I just purchased the RAX80 (AX8) router from Best Buy last Friday. I had problems right out of the box with the router failing to provide DHCP addresses to my work laptop.
Because of COVID19, I have to work from home.
I have a significant background in corporate networking, but this device doesn't have any tools for me to be able to debug what's going on.
At first, I thought it was a setting issue. So I switched to smart connect so that I didn't have multiple SSIDs. But I had the same problem with guest. When I was authenticated, I was "pushed" to the 2.4ghz radio and I was connected on 802.11n, according to Windows 10.
it was only my laptop that was affected, so I assumed it was due to drivers with my Intel Wireless AC 9560 network card. I updated the driver from Intel to the latest version, 21.80.2.1, and the issue seemed to go away. I was able to connect on 5ghz with 802.11ac. Until today, a few days later.
Then my phone, my spouse's phone, and a few other devices lost their ability to talk to the web as well. The issue started with occasional packet loss to the web (8.8.8.8), no packet loss to the router itself. When the pings stopped entirely, I rebooted the router and cable modem.
I wasn't able to confirm the other devices because I was trying to get back online for work, but my laptop could connect to the primary SSID, but not couldn't get a DHCP lease. (I was not able to confirm the devices did/didn't have an IP address from the router.) I set my laptop to static IP address, used an address in the appropriate subnet (192.168.1.21 /24) and was still unable to ping the router.
I was able to briefly connect over the guest 5ghz ssid, but eventually that started failing too. Wireshark revealed I was looking for a DHCP server and not getting a response.
Forgetting the SSIDs and reconnecting did not help. Turning off 802.11ax on the router did not help. As far as other settings go, it's pretty plain. I'm not doing any advanced routing, port forwarding, parental controls, etc. Channels are set to auto. The only traffic I was generating at the time was Microsoft Teams video conferencing, and SSL VPN traffic to work.
After a few shutdowns and reboots of all equipment, I was able to reconnect to the 2.4ghz Guest network, and the protocol listed is 802.11n.
I'm on the latest firmware according to the router's web interface.
Please help, I'm ready to return this and buy some other brand. This is way too flakey for as expensive as this is. Thanks in advance.
Before you return it, have you performed a factory reset by using the pin hole on the back of the router? You should give it a try.
Honestly, I would returned RAX 80. This is what I did. I had the Costco version RAX75, it was a piece of garbage with the same symptoms you are having, so I returned it and purchase the more robust RAX200.
Yes, I did a factory reset last week. The problem just came back today. The one thing I noticed was my laptop said that the ip it wanted to use 192.168.1.9 (preferred)
My cell phone was already using this IP.
I've seen this behavior before where a device will assume it's last IP if it can't renew its lease. I have a feeling the DHCP service is failing on the router, or is behaving in a way not compatible with my laptop or Win10, and when my machine tries to use the old IP it causes every other device in the house to lose connectivity too.
If I reboot the router (remove power cable entirely) and power it back up, the other devices return to normal except for my laptop.
It's very frustrating that this feels like a firmware bug. And I have no real ability to diagnose any further because this is a "home" router.
@nggw123 This is a known incompatibility issue with Intel Wireless 9560 adapters and the RAX80. Apparently the new drivers released two days ago should fix it: https://downloadmirror.intel.com/29520/eng/ReleaseNotes_WiFi_21.90.3.pdf as a "key issue fixed": "Intel® Wireless-AC 9560 connection p to NETGEAR* Access Point Nighthawk RAX80"
I have also been experiencing this problem and have reset the router many times, downgraded the firmware, etc to no avail, only with this one laptop in my household - 10+ other devices are working perfectly fine. The new driver update appears to resolve the problem, though it typically only starts occurring for me a couple days after the latest reset.
