RAX120 drop internet, comes back after reboot

[danielshaw007]

Hi all. I have a RAX120 v1 router, its been fine for over 2 years. Lately, my internet seems to die. Wifi connected, without internet access. I reboot the ONT and same issue persists, then I reboot the router and internet access is restored.

I believe this is a known issue and there is some beta firmware that fixes this? If so how do I have a go at this firmware?

Thanks

[FURRYe38]

Beta FW was for v2 120's. 

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?
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6 is recommended. 

What devices do you all have connected? 

What are you doing thru the router when this happens? 

Does the router feel extra warm or hot when this happens? 

What channels are you using? Auto? 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?

Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Smart Parental Controls or Circle, Traffic Meter.

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update? A complete pull of the power adapters for a period of time after the factory reset then walk thru the setup wizard and setup from scratch with a wired PC and web browser. Recommend setting the default DHCP IP address pool range to the following after applying and a factory reset: 192.168.#.100 to 192.168.#.200.
https://kb.netgear.com/24089/How-do-I-specify-the-pool-of-IP-addresses-assigned-by-my-Nighthawk-rout...

[TrumpKing]

I'm also RAX120v1 user, I can confirm both RAX120v1 and v2 have reboot issue on 1.2.8.40 firmware, but different symptoms. 

Are you using multi-giga (5G/2.5G) port of RAX120 as LAN or WAN? Avoiding using multigiga port may stop it rebooting. 

If you need to use the multi-giga port, the beta firmware can reduce the reboot times to once every few weeks. It can recover itself automatically after reboot, you don't need to plug and unplug power cable.

I wrote some ways to resolve the issue here. https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-with-WiFi-6-AX-and/RAX-120-V1-Firmware-Version-1-28-40-co...

AX6000 WiFi Router (RAX120) 

[danielshaw007]

I'm using the regular WAN not multi gig.

It went down again about 30 mins ago, rebooted my TP Link MC220L media converter and internet was still down, rebooted the RAX120 and internet came back up.

I never had this issue with my previous 100mbit connection, now I'm on 900/900mbit it seems to be taxing the router a lot more?

Frustrating, I think i will replace the router with the newer RAXE500 as I have a few devices now that can use the 6ghz band.

[danielshaw007]

What Firmware version is currently loaded? 1.2.8.40
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too? I ditched my ISP Adtran router / ONT combi unit for a TP Link MC220L media converter

Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6 is recommended.  - Yes cat6

What devices do you all have connected?  TVs, phones, tablets, smart bulbs , doorbell 19 devices total

What are you doing thru the router when this happens?  sometimes literally surfing the net

Does the router feel extra warm or hot when this happens?  no warmer than usual, fan not on

What channels are you using? Auto? 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? ive scanned and changed channels. also the LAN connected clients lose internet access when it stops working.

Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Smart Parental Controls or Circle, Traffic Meter. - done no change in issue

Funny thing is I've had this router about 3 years, previously it was attached to a 4g modem as there was no fibre where I l live, now its connected to a 900/900 service. I dont think I ever rebooted the router intentionally before. All seems to have started when I got the new faster service, almost like its taxing the router too much.

Note, i have not done a factory reset since the last FW update. I will try this and report back.

[FURRYe38]

Give this a try as well:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-with-WiFi-6-AX-and/RAX-120-V1-Firmware-Version-1-28-40-co...

[danielshaw007]

Pin push factory reset seems to have improved things. No need to have power cycled the router in the last 7 days and I have found some extra speed too which is a bonus!

Will see how it goes due course. Thanks for the tips

[FURRYe38]

So you just FR and setup from scratch. No FW update? 

[danielshaw007]

Pretty much. Router was on latest public fw, I think I once updated it via the app and never factory reset it since then. Perhaps that is all it needed.

[FURRYe38]

Kewl. Good to hear. 

Please mark your thread as solved so others will know. Be sure to save off a back up configuration to file for safe keeping. Saves time if a reset is needed.
https://kb.netgear.com/000062080/How-do-I-back-up-the-configuration-settings-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-System
Enjoy. 📡

[danielshaw007]

Hi again. Been looking at the log on the router today as noticed occasional connected with no Internet messages on my phone.
Every 10 to 30 or so mins there is a line saying "Internet Connected, then my IP and date and time"

Does this indicate the wan keeps dropping and reconnecting ?

Thanks

[microchip8]

No. That's a message from a self-test the router does. It probes the connection every X minutes or hours and logs a message.

[FURRYe38]

What is the first 3 characters of the routers serial number? 

---

@danielshaw007 wrote:
Hi again. Been looking at the log on the router today as noticed occasional connected with no Internet messages on my phone.
Every 10 to 30 or so mins there is a line saying "Internet Connected, then my IP and date and time"

Does this indicate the wan keeps dropping and reconnecting ?

Thanks

---

[danielshaw007]

67U

[FURRYe38]

You might give this FW a try:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-with-WiFi-6-AX-and/RAX-120-V1-Firmware-Version-1-28-40-co...

[danielshaw007]

Thanks, I'm guessing another factory reset after flashing ?

Also is there a full changelog for this fw ?

Thanks

[michaelkenward]

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@danielshaw007 wrote:

Thanks, I'm guessing another factory reset after flashing ?

---

That's usually necessary only if you have post update issues.

---

Also is there a full changelog for this fw ?

---

Netgear does not provide detailed logs. Most updates bill themselves as "security updates".

For obvious reasons these don't get listed. You don't want people to know about those things because they open the doors to attacking people who have old firmware.

[danielshaw007]

Makes sense.
Noticed the router dropped all wireless clients before, as the log had loads of dhcp requests from my devices.

Flashed the beta fw now and done a cold start so I'll see how things go.

Thanks

[FURRYe38]

Keep us posted on how it goes. Normally I would recommend a full on reset and setup from scratch. See how it goes. Also, Recommend setting the default DHCP IP address pool range to the following after applying and a factory reset: 192.168.#.100 to 192.168.#.200.
https://kb.netgear.com/24089/How-do-I-specify-the-pool-of-IP-addresses-assigned-by-my-Nighthawk-rout...

[danielshaw007]

Will do.
What's the significance of changing the dhcp range if you don't mind me asking ?

Thanks

[FURRYe38]

Less management and processing that the router has to do. specially if you really don't have 100+ devices. 🙄

Also sets up flexibility for using static IP addressed devices on either side of this pool if needed. I've been using this kind of configuration for many years. 

[danielshaw007]

Still having issues.
Is the RAXE500 router stable ? Might upgrade.

Thanks

[FURRYe38]

What issues are you having? 

Yes. 

What region are you located? 

[danielshaw007]

Random lack of connectivity.
Now when this happens I can't even connext to router with netgear app from an external network. I reboot the router and it works again.

UK

[FURRYe38]

And that's with the beta RAXv1 RC FW applied and factory reset? 

What channels are you using currently? 

What are the Basic and Advanced Wireless settings currently configured for?