I have read where this problem is solved, it is not. I don't understand how an expensive router such as this could be dropping the internet so much. I mean how long have routers and wifi been around now? I have read through all the posts and people have the same problem. This issue is still not solved. My Mac laptop drops all the time even when I am using it. The Samsung TV is hardwired to the router and it still loses connection. Don't tell me to reboot the router. There shouldn't be a reason to reboot the router 10 times a day. I'm not doing anything special. I even tried allocating an IP address. That doesn't work. It still drops. I am on the latest firmware...2.3.2.56. I see where this problem was supposedly solved back in 2.3.2.3X...NOT. I had this cheap router from Spectrum and it didn't drop stuff. I don't believe I have a defective router. If it is this defective how did they sell any in the first place? They say log files are for developers but that God for the log files because I can at least see in the log files that is dropping my lease several times an hour all through the day. Someone at Netgear or somewhere knows really what the problem is...my question is why does it take so long to get a fix? I would take it back but i don't have the box any more. Stupid me. I have tried every solution that is posted. They don't work....at least permanently. They might work for 10 minutes.
There is a fix that is coming in the 3.0 beta, but it's not there just yet. Having a switch between the ISP modem/router and XR500 may help or having the switch connect wired devices to the XR. Disabling DHCP completely on the XR and giving devices static/reserved IPs so they can still connect should get around the lease changing. If it's the WAN lease then changing to static in Internet Setup should help as well.
Thank you for the quick response. I had signed up for the beta some days ago. I am not hopeful. Everything seems to be on the LAN side. I will try allocating static IPs and turning off DHCP but if I go through that trouble and it still doesn't work that will be very frustrating. I am absolutely not using any features that this router can provide other than as a basic wifi router and it doesn't do that. It is device agnostic. It happens to PCs, Macs, iphones, HP laser printer, etc. Doesn't matter if it is a device that sleeps or not. Doesn't matter if you turn off the device and turn it on later. Insane.
If you're not using any of the features by choice then it would probably be easier to set it in AP mode and that should get around the DHCP issue - if you're using an ISP router.
I appreciate the help but nothing works. Unfortunately, I do need to use it as a router. I think the only solution is to buy another brand. Unbelievable that I could get a more expensive router like the XR500 and go backwards just connecting to the internet.
Ok. I have made progress on this issue. It looks like everything is staying on the wifi with the netgear except iphones and my macbook pro. PC desktops have not dropped. The router has been in automatic mode to let it pick 2.5ghz or 5ghz. It was so bad it was dropping me every 20-30 minutes it seemed. After two minutes it would recover.
I figured out the Mac has some decent wifi debugging skills and I noticed I kept getting put on the 2.5ghz band of the automated network. So, while this is not ideal, I split the router into a 5ghz and 2.5ghz wifi network and I joined the 5ghz network with my macbook. I don't have a line of sight problem or interference problem that I am aware of. I'm 30 feet from the router and I can see it. When I joined the 5ghz network I haven't had a drop in 24 hours. Unfortunately, though I can't see some things like my printer now. I can get around that. What I don't have yet is the root cause for the drops but this seems to be working well. I wouldn't classify it as a solution yet but is a workaround at the moment.
Hey give this a try if it doesn't work it won't do any harm. Try going to your settings and changing the time zone to your time zone. I would also make sure that your modem is set to the same time zone. I had the same issue this fixed it. Now your issue might come from something else but it couldn't hurt
Circling back...all my time zones are correct. I don't know what the problem is but I know how to stop it.
It seems when Settings->Wireless Setup->Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence is checked to ON, I get dropped all day long all the time. I am using a MacBook Pro and Apple iPhones seem to do it to. I don't think the stationary PCs running Windows are affected that I can tell.
I unchecked Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence and now I don't get dropped from the Wifi (note it would eventually reconnect me after 2-3 minutes).
In addition, previously when Coexistance was ON, I would move about 30' from the router and the router would move me to the 2.4 Ghz network and then I would get knocked off. I surmise this is because the signal strength would drop to -65dB. If it was above -60dB it would keep me on the 5Ghz band. I analyzed the real time signal strength with the Mac's wifi diagnostics. Being able to improve the signal strength would keep me on the 5Ghz band but that wouldn't fix the knock off problem if I ever was automatically moved to the 2.4Ghz band by the router. So I need to figure out what about the Coexistence is cause it.
I have also tried this with Settings->Wireless Setup->Channel set to Auto and also being set to channel 11. That did not seem to affect getting dropped or not. I was always knocked off if Coexistance was turned ON regardless of what Channel was set to.
I know! I thought the same. I will do some more tests over the next week to see if I can figure it out but at least we know what is perpetrating it. I saw some other threads where some other folks with other routers were running into this. I will keep digging into it to see if I can get to root cause.
