RAX120 Router Random Disconnects

evzx The issues that I was facing was that devices would appear to be connected (showing WiFi as connected) but no internet access. Was that the issue you were facing? I would highly recommend looking at the logs for patterns. Look for things like when the device experiencing the issue was first assigned an IP and how often it renewed.

Downgrading the firmware didn't do anything for me (went all the way down to .114).

I was trying to see how much of uptime I would get before the issue would arise but I checked my logs this morning to learn that the router somehow rebooted itself... I hope that was just a one time thing and not a new issue. Hopefully it will keep running with no issues (and especially without another reboot)

evzx Forget everything I said. All the issues I had came back. I decided to f*** it and just use my old Fios router as the DHCP server. Will see if that fixes the issues. I think I accepted that Netgear's DHCP server is **bleep**. The last time I used the Netgear router for DHCP was with one of their Wireless N routers back in 2009... This really sucks that you spend so much money for a router and it can't handle such simple things.

Unfortunately I had to exchange the router. After spending a whole month trying to figure this out, a replacment unit, and Netgear support failing to even respond to me, I switched to the Linksys Velop MX5. It worked perfectly with all my devices right out of the box. Granted it doesn't have some of the advance features of the RAX120 but it works and I got tired of restarting devices everyday.

Shame on you netgear I tried to keep this router and your support did nothing but close my tickets with no warning or hang up on me.

Hi dj2819 dj2819,

Thank you for the info... like I say I currently have a RAX40 and the wireless disconnections are happening almost every 15 mins now... comes back within 10 seconds usually but it is enough to interupt working from home during the week and any xbox gaming or PC streaming/browsing etc.

I have been a customer of Netgear products for well over 10 years now and this is the first fault I have ever come across to date. This is a MAJOR FLAW of the NightHawk line up and if the RAX120 is no different then I will be sending straight back to Amazon for a refund and I will look for another non Netgear router.

Nevertheless when the router comes on Tuesday I will play around with the settings and see what happens.

Netgear, I hope you are listening to all of your loyal customers who paid top dollar for your premium routers. This is beyond a joke and it would appear it is not just a select few of your customers but is more the masses who have purchased your £££$$$ routers. Surely getting some sort of stable firmware for your premium routers should be top priorty right now. Just from a simple Google search last night you can see just how many people are having problems with this frequent disconnection issue!! Would be nice to have some sort of an update to let us know you are aware of this major issue and what you are doing to recify it, because if not sooner rather than later you will lose your most loyal customers and it is the knock on effect that this will have.

By the way rax120_rax80 did you manage to get your RAX120 working properly with no disconnections in the end?

Many thanks

Jay

JayTG123 Same I been with Netgear since 2006 as my first wireless router and always went with Netgear over the generations of products and recommended them to family. The R8000 was their last flawless router. The R8500 and RAX120 after that was horrible and I wasted so much time debugging on my own and trying to reach out to support to get some real help. A waste of a month. Sucks because I wanted the RAX120's potential performance.

They aren't listening and I doubt Linksys is any better. Tuesday I have an Ubiquiti Alien router coming. I heard good things about Ubiquiti and their routers. Hopefully that will be the last router change I have for years to come.

I have had the RAX120 for some time now and it has been good overall but did experience disconnects too.  What ended up helping my situation was using a MOCA (multimedia over coaxial) set up. The MOCA adapter connects to the coax port on the wall where the cable line would normally be then the second coax port on the adapter screws into the modem.  There is an ethernet port on the opposite end of the coaxial ports on the adapter.  Just plug an ethernet chord into the adapter and the other end into the WAN of the RAX120 and now I get wired speeds in any other room that has a wall coax and a MOCA adapter and the WIFI never cuts out or drops. I even connected my ORBI AX 6000 WAN port to the RAX120 LAN port and speeds are very fast and no dropouts.  MOCA seems to stabilize my network for whatever reason.  It costs for a pair of adapters about $100 to $150 and an amplified MOCA splitter.  Totally worth the cost knowing I don't have to go and reboot my router randomly because of dropouts.   

FWIW, I've been rock solid since I moved back to firmware V1.0.1.114.  I thought I read on this thread that the newer firmware (after 118, I think 120) was solid again as well.  I'm planning to update to the latest, V1.0.1.122, today.  If it ends up giving me trouble I'll try to remember to come back and reply/update to this with my experience.

sditt Thanks for the info! Please let me know how you get on as I have the RAX120 coming Tuesday. Ideally if all goes to plan I will set up as norm with the latest firmware update and I just HOPE I dont encounter any issues.

Wouldnt it be nice for a premium product to just work straight out of the box and do what it is intended to do.

Jay

dj2819 I logged onto Amazon this morning to track my order and I thought seeing as I still have the option to cancel I will have a look at some of the Amazon reviews of the RAX120 and as expected... lots of disconnection issues and lack of support from Netgear. It was with reading these recent reviews I have cancelled my order and have therfore saved myself £360!!!!

I am very disappointed as I am a loyal Netgear customer and love their products but I cant risk top dollar only to get constant wireless disconnections and lack of support.

Being a hardcore Netgear customer I am unsure of what router to go for now?

