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Solved
Wifi performance suddenly poor
I have been using an R8500 and a EX7000 extender for some time with good performance.
In recent days (possibly following an update of the R8500), performance on the 5GHz channels has become terribl...
Forgive me for replying to the wrong party.
Thusfar, the behavor and issues you are describing are often the result of bad FW flash or misconfiguration. Its good that you have disabled WiFi and DHCP, etc on your ISPs modem, but you should really look at getting in into Bridge or Pass Through mode. No way for us to rule out this not being related to your issue(s) unless this is done. The 8500 needs to be running the show. I recommended taking the extenders out of the mix (for now) because you have zero stability from a performance standpoint.
Flashing FW - should only be done from a PC connected via ethernet. Genie or automatic update might work 90% of the time, until it doesn't. Eliminate as many variables as possible.
Reset, good idea. Now use an app to see what other networks are broadcasting in your vicinity, and what channels they are using. Choose something else.After saving, I suggest fully restarting your router before testing again. While its not alway neccessary, I've found it to be reliable.
QoS - Avoid it. You're asking for trouble.
Smart Connect - Also not a fan... Why not create your own networks, name appropriately. Connect your devices based on capabiity. Also gives you greater flexibility with channel selection. Up to you. But remember, if one of your 5Ghz devices get put on a 2.4Ghz broadcast, performnce is going to suffer.
You've got some more troubleshooting to do. I've not had a router forget its port forwarding or address reservation settings once set. Hope you;ll figure it out.
Hi Darren,
Not before the problem started, although since writing this, I have tried many things, including replacing the EX7000 with an EX8000; and yes I have resync'd it very many times. I even tried contacting Netgear support, but they were less accessible than the crew of the Marie Celeste.
I am pretty sure that the problem lies with the router.
Yesterday I noticed that the table of attached devices was shuffled.
The device names and types were not those of the IP address and were changing each time I went back.
I have switched off QoS as this shuffling was causing mayhem - putting the extender on low priority for instance.
In the end, I did a full factory reset of the router, but that did not change the firmware and the problem persists.
What do you have in front of your 8500? Is this device operating in Bridge Mode?
Start here:
Disconnect your extender. Power it off.
Now download whatever FW you wish to run and reflash the 8500 directly from a PC connected via ethernet. Now perform a factory reset. Configure the 8500 from scratch, changing only what is absolutely neccessary for you to connect. Do NOT enable QoS, Traffic Meter or any other unneccessary services. You can even stick with the default SSID names (wireless) for the time being. Test your wired and wireless performance.
What speeds are you provisioned for? What speeds are you seeing on each interface? Less is more here. Don't make a bunch of changes. If your speeds are acceptable, you can change the broadcast names of your SSID's and use WiFi Analyzer or Genie to make addiitonal adjustments to channels to further optimize performance.
The desired result is getting the 8500 to a point of stability and acceptable performance. Post back with any questions and results and we'll move forward from there. You have introduced too many variables which will only lead to further frustration.
You can re-introduce the extender once things on the 8500 are stable.
Tips, things to avoid:
-Don't use Genie to update
-Don't enable Auto Updates
-Don't use the GUI to check and update, only flash from a PC connected via wire
-Don't enable QoS or Traffic Meter
-I wouldn't enable Smart Connect while testing
-Use a tool such as Genie or WiFi Analyzer to evaluate other broadcasts or interfearence in your vicinity
-Don't make successive changes to WiFi broadcast channels without restarting the router in between changes. When you change and save, the radios restart, but in some cases its better to restart completely before retesting. Use the tool.
Sorry Darren, but I understood little of your message.
"in front"?
The R8500 is connected to the ISP's router, which is operating in PPPoE mode with everything like DHCP, wifi etc. off, so the R8500 is the only device operating as a router and the only DHCP server on the network. So I will say no to "bridge mode".
I hope that is relevant to what you asked.
"What speeds are you provisioned for?"
Do you mean on the EX8000 status? It currently shows 144.4Mbps (2.4GHz) and 866Mbps (5GHz). It achieves 200-300 Mbps, which is much less than the EX7000 managed on a good day (400-500), when it didn't drop down to 14Mbps.
I wonder if the latter was the QoS shuffling putting the extender to low priority.
The units are about 3 metres apart, so I had hoped for more. The EX7000 used to show better connection speeds (1300Mbps on the 5GHz).
This current speed is not acceptable for my purposes and I thought the EX8000 would operate over both 5GHz bands and so would link faster than the EX7000. However, it is so unstable and unreliable that my definition of "acceptable" is reducing fast.
I don't dare touch the firmware at the moment. I have lost 2 days just trying to get these things to talk at all and now I cannot afford to lose them again while I am trying to catch up on the resulting work backlog.
Every resync of the extender leaves it disconnected and then I have to power recycle repeatedly until it connects again.
Also the timeout of the configuration being shorter than time than it takes to resync is a nice feature :)
Today the R8500 has forgotten settings for port redirection and reserved IP addresses - all empty.
Has anyone else been having these problems?
Any idea what can cause this?
Forgive me for replying to the wrong party.
Thusfar, the behavor and issues you are describing are often the result of bad FW flash or misconfiguration. Its good that you have disabled WiFi and DHCP, etc on your ISPs modem, but you should really look at getting in into Bridge or Pass Through mode. No way for us to rule out this not being related to your issue(s) unless this is done. The 8500 needs to be running the show. I recommended taking the extenders out of the mix (for now) because you have zero stability from a performance standpoint.
Flashing FW - should only be done from a PC connected via ethernet. Genie or automatic update might work 90% of the time, until it doesn't. Eliminate as many variables as possible.
Reset, good idea. Now use an app to see what other networks are broadcasting in your vicinity, and what channels they are using. Choose something else.After saving, I suggest fully restarting your router before testing again. While its not alway neccessary, I've found it to be reliable.
QoS - Avoid it. You're asking for trouble.
Smart Connect - Also not a fan... Why not create your own networks, name appropriately. Connect your devices based on capabiity. Also gives you greater flexibility with channel selection. Up to you. But remember, if one of your 5Ghz devices get put on a 2.4Ghz broadcast, performnce is going to suffer.
You've got some more troubleshooting to do. I've not had a router forget its port forwarding or address reservation settings once set. Hope you;ll figure it out.