If you use the nighthawk app it will find the firmware or try the firmware update feature from the router admin webpage.
The download webpage still doesn't show the latest version or the release notes. A good example of Netgear software capabilities....
There are no changes or fixes in this firmware release to address the Wi-Fi connectivity issues & for me it introduced a new bug where I couldn't maintain a hardwired connection with my Xbox. RAX80 back in the box....
I've seen this too with exactly the same problem... The device types in the web Gui are quite good & have predefined types like Xbox. The device types from the nighthawk app are completely different & any edits here screw up what was already defined in the web gui.
This new firmware release is still garbage. Still disconnects both wired and wireless devices within 24 hours of a reboot. Works great when freshly rebooted, speed great, but sure to fail within 24 hrs. My R8500 can go months without reboot. This router is not capable or reliable enough to run an HA home. Netgear screwed everyone with this line of product. I changed the time sever to NIST.gov, and it seemed to be more stable, but I noticed every time this thing disconnects, it somehow shows a time/date way ahead of actual time (days ahead). This has to be somehow related. Anyway, $400 back in the box it goes. Thought they would've figured this thing out by now. Netgear played Jessie James on us!
Exactly the same behaviour as me. Ethernet & Wi-Fi connecting drops within an hour of start-up for me. This is not acceptable in any modern home network. I'd have never had to reboot or login to my unbranded ISP router after setup, the same for the Netgear EX8000 extender I'm now using instead.
I've sent 6 debug logs immediately after different kind of events & never had one reply from Netgear support, I don't even think they've opened them as several of the original logs I sent were empty & they didn't even mention it.
I don't think they have any intention of fixing these issues & these routers will never work properly. 3 months is too long without even any acknowledgement that these issues exist.
I noticed within 1 second that the log shows it jumps to incorrect time (future time), it the. Disconnects all Devices from the internet. The internet light still shows its connected, but none of the wired or wireless devices are connected. When you reboot, the time corrects itself and it works properly again.
I noticed within 1 second that the log shows it jumps to incorrect time (future time), it then disconnects all Devices from the internet. The internet light still shows its connected, but none of the wired or wireless devices are connected. When you reboot, the time corrects itself and it works properly again.
I first noticed what your saying about the time sync, a while back. Seen some were mentioning it in previous posts. So I tried changing the default time server to something else. I thought I had found it, as it worked real good for a day. Next day it was down again. This is when I looked at the logs to find the time had jumped to a future date/time. So I have to believe this is somehow related to the disconnect issues.
You might be onto something. In some old posts relating to similar time sync problems on older Netgear routers there were several people mentioning than the router time sync happens each time the internet connection is made or every 24hrs...
Might explain why your problem occurs every 24hrs & my problems seem to be much more frequent?
I also noticed in my logs that at the beginning of the log is always a date set to 1970 (unix zero time) & then only a couple of days of real data. I mentioned this to the Netgear support guys as I was thinking the router was resetting itself as I hadn't rebooted the router but as usual I had no response.
FYI: I'm not having any problem with my router disconnecting at all. However, I did notice a sequence of 3 lines in the Logs that show:
[Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.3, Tuesday, Dec 31,2019 13:07:59 [Time synchronized with NTP server] Tuesday, Dec 31,2019 13:07:56 [Internet disconnected] Tuesday, Dec 31,2019 13:07:54
You will note that this shows a 5 second disconnect. Ina few other places, I see the NTP time server log entry without the connect/disconnect lines.
I have never needed to restart my router for dropping its internet sevices.
This is just a hunch: Is the WAN connection failing to detect network lease renewal with an IP change event?
Well I pulled the router out of the box, and hooked it up real quick to pull the log file out of it. However it seemed to have lost the past logs I described previous. however, Just booting the router up onto a spare computer and pulling the log entry of most recent moments seems rather interesting. I am by no means somone to write code or play with linux software. I know enough to be dangerous. However the current log entry seems a bit suspicious being that the current time here is 8:10pm EST. I have attached a screenshot ofthe entry. not sure how you will be able to see it. note the current time and the log times. something is definately going on here.
I have a fixed IP cable connection from my ISP so this shouldn't change or be renewed regularly. I also have Sonos playing radio in the background most of the time so the internet connection itself should be always open.
