RAX80 regularly disconnects devices, then they reconnect

[bostony126]

nice write up thanks.. my rax80-nas has been running fairly well over the last few months with the exception of a reset needed about once a week or two? More and less. It depends.

Wishing all the best

[GabboCH]

Cant be running that well is it needs a reset..
My ISP non branded router never needed a reset in 3 years & the Netgear EX8000 I'm using in place of the RAX80 hasn't needed a reset either.

I won't accept a daily or weekly reset on a device which cost $300 when one for less than $100 works fine.

[cliff344]

Well my test run of the 1.0.2.76 firmware was once again a BIG "F"!  Router didn't make it 24 hours without loss of internet on all my Wi-Fi devices.  Past firmware problems exhibited dropout on both LAN and Wi-Fi devices, but only Wi-Fi this time.  Ran very well for about 24 hrs then completely unresponsive.  I could also not log into the web GUI from a wireless device.  The Wi-Fi signal was still present but basically dead.  So once again I will box this thing up and put it away for another time when Netgear gets it right.  If only I could say what I really wanted to say directly to those responsible for the creation of this crap they call a router.  Well not going to throw any more time of my life away on this, so good riddance and hope everyone stays well.  

loggin out

[Bigtime68]

The newest firmware isn't working for me either. Many, many, many disconnnects throughout the day which result in having to unplug the router and then plugging it back in. Netgear exchanged my first faulty router only to exchange it with another faulty router.

[cliff344]

Some of the other things I discovered with the new firmware update (1.0.2.76).  First if you try and run a Speedtest in the nighthawk app, it doesn't work and locks up the router GUI. If you try and go to the QOS page in the router GUI, and run a Speedtest, it will fail.  The usb network storage will show up on your network for a short time, and then dissappear off the network.  You have to reboot in order to get it back.  On my R8500, I have many devices switched off in the Nighthawk App switches, so they dont have web access, but only local acces.  When doing this same thing with the rax80, it kills the devices completely from the network both internal and external.  The only plus with the firmware, was Wi-Fi network speed was much improved.  I was hitting around 550-650 Mbps consistently. 

[txchuko]

Hi my current version is

Firmware Version V1.0.1.70_1.0.30

When I check for updates, it says is the latest.

I started noticing random disconnects a few days ago. If there was a new firmware update I would like to go back to previous one.

I checked the netgear product downloads page for the RAX80 router and I see the "Current version" however I do not see the "Previous Versions" link as it shows for other products.

Can anyone advise how to downgrade to previous version please

[bostony126]

Not for nothing buddy but do you have 38+ devices connected? IR and RF remotes running scenes? Do you have four AC and AX devices running on Wi-Fi? Do you even have AX? No you don’t. So start a new thread with your 3 year old equipment no one cares about. If I wanted mediocre stability I’d go buy that e800 off ebay for cheap. We’re not even talking about range extenders anyways! My range extenders work fine too, cool!

You’re in the wrong thread . ✌🏼

[cliff344]

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@bostony126 wrote:
Not for nothing buddy but do you have 38+ devices connected? IR and RF remotes running scenes? Do you have four AC and AX devices running on Wi-Fi? Do you even have AX? No you don’t. So start a new thread with your 3 year old equipment no one cares about. If I wanted mediocre stability I’d go buy that e800 off ebay for cheap. We’re not even talking about range extenders anyways! My range extenders work fine too, cool!

You’re in the wrong thread . ✌🏼

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Who's the "Buddy"?

[everss02]

there is new firmware on their webise, the "check for new firmware" is comlete broken.

RAX80-V1.0.2.76_1.0.35

Giving this a try, this thing had been terrible latley, was using V1.0.1.70_1.0.30 this before updating, we'll see how it goes I guess.

[Bigtime68]

I installed 

RAX80-V1.0.2.76_1.0.35 over a week ago. Still having to reset my router 5 times per day.

[PDWhite]

I gave up. (and, I don't give up easily.) I returned mine. The replacement (any replacement) is a great improvement. I strongly suspect (and, this is my opinion) that there is no way to fix the problems with upgrading the firmware. I believe that the problem is in the hardware or embedded microcode and that there is nothing that can be done without re-engineering the hardware. It there was, the problems would have been caught and fixed by now.

