Re: RAX80 randomly disconnects LAN cable

ubedawg · ‎2020-11-17

Unfortunately keeping XB on wifi doesn't work for me neither. With ethernet, I get booted from the game completely. What I've noticed on wifi is that I get an in game message that there appears to be a problem with my network, and I get booted out of the activity, but not out of the game. If you're in a fireteam whether it's PVE or PVP, that's gonna be pretty bad. And in the game I play, if you are in PVP and leave, you are penalized. First it's a warning, the second time you get a temporary ban from the activity.

ubedawg · ‎2020-11-17

Not so sure that this will work? Bear in mind that I know next to nothing about networking. The issue is that Ethernet connected devices will be dropped completely vs. wifi that experience a pause, because it is the router disconnecting from the modem. All wifi devices maintain their connections to the router with a hiccup, but with ethernet connected devices, the disconnect that occurs is fatal. So if the input on the RAX80 is coming from another router instead of a modem (I think it's called the WAN?), and this issue persists where that WAN disconnects briefly, I think that the result will be the same? I mean for the wifi devices on the RAX80.

And to compound my situation, now there will be two of us working from home. I will need to find a router that transmits as well as this RAX80. The new VOIP will need to be connected to a wireless ethernet adapter, and the phone usage will be much greater and will have to be 100% reliable. Providing tech support, so there can be NO drops. Oh, and they are at complete opposite ends of the house. Before buying this RAX, I had tried a Ubiquite mesh system and it was afwul, and that turned me off of mesh.

Anybody have any recommendations for a solid wifi or good experience with mesh?

aant · ‎2020-11-17

I have the same issue. My remote desktops from work get dosconnected every 90-120 mins.

Nighthawk RAX75
Firmware Version 1.0.3.102_1.0.48

Did you find any solution yet?

Chocobofarm · ‎2020-11-17

I have the TP-link Archer C4000 ac tri-band router. I've never had a connection drop with it and I don't get booted out of online games. I've wired all my conloses, 2 gaming PCs and the RAX80 to it. Haven't had an issue since doing that.

I placed the RAX80 in the center of my home to handle all of the home automation, tablets, smartphone, etc. I also play games on the Oculus quest 2 wirelessly through it. The RAX80 is working fine for me as an access point. But, I believe everything would work fine with the TP-link router only.

If I were you I would go with TP-link. If you need more coverage, you can always wire an access points to it with a CAT6 cable.

Chocobofarm · ‎2020-11-17

aant, there isn't a solution. Netgear doesn't seem to be doing anything about this issue. You have to find a reliable router, preferably from another brand.

GabboCH · ‎2020-11-17

I have both problems.
LAN disconnects when I hardwired the Xbox via Ethernet.
Dropped/Frozen WiFi connection when using mobiles/tv/smart devices.
I have the RAX80 configured as an Access Point.

This device is just garbage...
Its been more than a year without even an attempt from Netgear to fix.

I put a netgear EX8000 in the exact same place in my network with the exact same network settings/SSID and it works flawlessly.
No disconnects, reliable Wi-Fi connection.

Its 1000% an issue with the RAX80 but obviously Netgear don't care as you've already paid them 300$

Chocobofarm · ‎2020-11-18

It sucks if your RAX80 is dropping clients on wifi too. I guess I can consider myself lucky that mine's wifi isn't having any problems.

jmclarke · ‎2020-12-01

I purchased this router only last week and had the same issue. I have a bunch of devices connected to it via LAN and noticed the disconnects almost immediately even with the latest firmware.

After some investigation, I disabled AX wireless under the Basic -> Wireless menu. This resolved the issue immediately.

Is Netgear ever going to fix this bug? Without AX enabled, I'm missing out the wifi 6 functionality.

GabboCH · ‎2020-12-01

Don't waste any time with any work around or "solutions", there are none.

Netgear has known about all of these issues for more than a year & has no attempt to fix them or even acknowledge there is a problem.

Return it & but something else.