Jay

The trouble with Amazon is you need to take the reviews with a pinch of salt. I've 2 RAX120's and they have been hassle free at both properties. 
ive also had good experience with customer services and working with LV2 all who have been great. Ok with covid it's all a bit up and down at the moment and that's across most customer services.

if you look at Amazon say I wonder how many bothered or realised about resetting the router after an update or checking the internet setting for always on. It's the same with the XR500 I owned, and I hate to say this but sometimes it's a miracle they manage to get online. Now I know not everyone is clued on on routers and that's fine but often or not the end users has some impact on the end results. 
If I had issues I would be the first to say what's going on but hand on heart I've had a good experience with the 120 and others have too. There maybe some with issues but I would have tried the 120 if I was you so you can see for yourself what it's like.

Newfiedrool "and I hate to say this but sometimes it's a miracle they manage to get online." lmao thats made me smile... your spot on with that sentence! Funnily enough, I have just had an automatic reply from Amazon to say my order cannot be cancelled as it has already been shipped. Due to recieve it tomorrow. Just out of interest Newfiedrool if you havent had any problems, what firmware version are you on and have you changed/tweaked any settings? Obviously with me not being able to cancel now, I would like a simple set up with no disconnections! 

Fingers Crossed. I will be sure to update this post with the outcome in the days/weeks to come.

Jay

I'm on 122 and I've just set the router up as simple as possible. No QoS, just as simple as can be. Turned off usb and ready share. 
I've all the AX features ticked not that it's many as the menu is quite straight forward. I don't use the app and I don't use Armor.

im on PPPoE and I had to check my internet settings as it defaults to dialup and I need to change that to always on. If let on dialup it goes to sleep and the internet drops so worth checking.

Ive turned off auto updates too so I can check myself as I always reset after an update. When yours arrives let it update and give it a good 6 to 7 mins to complete then do a reset using the rear pin hole method. The router takes a bit of time to fully boot up so it's best whenever resetting to give it time before setting up.

touch wood yours will be fine and up and running quickly. It's got great WiFi coverage too and if you have any problems just post away. 

I reallly really wish I had the luck you had Newfiedrool because I tried everything I could to keep the RAX120. Don't get me wrong its amazing when it works. However it does seem like with many users there is some weird firmware issue. I guess it has to do with out setups, location, interference, types of devices or something. Either way with full-time remote due to COVID its pretty annoying when you are working and also when you have to explain to your wife why you are spending hours trying to fix her Wi-Fi.

JayTG123 Since you bought on Amazon you at least have the safety net of returns so by all means try it out and hopefully it works with your devices and setup.

If not there are only few options that match up with the RAX120 I believe. Those are the ASUS GT11000 and Archer AX6000 (based on reviews I read of range and performance). However those are ugly as F.

I had really good luck with the Linksys Velop MX5/MX10. Worked straight out of the box. However not happy with the performance so I have the AmpliFi Alien coming Tuesday. It has better performance than the MX5. Will let you know how that one goes if you need another option. Also I use dongknows.com for his reviews/testing.

dj2819 Being delivered tomorrow so we shall see!!

I am praying for no problems. Wish me luck!

My RAX40 was picked up this morning by a local courier to go back to the supplier.

Jay

Gonna try your suggestion and will report back howver i used googles time.google.com for npt server and googles primary and secondary dns

Placesandspaces wrote:
I used to have random disconnects quite often but I changed 2 settings that seemed to help out a lot. Not sure which one did the trick but I changed the NTP to a custom server us.pool.ntp.org and I started using SmartDNS service as a backup DNS to my ISP’s dns (so ISP is the first dns listed in my router then SmartDNS service has the second and third listing) and for whatever reason my disconnects completely stopped on my RAX120. Like I said not sure why those did the trick but been going strong for a few months now.

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JayTG123 Any updates with the RAX120? Hopefully it worked for you.

My Amplifi Alien arrived yesterday and all setup now. It seems to work great and setup was easy. No disconnects and range is on par with the Velop MX5. I feel like the range is not as good in certain parts of the house (but almost) as the RAX120 was but it was so long ago so could be wrong.

If you need an alternative I could recommend either one of those products.

So far so good...given the frequency at which I was having the disconnect issues on the 118 level, I think I would have easily hit it multiple times by now if it was still present.  I'd say the 122 driver brings us back to stable.

There are plenty of other issues I'd love to see them address, like the exorbinent amount of white space in the UI and the requirement to use either static IP with your WAN or one of their support dynamic IP services in order to enable the VPN server (I have my own domain and url that is kept up to date by my NAS, why assume I *have* to do it through the router?).  But, at least it's performing well at it's primary function again.

Goodluck!

Hi all & dj2819 

Thanks for asking how I got on! Well as you know my RAX40 was picked up on Monday and I am awaiting a full refund. My RAX120 was supposed to be delivered yesterday but actually turned up around 2pm today. After re-wiring a new flat ethernet cable up the stairs (tucked under the carpet) I thought I will now open my Amaon delivery and set things up. Honestly, its only been on for about 2hrs now but everything went through on the app successfully, the firmware was updated to v122 and so far so good!!! excellent wireless range all around the house, both 2.4 & 5ghz. No disconnections as of yet but it is still very early days. I will obviously keep you updated on this post should anything happen or occur.

The router itself looks fantastic and it actally suprised me how much it weighs! I am yet to connect all my wireless devices but I will get the rest done this evening.

Jay.

In addition to the above, just run a speed test and I am getting 400mbs download and 40 upload over wireless!

Fingers crossed I dount encounter any issues over the coming days/weeks. Obviously I will keep you posted.

Jay