I'm not savvy enough to know what "bufferbloat" is, but I have been having a HORRIBLE time gaming with this router. I have Frontier Fiber FiOS at 2 gigabit speed, and have to literally reboot the router mid-sessions almost EVERY time I play an online game like ARC Raiders, Fortnite, Helldivers 2 or other multiplayer online game.I'm using a PS5 Pro plugged directly into an ethernet port on the router (no wireless ever) using a top-end 3ft cable from Infinite Cable, have set up on the PS5 Pro to use the CloudFlare DNS on the PS5's advanced network settings, assigned the PS5 a pre-set IP address and put that IP address in for the DMZ, turned off QoS, IPv6, and still am having network-wide crashes where every device - including things like family iOS devices - losing access to things like Facebook and YouTube which - again - requires a full router restart.I have the latest publicly available version of the firmware as well and it has not helped any.This is insane that a $600 router is this unreliable.

What Firmware version is currently loaded? What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too? Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6A STP is recommended. Is IPv6 enabled on the router? Is Protection engine enabled on the router? I have my RS700 online since early this month. Game on xbox and have not seen any of these issues to date. Though I'm on cable with a NG CM3000 cable modem. 1Gb ISP service. IPv6 disabled on my router. PE enabled on the router.

If there are others seeing issues ith your particular ONT or services, I would get with the ISP and have them check all up to there ONT. One test would be to connect the PS to the ONT directly and see if you noticed same thing with a direct connection, if you do, then it would the on the ISP side where this issue is. JDGamer wrote: Oh I didn't realize that - all it says on the XGS-PON ONT Model FRX523 is that it's a Frontier Communications branded device. I never saw "Nokia" on it anywhere. It's in my garage. I'm not really able to easily connect my PS5 Pro to it directly along with a test display of some kind out there and then play a few rounds of ARC Raiders to see if the connection stays stable for a day or 2 after a reboot of the router.Surely there's some other way to figure out what's causing this, right? Or should I call Frontier and tell them to swap out my PON for another? I'm reading threads about how that causes issues, too...

Also, I forgot to mention I have a 5-port 10GB TP-Link un-managed switch set up for my >1Gb ethernet port devices like my main desktop PC (and an 8 port 1Gb unmanaged switch for the wired devices throughout the rest of my house, including my Synology NAS), but again - the PS5 Pro is plugged directly in to the router itself.

Current firmware version on my RS700 : V1.0.10.8_2.0.109Mfr / model # of ONT :XGS-PON ONT Model FRX523The cable is from Infinite Cable - a quality manufacturer of all things cable : https://us.infinitecables.com/products/cat8-s-ftp-40g-shielded-patch-cable-24awg-riser-cmr?variant=43920869556537No IPv6 is Disabled......and Protection Engine is Disabled as well.I haven't checked the Netgear admin webpage for my router when the network crashes. It usually happens at a VERY in-opportune time where I want it back online as soon as possible, so I use the iOS Nighthawk app to reboot the router. Up until the point I do the reboot step, I am still seeing the network name. During the reboot process the network temporarily disappears until it finishes the reboot at which point everything resumes functioning when reboot is complete.I bought the router through B&H Photo in mid-June of 2025

Do you have the same issues with the PS5 plugged directly into the Nokia?

I'm not savvy enough to know what "bufferbloat" is

17 Replies

JDGamer
Aspirant
Jan 20, 2026
I am looking online at my chat records w/ friends and I first started seeming to notice the issue mid-November and started trying to troubleshoot it (but whatever I did seemed to not fix the issue fully each time, as it would come back and require a full reboot).
JDGamer
Aspirant
Mar 28, 2026
Still having issues - now even in games that I never had problems with before that don’t seem like they should need much network traffic… like Elden Ring, or pulling up leaderboards on Astro Bot. Both having disconnects.

What the hell, Netgear?!
- FURRYe38
  Guru - Experienced User
  Mar 29, 2026
  Been using my RS700 with Division 2 gaming and haven't see any issues. Most issues seen were with the gaming services.
  
  These games work if you directly connect the console to the ONT?
  
  Is the RS 700 using detected ISP DNS or are you using custom DNS? Cloudfare or Quad 9?
  
  Had a power OFF of the ONT and RS router for 1 minute then back on been performed?
  
  Checking speeds thru the RS router to speed with a ethernet connected PC and ooklas installable speed test app?
JDGamer
Aspirant
Apr 08, 2026
Update : finally reached out to ISP and went up in support tier. At first they said “things looked fine” on their end, but I elaborated how it seemed to ONLY have issues during gaming where the entire network would crash (router admin page was still accessible but internet across all devices was usually down for a bit right after online multiplayer gaming round of any kind would start). That seemed to get them to actually check the logs…

And so it looks like the culprit is probably faulty ONT hardware (tech said diagnostic had shown 50+ disconnects just in the past 2 days). They are coming out to replace and swap out older cat5e run from ONT to router inside the house tomorrow afternoon, so we will see if that fixes things.
- FURRYe38
  Guru - Experienced User
  Apr 08, 2026
  Thanks for the update. Glad they seem to be proactive on this. Let us know how it goes.
  
  You might get a CAT6A STP cable in between the ONT and your RS700. What I use with mine.

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I'm not savvy enough to know what "bufferbloat" is