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Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - Lost of Guest Network

CaledonKen
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R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - Lost of Guest Network

Since I've upgrade my router firmware to 1.0.2.130 I've been losing Internet access on my Guests networks (2.4 or 5 GHz).

 

At first I thought it was a direct result of a security scan being done by my new Synology NAS model DS918+. Each time the NAS security runs the Guest network shuts down. So I disabled the scan and went to Synology. Today I proved that the scan impacts the access because after having no issues for a week I ran scan. 

 

Sure enough Guests access was disabled. Interestingly my Ecobee IOT thermostat can still talk to the mothership so it is just computer acess to the Internet. So I went back through logs and this behavior was not happening before 1.0.2.130. That is scans done before March 9th, the day I load 1.0.2.130. I had run several NAS security scans before March 9th, no issues. 

 

To regain access I power down the R8500, wait, restart and access is restored. The scan is set to manual so I know it has not run since I forced this early morning run. 

 

This afternoon I thought I would explore within the R8500 to see if I could notice anything. I did not change anything, looked at everything and logged out.

 

Immediately I lost Guest access to the Internet. I powered down the router, waited, powered on and access returned. 

 

It appears if the box is probed, for lack of better words, or if the config is access through browser I loose the Guest networks. 

 

Has anyone seen behaviour like this before? Is there a fix? Should I just reload 1.0.2.128? Are there risk to reloading olded 128? 

 

Really appreciate any answers. Thank you. 

Model: R8500|Nighthawk X8 Tri-Band AC5300 WiFi Router
Message 1 of 9

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CaledonKen
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Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - iPhones (iOS) and Android - Lost of Guest Network

Definitly Firmware. 

 

Fell back to 1.0.2.128 and iPhones immediately had connection to Internet. No resetting. Firmware loaded and Internet access granted. 

 

There is a REAL issue with v1.0.2.130. Interesting that Netgear is not aware. When fix ready would be happy to test.  

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Message 5 of 9

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CaledonKen
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Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - Lost of Guest Network

So I've continued to test and have an update. I need to power off reset my device this morning so starting from a new base. 

 

I said my IOT thermostat continued to work. That had me puzzled. So I tried a Windows 10 computer and that worked. So when I say PC's can't connect I should have said iOS and Android devices can't get to Internet. They connect to Guest network but can't do anything on the internet. Weather, stocks, multiple browsers tried.

 

I reset the network on my iOS iphone 6S running iOS12.1.4 (up to date) and tried again. Same results. Wireless works on home network but unable to reach sites if I use Guest network. 

Message 2 of 9
CaledonKen
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Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - Lost of Guest Network

I should add I did a full reset of router. Paperclip on reset button for 8 secs, when it restarted I got the full set up new router wizard, passwords, ssid's, etc had to be re-entered. 

Message 3 of 9
CaledonKen
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Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - Lost of Guest Network

Message 4 of 9
CaledonKen
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Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - iPhones (iOS) and Android - Lost of Guest Network

Definitly Firmware. 

 

Fell back to 1.0.2.128 and iPhones immediately had connection to Internet. No resetting. Firmware loaded and Internet access granted. 

 

There is a REAL issue with v1.0.2.130. Interesting that Netgear is not aware. When fix ready would be happy to test.  

Message 5 of 9
ecooney007
Aspirant

Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - iPhones (iOS) and Android - Lost of Guest Network

Guys,

We've been having issues within the last few days as well. Mine are similar but slightly different, and its an issue complained about by a ton of people previously.  Both my regular and guest 2.4 ghz connections only were dissapearing intermittently.  Everything ran great for like 1.5 - 2 years, then last few days the 2.4 (and sometimes the 5) ghz connections would vanish. Sometimes on my iPhone, I could still see them, but when I would try to reconnect to the 2.4 ghz SSID it would fail. Have rebooted the router a bunch. Installed latest firmware 1.0.2.130. Reset back to factory by holding down paperclip button for 20 seconds. But no better, or so I thought.

After some time I soon realized that my iPhones, iPads and later model computers with 5 ghz network adapters would still see the 2.4 ghz even though they would dissapear breifly, they would be visible again, and I could now login to them, whereas before the fw update/factory reset, they would just dissapear and If I tried to connect as an "unknown" SSID, it would fail. So now my only devices that were still having major problems were those that ONLY had 2.4 ghz network adapters, my old HP Pavilion 15 Notebook, and the first version of PS4. ON the old Laptop, I checked the device driver on my realtek network adapter and lo and behold, it did an auto update on the device driver a few days before, when everything started going bad. MS had updated the network card driver to one from 2017, but when I looked at the HP site and the compatible drivers for my computer, it still had the 2015 driver listed as the latest and best driver for my computer. I re-installed that 2015 driver from an .exe file from the HP site, and now even if there is an intermittent disconnect for a few seconds, the SSID soon shows up again in the available network list AND I could now connect to it, or it will just auto-reconnect. I can live with that.

