RAX40 and iPhone 11

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

I encountered some issues with 5G WiFi with various devices, hangs, reset to factory default.

No issue since a couple of days and :

Yesterday my iPhone 11 (IOS 13.1) had troubles with RAX40 WiFi 5G :

• on the iPhone >>> unable to access to Internet with WiFi 5G channel but works with WiFi 2.4G channel
• on the RAX40 >>> [WLAN access rejected: incorrect security] from MAC address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx ...
• I rebooted the RAX40 and all worked fine after it.

Today same iPhone 11 (IOS 13.1) had same troubles with RAX40 WiFi 5G (same errors)

• I removed the "Enable AX" option on RAX40 & Apply
• and iPhone was able to connect w/o any issue

Need to know : this iPhone 11 is the only WiFi6 device .

... To be continued if any more news

RAX40 : Firmware Version V1.0.3.64_1.0.1

Sorry for my not perfect English as I'm French...

Thanks for any suggestions.

Or if it could help Netgear dev.

Ronald

[ronald_fr]

more about the issue : I also remove the AIRTIME FAIRNESS option to obtain better throughput on my laptop .

BR

Ronald

[Christian_R]

Hello Ronald, 

May you try changing the WiFi channel on the 5GHz band to see if there are any improvements. 

Thanks,

Christian 

[ronald_fr]

Thanks for reply,

but when I called Netgear support ( and paid for it 😞 )

1. They ask me to change channel and to put 128 ... it worked 2 days and it was worse !
2. An other call to support : support rep. connected  to my router and said "you are in AP mode, you must not change channel" and back to chan 44
3. An other call to support : an other support rep. connected  to my router and did not do anything more than the previous one and I said this is enough you don't have any idea or fix on thy brand new router (paid for nothing)

By now router is configured  back to factory default with :

• AP mode
• unset "enable AX"
• unset 20/40 coexistence
• unset AIRTIME FAIRNESS

And it's now better for all devices working 2.4 Ghz and all 5Ghz as iPhones.

I only have sometimes some :

[WLAN access rejected: incorrect security] from MAC address... BUT FOR owned devices (camera printer iPhone)

To be continued if any news

Best regards

Ronald

[Jasond776]

I'm having this same problem with RAX40 and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Any updates on this?  Does 802.11ax just not work? Thanks

[ronald_fr]

By now I have not tried to go back to 'enable AX' as I want to have a stable config (too many other issues).  iPhone 11 connects fine since AX removed.

I wonder if the RAX40 is not too sensitive to disturbances???  And last night I saw a DFS effect : 5Ghz chan changed 2 times  from 56 to 36 !

So I'll not use anymore 56 and I'll try other channels...

Once channel config will be OK, I'll try AX again; I don't want to change more than 1 param at time.

Best regards

Ron

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

Here are my very last tests:

I used config : AX disabled ; CHAN2.4 = 1 ; CHAN5 = 48 for 3 days w/o troubles.

This afternoon, I enabled AX and there were no immediate troubles; but after a couple of hours, I got 2 known messages :

[WLAN access rejected: incorrect security] from MAC address .....iPhone 11 mac....., Mon,Apr 13,2020 17:15:34
[WLAN access rejected: incorrect security] from MAC address  .....iPhone 11 mac....., Mon,Apr 13,2020 17:12:58

I opened the iPhone11

• WiFi 5GHz was unreachable (trying to connect to WiFi 5GHz and no internet access)
• WiFi 2.4GHz was running
• and all other devices (not WiFi6 ) were able to connect to WiFi 5GHz !!

All I did was "STOP - START" WiFi 5GHz on the router (Advanced Setup) and the iPhone was enable to connect to WiFi 5GHz again! (not any reboot).

WE NEED a fixed Netgear's Firmware for RAX40!

Best regards

Ronald

[Christian_R]

Hi Ronald, 

I'd like for support to follow up on your issue. May you send me a private message with your case number(s) and email address.

Thanks,

Christian 

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

Yesterday I said no issue yet ... and this morning bingo : the iPhone 11 was connected to 2.4GHz chan instead the 5GHz.

