× Introducing the Orbi 970 Series Mesh System with WiFi 7 technology. For more information visit the NETGEAR Press Room.
Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
Reply

Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

scar1
Tutor

Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Good afternoon.

 

No choice but write short summary on my experience in using Netgear Nighthawk XR500 and router, including 2x EX7700 mesh extenders. Really dissapointing basic functionality is pretty awful.

 

Background:

My provider is VM in the uk, on the best broadband package available. I was using the stock router provided for a while before selecting the XR500 to improve performance and coverage. I also purchased 2x EX7700 to eliminate deadspot in house and garden.

 

Issues

Initially all was working fine when purchased and setup, also attaching the EX7700 putting in another room and had a strong signal. All working ok for some months and upgrading firmware as recommended when new releases became available.

Over time I noticed devices (specifically apple devices) loosing connectivity and when trying to rejoin get prompted for the wifi password, which is correct but is rejected by the router. This is not the case for all apple devices, general fix for this is to reboot the router.

I update the firmware which helped but still happens way too often, resulting in me rebooting the router at least once every 2 days.

 

The SSID simply dissapears making it unavailable for any device to attach, signal drops and comes back up again intermitently. Again to resolve this issue a reboot of the router is needed.

 

EX7700 connectivity is now only good when previously was excellent. reviewing the connectivity on the EX7700 itself I can see it can only now connect to the XR500 on 2.4g band when previously it was both 5.0 and 2.4. This means that devices attached to that device will have a degraded service in comaprison to 5.0g throughput. This was not always the, I have not moved EX7700 since initial setup.

 

Overall really disappointed in this technology, its not cheap and considering purchasing a support agreement to bottom out these issues. At one point I even went back to the stock router provided by VM to make sure its wasn't something else that was causing the problem.

 

Am I the only one seeing these issues?

If so any advice on troubleshooting or getting a more consistent performance would be appreciated.

 

My setup:

VM Stock router (configured in modem mode)

XR500 FW:2.3.2.66

EX7700 FW: 1.0.0.210

 

One final thing the 'Device Manager' on the IOS APP when attached to the XR500 always reports "Sorry, the action was failed. Please try again". Even the error message is poor.

 

 

Model: XR500|Nighthawk Pro Gaming Router
Message 1 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Have you tried bypassing the extenders and connecting direct to the XR to see if you get the same issue?
Message 2 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Hey - thanks for the reply.

I have indeed, I retired both EX7700 to isolate the issue to the XR500.
Message 3 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Have you been using Smart Connect or have you disabled that? Does either impact the experience at all?
Message 4 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

This feature is enabled, is it work disabling, forcing a 5.0g connections?

Message 5 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Yes I would suggest disabling it, it may be the automatic switches between 2.4/5GHz is causing the issue.
Message 6 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Hey - thanks, looks like this has made a massive difference.

Thank you. Note to self nighthawk router is not smart 🤔
Message 7 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

That's great to hear, thanks for confirming the solution.
Message 8 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

<Bump>

Ok, whilst by turning smart switching off has improved things the issue is not totally resolved. Intermitently I will still get some devices (more noticeable on apple devices) lossing network connectivity to the network and when rejoining get the message that password does not exist.

I seem to have isolated the issue the 2nd EX7700, as when this is on thats when the issue seems to happen.

 

Has anyone else had similar problems, or can recommend further problem determination steps?

 

Any help is appreciated.

 

 

Message 9 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

On the Apple devices do you have WiFi assist enabled? You can find it in Settings> Mobile data on the device, if so disable that please and see if you notice an improvement.
Message 10 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Thank you. I have done this. 

Now when I move into the area that the EX7700 covers, its the wifi drops totally and mobile data is engaged. There is something deffo not right with the EX7700. I am going to reset and upload the config again and see if this makes  difference.

 

Will feedback on outcome.

 

Cheers

Message 11 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Just to clarify, did you disable or enable that option as I would suggest disabling it definitely. Okay keep us posted.
Message 12 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Disabled (switched off) wi-fi assist.

Message 13 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Okay yeah definitely sounds like an issue with the extender unfortunately. Make be best to make a ticket with NG here: http://support.netgear.com/
Message 14 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

I have reset and re-uploaded configuration. Will see how this goes.... 

