Re: R7000 dropping 5Ghz randomly

guitarchitect · ‎2020-06-24

I've been having constant drops for the past several weeks and I'm in a similar boat to a lot of people in this thread - my router is probably 3 years old, it was rock solid on .42 for the longest time (after I nearly lost it trying to troubleshoot last year - that's when I discovered Netgear's Notoriously Bad Firmware). Now it drops a couple of times a day - we're all using 5ghz so I never even considered that it was just that band that was affected. A reset usually fixes it.

At this point I'm far too annoyed with this stupid router and can't wait to be done with it. I share the same sentiments as others - if Netgear is continually finding issues they need to patch from a security perspective, I want to have those updates in place. But I can't, because it makes the router unusable. Seems to me that the only recourse is a new router.

Frankly I think it's something in the Router hardware itself that is slowly failing. The unit is always quite warm, and I think after several years all that heat is going to make components unstable. Not sure how else you could explain all of these symptoms: is affecting older hardware, is affecting ONE band, and is a recent/sudden phenomenon.

TOOMUCHSAUCE · ‎2020-06-24

I'm sure it's some slight hardware difference between those manufactured early on and those more recently that is the culprit. That said, firmware does resolve it (clearly, as everyone experiencing issues is fine on the .42 release) so there is no reason whatsoever to believe this cannot be fixed with a proper firmware. The issue likely is the dev team is using a new model and also doesn't give a **bleep** about anyone who has an older one.

I would partially agree with them since I've had the router since 2016 BUT... BUT... they STILL MAKE AND SELL THE EXACT SAME ROUTER!!!! It's on many, many top 5 or top 10 list for best value routers... just google it. It's a popular router and probably one of, if not THE single most sold netgear router ever. Why else would Netgear continue to develop and release new firmware for it?

As much as I would like to buy a new router, I feel like I shouldn't have to. The router works great on the .42 release, it's fast, reliable, and covers the entire house and is still a manufactured and supported model. Netgear really needs to get off their ass and figure out the difference and make a new firmware branch for those of us with the early manufactured models. That is the RIGHT THING TO DO.

fmalloy · ‎2020-06-24

Do what I did. Just cut your losses and buy a new, different router. Life is too short to deal with this nonsense.

guitarchitect · ‎2020-06-24

@TOOMUCHSAUCE wrote:
I'm sure it's some slight hardware difference between those manufactured early on and those more recently that is the culprit. That said, firmware does resolve it (clearly, as everyone experiencing issues is fine on the .42 release) so there is no reason whatsoever to believe this cannot be fixed with a proper firmware.

As I said, I'm on the so-called stable firmware and I've been experiencing it. Only in the last couple of weeks - before that I was fine since last august. I went through boatloads of firmware last august before finally settling on .42 and I haven't touched it since. Yet now i can't go a day without the thing pooping its pants at least twice

apara223 · ‎2020-06-25

I have two of these. The older router was updated to V1.0.11.100_10.2.100 and it has been running fine. The newer one, purchased September 2019, ran fine for a while and then started to drop 5Ghz.

I decided to replace it with Asus RT-AC5300. It's still less than 1 year from purchase date. I am wondering if I should bother with a warrantee claim.

Has anyone got this fixed by sending back to Netgear for warrantee replacement?

spcrick · ‎2020-07-04

Im not sure if anyone tried the latest firmware 1.0.11.104 but it looks promising!!! I updated last time and so far (fingers crossed) havent had any drops and still running!!! O m g.. did they finally did something right??

Portwey84 · ‎2020-07-04

@spcrick I downloaded Hot Fix v.104 on 3 July and like the other firmware updates for me at least, no issues with it so far.

My only concern is that Netgear are shoving out these security Hot Fixes and yet when I run Bitdefender Home Scanner, the only piece of equipment in my entire Home Network that is showing up as a 'High security risk' is my R7000 router. The Home Scanner states that the R7000 router HTTP uses insecure authentication procedure, HTTP accepts unencrypted (plain text) logins.

I find that concerning to be honest. It would be interesting if anyone else runs Bitdefender Home Scanner on their own network to see if they get the same result.

spcrick · ‎2020-07-04

Correct me if im wrong but i think they all use http for the login page. But you probably want to disable the remote management feature.

