Netgear R7000 Slow Internet Speed - Our Fix - SOLVED

[BigNate86]

Does anyone know if the newer nighthawk routers are having the same issues? Maybe the R7000 processor can’t keep up with the requirements of the new 1.0.09 OS. The 1.0.07 is vulnerable to that Russian hack in the news awhile back, so I don’t like the idea of sacrificing security for performance. The vulnerability let’s the hacker brick all the devices in your network, which is big $$$.

Before I go spending a few hundred on a new router, I’d like to be sure they don’t have the same issues as the R7000...

[btcorrad]

I had the same discussion last night talking with a friend whom had similar experiences with the R7000P. His impression was a 'power' issue - namely the processor just not being robust enough for the 1.0.9 builds. But that's pure speculation.

[shadowsports]

@btcorrad

"Processing Power" - General observations.  I ran into "similar" behavior on my R7000.  This had to do with Traffic Meter.  With  1.0.7.6 I could have TM enabeled with no impact to bandwidth.  With 1.0.9.34, my downstream bandwidth would take a 50% hit unexplainably if enabled. I just shut it off.  I have no conclusive evidence which supports this, but it has been discussed by others.  Some have speculated the code is not optimized for older hardware or that its just not capable of keeping up.   

I have no idea what I did to get my R7000 working with .34 consistently when so many others are fed up.  I'm liking my 8000P with 1.4.1.24, but it has been surrounded by controversy as well.  (What NG product doesn't ATM)..  But once again I have it running stable like my 7000.           

[BigNate86]

On my R7000, I have the wired stable and 5g runs stable for a few days after factory resets (only when all extra features turned off), but the 2.4GHz is not stable ever. My tv (which is 2.4) used to be able to run Netflix with no issues but now it has to keep buffering. 2.4 GHz tests at only 1 to 4 Mbps down and 0.5 to 2 Mpbs up and like a 240ms jitter (changing channels doesn’t fix it). 5g is like 12Mbps down and 10 up. My wired gets the full 250/10. Only real fix I have found right now is to run an Ethernet for any device not on 5g.

For the other folks that claim to have their R7000 running stable on 1.0.09, is your 2.4Ghz wireless stable and running decent speeds?

I am tempted to make a custom build for routing, and changing my R7000 to strictly be a wireless Access Point on the old 1.0.07. That should fix security concerns and restore my router to pre-update speeds.

Thoughts anyone?

[btcorrad]

The only comment I can make is that this is what my friend decided to do with his R7000P - it's become an access point for low bandwidth stuff like Nest, and audio media bridging. All the streaming and gaming goes through his ASUS 5300

[BigNate86]

Good news. I was just about to purchase a dedicated firewall so I felt comfortable about downgrading my R7000 to 1.0.7 firmware. When I logged into my router last night I saw there was an update just released. For **bleep**s and giggles, I tested it out.
I was thoroughly surprised! Although, I am still skeptical and want to give it a couple weeks to see how stable this update is.

My wired connection had been my full 250/10 prior to the update but I have circle and EoS off.

The 2.4Ghz was only running like 2Mbps down and 1Mbps down. 5Ghz was maxing at 35/10. After update, both last night and this morning I got consistent tests of 45/10 and 250/10 for the 2.4G and 5G respectively.

The 5g used to drop connectivitely periodically. I’ll continue daily tests and keep my ear tuned to complaints from the kids. There might be hope for Netgear yet... 😊

[Aragon555]

Thanks, everyone!  I had the same problem (R7000P firmware V1.3.1.44_10.1.23 latest) and was able to solve it easily using the steps above.  My problem was the 250 Mbps I was getting with my previous old router dropped to 135 Mbps when installing the new R7000.

1) I was using QoS which had measured my speed as 135 Mbps in the internal speed test.  I did the manual override to 250 Mbps and retested.  Immediately I'm back to 220 Mbs.

2) I turned off QoS totally and my speed is up to 240 Mbps.  Probably some other tweakling can get it to 250.

Thanks again!

-Steve

[D0645C]

Kind of crazy - I had exactly the same experience with a Cox tech and the problem returned. Needless to say the QoS in off mode fixed my issue without going back on firmware.

[BigNate86]

UPDATE:
The update seems to have fixed the speed problem but it’s not stable. It seems like I have to do a reboot once a day for it to run smooth. Any longer and I start having issues. I might need to buy myself a timer to restart it every night.

[DavidT198]

I was very frustrated with the slow pass through speeds after a firmware upgrade and was ready to get another router from a different vendor. I followed the article and downgraded the firmware. It’s worked. I don’t feel great about the solution but have disabled the auto firmware upgrade so I won’t run into the problem again. I may go with another vendor when the nex wireless standard comes out.

