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.
I've been a happy user of latest Tomato by Shibby for 2 weeks- very responsive and easy to setup- tip for an average user- just do not touch the parametres you do not understand- leave them as default.....
I thought that wifi range was a bit shorter compare to original soft, but played again with 5GHz setup (set region to US and channel above 100) and now everything works great....
For me the best option to survive current Netgear's problems..... The only problem is, that you may not want to come back to original firmware.. 🙂
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
I agree, once you have a stable alternative firmware running you won't go back. For me it is Asus XWRT-Vortex. Users who use the Genie app on a mobile phone, you can use the Asus Router app with XWRT-Vortex firmware.
Yes, I had similar experiences and speculated that temperature was the reason. I suspect one of the firmwares caused heat damage to a chip. Now, the thing starts failing as temperatures rise.
@mated, I'm not sure if the temperature causes unstable wifi. My R7000 was stable until I updated the firmware due to security issues. After the upgrade I never got the router stable, even restoring the firmware to the version that was previously stable did not help. That's why I thought the router had a hardware failure. I was about to buy a new one, but I flashed XWRT-Vortex firmware. This solved all problems for me. In this firmware you can read the chipset temperature (cpu: 138F, both WiFi: 118F)
Netgear, why don't you give us a test build without Disney Circle running? It was introduced around the time the firmware started going wonky, it's job is to interfere with traffic, and even when it's turned off it's still running on the box.
It would be interesting to see if a build with no Circle integration works okay.
using the 7000 as router and an EX6100 as repeater ... the same problem ... on 2.4 WIFI no stabel connection posiible (distance to big to check for a 5 GHZ connection)
Tests on a smartphone analyzer shows an permanent up and down on the signal stenght (after restarting the router it works well for some time, 20 min up to one hour or so...)
I watch this tread becouse it looks that many people have the same problem
BR Michael
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
Tomato seems to work fine so far. At least internet speed tests shows considerably faster throughput. For those who cares, there's a million parameters that can be played with. I haven't tested the gigabit lan speed yet, but if it doesn't require being rebooted every day to keep working I can live with whatever it is.
The irony is that hired staff from a big company like Netgear can not fix it, but some hobbyist tinkerers can.
I agree. 3rd party (Vortex) firmware is the way to go. I've just taken my R7000 out of service because I bought new hardware from another vendor, that also runs the Vortex firmware. My R7000 will be placed in another part of my house with the new firmware, either in a 3-dumb-router set up, or in AP-only mode. I haven't decided yet.
FYI, I had alread purchased the other router when I learned about the wrtVortex firmware. It is remarkably better. The interface and options are exactly what I wanted. I didn't realize how dated the stock R7000 GUI was, and I work on Enterprise Wireless all day!
I'm still very angry at Netgear for their (lack of credible) response to this whole problem, but the wrtVortex firmware certainly makes the R7000 acceptable again!
I want to add my 2 cents. I started having issues on 9.12 with connecting to my home server. I thought it was the server and I was at the point to re-built the server, then I decided I would check if there are any issues with the router and here it is. Downgraded to 9.6 and I'm back to normal. Netgear's FW is the problem again. I have been helping Netgear with R6250 by working with their 2nd and 3rd level support. They can give you a debug enabled FW and help you capture trace so they can analyze it. For people who got an email from Netgear and if you feel you are technical ehough, please try to help replicate the issue. @netgear admit and pull out the bad FW as you have done it before. I understand you get money from Disney Circle, but if it makes problem in FW then drop it. Be transparent otherwise, you will get issues from consumer protection agencies and/or class action lawsuits.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
Has anyone any news about the Netgear engineers? Still no work arround, no decent fix, nothing!
I like to find out how many users have 2.4GHz drop problems. Is there someone who like to arrange this? Maybe with a poll or something. I think the number is only growing and growing.
The benefit of XWRT-Vortex is that it has full support of NAT (or HW) acceleration, so you don't lose any performance. Read http://xvtx.ru/xwrt/about.htm
One of the great benefits with non-Netgear fw is that you get rid of the Disney nonsense as well.
There is also a negative that you are losing hw acceleration. Just saying. I have used them all. There are cons and prons to all of them.