[everss02]

No dropped signal so far, BUT, it does absolutly completely freeze up if you enter the web console and touch anything.

[everss02]

The equivalent Asus .ax product I use at a small medical office, works without a hitch a year now. just an fyi netgear.

[txchuko]

Would you know if the Asus line router interface has an option to set nat filtering to "off" or "open"?

I understand not all routers offer this option and port forwarding doesnt work when using multiple ps4 consoles

[everss02]

The RT-AX88U doesn't have any NAT filtering optons.

[everss02]

Try a factory reset after the latest firmware, mine ran like crap until I did that.

[everss02]

Mine is till dropping after all that though, maybe 10-15 seconds, which totally borks my Citrix session 

[bostony126]

Hi, 

That is the theme here... no matter which update they seem to push out, or how many resets you perform, the long term reliability is poor at best.  With all that said, I now only power cycle my router once a month?  And its providing superior performance above and beyond anything else I have had in my 1800sqft house.  I use two TP-LINK RE500's that work really really well.  Hoping they make this a priority and get it right.  If not, I'll never buy equipment from them again.  

[everss02]

I guess I'll RMA it before the warranty runs out, maybe I'll get a newer hardware version........

They at least need a scheduled reboot option.

[GabboCH]

If a scheduled reboot is really the solution they provide, I'd expect a €250 refund too.
If a €50 router can run for months without a reset its not great for a flagship model.

Then there's still the features which are missing like parental controls, WPA3 & Armor Security...

[everss02]

After waiting forever on hold, to get some inda call center, that won't issue a RMA without jumping through hoops, I just hung up.

[Orts001]

Same issue here, WAN randonmly drops on both wired and WIFI connections (Spotify app randomly disconnects on Onkyo reciever - super annoying). latest firmware on RAX80

[KzooQdobaFan]

I noticed this on a few devices. My TV displays a notification when the ethernet cable is disconnected/reconnected, and it has been showing itself about 2-3x/day. I have a Nest Hub Max that also shows itself reconnecting, which it only started doing after moving to the Netgear AX8.

I am running with ipv6 disabled, QoS disabled (but WMM enabled).

Smart Connect/MU-MIMO/WiFi AX/20 &40mhz coexistance/beamforming all enabled.

Using out of the box firmware, which is supposed to be the latest as per built in software, but I know others on here report there is a newer version. I made a seperate post about WiFi disconnecting, which seemed to be resolved by disabling QoS and IPV6. I thought I made a bit of progress with stability; but it seems I've only come so far.

After seeing this thread, it seems best to just return the AX8 - and wait for AX tech to become more reliable. It looks like there is almost no one happy with their Netgear AX device.....

[Topology]

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@KzooQdobaFan wrote:

It looks like there is almost no one happy with their Netgear AX device.....

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FYI:  Note that 92% of the RAX80 reviews here have received a 4- or 5-star rating.  Individuals visiting this NETGEAR forum are typically experiencing problems, and thus do not necessarily represent a random sample of all users.  As such, it's easy to get the impression that dissatisfaction with the device is widespread, when in fact that may not be the case.

[TomM_RAX80]

Before you return it, I would try a couple of things.  First, bad assumption that the router has the latest firmware.  Update it, do a reset to factory settings.  This is important, because there are hidden settings that may be wrong on your system. At least in my situation, it worked perfect the first 8 months or so and then my FireTV sticks kept dropping and often. Even though it wasn't another router (I have software that can see other routers), something was interfering with the channel.  So I spent about 2 months switching channels.  Some worked better then others and I eventually found the channel that works the best for me. I do reboot it about every 3 to 4 weeks, but the last couple of times my phone and laptop were fine but the FireTV sticks were having problems.  So at this point I don't know if it is FireTV sticks or the router, but having the latest and greatest (at least for me) is worth rebooting once a month.  Most of the Windows servers around the world get rebooted every Sunday morning at 4am (at least that is when my company does it).  You need to keep it in perspective or downgrade to AC protocol tech.