Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
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Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

earroyave
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Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

I am running firmware 1.4.1.30_1.2.26 which is supposed to be the latest available and have noticed this described behavior which happens every few days or so.  What I finally noticed is that the wifi connections "stop" working if trying access anything in the Internet that requires the DNS service - the clients are configured to pull the DNS information from the router.  However, if I manually add a DNS server to the client, then everything works as intended.  This leads me to believe that it is the DNS service on the router that gets all messed up after some time.

The next thing I tried was to access the front end of the router via routerlogin.net which of course will not resolve and so I tried the IP address.  The front end would not load until I did a reboot of the router whcih would indicate that the web server service on the router ALSO had died.

The question is whether there is a way to ssh into the router and restart these services which would be less drastic than rebooting the router and waiting for the network to stabilize afterwards.  Or get a firmware update that is more stable.  I do really expect more from this router!

Model: R7900P|Nighthawk X6S Smart WiFi Router with MU-MIMO
Message 1 of 8

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earroyave
Star

Re: Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

My solution ended up returning the router and buying a different one.  I went with an Orbi mesh system and configured it the same way I had the Nighthawk X6S.  My problems have disappeared and my network is stable.

 

A good friend of mine also had one of these Nighthawk X6S routers which stopped working altogether after a few months so he also switched out routers.

 

I am a surprised that the problems persist (still) and that Netgear would allow itself to get a black eye over lack of response or providing fixes to their products.

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Model: R7900P|Nighthawk X6S AC3000 Tri Band WiFi Router
Message 7 of 8

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DarrenM
Sr. NETGEAR Moderator

Re: Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

Have you tried to set a new DNS in the routers settings?

 

DarrenM

Message 2 of 8
earroyave
Star

Re: Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

I have configured external DNS servers (OpenDNS.com)  in the router and when troubleshooting the wireless client I entered the same DNS servers and name resolution worked once again.  This tells me that the servers were up and running at the time the network "went down."  Can you advise what the troubleshooting line of thought is when you suggest I try a different DNS server?

 

The thing that makes me suspect hung DNS services (in the router) is that after a reboot of it, everything comes back to normal in the network.  A memory leak perhaps that after a certain period causes the service to hang or crash?

Message 3 of 8
smarthur
Tutor

Re: Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

My router is also experiencing loss of the internet after about a week or two. I’m using 1.1.1.1 DNS service. I’ve just been restarting the router. After reading all the issues with the firmware over the last year I was hoping this router would be ok by now. I hope you’re personal research points to a DNS problem and a new firmware update corrects this issue.
Model: R7900P|Nighthawk X6S Smart WiFi Router with MU-MIMO
Message 4 of 8
Eslacker
Initiate

Re: Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

I’m now having the same issue. All started right after downloading a Aprilaire app to my phone. I’m sure it’s not related but I have to use manual DNS. ISP has been out and changed out the modem and I’ve ruled out everything else, did a hard reset... nothing fixes the issue other then manual DNS.... has to be a firmware issue.
Model: R7900|Nighthawk X6 AC3000 Tri-Band WiFi Router
Message 5 of 8
jmjrsy
Initiate

Re: Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

I have been experiencing the same issues even with firmware v1.4.1.42 which is the latest version. Every day I lose connection, have to power down and restart the modem only. I want to smash this thing.

Any fixes suggested would be helpful. This seems to be a very common issue across many versions according to all the posts here in the community and online forums
Message 6 of 8
earroyave
Star

Re: Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days

My solution ended up returning the router and buying a different one.  I went with an Orbi mesh system and configured it the same way I had the Nighthawk X6S.  My problems have disappeared and my network is stable.

 

A good friend of mine also had one of these Nighthawk X6S routers which stopped working altogether after a few months so he also switched out routers.

 

I am a surprised that the problems persist (still) and that Netgear would allow itself to get a black eye over lack of response or providing fixes to their products.

Model: R7900P|Nighthawk X6S AC3000 Tri Band WiFi Router
Message 7 of 8
myersw
Master

Re: Nighthawk X6S (R7900P) drops Internet connection after several days


@earroyave wrote:

I am a surprised that the problems persist (still) and that Netgear would allow itself to get a black eye over lack of response or providing fixes to their products.


I am surprised as well. I used to think Netgear built the best routers. Not after my latest experiences though. They seem to not have a hand on what is going on in the firmware engineering side of the house. Appears no oversite and no QA to name a couple of things. Same bugs are present that were there a year ago. 

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