NeckGearNat · ‎2020-12-02

Sorry but this isn't it. I've done this months ago and I still get at least 1-2 LAN disconnects a night. Being actively connected and streaming and producing content I know exactly when it does it. It's only for 5-10 seconds but it's enough to kill a stream and boot me from a game.

ubedawg · ‎2020-12-02

@jmclarke I did try this. Also messed around changing MU-MIMO settings after reading other forum posts. Nothing worked, still got disconnects from WAN. I only noticed it initially because my XB1X would boot me from online game activities, but I started noticing it on my work supplied VOIP phone. I think I never noticed it on the phone before because the company upgraded the phones and they now have bright LED screens that will light up with a message indicating no internet connection. With the old phone, I wouldn't know unless the call dropped (which did happen but I never thought it was an issue on my end)>

I fixed it by finally getting a new router. Last Thursday, I installed a ZenWifi AC. Went with this mesh because we now require Ethernet ports in opposing areas of the house, and this system has LAN on main and satellite nodes. So far the only issue I have with this is my client access sessions for work being terminated, which a coworker also had months ago after her ISP came out and swapped out their modem. I'm sure it's just a matter of tweaking some router settings. It's the only thing affected, all other connections have been stable.

I went with AC over AX because I have also been reading that issues persist with many AX products due to the chipset. With about 2 dozen devices connected, I don't see why any one of them need greater than 500Mb. Even an Ethernet XB1X mostly downloads at max 230Mb since you're at the mercy of the download site, though speed tests show it maxes out around 733Mb.

If you have had stability for over a week now, it really makes me wonder if some of us got products from a 'bad batch'.

steve823 · ‎2021-02-06

@Panda9 wrote:
No help from netgear or Amazon, looks like i now have to switch companies and spend another 400bucks for a router . This wont sit well with the community as an investor.

I'm thinking of going with another brand too. If they can't fix a known issue I think it's time to move on. I've had several Netgear routers over the years too.

Nmouneimne · ‎2021-02-13

I have the same issue as well.

Back in post 38 txchuko posted the following:

If you havent tried the following please do so

log on to router web interface

under wan or lan in the advanced settings, disable port scan.

also if you are having issues with multiple consoles, also in wan or lan, set nat filtering to “open” or “off.

Did anyone trying to see if it worked for them long term?

NeckGearNat · ‎2021-02-14

Yes tried this and it didn't work. My only workaround was to connect my console directly to my ISP's cable modem.

GabboCH · ‎2021-03-07

I reported this same problem more than 1 year ago & there is no fix for it.

If you read the other RAX80 posts, there are many users with Wifi/LAN/Internet dropout problems but no official acceptance or solution is available.

Nmouneimne · ‎2021-03-07

I saw that, too bad. Netgear used to be a really good company. I felt their Nighthawk X4S R7800 was best in class and bought the RAX80 thinking it would be the same. Nope. Once again, being brand loyal burns you. Netgear customer support is abysmal and product quality is subpar for the price.

NaibStilgar · ‎2021-04-21

I've been having the issue and have been working with support for some time now. I just wrote this summary for them that I think might be useful for other people so I will paste it here

My setup
Internet - Router (Mikrotik) - Router in AP mode (RAX80) (this is my desired setup)

I had (and I still have it here) another Mikrotik router as an AP that I wanted the RAX80 to replace

The issue also happens in the following setups

Internet - Router - Router in Router Mode (RAX80)

and

Internet - Router (Mikrotik) - Router in AP mode (Mikrotik) - Router in AP mode (RAX 80) (yeah that's 3 routers I tested even this way)

- The router drops connection on all of its LAN ports at the same time including the WAN port. I know that because I have 3 Windows desktops computers that drop the connection at the same time and the log shows event that looks like this

[Time synchronized with NTP server] Tuesday, Apr 20,2021 20:11:35
[Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.0.3, Tuesday, Apr 20,2021 20:11:35

These events are logged at the exact moment the PCs drop connection and indicate that the RAX80 is not only dropping the LAN connections but also the WAN connection to the parent router

- It is the RAX80 that is dropping the connection and not the internet. I know that because I ping the internal IP address of the RAX80 and when the issue happens the ping to the RAX80 is dropped as well not just the ping to Google

- It is the RAX80 because I have tested in the 3 router setup that computers connected to the RAX80 would drop connections and computers connected to the second mikrotik router would not

- It is the RAX80 because there are other people on the forums experiencing the same issue see https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Routers-with-WiFi-6-AX/RAX80-Short-Disconnections/m-p/185... and https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Routers-with-WiFi-6-AX/RAX80-randomly-disconnects-LAN-cab...