[hcd2]

I see a lot of posts floating around various online forums about downgrading firmware to get rid of overhead/bloat and increase bandwidth.  I'm yet to see any of these acknowledge the potential security issues that may result from this practice. 

Why is no one asking about this? 

Are the old firmwares retroactively patched against known exploits??

[BigNate86]

HCD2, clearly there are vulnerability risks with downgrading firmware. The patch that broke the router was RIGHT after the big news story awhile back about the Russian hack. I assume Netgear rushes out a fix without taking the time to work out the bugs.

From what I remember about the hack, any device in your network can be compromised and they can even brick your devices if they want to be malicious (completely and permanently disable the device)

Downgrading firmware is perfectly fine as long as it isn’t also functioning as your network firewall. Before downgrading, I recommend installing a stand-alone firewall between you and the ISP so your information and devices are protected. Downgrading without a firewall is like removing the locks from the doors of your house. You might never have a problem. Or people might snoop around your house when you aren’t home and you’d never know. Or someone might let themselves in to rob and vandalize you.

Is saving $100-$300 in firewall costs or updated router worth risking $1000’s of dollars in banking information and computers/devices?

Food for thought...

[buckyswider_2]

Hi Shadow, have you upgraded to V1.0.9.42_10.2.44 yet?  I just upgrade to gigabit with xfinity.  Struggling to get more then 500Gbps.  So I found this thread.  Upgraded to the latest, then factory reset.  Still no better.  Wondering if I should try to downgrated to _32?  

Comcast did actually replace lots of cable- house to pole, then pole all the way back to something or other.  Was really lousy before that.  

I tried from two different simultaneous hardwired PCs, as well- and they pretty much split the 500Gb between them.  All Cat6.  New Arris modem.  Had a buddy with the same router who was experiencing similar issues and he fixed it by installing the Asus firmware (!).  

I can't get a good raw test- for some reason my Win7 PC doesn't get good config setting when I hook straight to the modem.  Yep, my interface is set to full DHCP, but I get a 169.x.x.x on my PC while the router gets 76.99.x.x. from comcast's DHCP server. I suppose I could hard pin my PC interface to the settings that the router gets??  

[sbsmann]

---

@btcorrad wrote:
Thanks again for all the help. It seems I'll just have to 'deal'. I've tried 3 different channels for each band, with no other scanned devices on those channels. I've reviewed the channels again, as speeds drop. The 2.4 band has always been unimpressive on our R7000 - but this is the first time the 5ghz band didn't match wired speeds. I've tried three different, unused channels - soft resets, hard resets, factory reset, multiple flashes of the newest FW. The speed is always great, immediately following hard reset - and within about 30 minutes or so it begins dropping. Then it fluctuates in a range between ~75Mbps and ~220.

I appreciate the help.

I may just have to look at another router with known history of multiple console support.

---

Ironically just got this router about a month ago on Amazon.  Very first test I got gave me just over 200 Mbps with my 200 Mbps plan through Time Warner.  After upgrading my firmware, I can no longer get anything > 100.  Usually more like 60-70 mbps.  I am going to try a few things when I get home, but I'm not sure I would have purchased this router if I knew this was going to be so difficult.

[btcorrad]

Problem is, there aren't a lot of options out there, especially if a) you have more then 200Mbps down and b) you want Cone or Open NAT out of the box, for multiple consoles on the same subnet. I've bought and returned multiple routers since this FW ruined my R7000. They're even worse.

[MobtownBrian]

dcrowmik - you are my hero! I have been pulling my hair out for weeks and had no idea what was going on with my network. Up until a week ago I was getting FIOS 150/150 service and had been having dropouts with my Sonos, intermittent slowness, etc. I never considered that the issue could be with the firmware on the Nighthawk. Then, last week I upgraded to gigabit and that’s when things started getting really interesting. As soon as I got the upgrade I was able to connect via my home office over Ethernet to the FIOS gateway router with speeds anywhere from 700-900 MBPS up and down. It blazes! I love it. But I could not get the Nighthawk which is configured as an AP to get me anything over 70MBPS. This morning I followed your steps and I’m getting much better speeds on the 5 G band. Getting anywhere from 300-500 MBPS up/down. Thank you!

As an aside, this is something Netgear needs to fix. To have a customer utilize deprecated, likely security flawed firmware to achieve basic functionality is unacceptable. The use case I have for this router is not that unique and needs to be thoroughly tested before being released to the public.

What gives Netgear?

[dcrowmik]

Glad it worked for you. I know there have been firmware upgrades since I wrote the solution, but I'm guessing the problem still exists even with those new versions as you and others have indicated that the original problem has still existed to this day.

[bkaley]

After upgrading xfinity to 300 mbps I saw the speed never increased past 120 mbps on my wired or wireless PC connection but was 265 mbps on my android phone. I called netgear for support and they wanted money, but sent a bogus link which was supposed to walk me through the "steps."

