NightHawk x10 r9000 wifi dropping issue

[lbotez]

LOL!  This is the faster router I've ever had.  You're crazy.  It just needs to work a bit better.

[DodgeDeBoulet]

My R9000 is from one of the first batches out the door; I've had it for over a year now. I had some dropping issues on an earlier version of the firmware but haven't seen any problems with connections for months now.

I work from home and do most of my work for customers remotely. An unstable connection is not something I could tolerate. I feel bad for the folks that are having these issues and hope that Netgear can resolve them, but in my experience they're not universal.

[lbotez]

Follow Up on R9000 wifi dropping issue.  

Router has been working perfectly since I reset the router (after firmware upgrade) and not turing on QofS or changing the channel for the 2.4mhz setting.  So give that a try if you are having problems.  Loving the speed.

[ToBeHuman]

My 4th gen Apple TV constantly looses connection to my R9000. I’m running the latest firmware. This is my 2nd R9000 with the exact same issue. When will these connectivity issues be resolved?

[tekboi]

I too am having issues with this now. I can't help but be frustrated when I consider how much money I spent on this thing. I really hope its an issue I can resolve without having to ship this thing back to back to the company.

[DodgeDeBoulet]

I had my first connectivity issue in a very long time with my R9000 this morning. While my wireless connections from my tablet and phone were active, I was unable to resolve any external host names. This is often the case when there are ISP or cable modem issues, but the modem had all the right lights lit for an active connection.

My laptop's VPN connection to a customer site was still active, though, so DNS resolution appeared to be a potential culprit. Using nslookup, I queried Google's 8.8.8.8 server successfully, but was unable to get 192.168.1.1 (the R9000's address) to do anything but time out. The R9000's configuration points to Google's servers for DNS, so it was obviously not caching or forwarding lookups. With no obvious mechanism for restarting just the DNS proxy (I'm assuming some flavor of DNSMasq), I rebooted the router and all was well.

This is likely not the same issue as seen by others in this thread, but I unfortunately know a lot of people who would assume that "can't connect to internet sites" and "wifi dropping" are essentially the same thing 😉

[xnsys]

I've just received one in the mail today - and guess what....Both my Apple TV's keep dropping out on the 2.4GHz range.

BUT.... I have found the fix.

Change the 2.4GHz range to NOT use the 20/40 MHz Coexistence - and no more disconnects.

There are other issues with the router, which I will not go into here and will create a new post with the details in.

[Loudog2]

I’m getting disconnects about once a week now. Sometimes just Wi-Fi with the antenna lights out. But now it’s everything including wired devices. Only gets resolve by a power reset.  This is my 3rd netgear router in a row that seems to go to crap after about a year.  

[Awsam]

This fixed my issue to a point. Once Coexistance was disabled, NOTHING would connect or even discover 2.4 lol! So I guess you can't disconnect if you never connected 😉

[adostrom]

I just got a brand new unit from Amazon - they were out of stock for two weeks (ordered on cyber Monday).  I have no WiFi whatsoever.  it worked OK yesterday, but over night it just died.  Rebooted multiple times, changed channels, etc. - nothing works.  The nearest structure to ours is 500'+ away, so there is ZERO chance of interference, and WiFi analyzer on my phone shows only my devices.

I sure wish I had seen this post before buying - I have used a LOT of Netgear stuff over the years, here and at work, going all the way back to an FVS318 roouter almost 15 years ago.  My last few purchases have been REALLY disappointing, I was trying to upgrade for a less than stellar WNDR3700 (which was top of the line when i bought it).  I suppose it's time to return this POS to Amazon and switch to Asus or Linksys.  I also have a Netgear extender/AP, and 4 switches - I guess it's time to dump them, too.  

[schumaku]

@Loudog2 wrote:

I’m getting disconnects about once a week now. Sometimes just Wi-Fi with the antenna lights out. But now it’s everything including wired devices. Only gets resolve by a power reset.  This is my 3rd netgear router in a row that seems to go to crap after about a year.  

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What do you mean by "just Wi-Fi with the antenna lights out"?

Are you referring to the lights on the actual antenna or the WiFi LEDs? The Antenna LED are (to my knoledge) hard wired to some internal power. If certain lights are not lit even after factory reset, then it's already considered faulty hardware.

Get it replaced as long as it is under warranty.

[lbotez]

I'm assuming you updated to the latest firmware. When you updated it, you did it wired to the router.  And you reset it afterwards.

That's pretty strange.  It shouldn't totally fail.  Maybe you got a bad one.

I'd return it to Amazon.  Perhaps buy another one locally, so if you still have problems, take it back.  Best Buy has the newest ones.   

I'm happy with mine now, at least so far.  

[Loudog2]

Yes sometimes the antenna lights are out when Wi-Fi is gone but the hard wired devices still work.  It’s going bye bye as soon as I can get to the store to get rid of it.  

[adostrom]

Well -- I got the same crap support and general run-around from Netgear as everyone else!  When you pay for a company's flagship product you expect at least a reasonable attempt at customer support.  And -- when that product is bleeding edge technology you don't expect to be treated lilke a dumbass, with dumbass questions, stupid "solutions" and no explanation for why the damn thing doesn't work. 

