Re: RAX120

atsrxL · ‎2019-07-26

I got my brand new Rax120 and Intel ax200 wireless Nic
I've got mainly 3 issues
1. If enable AX The connection speed is 2.4g
but it only transmit around 58mb/s from my Synology NAS while it's connected to 1000m lan.and the wireless network sometimes may disappear.
2. If disable AX ,the connection speed is less than1.7g
The wireless speed is unstable from range 30mb/s to gigabit network bottleneck wihich is 113mb/s .the router is next to PC (less than 1m),at same time I've tested rax80 but it nearly same .I do think the performance is not good as it's price ,
3 I have a 10g sfp+rj45 copper paired with mikrotik switch and connected to milti-gig port .the other side is sfp+ 10g connected to PC .
From the router ready share server copy 20g single file to PC will work as 55mb/s and sometimes up to 88mb/s
If directly use this rj45 copper insert into PC's OCe 11102 gigabit network adapter and connect to milti-gig ,the copy speed is 230mb/s

The copper didn't specify it support negotiable to 5g/2.5g mode ，but in this case it can excceed than 1000m network .so why it cannot work well through switch ?

sjbhh · ‎2019-07-28

Hi atsrxL,

there are a few discussions on this topic in this forum already.

I am working with Netgear Support for more than 2 month now on this.

Fact today is: There is no AX transmission on a RAX120.

Even on Firmware 1.0.1.89 which is in beta mode there is no AX transmission. They have fixed the problem you describe which I had on the 84 and 86 firmware by reducing the AX speed to around 100Mbps.

In other words if you turn AX mode off your router is faster on Wifi in Firmware 89.

I do not think they have any testing devices as they keep asking me to send in logs from Intels AX200 or the Killer 1650. Issue is the same on both cards (same Chipset).

So if I were you I would return this router as long as you can do that.

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

I’m not sure what you mean by no AX transmission, I have 3 Intel AX200 clients and all are faster on AX mode by 10-15% vs AC mode on 5Ghz which is expected, 20% is the best I’ve seen. On 2.4 GHz on 20 MHz mode I get a 2X gain with AX over AC. That was on the .84 firmware when I tested after buying the router in April. A few reviews from various sites are also up showing gains on AX.

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

They’re probably asking for logs because not everyone is having this issue and it might be down to certain differences in different test/use environments.

atsrxL · ‎2019-07-28

Thanks for ur advice

The actually situation is I shiped it from USA to my country ,so its difficult to ship back .

I got no way to find offical contact method such as email or online chat in order to get the beta firmware , can u please offer me a test firmware for test >?

U can send it by email Atsrxl@gmail.com

Thank u very much.

atsrxL · ‎2019-07-28

Thanks for ur reply

Congratuations for u didnt have same issues like me and 2nd post ,

but for my experience its very sad ==

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

I didn’t mean to put down your issue, hopefully it gets solved. I was just responding to the message saying that NG may not be testing with AX devices hence I was pointing out maybe they didn’t run into the issue.

One thing I will say is that it’s generally best to buy a router that’s at least a year or so old so to have a fully stable devices with most bugs worked out, especially with a new WiFi standard, regardless of brand.

sjbhh · ‎2019-07-28

@atsrxL - check you email.

@avtella - Which devices are you using ? Windows ? Mac ? Linux ?

and what speeds are we talking about ? Is that really AX or just an increase in AC mode ?

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

Hey sjbhh,

My tests wre done with two clients on WIndows 10, a Dell XPS 9350 and a Dell Inspiron 7577 bot upgraded to an AX200. I do have a Dell Latitude E7450 also on an AX200 on Ubunto 18.10 but I have not tested on extensive ly on it as I always seem to get lower transfer speeds on Linux than Windows regrdless of the card.

The way I tested was by connecting a Samsung T5 SSD to the USB port on the router. I did Uplink/Downlink tests from my latops to the readyshare storage. One odditty I did notice was the writes to readyshare peaker at 156 MB/s and stabalized to around 130-135 MB/s while downloading from readyshare only gave about 60-80 MB/s. On the RAX80 the Reads were much faster than the writes. When testing to My NAS however reads hit 110-114 MB/s stable (speed limited by gigabit connection) and writes were 60-80 MB/s. So there is something of with SAMBA on the RAX120 which I'm working with NG on rectifying. I haven't seen any reviews from sites having the same issue however.

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

The above tests were on AX on 5GHz, on AC speeds were slightly less writes peaking at ~140 MB/s and stabalizing aroung 114-120 MB/s.

on 2.4 Ghz is where the biggest gains were, on 20 Mhz specifically where speeds were 2x more than "n" mode. on 40 Mhz there was not much gain.

In best case scenarios at close ranges I wouldn't expect more than 20-25% gain on AX for 5 Ghz, I'd say 10-15% gain seems more realistic at least in my test environment at 10-15ft with two walls.

sjbhh · ‎2019-07-28

@avtella - First of all you mention RAX80 (which is a totally different router than the RAX120).

I have never tested a RAX80 so I could not comment anything on it.

But I have a T5 myself and I am not sure it is a perfect testing device as the max speed is 540MB/s. The other thing is do we talk MB/s or Mbps ?

