RAX120 Router Random Disconnects

I am having the EXACT same issue with my new RAX120.

I went through all of the same troubleshooting as you, but below are my findings in a nutshell.

The issue is with the RAX120 providing name resolution....period.  I thought it could be bad actors on the network as well, but have rulled that out as you did by only allowing 1 device at a time. (I generally have 50+ devices of all sorts like yourself).

I have Spectrum cable hooked up to a netgear nighthawk cable modem CM1200 (working fine with a ASUS RT-AC3200 running asus-merlin for 8+ months).

My RAX120 receives my dynamic IP from spectrum, but I always specify my DNS after running DNSBench.  When my "internet" went down on my laptop, I noticed that web pages wouldn't load, my exchange server connection failed, etc, but services which use IP addresses were still connected (PuTTY, pidgen, etc).  So I pinged my old DNS server 4.2.2.2...no issues.  Pinged google.com...unable to resolve.

I logged into the RAX120, and changed my DNS servers (I was using a new set based on my DNSBench run so wasn't confident in them).  Applied them and was off and running again....for 20 minutes.

Same thing happened...changed the DNS to new ones....applied....20 min later, no name resolution.

As you noted, if you manually add the SAME DNS servers to your IPv4 adapter in your laptop/pc/etc, everything works fine.

I did this for a while and tried other things to get the RAX120 to work with no avail, and then called support (I have never done this in my life (I'm 41) given my line of work, but figured WTH).  Needless to say we tried nothing I hadn't already tried, but he did have me change my DNS servers to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1.

I generally do like these servers for the non-logging aspect, but since they aren't the fastest I don't use them.  Well low and behold, I went 16 hours straight with no issues. 

I went back into the RAX120 and changed my DNS from 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 to some of my other ones, and AGAIN within 20 min, I was "down".   Changed them back to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1, and here I am typing this 3 hours after the fact.

I don't know why these seem to be working and others do not.  I wish I could just have the RAX120 pass the DNS servers to my devices who request it and not do the resolution itself. 

Its hard to come from managed devices and devices that run Merlin to something as "consumer grade" as this.  It may be going back to Amazon if Netgear can't fix this asap...

Let me know what else you find, and I'll do the same.

Thanks,

Hanz

Dallas TX