All other devices were able to be connected to 5GHz chan  and also the laptop with brand new AX200NGW card working with WiFi 6!!

So there is something between RAX40 and iPhone11... it works fine  and after some days, it fails to use the 5GHz chan.

(see attachments)

To fix the issue w/o reboting the router was :

• stop wifi on iPhone 11
• STOP-START 5GHZ on the router
• start again wifi on iPhone 11      >>>>> and 5GHz chan works.

Attached are screenshots of WiFi and infos on 5GHz chan from WiFi on iPhone

P.S. RAX40 Firmware Version V1.0.3.64_1.0.1

       iPhone 11 : IOS 13.4

Best regards

Ronald

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

Once again 18th Apr : 5GHz unusable for iPhone11 only.

Other try to recover :

1. connect the iPhone on an other 5GHz WiFi >> OK
2. STOP-START 5GHZ on the RAX40
3. try again 5GHz on the RAX40  >> OK

So I confirm again : there is something wrong between RAX40 and iPhone11 with 5GHz chan using WiFi6 .

P.S. RAX40 Firmware Version V1.0.3.64_1.0.1

       iPhone 11 : IOS 13.4

Best regards

Ronald

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

Once again 18th Apr : 5GHz unusable for iPhone11 only.

Other try to recover :

1. connect the iPhone on an other 5GHz WiFi >> OK
2. STOP-START 5GHZ on the RAX40
3. try again 5GHz on the RAX40  >> OK

So I confirm again : there is something wrong between RAX40 and iPhone11 with 5GHz chan using WiFi6 .

P.S. RAX40 Firmware Version V1.0.3.64_1.0.1

       iPhone 11 : IOS 13.4

Best regards

Ronald

[ronald_fr]

Hello

same issue this morning Apr 19th !!! (iPhone11 is not able to connect to 5GHz chan again)

Before any action on the router, I retried one thing: I shutdown the iPHone11 put it on again ...

And WiFi on 5GHz chan still doesn't work!

So it confirms again the issue is not on the iPhone11 but on the Netgear RAX40 router.

Netgear's dev  engineers, please do something.

Cheers

Ronald

[Topology]

Ronald_fr, have you reset the network settings on your iPhone (Settings | General | Reset | Reset Network Settings)? This procedure (see here) has the potential to fix network connectivity issues on an iPhone.

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

no, I haven't try this procedure as the iPhone is able to connect to the RAX40 router once I "stop-start" only the 5GHz channel on the RAX40 router.

This procedure seems to be applied only if iPhone is not able to connect at all, and this is not the case by now.

More: with AX disabled on the RAX40, I don't have any issue with iPhone.

Many thanks

Ronald

[Topology]

Ronald_fr, you may wish to reconsider performing a “Reset Network Settings” on your iPhone 11. While it may or may not assist with your specific problem, in general that process has successfully corrected a broad range of network issues with an iPhone, and therefore could be worthwhile to test.

Also, you may wish to test the use of another iPhone 11 (e.g., one from a friend) on your network, to see if the problem is consistent. It could be the case that your iPhone 11 is defective, and replicating the problem with a second iPhone 11 will address that possibility.

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

I had to convince my wife to play with her new phone ...

At the end, just by now,  I reset Network Settings of her iPhone11 .... and as I suspect, it did not change anything ! (unable to use 5GHz chan) Exactly the same issue.

I did it to help Netgear support as they have to join me soon ...

BUT I'm not payed by Netgear to debug their new products (it could be agreat  idea) ... 

As I've already payed once to obtain Netgear's support ... for NOTHING... I'd like to obtain a fix asap.

Best regards

Ron

[Topology]

Ronald_fr, I am curious: were you able to solve this iPhone 11 problem – and, if so, how?

Thank you.

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

Issue isn't fixed yet.

I've been contacted by Netgear's support; traces have been taken and a fix will be developped (if they found the issue).

Best regards,

Ron

[brucek9]

There is also a huge difference on the Speedtest between my iphone11 (103mb down and 103mb up), and my Macbook (86mb down and 24mb upload)?

Also dodgy?