Now for the problems with PS4 with only 2.4 ghz connection.  This was losing connection every 15 - 45 minutes, and the network would dissapear from the available network list, and if we tried to recreate the connection, it would not be able to obtain the IP Address from the router's DHCP. Even a reboot of the ps4 would not help. Had to reboot the router each time to reconnect the ps4 to the wifi network. The solution I tried is to give the ps4 a static IP address. Not the best solution mind you, but it did work much better. I set the ps4 up with a static IP, and port forwarded the needed ports to that IP (the router now has like 5-6 separate port forward entries for TCP, and UDP). Now, I can see ps4 drop the 2.4 ghz connection on the message that pops up thats says "connection to wifi has been lost", BUT when I test the connection, now it succeeds every time and it auto-reconnects, even if the status shows that the connection does not exist. 

Symptoms - Guest or Regular 2.4 ghz and/or 5 ghz wifi connections get knocked out, and the only thing that gets them back is a router reboot, and it only lasts for a little bit. It almost feels like a neighbor recently bought some device or equipment and it is knocking out your router over and over again, when before it was working great for a long time.

2.4 ghz problems Laptop/PC - this is such a known issue, it really should be a recall. If you have an old laptop or computer with a 2.4 ghz ONLY network adapter, check to see if windows recently update your wifi adapter driver to a newer version. If so, like mine did, go to the laptop mfg site and download the one they have listed there, yes it may be old, but you want to rollback the driver to the one recommended by the laptop mfg. Then set windows update to not automatically update device drivers.

2.4 ghz problems PS4 - connection gets knocked out, and can only get it back by constantly rebooting the router, nothing else works to get reconnected, even after updating to latest PS4 drivers/fw. Set up a static IP for this device, and port forward inside the router. It may lose the connection the wifi, but at least you have the potential to manually reconnect or it will auto-reconnect.

 

 

Model: R8500|Nighthawk X8 Tri-Band AC5300 WiFi Router
Message 6 of 9
CaledonKen
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Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - iPhones (iOS) and Android - Lost of Guest Network

If you have a good data plan I would connect something like your laptop through the mobile phone and see if the connection stays stable. If so I would start to suspect your router. I had an R6300. Didn't last. Think I got four years and the 2.4 went bad. Slow, disconnects, reconnects. 

 

Releced with this 8500 and the the whole network became stable again. 

 

I think all these modern routers have the power turned up so much they cook themselves. By 8500 runs hot, not expecting a long life from it either. 

Message 7 of 9
ecooney007
Aspirant

Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - iPhones (iOS) and Android - Lost of Guest Network

Great point. I did not test it it by thethering from the iPhone. On Saturday after I posted this message, things went to hell right about 4:30 pm. I must have rebooted the router about 20 times. It was awful, the connection would drop not only for 2.4, but 5.0 ghz too, and when I did reboot the router, the connection would last about 1 minute. I was ready to throw it out the window. Then I remembered something in the hundreds of blog posts I read about this issue - someone mentioned something about a 3rd party Firmware called DD-WRT. Went to the DD-WRT website, and there are MANY mentions that if you don’t follow the instructions just right you most likely WILL brick your router. But you know, at that point I didn’t even care, I was gonna start researching a purchase for new one anyway, I figured what the hell. I did the 30-30-30 reset. Logged into the admin page with default uid and pwd. Uploaded the r8500 DD-WRT .chk waited about 3 mins, and on its own my browser opened up the DD-WRT admin page for the router! The first page they take you to is to change the admin user if and password. Then it allows you to edit TONS of settings. I basically just edited enough to get my SSIDs and security and port forwarding exactly as they were before. It’s been up since Saturday, no drops, no reconnects at all. Not only have the 5 ghz connections have been stable since then, but my laptop and the PS4 have been connected to the 2.4 ghz SSID since Saturday without 1 drop or reconnect, the router has been stable going 36 hours now. Incredible. Now, as much as I want to shout from the rooftops about this, there is Risk in doing this, you could brick the device. There are ways to debrick it, with detailed instructions, but it’s a little complicated. The only way I would say to absolutely do this is if you are ready to trash it and you don’t know what else to. But I am so glad I did. If your r8500 ever gets to the point mine did it’s def something to consider. Super stable right now.
Message 8 of 9
atoner
Tutor

Re: R8500 - Firmware 1.0.2.130 - iPhones (iOS) and Android - Lost of Guest Network

+1 for the problem: I started noticing this issue a couple of weeks ago. It was definitely just on the R8500, not on my other two WNDR4500's in the same house with the same SSID's. The guest network woudl work only briefly after a router restart.

 

+1 for the solution to go back to firmware 1.0.2.128: So far, so good tonight.

 

How do we get NetGear's attention on this firware update issue? The inability to directly contact support for a new issue they created is apalling. I'm not going to pay to notify them of this problem. What if they had created a serious security issue with a firmware update - how are we supposed to contact them?

Message 9 of 9
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