I think you are absolutely right. Maybe the HW accelaration causes this problem? Anyway, this time my network has got an enormous boost when I stopped using Netgears FW.
One of the great benefits with non-Netgear fw is that you get rid of the Disney nonsense as well.
There is also a negative that you are losing hw acceleration. Just saying. I have used them all. There are cons and prons to all of them.
I think you are absolutely right. Maybe the HW accelaration causes this problem? Anyway, this time my network has got an enormous boost when I stopped using Netgears FW.
That is not what I'm saying. 3rd party FWs either have old HW acceleration drivers or none.
This is a sad day but we need to candid. NG has seemingly abandoned the R7000 family. It should be an EOL router. Their focus right now is R8000+, Orbi, and Arlo.
The truth is NG will gain more customers from the previously mentioned devices than they will lose off this thread and mirrored ones across net-verse. I found the the R8000 for $179 on Amazon.
My concern is two fold: 1) that they are still selling a device that is known to be broken/defective. Linksys acknowledged their issue and at least tried to address it. 2) that serious investment in intellectual resources and support to remedy issues are nil once better models are available from NG. So be warned if you choose Arlo or Orbi once that ship has sailed.
NG seems to ignore the majority of us. Maybe I am wrong but it is still the impression I get based on my experience and what appears to be the majority on this thread.
In frustration I bought a Linksys and immediately had issues. I contacted Linksys and within moments they said it was a recognized problem and were willing to send me a loaner E8300 (don't know much about it) until they figure and rectify the issue, I said no thanx and returned the item.
After much more research, I begrudgingly opted for the R8000 and every issue I had, disappeared. I was receiving outstanding speeds (what the R7000 should have obtained but never did). I had no drops, no jitter, no lag. I was getting the same performance from my iMac on 5G from 30 feet away as my PC on ethernet. Virtually no discernable loss. Xbox was open for first time in years. Smart home and all devices work without issue or delay.
Unfortunately, it is not perfect. Outside of performance I do have some UI and management issues and my request for assistance have been so far ignored. I will call tomorrow with my list and go from there.
Bottomline, do your homework; check your budget; assess how you value your time, need, and frustration; finally, choose to jump to another capable vendor or 'upgrade' to another NG product (that may be ignored once it closes in on irrelevance to them down the road).
Lastly, I believe that regardless of FW, there are still issues. This appears to be a HW design flaw that has caused fruitless FW revisions trying to plug it up. It seems the internal aspects is somehow cancelling its own network (reflected out of phase 'ringing'?). They may have sold this product to meet schedule with either intent to plug hole later or discovered it shortly after release. My point-it will never be fixed to the point of its intended design.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
I tried 3rd party firmware Tomato by Shibby and had a major problem streaming 2 or more devices simultaneously while connected to the 5GHz WiFi. The device connected to the 5GHz channel was streaming video at an average rate of 13 Mbs with no problem. The moment I connected a second video streaming device, the first device started freezing, pausing and skipping. This behavior is obviously not acceptable so I reverted back to stock firmware which has no problem with 2 devices streaming simultaneously.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
That’s weird. I have no problem streaming to 3 or more devices in 4K. You might just have slow speeds from your isp? Im using AdvancedTomato. My subscription from my isp is 200/10. Speedtests say 230/10. I do just fine.
Interesting. Do you know your actual streaming bit rate on your three devices?
I have an internal IPTV network for streaming OTA video. I'm running nextPVR server software on a Windows 10 PC with a GB connection to the router. The first streaming wifi client is running Kodi on a Raspberry Pi. The second streaming wifi device is a Windows 10 laptop also running Kodi. The average streaming bit rate for both clients is 13Mbs. If you're able to stream at the same bitvrate as me, I'd be interested to see how you configured Tomato to achieve this.
Model: R7000|Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Router
For 2 devices running Netflix in 4K it’s around 20-23mbs each and 3rd running Hulu and 4th running YouTube both in 1080 it’s around 13mbs each. I can add all my others to YouTube and make it 6+ devices streaming 1080 and it’s around 13-15mbs each. Didn’t do anything to my configuration except keep QoS off and forward some ports for Xbox live. Recently I turned on CTF just so that the router can utilize its Broadcom CTF chip and get the full potential of AC 5ghz speeds.
