I have a modest network at home, 5 Computers wich 2 of them are game servers. I host a PC gaming community that supports almost every country around the world. I have host 2 server that run game servers to DB/Websites and small mailserver.
I have to say for the money i paid I am very disapionted with the performance of this router. I am almost about to dig my old asus router out as it handled everything better. The fact that you can not DISABLE geo-filter has caused me many problems with clients just randomly being unable to see the servers online. Or me seeing other servers in in the EU (other side of the pond) and viseversa. Not to mention my 5G is basicly useless.. More than 2 users it poops the bed. 😕
I have maxed out my KMs so it Should in theory cover the whole world. Whih your APPS constanly crashing and forcing me to reboot the router and refresh my IPs is an extreme pain. The DUMAOS is pretty but frankly not impresive in terms of functionality.
A router that is almost $250 less can do the job better that is 6 years old is very disapointing. I realize the mistake is mine when buying this router as i think its intent was for a high performance router for the "Client Side" Gamers experiance. But you should get rid of the geofilter as it is garbage and doesnt even really work anyway tbh. I have tested it and i get better pings on a router without it 😕 by 5-10ms which can make a differnce in many cases. All it does is filter IPs and as you can see by all the complaints it casuses many random and inconveniant connection issues and worst that it doesnt improve performance at all.
If you are going to charge the money you are for this router then you should atleast make sure your apps do not crash CONSTANTLY ( within 24 hours of router reboot ). At this point If I could I return to get my money back I would sadly to say. I hope that I get an proper resoponse from the support team to help me deal with these issues or atleast refund me partialy. I have used previous netgear routers in the past and with great success, so i was really hoping with a "Flagship" series that I would have had a much better experiance. BTW I purchased 2 of these, one for my Parents and they have had nothing but Wifi issues with theirs. I have recommended against people buying this series of routers as a result of my experiance. Anyway hope to hear from the support team and see what they say or if my post will be deleted..
The Geo-Filter is not active until you add a device to it and when a device has been added you can disable the Filtering functionality or delete it and the device will no longer be restricted. Disable Smart Connect for WiFi and connect to the 5GHz manually - you may have a lot of WiFi networks in your area so using a WiFi analyzer and finding the least congested channel can help. In System Information in the Rapp panel options change the retries to 5 and then reboot and Rapps shouldn't crash as much. Yes it is very much marketed towards the client side experience for gaming. It sounds like you may not have the Geo-Filter set up correctly, by selecting the closest possible servers that will give you the best ping possible and then utilize that with QoS to keep it stable.
"The Geo-Filter is not active until you add a device to it and when a device has been added you can disable the Filtering functionality or delete it and the device will no longer be restricted."
I can record a video showing you when the geofilter RAPP crashes it blocks anything more than 2500km away, I understand that it should only work when a device is added. When the app is running it will work correctly, as soon as it crashes this then for whatever reason stops outside connects more than 2500km away give or take.
"Disable Smart Connect for WiFi and connect to the 5GHz manually - you may have a lot of WiFi networks in your area so using a WiFi analyzer and finding the least congested channel can help."
As for this I have done all that, I live in a house, with not much wifi around, and the channels i do have selected are clear. I suggest this solution to people in appartment buildings or row houses. But this does not pertain to my problems.
"In System Information in the Rapp panel options change the retries to 5 and then reboot and Rapps shouldn't crash as much. Yes it is very much marketed towards the client side experience for gaming."
I have done this and changed this multiple times to really no change. Even with it marketed towards "End Clients" the price you are charging for it is outrageous.
UniFi Dream Machine <--- This is around the same price and MUCH more functionality.. And It can handle everything you throw at it. Honestly I feel ripped off, I feel like i paid for somthing that looks cool. Thats really it. I downgraded. Not a good feeling after spending around $500 I have had this router over a year now, I think i have givin it a pretty fair go. Would really like my money back.
You should price your product accordingly and whith products like this its a matter of time before people start figuring this out.
" It sounds like you may not have the Geo-Filter set up correctly, by selecting the closest possible servers that will give you the best ping possible and then utilize that with QoS to keep it stable."
Yea i understand how it works and I have set it up corrcetly with it causing me way more issues than it should. I still think the appility to disable apps is important. That way the user can free up recourses that could go towards features they are actaully using.