- I have tried resetting the router, I have tried running newest and older firmware

- I have tried using the router in router mode (additional internal network). Same issue

- I have tried setting static IP addresses. Same issue

- When the disconnect happens it is just momentary. However the windows machine go into network identifying procedure (I can see this by pointing at the tray icon and seeing "Identifying"). The whole things takes less than 5 seconds and is random so I don't have much time to check other places. It seems like there is something that causes the network to reset and the actual lag is because of this renegotiation

- The wireless doesn't seem to be affected despite the fact that the WAN connection is also dropped. My hypothesis which I cannot prove is that the routers are able to negotiate between each other almost instantaneously while the Windows machines take some time so the wireless devices can't feel the drop.

I measure all this by constantly running pings to the router internal IP (in my case 192.168.0.3) with the -t option which simply runs a ping forever. When I feel the drop in some software I look at the pings and the network tray icon to confirm the issue. The ping goes into "General failure" response for a few seconds before returning to normal. (Note this is not simply Request timed out)

One thing I have not tried is changing the MTU settings because it is not available in AP mode and this is how I want the router to work ultimately and also I people on the forums have tried it to no effect. I am ready to try setting the router in router mode again and try it but I am sure it won't help

I also believe this is an issue with the model and the issue might even be for every unit and people just don't notice it or think it is their internet that is failing. Obviously I can't know for certain but there are multiple people on the forums and nobody managed to find a fix with or without help from support.

Nmouneimne · ‎2021-04-21

A couple weeks ago I purchased an unmanaged switch and plugged that into the RAX and then plugged all my other lan cables into the swtich. So far, I have not had any drops (at least not that were noticed).

It is possible that RAX80 can only handle one lan port being used?

Does anyone else have drops with only 1 lan port being used?

NaibStilgar · ‎2021-04-21

I've tested with 1 LAN port and seen a drop. Actually I was testing to see if the issue is with the RAX80 or something else like electricity surge so I connected 2 of my computers to another router, the RAX80 to the other router and 1 computer to the RAX80. The issue did occur only on the computer connected to the RAX80. Of course this means there were 2 LAN ports in use 1 for the Internet and 1 for the computer but if it can't handle 2 ports this way I'd say the LAN functionality is essentially useless

sajin007 · ‎2021-04-21

I have done the same, hoping this resolved this disconnection issue.

Nmouneimne · ‎2021-04-21

NaibStilgar - You said you were working with support, has Netgear appeared to acknowledge the issue?

Have they been sending you beta firmware to test?

In the past I worked with them when I had a R7800 and the Readyshare wasn't working. They would send beta firmware until they got it right. I suspect they don't do that anymore.

rudziankou · ‎2021-04-21

I returned this piece of crap back to the store. I bought asus rt-ax88u router. It works perfectly.

sajin007 · ‎2021-04-21

Nope, had to search on Google....one more thing I did was reduce the 5ghz speed to half - 2400mbps.

NaibStilgar · ‎2021-04-21

@Nmouneimne no, I they got me to reset the router, confirmed the latest firmware and also got me to install older firmware.

They are not aknowledging the issue directly I mean they are aknowledging that I have a problem with the router that they need to help with not that the router is defective. I've seen the issue escalated to a third person. The first one didn't have a clue and we talked about things like resetting the router, disabling DHCP and so on and also about wireless working or not (although I made it clear that the wireless was not an issue). I then got escalated to a nice and competent guy who understood what I was talking about and we went through the motions of resetting, switching modes (router/ap) etc. I think we both knew that this wouldn't work but it seemed to be required procedure. I then (today) got escalated to the next level of support. The current step is to enable debug packet logs and I am supposed to send them when the issue happens. I am currently waiting for the issue to happen hoping that the debug logs will catch something interesting.

Nmouneimne · ‎2021-04-21

@NaibStilgar - I appreciate your effort and please keep us in the loop if you discovery anything.