I changed the renewal time of my isp router from 1 day to 1 week but this made no difference (still time sync every 5 minutes) & even assigned a fixed ip to the rax80. Nothing affected the behaviour.
Cliff, did you check your timezone setting via the web interface? I found mine was incorrect after initial setup but from your log files it wouldn't explain a > 4 year difference but might explain multiples of hours.
I'm confused. The lease time interval is set by the ISP. It usually represents the interval determined to be most efficient for that internet environment. Generally, the interval can be anywhere from a few hours to a day or more. Having a static IP is a very nice thing for a number of reasons. But in this instance, if you really do have a static internet IP address it should protect you from problems with leases and renewals.
Since I installed my RAX80 a bit over a week ago, I haven't lost my internet connection until last night. I had a USB stick plugged into the back of the router so we could watch a video written on it on our TV via DLNA. The video playback worked fine, but that's where things got interesting.
To remove a USB stick without damaging the device, it requires going into the router's ReadySHARE page and clicking on Safely Remove USB Device. After a short interval, a message came up saying it was safe to remove the memory stick. I removed it and what happened immediately after that was unexpected.
The RAX80 stopped talking to the internet. Since I was still connected to it, I clicked on Reboot, and the reboot sequence started. When it came back up, it still wasn't talking to the internet, but it still reported Internet Status: Good. I rebooted again; no change. Finally, I walked over to the box, powered it off and disconnected to power connector for about half a minute. After powering on, the network came up correctly.
That is, except for the log. This contained the line "Wednesday, Dec 31,1969 16:00:00" over and over again about 20 times. When I checked, the NTP was changed from (US) Central Time back to the default Pacific Time. Looking through the other config settings I had set up, all of them were still there. (Except in Attached Devices, but that's another situation...) - I'm hoping that I don't encounter another hardware lockup like that. (And I'm still waiting for a reply from Tech Support on that 'another' situation.)
Hi All Over the break I was able to finalize the replacement switches to Netgear GS108tv2 and GS105PE, after some setup modifications and mistakes resolved I now have the network works as I intended. The last two days have seen little to no issues. All required items are activated on the RAX80 including ONE wifi smart connect, QOS, NTP is still managed via my NAS as the switches were also being painful getting the correct information. The switches improved the QOS and flow especially on the wired devices. I have now tried to utilize the USB option and am setting up VPN across a few different options. My Domotz box and fingbox I am finalizing configuration on my network. It seems like this thread has identified the key issues for Netgear and overall disappointing not to see any response. Again will monitor and provide any further issues should they arise.
Enviroment: Home Network (Windows, Linux & Android clients).
Since it was new it has become unresponsive and unable to pass network traffic (LAN & WIFI) randomly. Early on it couldn't funtion as a router at all for over a week without dropping all connections (LAN & WIFI) requiring physical reboots.
In order to make use of it at all, I have been forced to set it as just an access point with a static IP (albeit an expensive one). I regularly update it to the latest firmware in hopes of getting it functioning but even with the current firmware V1.0.1.70 it looses LAN and WIFI connections. The only progress I have seen with firmware updates are that it has gone from locking up every few days to once a month.
WIFI connections:
When WIFI connections are lost (all connections are dropped 2.4 & 5GHz with no indication in the logs on why). Devices indicate that they are connected to the RAX80 but are unable to send or recieve any traffic.
LAN connections:
When the LAN connections are dropped the unit is totally dead (no LAN or WIFI and the routers web page is non-existent). The connection LEDs are lit but show no activity. After cycling power "nothing" is shown in the logs to shed any light on why (just that it was powered up and had previously synced the time many hours before). Even being set as just an access point it has always shown Internet 'Not Connected' when it is.
It has 22 to 26 attached devices (6 being wifi) so I know it isnt under any heavy load.
Is there any hope for it or am I the owner of an extremely expensive door stop?
Mine is fairly stable too. I still seen the random LAN disconnects at least once a day it seems... also still have the QoS issue. The WiFi is working pretty well using two separate SSIDs... I have not tried Smart Connect due to the trouble it causes and I don't mind having them separate so have more control over what devices connect to.
