Netgear Rax200 dropping wifi

[shadagascavich]

Hi! I'm experiencing some tricky issues with my RAX200 router's WiFi and I could really do with some advice from better informed members of the community! 

To clarify, I have a 1GB internet connection and not many active devices. I don't believe my ISP is to blame and my wired connections show everything working perfectly. I didn't have these issues with my much cheaper router before this, and I'm very close to the router with minimal obstacles. I expect my WiFi to be a lot poorer than my wired connection, but it's the inconsistency that's the problem. 

I work from home, and use Zoom on MacOS a lot. On these calls, my audio drops constantly. I'll also experience random drops with streaming services. When this happens, I do a speed test to see if the fault is my ISP, but I typically see (at the very least) ~120 MBPS down, and ~40MBPS up, with a low ping of ~10ms. I'm only using 2.4Ghz for this device. It looks like my connection is great when I do a test, but it really isn't. I never have trouble hearing people on Zoom, but consistently they'll have trouble hearing me. When I'm using my MacBook anywhere else, this isn't a problem. This is using the previous router as a gateway to connect to the internet, but so far, the wireless connection on the old cheap router is seemingly much more stable. 

Some info about my setup:

• AX is enabled
• OFDMA in 2.4Ghz is enabled
• 20/40 MHz Coexistence is enabled
• Both 5Ghz bands are enabled, but barely used (It's limited to a couple of devices that can properly take advantage of it) 
• Implicit BEAMFORMING is enabled
• MU-MIMO is enabled
• It's using the current most up to date firmware version 
• The Guest network is disabled.

The majority of this goes way over my head, but I'm eager to learn. If anyone could help me get a better idea on how to troubleshoot this, I'd really appreciate it. It's as if some of my data going out or is being lost. It's making it impossible to get any work done. 

[FURRYe38]

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 OSX version are you using? 

What channels are you using? Auto? Try Auto and 48 on 5Ghz. Or try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 to 48 channel on 5Ghz. 
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

Mac should be taking advantage of 5Ghz always. 

Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only.

[shadagascavich]

Thanks for your suggestions!

• The current firmware version is V1.0.10.140_1.0.79. I can confirm that before updating to this, I still had this problem. 
• I'm using is the Virgin Media Hub 4 router in modem-mode. (here's a website that contains its specs)
• OSX version is version 11.6.5 macOS Big Sur, but I'm going to update to Monterey today, as it just got approved by the company I work for. 
• For channels I have been using auto. I'll try both of your suggestions! 
• I have a few neighbours nearby, but not super close. I live in a detached house, but I could probably pick up a couple of neighbours WiFi signals. I've lived in apartments before where this hasn't been an issue with many more neighbouring wifi signals, so my assumption is that it's okay! I also didn't have this problem in the same home with my old WiFi-5 router. 
• I was previously using 5Ghz for my Mac but getting the same problem. I only moved to 2.4Ghz in an effort to rule things out, but it hasn't helped, unfortunately! 

Sorry on the delay in getting back to you. I don't know of a good way to test the stability of my line quickly. It's most noticeable when I'm on Zoom, which isn't always. If you have any suggestions on how to quickly test something like this, I'd really appreciate it! 

It's worth clarifying that some of the issues with streaming services that I've had are present on other devices as well. I just notice it on my MacBook the most because it's where I spend most of my time. 

[shadagascavich]

A quick update on this. With some Googling, I've learned how to run a ping test. While pinging 8.8.8.8, I consistently had Request timed out coming every few pings while using the above suggestions for my config, so I think the issue may still be present, unfortunately. 

[FURRYe38]

Is this ping over a wired or wireless connection?