Nighthawk R8500 not connecting - was working before for a few days now getting an amber light

[Loudog2]

Sorry netgear.  This is getting a little unbelievable.  It looks like the consumer was the beta Guinea pigs here.  This is a very expensive router to test on us and force us to exchange, sometimes at our own cost.  I know you are trying to help us on this forum and we appreciate it.  But come on man!

[phlseattle]

Hello:

Same thing happening here as described in other posts.  Looks to me like the DHCP server is not giving out IP addresses.  There are also some weird artifacts if you look at the network map, mine has IP addresses issued out at the high end of the range  - .253 and .254 even though I only have 21 devices.

Assigning static IP addresses not a way around it.  Must reboot the router.

This is a bug and a big one.   This is an expensive router that doesnt route.

Can someone from Netgear please tell us when a fix is forthcoming?

[phlseattle]

One more thing related to this issue.

If you look at the connected devices table, not all of my devices are there, even though I can go and operate them and see thier IP address on the device itself.

Also, I tried to limit the highest IP address to .50, applied the change no difference.  Still handing out all sorts of IP addresses over the limit in the software. Tried a lower number and rebooted same thing.  The DHCP server is ignoring the parameter in the config software.  I still have some phantom devices out there with .254 IP addresses. Although I have no idea what they are since they actually dont exist.

Just more data for the engnineers you might check to see if something is corrupting your routing tables.

Is there away to downgrade to the original firmware the device was shipped with?  I cant believe this would have shipped with this big of a bug.

[ElaineM]

I don't seem to experience that issue you're having but thank you for that info @phlseattle

I will go ahead and let the engineers know about it.

You can always downgrade the firmware by downloading manually the FW from our download page. 

[phlseattle]

Thank you very much for your response.  Im hoping they figure out what the problem is as I like the product when it worked.  

Can you tell me if the problem in this thread was in the original release or did it show up in 1.0.28?

Thanks again.

[ElaineM]

I don't think that it's in the original release 'cause mine is working.

Tried all firmware available but did not experience the same problem as the OP.

 By the way, have you tried re-flashing and resetting the router?

[phlseattle]

I down reved and it has been stable for three days.

Will try to upgrade again your next release.

[Loudog2]

I'm running the original firmware from out of the box on my replacement unit.  It's been completely stable.  I'm waiting for a new release as well.

[Haloxjump]

I just posted my own tread before reading this one, R8500 WIFI lost connections. It appears to be the same or/ similar issues experienced. Very disappointing for such a high dollar router.

[phlseattle]

Just downgrade to teh original software it shipped with.  Really stable.

I agree though.  Expensive non-routing router.

[Loudog2]

Yes the original firmware is solid.  I messed around with the settings yesterday.  With QOS off I have not dropped a signal at all in weeks with the out of the box firmware.  I turned QOS on yesterday and started seeing the 2.4g signal get dropped on some devices.  

[Deanmastjr]

I had the same issues now for almost a week, my solution was to power cycle, it would work for a while then issues, eventually issues were about every 2 hrs, new solution, downgrade firmware, I'll update tomorrow on if this solved issues. Description: all wifi signals give authentication errors and computer connected directly to router would also lose connection

[Deanmastjr]

Well for all of us having these issues, reverting to 1st firmware update did not solve issue, but after reverting again to original firmware, worked good, so far anyways, been 12 hrs compared to overnight for first revert

[Deanmastjr]

On a side note, when you do revert to earlier firmware, after reboot, hit reset, then reconfigure the way you like or save setting file first before resetting so you won't have to enter it all in manually, did this after original firmware but not for first try with the first updated firmware

[ccarrasco]

OP here - I don't think it's a specific firmware issue, unless something is getting left in a bad state when configuring...

After my initial issue, I exchanged the router and did the exact same: Update firmware, loaded the same config. So far this has been running fine with no issues.

[Mjsmith75]

In the automatic setup process, r8500 is put in the account name of the internet setup, this prevents the router from getting an IP from my ISP. Once I stopped the auto setup and configured myself, removing account name, reboot the cable modem and router, it worked...

[phlseattle]

HI Have you tried the 1.0.41 firmware yet?

Been stable for month on the original firmware release Im a little hesitant to update.

Thanks.

[ccarrasco]

I've been running V1.0.2.26_1.0.41 since last Thursday. All seems fine so far. Also noticed that DD-WRT may be an option soon: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=288523&highlight=r8500

[Mohammed1978]

Hello, I had the same issue also and I try to contact Amazon but they ask me to contact NETGER directly? can you please guide me of what I have to do to solve this issue or replace it? firmware to V1.0.0.56_1.0.28

[phlseattle]

Just go and update the firmware to the latest version on the Administration  - > Router update screen.

I just installed their latest version it works fine.

At the time I had the problem I had to go backwards as new working firmware was not yet available.  You should be able to install the new firmware and have it work OK.

Good luck.

[Mohammed1978]

Hi, thank you for your replay but my problem that I am not able login to the router page! I try to reast it several time but month change, it just keep the power light red. Do you know if I can use diffrent way to re-install the software thru USB or other way?

[Deanmastjr]

What worked for me: unplug for 30 seconds, plug in and let reboot, upgrade firmware to open source/ then reset button, upgrade to netgear beta firmware that is on these forums/ then reset button, after that no issues

[Mohammed1978]

the problem I am not able to login to the router page!! I have only red light on the power and no action more than white light if i conecte wire to my PC but no login page found.

How we can install/update without the router page? can we use the USB or diffrent softwer from the PC?

[Deanmastjr]

That's why I said unplug for 30 seconds,I had same issue, reset button wouldn't do anything, almost like a dummy button, but if I unplugged for 30 seconds I would get about 30 mins to an hour access to login page, so fed up, I installed open source firmware from myopenrouter.com , after that was installed completely, hit reset button which will work again, but I still had issues, so I went right from that to this beta: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/trial/r8500/R8500-V1.0.2.28_1.0.42.chk