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Dreadful WiFi on RAX120

powellandy1
Virtuoso

Dreadful WiFi on RAX120

I've had issues with the WiFi.

RAX on 115 or 118. Intel AX200 on 21.70 or 21.80. Windows 10.

 

Whenever I am connected on 5Ghz 11ax - Initially I can get about 60Mbytes/s file transfer speed from NAS on network.

After a few hours this will drop down to about 500Kbytes/s. (NB this affects all wifi network transfers - any connected NAS/computer and interenet) Disconnecting from the network and reconnecting in Windows 10 (no reboot of either laptop or router) fixes it for another few hours.

Notes

- turning ax on/off -> no difference

- turning OFDMA on/off -> no difference

- turning WMM off -> * all transfers then at 3Mbyte/sec * - ** There seems to be something wrong here **

- wired connections (and wired connections from another wifi bridge) seem unaffected

 

This is pretty poor - it makes it unusable. Any fixes in sight or ow do I go about getting a refund??

 

Thanks
Andy

Model: RAX120|Nighthawk AX12 12-Stream WiFi Router
Message 1 of 5
NordicBastrd
Apprentice

Re: Dreadful WiFi on RAX120

I have exactly the same issue as you

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Routers-with-WiFi-6-AX/RAX120-Speed-drops-from-600-700-Mb...

Looks like the AX200 chipset and the Netgear RAX 120 just don't work together.  Of course every 802.11ax adapter is AX200 which means the Netgear RAX120 just can't do 802.11ax at all.  Pretty ridiculous.

Message 2 of 5
avtella
Prodigy

Re: Dreadful WiFi on RAX120

I get a around 70-80 MB/s witth HT80 and 100-140 MB/s on HT160 on my RAX120 paired with my Dell 7577 wth an AX200 when doing transfers to and from my NAS. Only issue I have is that uplink is faster than downlink by about 1.5x at times. What laptops/devices are you using? 

Message 3 of 5
avtella
Prodigy

Re: Dreadful WiFi on RAX120

Sadly both the current Boradcom and Qualcomm chipsets still have stability issues with AX and certain clients, worse with Broadcom atm, main reason why one should never buy a first gen device of a new standard, I usually wait a year before getting a router to make sure its firmware is stable or you are pretty much paying to be a beta tester. I ended up getting the RAX120 for testing purposes so I knew what to expect.

 

As for the AX200 I don't know what devices you are using but some laptops have had issues with it like some HP devices, the AX200. I'm still on the 20.70.xx drivers but some of the earlier ones were pretty bad causing drops in HT160 mode even on my previous AC router. Coming back to your issue try disabing all AX features on the router and use HT80 mode, that's what helped with earlier Intel drivers when I had drops and major latency issues with the AX200. Yes its counterproductive since you want AX features but maybe worth a try if you need stability and consistency.

Message 4 of 5
avtella
Prodigy

Re: Dreadful WiFi on RAX120

As for refunds if you are withing 30 days I'd return it to the retailer and get a router thats more proven like the 2nd gen AC routers from Asus/Netgear, and switch to an AX unit when thigs are a bit more settled, because I've tried out models from both Asus and Netgear when helping some people with purchases who were intent on getting the latest and greatest and had various issues on models from both vendors in regards to AX. If you're out of your return window you are pretty much out of luck unless you got it from the likes of Best Buy or another retailer with extended warranty where they allow exchanges to a different model if issues arise.

Message 5 of 5
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