Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
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Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

NCJeepMan
Aspirant

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

OK, my router kept the 5ghz band going for a couple months with no dropout and then today (Christmas day), I wake up to no 5ghz broadcast as per previous descriptions from myself and others. I installed the latest firmware version V1.0.3.80_1.1.38 and still no luck. I think this is, as some have suggested, a hardware problem. I think I want Netgear to replace my router or give me my money back - this is entirely too expensive to be this flaky and unreliable.
Message 26 of 64
markusmueller
Aspirant

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

sorry for bringing up this old post, but i just bought my r7000 yesterday and at first everything worked. today i noticed my device wasnt connected to the 5ghz net (samsung note 4)

now when i scan for available wifis the network doesnt even show up, although it is activated in the settings menu.

current firmware V1.0.4.28_1.1.64

any solutions?
Message 27 of 64
markusmueller
Aspirant

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

sorry, couldnt find the edit button. 2,4ghz is doing just fine, visible and i can connect without problems
Message 28 of 64
Babylon5
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

Have you used any other 5GHz capable clients to confirm that the 5GHz band is not available?
Message 29 of 64
bjl95mustang
Novice

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

I'm having the same problem with mine. Tech support sad it was a faulty radio. They told me to exchange it.
Message 30 of 64
ScottieK
Aspirant

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

@Babylon5/Andy - I am having the same issues; started today. I lost 2.5 and 5; I have used every device that connects via wifi with both bands.
Message 31 of 64
rpoffen
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

ScottieK wrote:
@Babylon5/Andy - I am having the same issues; started today. I lost 2.5 and 5; I have used every device that connects via wifi with both bands.


I am having a similar issue. I lose both 2.5 and 5Ghz, all connected devices disconnect. They come back after about 30 seconds. I see nothing in the router logs. I don't think it is a full reboot of the router since it is only 30 seconds or so. This happens several times a day at random intervals.
I have not been able to get to the router quick enough to see what the LED's on the router are showing.

I am using 1.0.4.18 FW.

Once I tried a reset to defaults, than restored settings from backup, as was suggested in another thread and it seemed to have helped for a while, but it is now back.

I will upgrade to the latest 1.0.4.68 FW using the full factory reset procedure and see if that helps.
Message 32 of 64
Babylon5
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

bjl95mustang, have you exchanged yet, if not what firmware version are you running?

ScottieK, what is your firmware version please?

rpoffen, please let us know how you get on with the new firmware.
Message 33 of 64
bjl95mustang
Novice

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

Babylon5 wrote:
bjl95mustang, have you exchanged yet, if not what firmware version are you running?
I have exchanged it. But I was running 1.1.64. I had been having problems with it since I got it new in Dec of 14. I just got my replacement Thursday morning all hooked up and flashed with 1.1.64. It's been 100% with no issues. My previous one would drop 5ghz after 1-2 days and it would not return unless I rebooted it. I also noticed I am getting a better signal through my house with the replacement. It appears to have been a hardware issue like tech support said. We'll see if she holds up for the long run.
Message 34 of 64
RogerSC
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

What's version 1.1.64? Are you sure? What router do you have? There's no version 1.1.64 for the R7000 that I see anywhere?
Message 35 of 64
bjl95mustang
Novice

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

Sorry should say 1.0.4.28. I just grabbed the last 4 digits from the status page. Firmware Version V1.0.4.28_1.1.64
Message 36 of 64
rpoffen
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

Babylon5 wrote:
bjl95mustang, have you exchanged yet, if not what firmware version are you running?

rpoffen, please let us know how you get on with the new firmware.


The other day I upgraded to the latest V1.0.4.28_1.1.64 firmware. When upgrading, I first reset back to factory defaults, configured it enough to allow me to upload the new firmware, then I reset to factory defaults, and re-configured my settings. So far, it has not dropped since (keeping my fingers crossed).

