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Forum Discussion
Netgear said I need to pay for premium service for my router to work
I just got off the phone with netgear, they told me since I did not pay for premium service and security which is $300 on top of what you pay for the router it will work again, they said the new firmware in 2026 will force every new netgear router owner to pay or your router will loose internet connection. So on top of $622 for the rs700s I have to pay $300 more for the premium service that will keep the router up is what I was told straight from netgear. They said the new firmware will force you to pay for this and they said every router company is doing this. So tell me if this is true or not
13 Replies
Yea but the bad thing is after the new firmware my 5ghz band was forced to 3 times slower and for the router to loose connection from the cable modem and no it is not the cable modem, the whole router would loose internet but if you look at the router all the WiFi bands are up, but the connection out is down. Nothing has changed in the 6 months I have had this router now after the update this was the first time seeing the rs700s loose internet connection, the only thing that has changed was new netgear firmware update then all this crap started to happen, I was running perfect for 6 months tell the new firmware update, funny how combines say they test this but push out the bad firmware anyway. It all was running perfect before the last update. Netgear has some serious issues if they keep on pushing firmware that will not work on how the router is intended to work. Issues with new firmware
- On the 5ghz band you can not go auto unless you want slow speed
- you have to choose new channel since auto now goes to slowest speed, I did not pay over $600 for 1/2 a router
- Loose internet connection at least once a day and even in the logs it is not recorded why
The router should last more than 6 months with only 40 devices connected to it
I updated the firmware in my RS500 and don't have any issue. May be someone with a RS700 and updated firmware could comment.
The 5 Ghz auto channel selection always picks the least used channel DFS or non DFS channel. It always picks DFS channel 100 in my case which impacts the range since DFS channels have lower transmit power. You should always choose a manual least congested non DFS channel in the 5 Ghz band. This hasn't changed with the latest firmware update.
Try to restart your modem first and then the router. Did you check the web interface of your modem to see if there's any signal disconnection or weak signal issues?
The thing is if looking by the lights the router WiFi is all white means it is good the only light that is orange it the internet light which means no connection, but if you look at the wireless lights on the router my 2.5,5 and 6ghz are all up and white, but my cable modem is 3 years old so Xfinity is coming out to put in newer cable modem Saturday so we see, just in case I have 2 netgear rs700s routers, one being used only 6 months old and 1 still in the box never taken out and is my backup so I guess I will see if this helps on Saturday or not
This sounds like an issue with the modem or ISP issue. Hopefully you will find out soon.
I can not check the cable modem but I can check my router and now time to replace and since cable modem if free to get upgrade I will do that first and see if it is more stable
Cable modem is ok and replaced but this all did not start until netgear put out new firmware, if I have to replace my rs700s with the extra I have in the box will be last resort and it is a pain hooking the 4 media bridges and all the WiFi stuff but I will put in the ssid the same and password the same so most will hookup easy but not all do but if I do have to use last resort I have it, I get like a ack-rts in the logs on the router now when it goes down, remember this did not happen at all before the firmware update, i am not to smart on the ack-rts i have no idea what that does
I will turn off the updated on the new router if i go that way, cause it was perfect before new firmware
Never update firmware if you are running good, I did the update and the 5ghz band on the rs700s went from speeds to my media bridges from 1.3 gig connection to 400 mbps, and now I looose internet connection at least once a day, this router is 6 months old and it was all perfect until the new firmware, now I have all kinds of issues, in the log I get a dos atk-rts from port 80, i don’t know what that is, I need some teaching on that error, I do have a extra rs700s in the box never booted up just in case I still have issues I will replace with new rs700s and turn the updates off since they are harmful instead of helpful, the orange light will come on for internet instead of white, white light good orange light on internet connection bad.
This is for every netgear router they sell now is what netgear tells me
Obviously not true and you were scammed by fake Netgear support!
I just got off the phone with netgear
Did you reach them via my.netgear.com?
If you googled a phone number, then you reached a scam support site.
FWIW, did you try doing a factory reset of your router?
Agreed, totally scam.
They do have a premium support option but its not something you have to have. And the price is different.
If you googled anything to get a number, its likely a scam site that popped up. here's their actual premium support.
https://www.netgear.com/home/services/prosupport/
And you get free 90 days of support from date of purchase and a 1 year warranty regardless of plan or not.