It was obvious to me from the outset that my WiFi radios were not responding to software - I could see them from the web interface, but nothing was happening.  Netgear's solution?  Reload the same firmware that was already running on the box, and then ask if I was REALLY sure there was no WiFi.  (I've been using/marketing/product managing Ethernet products since 1980 - was part of a team that installed the world's FIRST Ethernet in a manufacturing plant [10BASE5 -- have you DRILLED your Ethernet cable lately?].)  I found Netgear's condescending support people infuriating.

In the end, their only solution was, "return it to Amazon for a replecement," but as I told the rep, the replacement I'll get from Amazon will say Linksys or Asus or something on it other than Netgear.  I used to work with folks at Wellfleet Communications, including the founder [they merged with Synoptics to form Bay Newtworks, which spun off their SOHO products as Netgear].  I have a house full of Netgear stuff (5 switches, 1 router, 1 access point) and I sure wish I was rich enough to throw it all in the trash and buy new gear from a comany that cares about its customers.  

[JamesR1]

Well Netgear deleted my last post but basically look at the link and the testing from Cnet on this router.

https://www.cnet.com/products/asus-rog-rapture-gt-ac5300/review/2/

I will be getting The Asus ROG router now.  Their cheaper netgear router even beats the r9000 router.  I kept the r9000 after the last firmware update helped and I hoped for another update that would finally fix the r9000 completely, but it never happened. So good buy netgear forever.  I will not be able to talk positive about you products or support because both have been poor.  This is on you.....

[GuyT-71]

I have been having the same issue of my 2.4 and 5ghz dropping. I started to get top notch help until I refused to purchase upgraded tech support on August 20th 2017. Still have the saved e-mail from that day. Was rudely hung up on. My router was still under warranty at the time. Then all I got was the runaround. I had always been a netgear supporter until this model and the lack of support from Netgear. Until I find something new my whole house goes down daily and have to reset when I get home. I’ve tried everything listed in this thread except a replacement unit that Netgear refuses to do. 

[Iceman64]

I did receive another unit from Netgear. So far, I'm still losing network connections constantly. They have asked me to do the same things that I did with the last one. I don't see the point if these suggestions didn't work before. I'm thinking now I probably should not have accepted a replacement, because I fear I now have no recourse (cannot take it back to Bestbuy since it is not the same one I purchased from them). Netgear has told me they do not offer refunds! I might have to eat the cost of this unit and look for another brand.

[adostrom]

Mine worked for a few hours after I installed it and then Wi-Fi went away, completely.  Netgear support (and I use that therm loosely) ran me through a whole bunch of useless "troubleshooting" (like downloading the same firmware the box came with, and several resets), generally treated me like an idiot (I have run Product Management/Product Marketing for SEVERAL TCP/IP stacks and other network hardware and software, so I know I know more about networks than their support team).  All it did was cost me many hours of time to re-build the configuration, and waste 2 days replacing the router.  After 2 days of back and forth with them, all they had to offer was, "return it to Amazon."  (Like I hadn't thought of that already.)  With my horrible experience with Netgear support, what I had learned in this forum, and the fact that the routers were once again out of stock at Amazon I returned my Netgear and bought an Asus RT-AC88U instead.  It works great, and the range is better than I had with the R9000, for the brief time it was alive.

[martinc17]

Hi, after spending a silly amount of time trying to work this dropping issue out I belive I found the issue for my situation. After trying all the many suggestions to try and fix this I disabled 'Endable Implict BEAMFORMING’ and if like magic no issues for the past 24 hours! I even got back a few devices that just would not connect.

I have the Nighthawk R9000 and 3 Netgear EX8000 extenders, around 70 items connected at a time in a 3 story 3000sq home, on the main router I ended up having to install Voxel FM V1.0.2.47HF as the latest official Netgear firmware gave me the bad error address when I try and add new items into the device list even after a factory restore.

Please NetGear FIRE your software engineers that work on this project.

Like others have said, when it does work this is a super fast router but for the hours of troubleshooting I have put into this I wish I'd stayed with my older original router.

[rrnyc]

I think everyone having WiFi issues should look at this:

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-keep-google-home-chromecast-from-killing-your-wi-fi/

[bkfoster]

I don't have any Google Home or Google hardware products on my network, but I do have two Amazon Echos and a couple of TPL smart televisions that accept Chromecast. I wonder if that would be it. Strangely, though, they don't effect my R8000.

[rrnyc]

It has to be related to the Chromecast feature. There are way too many users experiencing WiFi issues with some Netgear routers. Apparently, not all routers are affected. 

[xnsys]

I don't have any google or any other smart speaker products.  I have 2x Apple TV's, a MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad connected and they all experience regular wifi drops - mainly on the 2.4GHz spectrum.

But what is interesting, if you get the stats on the WiFi, the 2.4GHz Uptime is always within seconds of when the devices disconnected - for example, the router has been up 4 days, if you look at the screenshot below, you can see that the 2.4GHz has been up for 1hr 22minues - this was the last time I was disconnected - so it's definately a router issue with the WiFi crashing.

[schumaku]

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@martinc17 wrote:

Please NetGear FIRE your software engineers that work on this project.

I would have fired the manager in charge - a long tome ago already - too.

[focuspuller]

Has anyone tried the new firmware V1.0.3.6?

Release Notes:
[New Feature] Supports Smart Connect.
[New Feature] Includes enhancements for the VLAN/bridge settings.
[New Feature] Supports DFS channels 20 MHz, 40 MHz, and 80 MHz.
[Bug Fix] Fixes security vulnerability issues.
[Bug Fix] Improves the system stability.