EX6200 drops 2.4GHZ connection every day or so

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Babylon5 wrote:
Nick, Metzger, DigitalMaestro (thanks for the link), I will raise this with Netgear to see if this is a recognised issue. Did this issue appear immediately after first setup, or some time later? If later does a factory reset resolve the issue for a while?

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I can't speak for others but the issue occurred for me right out of the box and was not affected by a factory reset.  Netgear eventually also did a hardware swap and that also did not resolve the problem.  Since the same symptoms were exhibited by the replacement unit provided by Netgear then it points to a firmware issue to my mind.  Netgear did provide one or two beta firmware releases for me to try but none resolved the issue.

DM

Yes, mine happened out of box too. Changing the channel as expected did not help ... had a dropout last night too.

Definitely sounds like a firmware issue then. This is honestly pretty lame. Bought this unit due to excellent reviews on WireCutter ... I guess they didnt run it long enough to see their own drops on the 2.4GHz channel

In my case, the extender worked fine out of the box for the first day or so.  Then the 2.4 GHz network stopped working.   A power cycle of both the extender and the router was required to get it working again.  I went through this a few times, approximately every day or so.  As of two days ago, power cycle stopped resolving the issue, and a factory reset also failed to resolve the issue.  After working with Netgear support, I returned the extender to Best Buy and I'm now trying an EX7000.  

Guess what?  Same problem.  Out of the box, the extender was never able to extend the 2.4 GHz network. When I log into the extender, the status indicates that everything is working normally, but none of my devices can get an IP from the 2.4 GHz network.  Even more strange, the "original" 2.4 GHz network from the router also fails while the extender is connected.  If I disable the extender and power cycle the router, the "original" 2.4 GHz network works normally.  

Throughout all of this, the 5 GHz network (both extended and "original") work just fine.

Hi,
same problem with one of my two EX6200, every day drops the 2.4 GHZ connection,
I have the latest firmware V1.0.1.60_1.1.98
Rebooting fixes the issue for another day....

Thanks Andy. Base station is an Actiontec R3000.  This is the wifi fibre router provided by my ISP (the Actiontec website does not show the R3000... I assume it's a customized model they made in conjunction with the ISP).

A techinician from the ISP is coming to the house this morning to try confirm whether the problem is with the router.

Hello all.  My ISP tech just left.  At first he couldn't explain it either, but he made a few calls to more senior techs and came up with this answer: the bulk of consumer grade extenders, Netgear included, will not be able to simultaneously and consistently extend the 2.4 G and 5 G networks.  It's one or the other. 

The ISP can provide an extender that will do this (it's about the same cost as the EX7000) but their extender has to be hardwired to the base station.

That's what he said, for what it's worth. 

I would not be attempting to extend both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, I would use one band to connect back to the base station and the other band for remote clients.

If the ISP is hard wired back to the base station, then it’s operating as an access point not an extender, the EX7000 can certainly operate in that mode (that’s how I have it set up) and I believe the EX6200 can also.

My router that I am extending is an Archer C8 series (also brand new)

But isnt this a supported mode of the extender ?

I originally set it up with 5GHZ to the router and 2.4GHZ extended out (as I have older devices) but perf was not looking good so I switched to extending both

When the 2.4GHZ is dropped, I went into the router status page and I believe the router still thought it was up!

It is a supported mode, it’s the basic mode of operation of the extender, but it’s a bit of a performance hit.

My preference would be to use one of the Fastlane options where the connection to the base station is only made over the 5GHz band, and distant client connections to the extender use the 2.4GHz band.

I realise that's not really an answer to your issue, but it might be worth investigating to see if it works reliably.

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Babylon5 wrote:
OK, I will contact Netgear to see if they are aware of this issue, but I would suggest that it is not as prevalent as you may think, otherwise we would see many more users with the issue posting in the forums. As described it’s pretty fundamental and should be picked up quickly in any test / review. I for example have an EX6200 set up at a relative’s house where only 2.4GHz is used and it’s been operating flawlessly in that mode for months now. Now I don’t deny that you have problems, and I’m not suggesting that you are the only people with this problem, but I’m more inclined to think that it’s a hardware fault with the EX6200 or a compatibility issue with the base station. Could you all please tell me the manufacturer and model number of your base station? Metzger, I do have the EX7000, though I use it as an AP rather than an extender, but for many weeks I tested it in extender mode and had very few issues with it. As an AP it hasn’t failed me yet.

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My base station is a Netgear R7000.  I'm running the EX6200 in Fastlane mode using the 54Ghz as the backhaul to the base station and the 2.4Ghz to the clients.  Rather than dropping every day, the latest beta firmware provided by Netgear would drop every 7-10 days or so.

It's odd that the problem is not more widely reported since I had this same issue across two brand new EX6200s.  Both were setup in Fastlane mode using standard options.  I'm not using the USB port or any of the other features of the EX6200 except for Fastlane yet the problem occurs.  It would seem that it should occur for at least those users with Fastlane.  I seem to recall that I had the same issue when I extended withotu Fastlane as well.

Was there ever a response from Netgear on this ? 

No, nothing. I disabled the 5 GHz network on the router and am living with that solution until I can upgrade the one laptop in the house that won't support it.  

OK trying the fastlane (5G extender => router, 2G to device mode)

Hope this works better. if not I guess I will just extend the 2G and disable 5G and not buy Netgear next time.

Although sadly I already had to return another vendors product because I couldnt even connect to *its* Wifi! Specifcally bought it because it was *not* belkin .... then discovered it was a re-badged Belkin ....

Are there *any* good manufacturers of consumer stuff left ?

Same issues here.

Dropping devices and internet connection daily.

Current firmware installed.

Tired of rebooting and continually (re)setting this device.

Despite comments from NetGear to the contrary, this problem apears wide-spread and significant.

I'm also having this issue.

Using a EX6150 in FastLane mode.  Extender to Router in 5ghz   /   Extender to devices in 2.4ghz

Every day I have to turn the extender on/off because it stops working. It's like it's forgotten where it is and has gone off for lunch.  The worst part is all the lights on the box show green and the system monitor on the NG website says it is working fine.

I have the latest firmware.

Has anyone replaced the Netgear with a more reliable wifi booster ?    Brand name and model please.