Assuming all your data is MB/s it would still be slow as 1 single AX channel should do 3.5Gbps which would be around 437,5 MB/s - so significantly faster than what you get.

I have a Samsung 970 Pro 1TB on each side of the router. 12 Core Processors and 32 and 64 GB RAM. The SSD is capable of doing Read of 3500 MB/s and Write of 2700 MB/s. So the test is for sure not limited by the hardware.

However I get around 110 MB/s - 120 MB/s which is a good AC speed. I get this with my R9000 as well.

Seeing your speeds I doubt it is transmitting at AX mode or it is at reduced speed as in the Firmware 89 - where AX works but with much reduction in speed.

atsrxL · ‎2019-07-28

HI thanks for your firmware

Sorry for confusing the speed unit

I've tested Rax80 and Rax120 using Cable and AX wireless attached a ssd though usb 3.0 port

AX read AX write Cable read Cable write

Rax 80 160MB/s 60mb/s 113MB/s 70MB/s

Rax120 58/(65)MB/s 60/(120) MB/s 240MB/s 150MB/s

before/(after 89 firmware) (though 5G port connected to pc)

All data are approximate and just based on my memorise the ssd's bottlenack is R420/W370 MB/s .

After 89 firmware at least AX can open and get reasonable write speed. the situation is in wireless write>read.

sjbhh · ‎2019-07-28

@atsrxL - Makes sense but the speeds for the RAX120 on AX mode you report are very slow - as AX should be capable of doing much much much more.

I do not know about you guys but I upgraded from an R9000 to AX to get better speeds which up until today is not possible.

Let us see when Netgear reacts and brings a firmware that is capable of real AX speed.

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

I mentioned the RAX80 because I Have both and compared them, hence why I mentioned the differences when testing to router storage at the end. I was definitely talking in MB/s not Mb/s.

I’m not sure why your expecting more than 15-25% more performance on AX on 5 GHz. 1024 QAM and other improvements aren’t going to net you much more than that in real world usage over AC on 5Ghz. The Intel AX200 is a 2 steam AX card which can do 1.7 Gbps max link rate in AC mode (real world speeds will be much lower 1,100-1,300 Mbps peak) on AX with a. 2.4 Gbps link rate expect a little more than that by 10-15% and maybe ~20-25% more if close to the router as 1024 QAM is more sensitive to interference.

AX was never meant to give a huge boost over AC on 5Ghz in raw speeds. It’s greatest improvement is in spectrum sharing in dense environments and also it gives a huge boost on 2.4 GHz over n.

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

You will never get 3.5 Gbps on an AX200 no matter what router, max link rate is 2.4 Gbps (1.2 Gbps per stream) as it has 2 antennas and that too only with HT160 enabled.

Additionally don’t confuse link rate with real world speeds. Even when Windows shows a connection at any link rate you will never attain that link rate in real world performance due to various overhead, interferences.

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

I should rephrase real world speeds =\= link rate. At best expect 60-75% in best case scenario in terms of real world performance to link rate.

avtella · ‎2019-07-28

Sorry for one more post, too bad we can’t edit. I use MB/s when talking about storage tests and Mbps when talking about link rates/real world performance. 1 MB/s = 8 Mb/s.

Also the 970 Pro can do 3.5 GB/s = 28 Gbps.

kc6108 · ‎2019-08-02

What's the easiest way to get ahold of the latest beta firmware for the RAX120? I've beta tested several Netgear products and firmwares in the past, but mainly with their Business products. I didn't realize support for consumer gear runs out so quickly.

I'm experiencing wireless disconnects and random network issues (i.e. one network device cannot communicate with another) with V1.0.0.84 and V1.0.1.86

Here's what I get when I try to contact support:

Your complimentary 90 days days technical support expired on 2019-08-01.

Purchase GearHead Premium Support to extend the support coverage of your product.

Or purchase by calling 1-888-939-9092 (within US, Canada, Intl. customers see link below) - Please have your credit card ready when calling.

Learn more about Gearhead

Your product hardware warranty expired on 2019-06-09.

kc6108 · ‎2019-08-02

What's the easiest way to get ahold of the latest beta firmware for the RAX120? I've beta tested several Netgear products and firmwares in the past, but mainly with their Business products. I didn't realize support for consumer gear runs out so quickly.

I'm experiencing wireless disconnects and random network issues (i.e. one network device cannot communicate with another) with V1.0.0.84 and V1.0.1.86

Here's what I get when I try to contact support:

Your complimentary 90 days days technical support expired on 2019-08-01.

...

Your product hardware warranty expired on 2019-06-09.

sjbhh · ‎2019-08-04

Netgear Support is a total disaster. It is three month now that I reported the issues and none of the beta firmwares received so far has done anything good. The only thing they have done is to reduce speed at AX mode.

- How can you contact them ?

I have just called the hotline, but I had an open case within the first 90 days as it took me 2 days till I ran into the issue.

Try give them a call.

kc6108 · ‎2019-08-04

I'm not going to call Netgear Support. When I click on Contact Support it clearly states they'll charge me since I'm past the 90 days.

At this point I don't care if AX works at all. I have two of these routers installed out in the field. At this point I just need these routers to stop disconnecting clients and allow clients to communicate with one another. I am being asked to stabilize this networks, and I cannot do that at the moment without providing different routers at my expense.