I am getting about 940Mbps during speed test over Ethernet. On WiFi I am getting about 435Mbps.... I have one AX device that was getting 750Mbps to 800Mbps, but after adding more devices it never seems to get speed that high anymore even if the other devices are in standby.
I am not sure if it's router issue or device issue... I see the link rate is reported as 1200 for AX device currently.... not sure what it was when was getting 750Mbps... seems that the MIMO may not be turning on correctly cause I only have 5 devices connected on 5Ghz and most are in standby. If I turn off other devices completely I still do not see the 750Mbps again so not sure what changed.
I have the same wireless issues as you. @xjn Wifi speeds seemed capped arond 450Mbs. My wired speeds are fine.
@mcfwi19 In the 5 months I've owned the device with the same issues everyone is reporting with Wi-Fi, I've not once had any feedback from Netgear suggesting they have any clue how to fix these issues despite having a support case open & providing multiple logs.
When I said I was trying to return the device, they closed my case.
I don't think we will ever see a working device as there is "nothing wrong" so obviously no-one is working on a solution.
For me, if it requires a daily reboot & had unstable Wi-Fi speeds it's unacceptable given the price especially as out of the box is doesn't work (without changing any settings).
It's also missing basic settings like parental controls, the security features available on lesser nighthawk models & features you'd expect on a TopEnd router like WPA3.
The free router I have from my ISP has never required a reboot or changing any of the settings. It works with one SSID straight out of the box. The same is true of the Netgear Ex8000 extender which i am now using and this is less than half the cost.
There have been two firmware updates in the 5 months I've owned the device. Both were just minor updates for localisation & didn't even attempt to address any of Wi-Fi or LAN issues.
Take it back to the shop if you can is my advice..
Yea, unfortunately for me I bought mine on FB marketplace fairly cheap. They guy whom I purchased it from had no idea about routers, and had spent $400 on something way over his head. I bought it brand new still in plastic, thinking I got a great deal ($100) only to find out this is a total trash router. I think I’m the one who took the biggest loss on this garbage. No way to return, so I’m stuck with it. It’s appearance surely makes it a good conversation piece, but will never meet my needs for what it was intended for.
I got mine on sale at Best Buy for $300... my new rule is I try not to buy anything unless it is on sale so if it ends up disappointing after return policy ends at least I didn't spend too much.
I had to return Google Home Hub Max month or so ago cause very buggy for $200.... returned $400 Bose headphones due to bugs...
i don't have time to spend on forum everyday for every product that can't be bothered to guarantee basic advertised features work... I don't know what changed in 2019 but seems companies just don't care anymore...
Netgear seems even more like a scam since unlike others have only 90 day warranty and have nerve to charge for support which will only tell you to reset it or downgrade... as if didn't know how to do that.
For those still experiencing intermittent internet disconnections while on FW v1.0.1.70 and needing to periodically reboot the router to resolve your issue, please send me a message. We are looking for users to help us look into this report. If you're interested to work with our engineering team please send me a message with your contact info and serial number.
I have owned NETGEAR products in the past and liked them. However, I had no idea what I was in for by buying an RAX80. The first one had (bad) issues while it was fresh out of the box. "Paid" tech support, (a.k.a. "TS,") kept me in firmware rollbacks, resets and band-aid fixes until it passed the reseller's returnable date. So after raising a fuss, they sent me a new one. This one doesn't have the slowdown until nearly disconnected problem, but the 5 Ghz band, set at the default 4800 Mbps, will stop working if I make the recommended change from the default SSID to one one of my own. - This must be a hardware (burp) problem unique to my replacement unit. - I am on the verge of asking for a replacement that is guaranteed to work according to advertised specs or insist on getting a 100% refund of the purchase price and add-on TS services. - If I were still in the HW/SW/DEV business, the cost of my own man-hours spent in documenting the problem, trying this or that suggested remedy and waiting for a miracle, it would easily dwarf the cost of several cases of RAX80's.
No matter how bad or good a machine's firmware is, it must be run on reliable hardware platform. While I might believe that more could be done with the firmware's design and functionality, this problem lies right in that lap of the hardware designers and the cleanroom that they sneezed in.
(OK, I'm through venting. Now back to TS and hopefully, a solution or a full refund.)
