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Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973

Nearly none of my older WiFi devices (IoT, toys, etc) work with this router

Crash83K
Guide

Nearly none of my older WiFi devices (IoT, toys, etc) work with this router

I concur with others in this thread. The RAX200 is a terrible POS of a router. And both Netgear's support and firmware upgrades have been absolutely trash.

I too am having the same 2.4GHz band issues. Nearly none of my older WiFi devices (IoT, toys, etc) work with this router. Thankfully I still have plenty of older routers I could convert into accesspoints, which I did with one, to make my old devices work.

On top of that, the current RAX200 firmware is a total crap shoot if you use the built in VPN service. Either you can have VPN or you can't have working DNS.

Netgear owes us some refunds for this terrible POS router.

Message 1 of 6
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Nearly none of my older WiFi devices (IoT, toys, etc) work with this router

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?

What devices do you have and how many devices do you have? 

 

What channels are you using?

Is Smart Connect enabled? 

Is AX modes enabled? 

 

How do you have the wifi settings and advanced wifi settings configured? 

 

Has any version of FW worked for you? 

Message 2 of 6
Crash83K
Guide

Re: Nearly none of my older WiFi devices (IoT, toys, etc) work with this router

New firmware didn't fix anything that I noticed. It only made things worse.

 

I'm currently now on 105. 106 broke way too much.

 

It definitely has nothing to do with modem or ISP. This is something that has occurred with both my old ISP (xfinity + X7) and my new ISP (Ziply + Fiber). Obviously two different ISPs with two totally different modems.

 

I know the difference between intranet and internet issues. This router definitely is a problem for intranet.

 

I tried manually setting channels and keeping them low for older models, but that didn’t help. It’s not that the devices couldn’t see or connect to them, but that they couldn’t authenticate no matter what. Interestingly, my car couldn’t authenticate to the 2.4GHz band either, but would on the 5GHz band.

 

I’ve disabled the AX mode for 2.4GHz.

 

In general, I’m INCREDIBLY disappointed with this router. I don’t think I’ll be purchasing any more Netgear products (which have been my go-to for many years now), unless Netgear actually plans to fix this stuff. I’ll probably recommend the company I work for stay away from Netgear products as well. I’m the staff engineer so my word carries weight. Netgear’s awful firmware support, especially on such an expensive home router, is very telling.

 

Maybe if Netgear would at least ADMIT this router is rubbish and do something to make this right for the numerous customers complaining about it on this forum, I might have some faith that they can turn their act around. But at this point, Netgear is clearly just playing a numbers game.

Message 3 of 6
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Nearly none of my older WiFi devices (IoT, toys, etc) work with this router

Well the forums and some of us are here to help and help users troubleshoot what we can. All information and questions are relevant. Sorry, we can't do much more then that. Otherwise users will need to reach out to NG support and ask for there help and information. 

https://my.netgear.com/support/contact.aspx


Good Luck

Message 4 of 6
Crash83K
Guide

Re: Nearly none of my older WiFi devices (IoT, toys, etc) work with this router

What good is reaching out to people who don't do real technical support?

 

Message 5 of 6
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Nearly none of my older WiFi devices (IoT, toys, etc) work with this router

Message 6 of 6
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