This topic has been marked solved and closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
Interesting that the Guest 2.4 Network still causes issues with the latest .27 firmware. I had this reported with prior firmware releases too. Since then I use an old Linksys E3000 with DD-WRT as addtional router for my guests. Actually the Nighthawk R7000 for me only works with baseline features, any addtional feature I turned on in the past broke something.
I am still on V1.0.9.6_1.2.19 and do not run straight to the upgrade button anymore after so many issues with Netgear Nighthawk firmware.
V1.0.9.6_1.2.19 was after many releases finally a release that brought some stability in my SOHO setup with 2 addtional R7000's as AP's.
I wait now until others first suffer the pain of Nighthawk upgrade hick ups 😉
Brgds,
Bas.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
I bought R7000 about a month ago based on good reviews on Internet. I knew it was already an old model, but I assumed that if its hardware is still strong enough, its software should be already corrected and very stable (new router was supposed to replace my old 2.4GHz only TP-Link 1043 with Gargoyle soft, which have worked very well, but was missing 5.0 GHz band).
For me, from the begining, the new Netgear worked ok with my crowded 2.4 GHz 100Mbit up/down fiber network (good range and stability on soft from November), but I couldn't figure out how to setup access restriction to different devices at different hours of the day so I decided a week ago to switch to latest Tomato by Shibby software.
A pleasure to use - access restriction function I needed, very fast, a lot of functions (most left as default), etc.
The only downside is the range- it is a bit shorter than on original firmware, and I really need a good range to cover my 100m2 appartment with thick walls, so for now I will stick to Tomato software, hoping the original one will be fixed, and the Access restriction function will work as in other softwares (Gargoyle, Tomato, etc).
The hardware of the R7000 is fine. I bought 3 R7000 based on reviews. But software wise by what I know and experienced with the R7000 I wouldn't buy them again. At the time it was an expensive purchase for a lame working home router which fails with any advanced feature. I probably now would have bought Asus or another brand. Good to hear that alternative firmware brings you relief. However for me alternative firmware should bring more flexibility and features. Stock firmware should work as advertised. That over the last 3 years Netgear didn't get their act together on the software is a shame, because overall Netgear gear overall isn't that bad. although as a side note their support unfortunately took a hit and dropped down.
Brgds, Bas.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
So I was on 9.18 and as noted that didn't owerk out too well. NetGear approached me via PM re: beta version 9.15 which had its issues. Most interestingly was that the 9.15 BETA still dropped the 2.4 Ghz band and when configuring the using the basic menu ( and letting the software fill in blanks) versus using the stored configuratyion in a back-up file, all my 5Ghz android devices connected to the router but not beyond. So after reporting on this to NetGear ended up flashing back to 9.10 and the 2.4 Ghz issue has appeared in that version as well. No amount of rebooting the router helps. So hestiant to deal with the hot fix given for some the issues weree reporterd as ongoing.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
I also have been testing a beta release provided by PM. It ran perfectly for almost 6 days. Today I attemped to set up a wnr2500 I got for Christmas and the wireless link to the internet failed. Everything was connected but no internet access.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
What's the speed? I tried .20 and my speed has been the worst of all, 14Mps really? the 5Ghz channel is totally hosed and useless. I still have not heard back from Netgear support even with a support case opened for a RMA. Guess I have just wasted over $150 for this useless router which by the way just a little over 3 months old, so screw it Netgear. I am going to flash it with Tomato tomorrow. This will be my last post here. Already advise my friends and co-workers not to buy any Netgear product and I sure will spread the news further. Good luck to the rest of you who are still waiting for Netgear to get their act together.
Please post here for any update/issue related to the latest firmware 1.0.9.18.
Lost WIFI 2.4 after 5+ days. I had downgraded and reset router, I think to 1.0.9.6 and all was working great for more than 5 days but since yesterday, it started dropping 2.4 again every few hrs even at that old firmware. Netgear, please help us!!
I'm on the cusp of ditching Netgear and returning some Netgear EX6120 extenders I recently bought. It's a race between Netgear's ability to fix this problem completely in the coming days, the availability of sale prices on alternative solutions from competing companies, and my patience with this problem even if sales don't come. I'm not betting on Netgear. in this race. Why should I? Have they shown any competence or willingness to support their products?