Thanks for your advice. I don't have a support agreement in place so they may not accept my ticket.

Message 15 of 31
Netduma-Liam
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Thank you, let us know if you need anything else!

Message 16 of 31
mahobbs
Aspirant

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

I echo the problems you have seen, i have a similar setup but just one extender. 

Also had all sorts of strange/slow wireless connectivity issues.

I've found that going back a release on both xr500 and ex7700 was a step forward.

I've disabled smart connect which is better.

I've never seen devices listed on the Netgear app on Android.

I've also found that the media server is broken on the xr50 .66 release.

Not impressed.

Message 17 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

There is a new firmware released very recently please try that and do a reset after the update https://kb.netgear.com/000062867/XR500-Firmware-Version-2-3-2-114
Message 18 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Thanks for sharing your experience. It’s quite tricky to diagnose and pin down the problem. My full time job is working with technical support services and trying various this to isolate the problem is a challenge. I was beginning to think one of my extenders was failing, but the issue is so intermittent with the only resolution to constantly reboot the extender and or router.

It’s a shame as this technology is not cheap, beginning to think I should have purchased Meraki product, although expensive at least it’s realisable.

I’ll keep you posted.
Message 19 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Hi - thanks for letting me know about the firmware. I’ll update it now.

When you mean reset, do you mean loose all my config and setup again?

Message 20 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Also are there any firmware notes to see what issues this new update resolved?
Message 21 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Yes a factory reset so completely setting up from scratch. There are just firmware fixes posted on that version but as I have found previously, that doesn't always seem to be the case.
Message 22 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

This is quite a significant step and effort with no real reason what it will fix.

I’ll do the firmware update first and see what effect that has. If still no joy I’ll do a full reset and reconfigure. If that doesn’t work I’ll sell the lot and buy something that does lol 😂
Message 23 of 31
scar1
Tutor

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Hi,

 

Ok so I took the time yesterday to reset the router to factory defaults and change the SSID, bring the router down to a simple configuration. Once done I then reset and reconfigured each EX7700 extenders, initially next to the router then placing in the desired locations.

 

Today whilst working from home I noticed I had connectivity issues during the day, my apple and Alexa devices could not attach to the router. 

Apple devices asked for the password again, and when attached message said no internet. This caused the device to go back to mobile data 4g The Alexa devices just said obtaining IP and would never connect.

 

My laptop on the other hand worked ok, although the wifi signal would drop to 1 or 2 bars then back up to full bars again on my laptop (windows 10).

 

I also noticed as I write this, that some devices loose internet connectivity, but still remain on wifi, whilst others have internet access. Really puzzling as to why some devices would just loose internet connectivity but still be attached the router. Unclear if this is a router or ISP and modem connectivity issue.

 

Only resolve on this yet again was to reboot my router again, I did this through the url interface, however also noticed that I had to reboot both extenders as well. 

 

Its working again now, but for how long?? The reliability of this setup is really bad. Also I noticed that something significant has changed since original purchase. I remember when I first set this up, both extenders would have excellent 5.0 signal status to the router. Now with the extenders in the same locations and the router also in the same please, signal strength on the extenders to the main router is bad, to the point where it does not connect at all. One of the extenders that says it has good 5.0 signal strength will drop connection to the XR500 router all together, causing any devices to be connected to it not to access the internet.

So far since resetting to factory config, and reconfiguring hardware and attaching a handful of devices the problem is worse.

 

Its looking like ill have to raise a ticket, however I have no support contract. Surely this technology is not working as designed, any advice would be appreciated. This will be my last ditch attempt before I have to swap out the whole thing router/extenders and probably complain, im having to tether from my mobile phone just to post this!

 

 

 

Message 24 of 31
Netduma-Fraser
NetDuma Partner

Re: Constant issues with Nighthawk XR500 router

Could you try the latest beta version? There are a lot of fixes and I'm hopeful that it will improve your experience, specifically the dropouts that you're seeing: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4mwe5sx81gsc129/XR500-V2.3.2.114-DumaOS3.0.203.img?dl=0

I'd suggest a factory reset after as there are a lot of changes.
Message 25 of 31
Discussion stats
  • 30 replies
  • 3792 views
  • 2 kudos
  • 4 in conversation
Announcements

Orbi WiFi 7