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Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

tucsontico
Virtuoso

R7000 Connectivity Issues

My R7000 router had been working fine until the last few days. I began to get intermittent dropouts from the internet. They mostly appear as failures to load thumbnail pictures in emails, eBay, not properly rendering pages and slow page updates. Additionally, sometimes my email will fail to download at all and give an "unable to connect to the server" warning. There is no apparent pattern to these connection failures.

I've tried rebooting the router, the cable modem and all my Macs, but the issue continues to plague my system. I tried connecting directly to my cable modem and the issue does not appear, so, I'm convinced the router is the culprit. The connection failures occur on the WiFi side, too.

I also did a router "reset to factory settings" and reconfiguration of the R7000. It also did not completely solve the issue. The longer the router runs (from a reboot/restart/reset) the more these dropouts seem to occur.

My LAN consists of 2 Apple iMacs connected to the router via Cat 6 cable running Mac OS 10.9.5 and numerous WiFi connected iPads/iPhones. Comcast is my ISP through an Arris TM722G cable modem.

I've contacted Comcast and they do not show any "outages or problems" in my area. 

I am at a loss to solve this issue. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Message 1 of 11

Accepted Solutions
tucsontico
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

I swapped out the suspect Cat5E for a shielded Cat 6 cable yesterday afternoon. After 12 hours, the LAN connection to my wife's iMac appears to be stable.  She is getting proper email downloads and web page renderings.  I don't want to jinx it, but I'd say the problem is solved–for now! 

 

I truly believe the router was at fault initially because both of my hard-wired iMacs were sufffering similar download/rendering problems. After performing a reset to factory defaults and a re-install of firmware, the LAN was more stable. Switching to a different DNS appears to have helped the stability and speed.  I also believe the biggest problem was the Cat 5E cable to my wife's iMac.

 

Lesson learned (again!): Always check the cables first!

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Message 7 of 11

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TheEther
Guru

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

What is the firmware version on the R7000?

 

When you log into your R7000, is the Internet status listed as Good?

 

When the problem occurs, are you able to ping the modem and websites on the Internet?

 

What DNS servers are you using?  If you are in the U.S., try using Google's servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) or OpenDNS's (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220).

Message 2 of 11
tucsontico
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

I am running Firmware Version 1.0.4.30_1.1.67.  Yes, when logging in to the router it shows my connection as "good".

The problem is so intermittent I am not able to ping the router during the "hiccup."

 

I am using Comcast's Domain Name Severs at 75.75.75.75 and 75.75.76.76

 

Today, I reset the router to factory defaults, reloaded the firmware (V1.0.4.30_1.1.67), reset the router to factory defaults again, then manually configured the router for my network setup. It's been up for 1 hour 45 mins with stable connections and proper rendering of emails. So far, so good! If it hiccups again, I'll try the different DNS's you mentioned. 

 

Thanks for the reply.

Message 3 of 11
DexterJB
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

Hi @tucsontico,

 

As suggested, please try using a different DNS for us to isolate the issue properly. If the issue persists while using a different DNS, please downgrade the routers firmware for us to check if it works on another firmware version.

 

Regards,

 

Dexter

Community Team

Message 4 of 11
tucsontico
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

I switched DNS servers to the OpenDNS servers (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) after I had some dropouts again after re-installing the most current firmware. This swap appears to have stablized my LAN connections.

 

While switching DNS servers seems to have stabilized my LAN, I noted my wife's iMac was still having occasional poor page rendering (no pics loading, wrong fonts, etc.).  On a whim, I had her disconnect the ethernet cable and turn on WiFi instead. Even though it has only been a few hours, that appears to have solved the problem. I inspected the now disconnected ethernet cable and discovered it is a Cat 5E cable versus all the rest of my hard wire connections are Cat 6 shielded cables.

 

I now believe the issue with her poor webpage rendering and slow performance is a bad Cat 5E cable. I will procure a proper length Cat 6 shielded cable tomorrow and recheck her connectrivity and page rendering. Hopefully, this will solve this annoying issue once and for all.

 

Thanks for your continued help!

Message 5 of 11
DexterJB
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

Hi @tucsontico,

 

You are welcome.

 

Regards,

 

Dexter

Community Team

Message 6 of 11
tucsontico
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

I swapped out the suspect Cat5E for a shielded Cat 6 cable yesterday afternoon. After 12 hours, the LAN connection to my wife's iMac appears to be stable.  She is getting proper email downloads and web page renderings.  I don't want to jinx it, but I'd say the problem is solved–for now! 

 

I truly believe the router was at fault initially because both of my hard-wired iMacs were sufffering similar download/rendering problems. After performing a reset to factory defaults and a re-install of firmware, the LAN was more stable. Switching to a different DNS appears to have helped the stability and speed.  I also believe the biggest problem was the Cat 5E cable to my wife's iMac.

 

Lesson learned (again!): Always check the cables first!

Message 7 of 11
tpl
Aspirant
Aspirant

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

9.21.2015

I had the same problems as the original poster, but I solved it differently.

Comcast verified my Internet connection was good.  But 5 GHz was not loading videos and often dropped web pages.

I was using 4.30 firmware, the latest version.  But I learned in another thread on this topic that 4.30 is causing problems.

So I uploaded 4.28 firmware and then reinstalled the factory settings.  INSTANT FIX.  I do hope Netgear reads this and gets to work on whatever is wrong with 4.30. 

 

Message 8 of 11
tucsontico
Virtuoso

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

My issues were not with the WiFi signal. The problems occured only with ethernet connection. It appears to be solved after reseting the router, re-installing the firmware and replacing a bad CAt 5e cable. 

Message 9 of 11
willip
Aspirant

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

I am having a similar issue recently.  I am using the R7000 and it is updated to the latest firmware.

 

I had a strong wifi signal but suddenly I am not able to connect to internet.  The modem side is working fine as I do have Internet TV and I am pretty sure that it is connected.

 

The R7000 admin page also stated that the Internet connection is "Good" but I am totally disconnected.

 

The problem will go away after I reboot the R7000 and it will re-surface again in a day.  

 

Any others face the same and any solutions proposed?

Message 10 of 11
DexterJB
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: R7000 Connectivity Issues

Hi @willip,

 

Have you tried performing a firmware re-flash then reset and reconfigure the router? If not yet, you may refer to the links below for the steps:

 

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23960
http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9665

 

Regards,

 

Dexter

Community Team

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