The fact that the geo filter DOES effect What you can see, and who can see you when the app crashes is a major flaw and should be addressed. Hope my intput can help you make better decisions and maybe think about the people purchasing your prodcut. As a long time and up until now satisfied user of netgear products I would hope you take this post seriously.
So if it crashes even without any devices added it blocks completely? What happens to the 5GHz exactly when more devices are added? I didn't price the product so I can't comment on that.
"So if it crashes even without any devices added it blocks completely?"
Yes users can not see me and I can not connect to them unless its through discord or another 3rd party app proxying for us. This also occurs with some co-op games. I found also that when the users use VPNs then they can once again connect with the servers/game. After about the last 6 months of diagnosing this issue I don't have an exact explanation for you, (Due to limitied monitoring options) but by reading some of the posts in your forum this may be a big reason many people are having intermittent isssues with connecting to servers,friends,chats that have some distance between them. From what I could control in my testing it seems to happen around 1500-2500km in distance. ( with the help of users in my community). I have spoke with other Nighthawk users in the community and at this point the consensus that a major issue is with the GEO FILTER.. A quick hotfix to be able to disable this feature completely would really tell you a lot.
"What happens to the 5GHz exactly when more devices are added?"
The service just stops.. Says its working, but devices disconect and retry over and over.. Tested this on the other router i purchased for my folks. Theres seems to work much better, but I cant monitor as closley as my own. So im not sure if this is just my luck or if this is another APP related issue. after discovering the geofilter app issue I have started to try to replicate the issue but it takes alot of time to replicate this problem.
"I didn't price the product so I can't comment on that."
I am aware that you did not price the product, but you are a consumer like the rest of us. Was meant to explain that if other consumers feel the way I do when they learn what I have they will not be happy. Like I am. I feel right now that my only option left is to bite the bullet and just buy the Unifi Router that btw is cheaper than the xr500. I have used one at one of my members small offices and its amazing the functionality and ease. Not to mention the performance benifits that I could see with bench testing. Maybe your team can get one and see what im talking about. Once someone uses both, it will be very apparent what one is easier and feature rich without being confusing. For al long time I used your routers and I found your interfaces better than other manufactures and for a long time have suggested them. So im not hating on you here. Anyway Hope the info helps.
EDIT: And the fact that your apps are known to crash so much is a disturbing outlook to the stability of this product line/OS. Personaly if I would have had read that response before purchasing I would have avoided it. Just saying, and regardless of the outcome of this post I appreciate the participation and quick response you have given.
I have never heard of that happening at all. I'd suggest upgrading to the latest beta which changes the Geo-Filter quite a lot and has fixes and then see if everything works better for you. https://bit.ly/39ZN5JT
It is a support forum so you will only see issues here but the amount of people using the support forums and other channels to report issues compared with the amount of customers is within the normal range for a consumer product.
"It is a support forum so you will only see issues here but the amount of people using the support forums and other channels to report issues compared with the amount of customers is within the normal range for a consumer product."
Well thats the worst answer to this problem I have ever seen. Basicly saying yea we dont get enough complaints to improve our product line yet. We will deal with it when it becomes more of a problem. I will try the beta and report my findings here just to be fair.
Ill be posting my findings in detail on redit and to Linus and JaysTwoCents for there review as well. Maybe a consumer warning is in order. I will be doing a side by side with both xr500s i have purchased once i have replace them with a Unifi Router. Price matching with detailed fetures and performance in a controlled area. Maybe then when that video surfaces this post wont be taken so lightly. Thanks for your time, another customer RIP..
Have you upgraded to the latest firmware as Fraser mentioned? If possible, I'd also suggest performing a factory reset after the upgrade to ensure you're starting from a clean slate. Then monitor it's performance and report back if you experience any further issues!
Apologies for any confusion there, Fraser was simply saying that as this is a support forum, you will see a lot of issues reported here as users are requesting support to fix them. When you compare the amount of issues reported on this support forum and other channels to the amount of people using DumaOS, it's witihn the normal range for a consumer product. If we are unable to find the solution to a problem, it is immediately reported to the relevant teams to be investigated and resolved, regardless of how few users appear to be affected by it.