If Netgear doesn't start communicating soon - they act as if this problem doesn't exist - I'll just move on. So will any others that I can influence, and I do so regularly. If Netgear can't be bothered to even reply with some coherent acknowledgement of the problem, they don't deserve our business again.
I'm researching mesh network options. Netgear Orbi seems highly rated, but of course I'll dismiss it out of hand. Netgear simply doesn't support it's products, so buying Orbi is like gambling on flushing that money down the toilet. Does anyone have any opinion or experience with Eero? If I get by with an R7000 and one EX6120 extender today, can I expect the Eero coverage to be better, worse, or about the same?
Now, a little more info to satisfy the small sliver of hope that this problem might yet get solved and save us from having to all spend more money immediately....
I've been running 1.0.9.18 since a day or two after its release. Plenty of 2.4 GHz drops, even after I disabled the guest network.
Without rebooting the router, I've been stable for at least 24 hours after having done nothing in particular. It may have been longer - I was not home and simply didn't check often. I still think there's a chance this issue is not purely a firmware problem, and may have an environmental component.
It looks like the jury is out with 1.0.9.20. If instability of the 2.4GHz connections resurfaces, and I think it likely will, I'll upgrade to that firmware immediately.
The worst part of all of this is that Netgear recently implemented the auto-update firmware feature, which likely pushed down the affected firmware to countless devices worldwide. I haven't seen anything from Netgear acknowledging an issue, nor have I seen anything indicating that some firmwares have been pulled from the website (meaning that Netgear is continuing to push affected firmwares down to customers even today).
The only reason I haven't bought a new router is that CES-2018 is in two weeks, and I'm hoping I can limp my R7000 along until then. I suspect this year will see vendors releasing routers/switches supporting Nbase-T (2.5 & 5Gbps ethernet!), and if so I'll ditch the broken R7000 & move to one of those immediately.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
@mzguy...earlier post from someone said he did a complete overhaul and used advanced tomato. The problem persisted. Honestly, .18 lasted 5 days for me and im on day 3 of hotfix. And im not hopeful. I feel, at this point, netgear broke their own gear. I truly dont know what else anyone can do. I, being a soho user, am out of patience and time. If the hotfix fails, i already picked out the next router. Something in a nice triband sounds good.
Ok. So on 9.20 for two hours. Checked my devices connected to my computer and lo and behold the HP printer was listed as offline. This printer has been my "canary in the coal mine" . When it goes wonky eventually the 2.4 Ghz band fails across. Did a reboot of the printer. No luck still showed as offline. Checked its apps and was able to print a diagnostic page but still showed as offline even. Ran the HP diagnostic and that seemed to reconnect it. Checked the Nest Thermostat as that is the last 2.4 Ghz device that goes and it is still connected.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
My wired connection was no issue. My android phone 5 Ghz was 866, my android tablet also 5 Ghz upstairs was 760, while my kid's android tablet (5Ghz but about 5 years old) was at ~250. The work-issued Blackberry on 2.4Ghz and only 4 feet away from the router shows a speed of 72 Mbps. My issue is the 2.4 Ghz band dropping. Will monitor.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
@AtoZ wrote: @mzguy...earlier post from someone said he did a complete overhaul and used advanced tomato. The problem persisted. Honestly, .18 lasted 5 days for me and im on day 3 of hotfix. And im not hopeful. I feel, at this point, netgear broke their own gear. I truly dont know what else anyone can do. I, being a soho user, am out of patience and time. If the hotfix fails, i already picked out the next router. Something in a nice triband sounds good.
Thanks for the nice summary. Version .18 lasted less than a few hours for me, so that was an easy one to dismiss. In the absence of complete stability or a clear statement from Netgear, one would be insane to be hopeful, and insane to ever buy a Netgear product again! Based on reports here, it appears that Netgear indeed broke its own gear, or is completely susceptible to some type of environmental factor where other brands aren't. I'm out of patience and time too. I'm doing only easy fixes at this point, and waiting for the problem to get worse, or a sale to come for a competitor. For me to stay with Netgear, they have to really fall on the sword and issue a clear statement indicating they screwed up, they understand the problem, including why it persisted across firmware that was otherwise fine for months, and offer an immediate working solution.
If Netgear permanently broke thousands of devices through an error, they should immediately reach out and offer compensation. That's what a good company would do. Some companies only respond to public or legal pressure though. If they keep this up, I'm confident that one or both of those will arrive at their doorstep before too long. I wrote a long post almost 2 weeks ago, urging Netgear to step up and start communicating. Instead we just get firmware updates every few days for "security issues".
