I have a perplexing low bandwidth on wifi issue that doesn't seem to be solved by putting the ATT router in ip passthrough mode. I discovered I get the max download of 600 mbps but only if put the rax80 nighthawk in AP mode. If I use the nighthawk as a router , it'll get 300 mbps max.
A lot of articles suggested IP passthrough, disabling firewall features on the ATT router but this made no difference for me. It gave the nighthawk a public IP and wasn't NATing multiple times but didn't make a difference in speed.
I also tried disabling AX features, smart connect mode on the Rax80 but this lowered the speeds a lot more, down to like 60 mbps.
The nighthawk has been pretty disappointing since I first bought it with all the software bugs it has and now this issue. When I had support from netgear's limited warranty, the technician was telling me all the issues I wrote about were known but weren't being tracked anywhere that I could see and no known ETA for fix. I didn't realize about the low bandwidth issue though until recently.
"What devices are you speed testing with? Wired is preferred."
Wired speed is full as expected from the rax80 behind the ATT BG210 which is about 600 Mbps up/down. It's the wireless from rax80 that's the problem.
"What Firmware version is currently loaded?"
latest available for rax80 - Firmware Version V1.0.5.132_1.0.69
"What speeds are you getting at the ISP modem/router with a ethernet connected PC/laptop? "
600 up/down
"This would be a double NAT condition which isn't recommended."
For the ATT BG210, the recommendations I saw were to put it in ip passthrough as the only option and turn off the firewall features, which I did. My public IP was passed through to the RAX80 but it didn't make any diffierence in speed over wireless. I also tried to disable all fhe features I could like AX mode and smart connect but it lowered speeds to about 70 mpbs
Thanks again! I still would've thought that putting the ATT router in passhthrough for rax80 to get direct public IP and not have to route from 10.x network to 19.168 gateway and then NAT out to public would help but it doesn't. AP mode on the rax80 works great but I lose the few useful features thast it has.
You may want to try and drop the mode on the 5GHz broadcast down to "up to 2400 Mbps (instead of 4800 Mbps)".
Many devices do not handle the 160MHz wide channels very well and the WiFi speeds chokes. But they will handle 80Mhz wide channels and provide the expected speeds.
That's a good point, @TC_in_Montana . I tried that previously , dropping 5ghz to 2400 and as low as 600 but with no effect. It doesn't relate to this issue or your advice but as a side story, that was a test when I complained to netgear about other issues I had before when I still had support. The tech had me disable AX, and dropped the mode to as low as it could go and disable smart connect, and choose a specific channel . I think it helped but it basically defeated the entire purpose of buying the router to begin with so it wasn't a solution that I accepted. He was saying it was related to how not all devices support AX mode. In this case disabling AX mode and those other tests makes bandwidth much lower.
You may want to try and drop the mode on the 5GHz broadcast down to "up to 2400 Mbps (instead of 4800 Mbps)".
Many devices do not handle the 160MHz wide channels very well and the WiFi speeds chokes. But they will handle 80Mhz wide channels and provide the expected speeds.
I really appreciate everyone's help. Any other ideas or thoughts? I'm leaning toward putting this in AP mode and buy a router without a ton of issues/bugs to use as primary at this point.