"Have you upgraded to the latest firmware as Fraser mentioned? If possible, I'd also suggest performing a factory reset after the upgrade to ensure you're starting from a clean slate. Then monitor it's performance and report back if you experience any further issues!"
I have done what you suggested and still the same issues, just not as often as before =(. I was hoping this would work and I would not have to buy new routers.
Once again all the apps crash and can not be restarted :/... Pulling out my old routers and replacing the XR500s, will try to get a $100 for them as APs or somthing.
Like I said I have had these routers for about a year now, and have been struggling to get them to work. So I can't return them to the vendor. I was hoping that I could return them to netgear for at least a partial refund.
The apps crash, they either do not start on boot or they just HANG FOREVER. There is no error message that I can see.
Please can somthing be done? I build and set up home networks and I used to recomend netgear routers for my clients, and would hope to continue to do so for most of your products as I use your switches for small home offices and large gaming setups. But after dealing with this mess I am more inclined not to. I feel I have been a loyal customer and have givin this product more than a fair shake. I would hope that my loyalty and the information I have provided here would promt some sort of rectification regarding this issue.
It doesn't look like you've successfully upgraded to the firmware I linked as none of the new features are listed and the Rapp sizes don't match the new firmware. Can you double check and make sure you upgraded to that and the router hasn't auto upgraded to the pre-beta .114 firmware please?
You and me both, and Netgear support is absolutely laughable, it may me more effective if it didnt exist at all. Oh well right, just another $250 slap to the face. What can ya do...
You are having similar issues I take it? This is really my first go around with the support, atleast they are responding lol. Should give this Beta firmware a try as well then maybe if we can get a few people in this thread and show the support team that there is some serious issues with this product. I am just looking either have a solution to continue using this product or some sort of comprimise. I would imagine since netgear is a well established brand that they will be willing to keep it so and work with there consumer base. If this does become a slap in the face I will never recomend any netgear products agian to my clients. In purchases a year regarding my Corprate clients its in the $10,000 a year anualy in sales for them they will be missing out on. Which is more cost effective, make a consumer happy and use the intel given to make your product better and keep a long time loyal customer who has recomended netgear solutions in networking for years. Or slap them in the face. But as you said "What can you do". I guess the outcome still remains to be seen doesnt it lol.
@Netduma-Fraser I update the firmware, I have running right now. I will report back to this thread to you as soon as I am able and have givin it a good once over and some network traffic has gone through it ;).
Not sure whats going on with the DUMAOS Connection Benchmark but yea.. Figured I would give you that info. No apps crashing as of yet. Will work on replicating the issues before with my community members and clients that were having connection issues. A fair go would be atleast 24 hours. Ill give you a more detailed report then.
Just some side comments:
- DumaOS seems more responsive (ThumbsUP)
- Control Over GeoFilter is much more robust, although I dont use it I am hoping it wont cause that odd connection issue. (time will tell)
- Traffic Controler is a good edition (will this allow portforwarding for subnets?)
Connection Benchmark we are aware of, we'll get that responding more accurately but as you can see it isn't restricting your speeds to that which is good. Thanks for the positives, always nice to here! Do make sure to do a factory reset first if you encounter any issues as it will clear any old low level code from the previous version. Traffic Controller is just for allowing/denying certain devices/traffic so nothing to do with port forwarding.
Sorry, I don't follow regarding the XR1000? The XR1000 has DumaOS 3.0 pre-installed and the XR500 is in the beta stages for 3.0 and the link I provided was the latest update for that beta. There are a lot of fixes in this version so it's very likely we resolved that indirectly.
"The XR1000 has DumaOS 3.0 pre-installed and the XR500 is in the beta stages for 3.0 and the link I provided was the latest update for that beta. There are a lot of fixes in this version so it's very likely we resolved that indirectly."
Maybe, so far so good no apps have crashed yet and cpu usage is down substantialy. Clearly an improvment, and if it does fix this indirectly then its a clear indication that the OS was the issue. I will give it some time and see how it handles increased traffic in the next 24 hours and will share my findings.
So far I notice a major improvment on performance and even my pings are better to my clients. This OS seems to be a much needed update for all XR Owners.