Just was reading up on a company with touchscreen routers. Also see they have good customer service. I like the idea of going to the router directly and it has alexa support as well for home automation setups. This may work better for most of my clients anyway.
I'm one of the guys running stable on the .20 Hot Fix. To add color, I only had .18 drop my 2.4 devices twice. Once 30 hours into .18 when my lease renewed but it didn't look like any of my 2.4 devices connected. The logs told be nothing. Given what I've seen I think the radio didn't turn on. I rebooted and everything came up. Lasted 4 hours and dropped my 2.4 devices again. Rebooted and ran stable for a day.
I noticed the Hot Fix and installed it for giggles. I've been up 5 days rock solid on the .20 Hot Fix. My lease renews tonight so it all my devices connect on the renewal, I'm going to call it a day and call it successful.
I'm doing nothing special on the router from a config or wifi standpoint. Other than a couple reseerved IPs and port forwarding I'm on standard setup wizard config.
I have a bunch of IoT devices in my house, all on the 2.4 radio. I've been testing them and literally bought one of each manufacture to evaluate them. So I have everything from Hue, to everything on Amazon, and a couple from China Grabber. Some of these devices are wonky and misbehave, so for them to be stable, the wifi envorinment has to be really stable.
This is just info to whom it may concern.
Sorry to the folks struggling with this. It's bad enough to have the supplier go dark, but to have such a broad range of symptoms on the forums is frustrating.
One story about Netgear. They futzed with the arlo base station firmware on the R7000 and eventually pulled it. To thier credit they sent me free hardware solve my problem. But, they were dark the first week.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
I'm one of the guys running stable on the .20 Hot Fix. To add color, I only had .18 drop my 2.4 devices twice. Once 30 hours into .18 when my lease renewed but it didn't look like any of my 2.4 devices connected. The logs told be nothing. Given what I've seen I think the radio didn't turn on. I rebooted and everything came up. Lasted 4 hours and dropped my 2.4 devices again. Rebooted and ran stable for a day.
I noticed the Hot Fix and installed it for giggles. I've been up 5 days rock solid on the .20 Hot Fix. My lease renews tonight so it all my devices connect on the renewal, I'm going to call it a day and call it successful.
I'm doing nothing special on the router from a config or wifi standpoint. Other than a couple reseerved IPs and port forwarding I'm on standard setup wizard config.
Thanks for all your detailed reports. I was literaly about to order a replacement. Based purely on your report, I'm going to try installing the .20 hotfix now. I found my replacement product. If this connectivity problem recurs just one time with the .20 hotfix, I'm done. Your post is the single reason that Netgear might have another chance to fix this issue and make things right for me. How much is a customer worth to Netgear, maybe $50? More? I also have extenders and am a power user, so perhaps it's a little more for me. They should pay you a commission.
Yeah, I'm frustrated with Netgear. It has been about a month now since this problem was reported, perhaps more. I read there were other big issues in the past that didn't get resolved by Netgear for months. LIke I said, if they don't fall on the sword, this is my last Netgear product.
I'm one of the guys running stable on the .20 Hot Fix. To add color, I only had .18 drop my 2.4 devices twice. Once 30 hours into .18 when my lease renewed but it didn't look like any of my 2.4 devices connected. The logs told be nothing. Given what I've seen I think the radio didn't turn on. I rebooted and everything came up. Lasted 4 hours and dropped my 2.4 devices again. Rebooted and ran stable for a day.
Ok, that experiment lasted a whole 5 minutes. Check your speeds. I rebooted, and am getting significantly slower speeds on 2.4GHz than I did before. Going 20 feet and through 2 walls, I'm getting about 9 Mbps to my phone. Prior to the .20 firmware I got 30 Mbps. I rebooted the router, and found no improvement.
I've ordered a set of Eero mesh routers. We'll see how that goes. It looks like they offer support for more than 90 days and are customer-friendly. They had a patch out for KRACK soon after the vulnerability was exposed, on October 17. They didn't have any excuses about how "routers aren't vulnerable".
I'll test this set up for a week or two, then return my new Netgear extenders soon afterwards if all is well. I don't know what I'll do with my expensive R7000. Perhaps I'll use it as a switch.
Thanks to all in the community who posted here to share their experiences with various firmware versions and settings. Good luck to you all.