One thing I did not like during the process was that the initial setup genie tries to be too smart for its own good. The first thing it says is that it detected another router on my network (which is not really true, the DSL modem that my provider uses appears to have a limited amount of smarts by default, but not truly a router), so the Genie setup limited how I could configure it. It would not take properly if I tried to manually say to set it up as a router instead of an access point, but if I left it as an AP, then I could not properly get DHCP to work as the DSL modem does not give out more than 5 IP's.
I ended up restoring a saved config backup and it worked after that.
The only other setting I changed was to force channel 6 on the 2.4G wireless rather than auto (this was something I picked up on another forum). I noticed that when I changed the channel, and clicked apply, the wireless networks went down for about 30 seconds, hmm, same amount of down time that my dropouts were taking. I wonder if when left to auto, and the router decided to change channels, this explained my dropouts? Maybe just coincidence? As I stated before, my dropouts were not as long as a full router reboot takes. But the channel change dropout appears about right.
Message 37 of 64
theoak
Luminary

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

One thing that may help at least from a 2.4G perspective ... select channel 1.

I had a tough time getting some wireless IP cameras around my home to stay connected. I naturally selected channel 11 because doing a scan using inSSIDer revealed that it was the channel with no one on it. My cameras can only use 2.4G.

For three weeks nothing but grief to keep these cameras connected. I then remembered something back in my DD-WRT days where someone stated to the effect that they could get things to work only on channel 1 with a problem they had. Out of desperation I thought why not.

For the past 5 days or so my cameras have been solid.

Now, it could be the fault of the cameras; however, it works for me. I may prefer the clear channel 11, but right now channel 1 is the ticket. Give 1 a whirl.
Message 38 of 64
rpoffen
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

I am remote enough (closest neighbors are about 1/4mi away) that there is no congestion on the channels, it just seemed suspicious that the recovery time after changing the channel in the router setup was the same as my dropouts were, which is far shorter than a router reboot. Forcing a fixed channel would prevent the router from changing channels for any reason.
The only other devices that might cause interference are a Microwave and cordless phone.
Message 39 of 64
theoak
Luminary

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

I am not saying forcing to channel 1 makes sense, it just is working.
Message 40 of 64
Babylon5
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

Rpoffen, why do you suggest that your modem is ‘not truly a router’? Most DSL modems are in fact fully blown routers performing NAT, and it’s NAT that will often cause unexpected issues with another connected router.

In your situation, with no nearby neighbours, I would also use a fixed channel, there would be little advantage to leaving that option to the router, and some client devices are not too good at tracking the AP channel changes.
Message 41 of 64
rpoffen
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

I say that it because it was not truly behaving properly. Some devices were able to obtain a DHCP address, others did not. It appeared to stop handing out DHCP leases after the 5th device. I suppose it was possible that it was only configured for a small range of DHCP clients, but I do not have the credentials or info to login to it, that is kept secret by by internet provider. All I can do is call and request that they put it in bridged mode. I used to have it that way, because that is the only way to get port forwarding using the R7000 so I can view my security cameras remotely. A few weeks ago the internet went down completely, and I was away from the house for a couple days. The ISP said everything was fine on their end so they had my wife reset the modem back to factory which takes it out of bridged mode and connect directly (via cable) to her laptop so she could use the internet. I was unable to find anything wrong with the R7000, I just have not gone through the trouble of calling the ISP to put it back in bridged mode. I wanted to make sure it was stable with no more dropped connections.
Message 42 of 64
theoak
Luminary

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

Either have your DSL in bridge mode, with the R7000 as a router. My setup worked great in this configuration.

Or have your DSL in router mode, with the R7000 as an access point. I did have an issue here with this setup when I introduced a network firewall appliance; hence, the DSL was in bridge mode, the network appliance serves as my router with the R7000 as an access point. Again, what did it for me was setting my 2.4G channel to 1. Right now, things are great.

Your issues sound eerily really similar to what I was having. It was like from a DHCP perspective, my cameras dropped off the face of the earth. If I unplugged and plugged the cameras back in, I would have them for a time period, but I would eventually lose them again. My DSL router was in bridge mode the whole time though and still is.