[ronald_fr]

Hello,

take care with speedtest : if you use the one on the web, results could be strange. The app is better.

With RAX40 (80Mhz 5GHz Chan )  & iPhoneX (not WiFi6)  I obtain more than 400Mbps down...

Best regards

Ron

[nickolai_nighth]

ronald_fr - bonjour - 

I am having similar problems with the 5ghz band of my RAX40.  On mine it is impacting many of my devices, not just my iphone 11.  

For me the 5ghz band simply disappears once in a while.  My iphone falls back to the 2.4ghz band when this happens but there is a delay for the changeover.  This happens with all my wireless devices (3 laptops - 2 macbooks and one brand new lenovo, an iphone xs, various ipads, internet radio, apple tv).  

I can't believe that in 2020 i'm spending my time debugging wifi connection issues with a $200 router.  

Please let me know if you find any steps that are helpful.  I'm on the verge of just returning this back to the store.  

Any help or advice is appreciated!  - nn

[ronald_fr]

Hello Nickolai

the issue I have with iPhone 11 which was the 1st and only one WiFi6 device is no-access to 5GHz (when all other devices have access).

In the meantime I upgraded 2 PC to have also WiFi6; and they are not impacted by this bug. (STOP-START of 5GHZ chan is a work-around but not a solution at all).

But sometimes the admin-web or all the RAX40 is frozen, or it reboots with  factory defaults... A nightmare !

By now advise on configuration is perhaps to choose the good channel for each SSID (not too used/perturbed by others)

P.S. each time I tried to use DFS channels, it was worse. So for 5GHz : only  36->48 (depending on the region)

I don't know if this router is too cheap or too young ot both, but I think I spend tooooooo many time to debug it!

Best regards

Ron

[nickolai_nighth]

Ron thank you for your suggestions, I will try them.  I'm having similar problems with my iphone 11 - it shows the wifi network but it says "No Internet Access" but meanwhile all my other devices do have access.

This is in addition to the wireless network completely dropping out once in a while for all my devices.  (Wired network works fine.)  My apartment isn't that big and I ran a signal strength tool and the signal is very strong so it doesn't have anything to do with distance or interference. 

Good luck!  I will post anything that I find out here that is helpful as well but I am going to try to return this thing -- it should just work out of the box and it just doesn't. 

[ronald_fr]

Hello Nicolai,

confined ... so I have extra time ....

And I tried to go again from ZERO : back to factory defaults (with power off...) and configuring again all params by hand w/o any backup (in case I had a corrupted backup.... as I had unrecoverable ECC !!!)

2 days w/o any issue and again 2 hours ago today, the iPhone11 was unable to connect again on 5GHz chan !!!!).

So I confirm, there is a fuc@@@@ bug inside the RAX40's firmware and not elsewhere!

as areset network settings / reboot of iPhone11 doesn't change anything. But a reboot or STOP/START of 5GHZ chan helps!!!

BR

Ron

[brucek9]

It absolutley amazes me that Netgear don't give a **bleep** about their issues and exect their customers to sort their problems????

Have lost all trust in them and reccomend that all prosective customers stay away from netgear, there are suppliers out there that care for customers and can deliver on what they advertise.

[nickolai_nighth]

Hi guys - yea I confirm and agree.  I turned off the AX features and that worked well for a few hours, but at 10pm we were watching the Watchmen on HBO on my Apple TV when the wireless completely went down, requiring me to go and power cycle the router.  (By completely down, all devices lost wifi at the same time -- this was a new one).  

Making me get out of bed in the middle of the movie was the last straw.  I am giving up on this.  I'm not sure if there are just a lot of bad units out there or if most people have simpler network requirements than I do (but I doubt it) but I'm done.  

I flashed Tomato onto my old ASUS RT-N66U which had always worked beautifully until it was found to be incompatible with my work phone.  Now with Tomato my old ASUS RT-N66U is again working beautifully. 

I'm taking this Netgear Nighthawk RAX40 back to the store as defective.   

Really appreciate all the tips and advice- was really hoping there was a configuration setting in there that I could just flip and all would be well.  Best of luck all!  I'm out.