Re: RAX120 problems on 2.5GHz

siliconglen · ‎2021-05-16

Most of my devices use 5Ghz however a couple of legacy devices use 2.5Ghz. The 2.5Ghz don't have the hardware to connect at 5Ghz

Router was upgraded through the app to V1.2.1.22 firmware recently and have noticed since then the 2.5Ghz devices are failing to connect. Issue might be related to the firmware upgrade, impossible to be 100% sure on this as I rarely use 2.5Ghz but for a few devices it's a must have and they need an update.

The connection issue is universal across all of the devices (including new devices which would prefer to be on 5Ghz)

The error reported is "incorrect password" which plainly isn't the case as it wasn't changed. Nonetheless I rebooted the router, changed the password to something else, let the router reboot, changed the password back again, let it reboot again, forgot the network on all the devices then tried to reconnect - ie I forced the router to accept a password update then put it back to what it was.

Still getting either "unable to connect" or "incorrect password" errors.

Fed up with this.

Due to the poor support after 90 days for what appears to be a Netgear hardware or firmware issue, will be sending router back unless anyone has any other suggestions?

Using WPA-2 Personal [AES] WPA3 Personal

Some actual diagnostics would be really useful rather than guess and hope.

For the moment I'm getting by using a mobile hotspot on 2.5Ghz which allows the devices to connect

siliconglen · ‎2021-06-06

This is no longer working. Have the latest firmware, set the 2.5Ghz band to no password and still couldn't get a connection.

Then set the password and the invalid password errors reappeared. I must have a reliable 2.5Ghz as I have devices which only use this band. Also, I don't appreciate my time being wasted and in the unlikely event I ever work in an office again, I'm not having my family hindered by unreliable internet while I'm out the house.

The netgear support is poor and offers nothing except a robot reponse and "call this number" after 90 days, offering no free options for anyone with a speech issues or who doesn't want to take up time during the valuable working day when I am facing customers.

Therefore and on the basis of multiple independent reviews I'm going for the ASUS RT-AX86U

%age of 1,2,3 star reviews on Amazon for this product Vs the RAX120: 8% Vs 23%

1 star reviews 3% Vs 12%

Rated Excellent by PC Mag: https://uk.pcmag.com/wireless-routers/129217/asus-rt-ax86u-ax5700-router

Rated best for the money by CNET: https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/asus-rt-ax86u-wi-fi-6-router-review/

Favourite Standalone Router by Tom's guide: https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/reviews/asus-rt-ax86u

Impressive by Techradar https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/asus-rt-ax86u

Highly rated by Dong https://dongknows.com/asus-rt-ax86u-ax5700-gaming-router-review/

I need a relatively up to date router that is secure and reliable. Netgear isn't reliable.

View solution in original post

siliconglen · ‎2021-05-16

Additional info:

Have checked for channel conflicts - none

Have checked signal strength : -45dBm

Broadcasting on channel 13.

changed password to one longer than the original incase there was an issue with overwriting the Nvram. Still "invalid password"

Is there any decent windows or android diagnostic tools which can show me what's going on at the packet level and give me a detailed log complete with the return status code?

siliconglen · ‎2021-05-16

I turned off the password, restarted the router and forgot the network. The error is now "Couldn't authenticate connection".

Razor512 · ‎2021-05-16

Keep in mind that some devices to not support mixed WPA2 and WPA3 modes, where if they have compatiblilty issues, they will endlessly try to connect or simply find whatever password you enter as wrong.

Chichizola · ‎2021-05-16

In other word they don't work as adverticed. @DITCHNETGEAR

thehypnootoad · ‎2021-05-16

With my 2.4 ghz devices I personally reserve the ip address as they just struggle to connect ... but since this update my google hubs keep dropping connection and my s20plus 5g keeps giving me authentication error messages till I make a static ip on the phone.

siliconglen · ‎2021-05-18

Printer only connects on 2.5Ghz and is giving me an error "MAC address may be filtered" error code E-6. I don't have MAC filtering on.

james1795 · ‎2021-05-19

Make sure to disable 20/40 coexistence. Also under wireless just do WPA2 and see if that works for you. I had to do this to mine so my wireless printer would connect on the 2.4 band.

mariosuper47 · ‎2021-06-02

Firmware update V1.2.1.22 caused this yesterday on my router. I didn't realize that the update had occured until nothing else I tried worked. Everything had been working fine until yesterday. But then 2.4 Ghz wifi was dead even though the lights on the router were flashing as if the band was active. All my home smart connections were disconnected and I couldn't switch them to 5 GHz

Finally I checked firmware and found the firmware version above had automatically updated. I then unchecked the box for automatic update of firmware and rolled back to the next oldest version of firmware.

Viola! Everything works again. I have had this sort of thing happen previously with other Netgear routers but, up until now, the RAX120 had been rock solid.

siliconglen · ‎2021-06-06