Since the link was bad, I found this forum and the recomendation of downgrading the BIOS which is ridiculous. After reading several threads I found this one. Thank you bignate for the most simple and effective fix... stop QOS, reboot and my issue is solved

[BigNate86]

You’re welcome Bkayley.

As an update, the router has to be restarted every couple days or it starts running slow again. I need to get around to setting up a timer so it flicks off and back on everyday in the wee hours of the morning, but I’ve been busy on other project lately.

I did recently buy the R7450 (AC2600) on a Black Friday Sale for $99. I expect it to have the same issues because I think the processor is the same. I might downgrade my R7000 to an older stable version and use it as an access point.

[Januaryman]

Thanks for this thread.  My speed issue was Disney Circle.  With it enabled, I was capped at about 160mb.  Turned off, I get about 450mb.

Hardware Version	R7000
Firmware Version	V1.0.9.58_10.2.58

[wenzelja]

I just wanted to add a data point to this issue, not necessarily any comment or tips:

My R7000P (latest firmware) was working fine when my cable speed was at 100Mbps (I was actually seeing 125-130Mbps), and that was with QoS, Smart Connect, Traffic Meter options all enabled.  When Spectrum increased my speed to 200Mbps, then this is where my "fun" started.  With QoS enabled I could only manage around 130-140 MBps, and that's with using the built-in speed test to establish bandwidth (which could only manage to see ~180Mbps).  I played around with manually setting the bandwidth, and got it to output ~160Mbps, but then QoS services, especially network mapping and device prioritization, though enabled, were effectively "shut off" in this state and inaccessible.  I ultimately turned off QoS, and I can see ~215 Mbps, but it sucks that I have to give up mapping and prioritization services. 

My issue now is that I still have Smart Connect enabled, so now my mobile devices (all iPhone 8's), which are 802.11AC-equipped are being backed down to ~60Mbps, instead of seeing the full 215.  With a re-boot of the router my phones will temporarlily see the full 215Mbps, but after a few hours its again backed down to the 60 Mbps range.  So I guess I'm going to have to turn off smart connect and setup separate 2.4 and 5.0GHz connections, which I really don't want to do. 

I tend to agree with everyone on this thread that says the processors in these routers can't keep up with faster speeds, and it would appear from my results that anything above the 100Mbps is when the routers start "slowing" down your connecton and can't keep up.

[Aragon555]

Hi - Once I turned off QoS, I've been running the R7000P successfully at 256Mbps+ for the past several months.  No reboots, no firmware downgrades etc. Firmware Version V1.3.1.44_10.1.23  

Also be sure you are running your speed tests with a reliable test endpoint.  For example, Ookla's Speedtest gives you the choice of selecting which server you want to test with, and a good server (ie Sonic.net or Sprint San Jose) can be more than 2x faster than a slow one.  

[LT71]

Never understood the need for QOS with connections of 200MBS+. You would really need ALOT of devices for it to make a difference. I do not use QOS and I regularly have 2 separate kids, my wife and myself, all on different TVs running HD Netflix and and surfing the web with no issues. Really think QOS creates more issues than it solves for most people.

[wenzelja]

So i performed a full reset to factory settings, reset up the modem, turned on QoS and set the bandwidth via the speedtest, and now I'm stable at 215Mbps.  It does slow down after a few days, instead of hours, and thus a frequent reboot is required but I have my network mapping back and device prioritization.  With QoS I lose both of those.  

Only weird thing I have noticed, when the slow down occurs (down to ~60Mbps), the Nighthawk app's speed test reports the speed at 215.  Ookla Speedtest app is what I normally use to check my speed and it was showing 60, and my phone is acting like its 60 so not understanding how the Nighthawk app is able to see 215.

[temujin]

Happy to find this thread, hope I'm not dredging up an old post.
I've been having dreadful transfer speeds across my network, but recently upgarded to a 600mbps internet speed packagae.
My speed tests and downloads from newsgroups cap out at max burst of around 37MB/s, so ~296mps.

The fast.com and speedtest sites back this up, at approx 340mbps and speedtest states a bit slower at ~250

Also, seeing huge swings in download speeds for big files via newsgroups, will swing from 1MB/s up to 34...cazy.

My n00b question (before I throw the NG away) is what does a factory reset blow away? How much will I have to re-enter or setup?
I don't have QOS or Disney enabled, and I only really have some DHCP IP reservation listed and custom filtering via OpenDNS.
So, basically re-setup the wifi names and passwords?
I'm already on V1.0.9.60_10.2.60, but I've ony been updating via the GUI, no factory resets etc.

My next step before that is to connect my pc straight to the new Arris XB6 Advanced WiFi Modem to confirm the NG is the bottleneck.

Thanks