Dec 06, 2014
Solved

SOLVED: Slow wireless internet passthrough speed after firmware update

So I first purchased a Nighthawk in July 2014 and it was awesome for a while. Then in notice is past couple months my streaming services were skipping and buffering more that usual (which was almost ...
AC1900
Nighthawk
R7000
  • greenlife802's avatar
    greenlife802
    Jan 22, 2015
    UPDATE: Yes, I actually tested the speeds with several different devices (an HP laptop, HTC One M7, and Nexus 9) all of them on 5G band, all ac enabled with latest updates. I also used a couple different speed test sites (speedtest.net, comcast speedtest, cnet speed test), inconsistently had the same result across all devices and hosts.

    However, I've actually been communicating with Netgear L2 support for last month... beta testing a couple different versions of the Nighthawk's firmware and even spending over an hour on the phone one night with nice guy who told me he was on an island in Southeast Asia, part of the Philippines... that's where Netgear tech support is halfway between China where they build them and Taiwan where the engineers are. After trying every tweak he could think of for an hour and not getting better wireless speeds, he finally gave up and wished me a Merry Christmas lol. Not a one of those beta firmware's made a bit of difference and I loathe the hours they tricked me into screwing around with them!

    BUT TODAY they released vR7000-V1.0.4.14_1.1.50 http://support.netgear.com/product/r7000

    And to my shock it actually worked! Not only have my high wireless speeds returned (120+ Mbps)

    http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4078979293 (laptop)
    http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1131321713 (nexus 9)
    http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1131332778 (htc one m7)

    but also my previously incompatible Seagate SRD0SD0 (3TB) USB 3.0 external hard drive now works, too. What a bonus! The whole reason I bought the Nighthawk was to use as DLNA server and the monster external HD I picked up 6 months ago just happened to be on the long list of ones incompatible with this finicky router.

    But now it all works (at least for now).

    P.S. Maybe it's in my head but I swear since this last firmware update when running speedtest now or transferring files (any heavy streaming) I can hear the router making a higher pitched electrical humming/whistling noise, it's a little disconcerting... I'm not sure having my brain fried by overclocked wifi is going to be worth the high speeds in the end... :eek:
shadowsports's avatar
shadowsports
Hero
Dec 13, 2014
greenlife802 wrote:



Greetings,
Unless I missed something, it appears that you were only using one device for ALL of your wireless testing. This single device cannot be used as a basis for performance.


I have an identical set up, except SB6120 in front of my R7000. I do not see this behavior with any of my devices. Wireless performance rivals wired speeds. So, it might be safer to say that the wireless chipset, drivers or settings being used with the ONE network adapter all of your testing was performed with has issues with the nighthawk and certain FW releases. While using defaults is a good place to start, it sometimes necessary to make further config changes in order to get the best performance. You appear to be aware of the many environmental factors that can influence wireless network performance. Did you ever consider changing to a different driver on the device being used for testing? This may have influenced the outcome of your tests.