Good luck!
Message 43 of 64
Nef99
Aspirant

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

Has anyone seen a fix for this problem?
I'm running firmware V1.0.4.28_1.1.64, but I have experienced it with the last 3 revisions.
A reboot of the router always fixes the problem, until I come back to use it a few hours later.
Message 44 of 64
rpoffen
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

I had my ISP put my DSL modem into bridge mode and I re-configured the router for PPPoE a few days ago. So far so good.
When I upgraded to V1.0.4.28_1.1.64 and few weeks ago, I did the full 30-30-30 reset and have not had any loss of WiFi or internet since.
So if you have weird dropouts or other unexplained behavior, try the full factory reset and re-configure and see if that helps with the random dropouts.
Message 45 of 64
pnmeldrum
Aspirant

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

I too am experiencing this problem. It is very, very frustrating and disappointing, especially given the price of this router.

 

At this stage, given this ongoing and obviously common problem, I could not recommend this router to anyone, even though I want to.

 

Can someone at netgear please fix this issue asap. It has been an issue for too long.

 

I am using the latest firmware, V1.0.4.30_1.1.67

 

 

 

 

Message 46 of 64
clvnng
Aspirant

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

I experimented with different channels on 5ghz and the only way i got it to stabilize is switching from 1300mbps to 600mbps. Then i can use any channel I want. The other solution was lowering the 5ghz channel to 40 which resulted in poor range. 

 

I've had the router for less than 24hrs and the next step would be going to DD-WRT. but so far so good! I came from the legendary 54G so this is awesome 😃

Message 47 of 64
netwrks
Master

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing


@clvnng wrote:

I experimented with different channels on 5ghz and the only way i got it to stabilize is switching from 1300mbps to 600mbps. Then i can use any channel I want. The other solution was lowering the 5ghz channel to 40 which resulted in poor range. 

 

I've had the router for less than 24hrs and the next step would be going to DD-WRT. but so far so good! I came from the legendary 54G so this is awesome 😃

 

 


If you are looking for 3rd party fw, all the EX DD-WRT user's are using this firmware - I use on 2 R7000's. One as an AP and one in router mode, in different locations. Works great. Very stable, and lots of features that you won't find in stock FW. The instruction on the first page  od the web site, are perfect for transitioning.

Message 48 of 64
bill__schroeder
Initiate

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

After much research and trying different settings, and even factory reset ... I changed the default preamble from long to short and my connections have been improved.

Message 49 of 64
dromski
Aspirant

Re: R7000 5ghz Disappearing

Hope to save others pain .... try powering off any wireless equipment in area.

 

My R7000 installed a couple days ago had very regular dropout of 5.8Ghz channels (was stable on the 2.4GHz channels).  Lots of trial and error scanning for free channel #s, lowering bandwidth modes, about to upgrade firmware to DD-WRT, etc. Before you do any of that ... try turning off anything that may cause interference (cordless phones, baby monitors, etc) and try moving router location.  We had a panasonic cordless phone system on other side of a wall transmitting on 5.8GHz (5.759-5.838) which regularly stomps on Wifi Channels 149-161 and caused R7000 to shutdown/reboot 802.11ac network.  See details here:

 

http://bradsfavorite.com/avoid-interference-5-ghz-wifi-5-8-ghz-cordless-phones/

 

I suggest monitoring rate of dropouts using a wifi analyzer (free smartphone app) or Mac OSX Wireless Diagnostics Tool . Then unplug ALL questionable equipment anywhere in the region you want to run Wifi and see if it fixes any dropouts.  Our has now been stable for hours, plug in again and immediate dropouts.  I moved my phone base away from router and monitor no longer shows dropouts but laptop still struggles near phone system (recognize Wifi is two-way not just interference at the router side).

 

I know FCC has allowed many products to use the 5.8Ghz range.  This would likely impact any Wifi system trying to use these prime channels (not just R7000). My old phones must go.  I'm looking at Dect 6.0 cordless phones that use 1.9GHz.   Good luck.

 

Message 50 of 64
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