Portwey84 · ‎2020-07-04

@spcrick I've never had remote management enabled, it's definitely off and it's disabled by default anyway.

When you run Bitdefender Home Scanner, you're not logged into Netgear Genie via browser anyway, so I'm not sure what Home Scanner does? I've assuming it probes ports and stuff. I'm not really into that technical side of things so to be honest.

TOOMUCHSAUCE · ‎2020-07-04

Hopefully 104 does the trick ima wait for a few more of you guys to try it out and give feedback. I have this router installed at my mother's house and don't need to be driving back and forth to fix it again, lol.

HelpfulDad · ‎2020-07-05

@rpzky8 wrote:
I was transitioned to work from home so I was able to finally notice this, but my 5Ghz connection on my router occasionally drops. During the course of my 9-10 hour shift, the connection drops around 5-7 times only for the 5Ghz, and needs about 1-5 minutes to get back up. 2.4Ghz doesn't seem to be affected since I used it as a fallback.

For reference, my iMac is positioned roughly 10 ft away in a room. Just for testing purposes, I connected my iPad next to the router, and when I encounter a connection drop, I check my iPad and it's also disconnected. All wired and 2.4Ghz connected devices are unaffected. I also setup another PC (sleep settings is turned off) to not connect automatically on the 5Ghz network, and if I leave it connected to 5Ghz overnight, the PC is disconnected in the morning.

I tried doing the following troubleshooting steps on an issue I've seen in the forum back in 2019:
- Reset my router using a paper clip at the back of it
- Setup the router, afterwards, used the firmware update that I downloaded in Netgear's site (the router is already on the same firmware but did it anyway)
- After doing the firmware update, reset the router again
- Setup router using a new SSID for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz
- Tried the next day for work, issue persists

Router version: V1.0.11.100_10.2.100
R7000 Nighthawk Smart Wifi Router connected to a CM1000, ISP is xFinity.

Is my router's 5Ghz toast? I bought the router roughly 2 years ago. I don't know when the issue started since I only use the internet for minor browsing and gaming before. Only noticed the disconnects almost a week ago eversince I started working from home (moderate internet use, on conference calls most of my 9-10 hour shift).

Any input or troubleshooting step I missed is greatly appreciated.

I was having this issue even after updating my firmware, along with other streaming and connection issues. I found a simple issue with power that I didn't consider, but since I physically separated my modem and laptop power cords, I've not had a single error, wifi disconnect on any frequency, content buffering pause, or any other anomaly since I changed this. Read this post and see if you have anything similar on any device. It may very well contribute.

https://community.netgear.com/ejquo23388/board/message?board.id=home-wifi-routers-nighthawk&message....

spcrick · ‎2020-07-05

Try updating to 11.104... i’ve been using for 48 hrs and its still strong. Havent had any drop connections so far.

TOOMUCHSAUCE · ‎2020-07-07

@spcrick wrote:
Try updating to 11.104... i’ve been using for 48 hrs and its still strong. Havent had any drop connections so far.

This did not work for me. Can tell quickly if I open twitter on an ipad. Images don't load or take long loading and the connectivity icon has the spinning asterisk constantly like it's hunting for a good connection. Didn't bother waiting for the full drops.

Back to .42

spcrick · ‎2020-07-07

It got my hopes up sigh... after about 72 hrs of stable connection, the router decided to restart itself for no reason. Back to .42 for me too sigh.

lkuhn · ‎2020-07-09

I hope I'm not going to jinx myself by typing the words, but I've been on https://kb.netgear.com/000062033/R7000-Firmware-Version-1-0-11-104-Hot-Fix for 3 fully active work days (currently in the 73rd hour since reboot) and the 5Ghz network (as well as the 2.4Ghz) has been completely stable.

Continuing to knock wood and keep things crossed.

Guilden-NL · ‎2020-07-28

Aha, glad that I saw this. Ignore my previous post where I planned to upgrade based on you not having problems. The UK routers ARE different from the USA versions.

I will blow this sucker up by installing DDWRT and leaving the Netgear lunacy behind me.

Portwey84 · ‎2020-07-30

@Guilden-NL

@Guilden-NL wrote:
Aha, glad that I saw this. Ignore my previous post where I planned to upgrade based on you not having problems. The UK routers ARE different from the USA versions.

There may well be something in this, though of course the only people that can confirm this are Netgear themselves. Most of the issues seem to be reported by US router owners, but then this is very US centric forum. As a UK owner, I can honestly say (and I've said it over and over !) I've never had a single issue with my R7000 AC1900 dropping out or causing any issues. My Wife relies on an excellent stable internet connection for her employment and if our R7000 was the route of any issues, I'd have dumped it and probably gone back to my ISP router. As things stand, it's rock solid.

Just noticed though that Netgear have released yet another firmware, v106. I'm struggling to keep up with all of these 'fixes'. As usual, I've just 'stumbled' upon the latest release v.106. I will update from v.104 later, but I wonder exactly what it is that Netgear are supposed to be fixing? because they just don't list what these 'security fixes' are. If Netgear were as transparent as Mozilla who every time they release a new version of their Firefox browser and list the changes they've made, then at least we'd have some idea of exactly what it is Netgear are doing.

spcrick · ‎2020-07-30

Im not sure if you noticed but .104 was a beta. Looks like v106 is an official release and if you went to check updates through the router, you can upgrade it through the router this time. In the past, when you try checking updates through the router, the highest one was .88.

lkuhn · ‎2020-07-30

v104 has been very stable for me. I would appreciate feedback from anyone who ventures ahead to v106 on your experience after a few weeks of running it. I'm hesitant to wake a sleeping dog right now.

spcrick · ‎2020-07-30

Sorry i had issues on every firmware past .42 so i wont be able to provide any feedback haha. Though i did upgrade to .106 for a day.. everything seems fine for a day until i had two random reboots within an hour of each other. I checked the router logs and confirmed the router restarted. Back to .42 again while i wait for my asus rt-ax88u to come in.

Portwey84 · ‎2020-07-30

@lkuhn @spcrick

@lkuhn wrote:
v104 has been very stable for me. I would appreciate feedback from anyone who ventures ahead to v106 on your experience after a few weeks of running it. I'm hesitant to wake a sleeping dog right now.

I've just upgraded the firmware from v.104 to v.106.

Carried out the firmware update in my usual manner:

Connected my laptop via ethernet cable directly to R7000

Disabled WiFi on both 2.4 and 5ghz in the browser GUI

Unplugged hard wired devices from the router (4 devices connected via a Netgear Switch)

Disabled all running apps including anti-virus and VPN

Rebooted router

Uploaded firmware from desktop, router auto updated to v.106 and rebooted itself

Firmware update successful

Reconnected hard wired devices

Enabled WiFi, anti-virus and VPN

If v.106 is as good in terms of reliability as v.104 has been, I'll be happy.

Portwey84 · ‎2020-07-30

@spcrick wrote:
Im not sure if you noticed but .104 was a beta. Looks like v106 is an official release and if you went to check updates through the router, you can upgrade it through the router this time. In the past, when you try checking updates through the router, the highest one was .88.

That didn't work for me on v.104. I tried that but it just came back as no new update available, so I manually downloaded it from the Netgear R7000 page. As per my previous post, update to v.106 successful following manual download.

Guilden-NL · ‎2020-07-30

106 didn't make it to three minutes before dropping 5Ghz. Absolute garbage!
Went back to 42. Will flash Fresh Tomato this weekend to get rid of Netgear.

Am looking at Asus WiFi6 router now for long term.

Portwey84 · ‎2020-07-30

@Guilden-NL wrote:
106 didn't make it to three minutes before dropping 5Ghz. Absolute garbage!
Went back to 42. Will flash Fresh Tomato this weekend to get rid of Netgear.

Am looking at Asus WiFi6 router now for long term.

Weird that.

Ok, it's only been exactly two hours at the time of writing this, but for me, v.106 is stable, steady as a rock, zero dropouts on either 2.4 or 5ghz and I've 20 devices connected wirelessly. But as I said before, I've never had an issue with any of the releases in the last 3 months, all perfectly stable.

I really would love to find out what the issue is insofar as why some of us have no problems with Netgear firmware and others like you, have thrown in the towel.

Hope whatever you end up with solves your problems.

DragonWarrior · ‎2020-07-30

104 wasn't stable for me for the 5ghz. I finally thru in the towel on this one and got a TP-Link AX6000 router. No issues with wifi now.