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Thanks for the feedback, I've never had any stability issues with the firmware as a whole on this router. The main beef I have with stock firmware here is the lack of profesional user level settings, which is why I ran DD-WRT on my R7000 for most of it's use. When I've used Netgear's stock firmware it's been OK, I just prefer the Airport because it intergrates nicely into the apple ecco system, and as mentioned it just works.
I will give the nighthawk another shot, since I'll be setting it up again for the first time, i'll be doing it from a hard wired computer and it should do the firmware update as part of the setup, as done out of the box. For the event this doesn't happen I have downloaded the firmware manually.
I've usually always put into practice the rule of themb "When it comes to Networks, go hard wired when possible" and only use wireless when absolutely there is no other option, or the devices, aren't mission crtical. I'll decide if I want to do it in a bit, and report back with the results.
@iFrog Well good luck with it and I look forward to your feedback. I mentioned in another post, but I'd never done a firmware update on a router before in my life, but this was really quite easy, especially as I ensured I had absolutely nothing attached to it or trying to feed off the router whilst upgrading. Don't forget to reboot prior to upgrading. Keep it simple. I'd be interested to know how old your R7000 is as well? mine is a year old from manufacture.
If I remember correctly, I bought mine the beginning of 2019, or a few months in anyway. I bought it because Apple Discontinued the Airport line of products, so I wasn't sure if they were going to continue to release security patches. After they released in May I felt better going back to that router for a bit. While the Airport is rock solid still, I would like to possibly get a newer router at some point, however, for the time being the Airport, and R7000 are similuary speced so either one are good for my current needs.
@iFrog With any luck then, your R7000 is at least a 2018 build, which may or may not have a bearing on the overall success of the update. I only learned the exact build date of mine because I made use of Netgear support whilst I have complimentary use of their support. They very kindly told me within 24 hours of asking. As I say, good luck!
I have put the R7000 into use, I set up the router brand new as in from a factory default setup and all has gone well. So far no problems I renamed the respective SSIDs to what the devices were connected to from the Airport Extreme, and everything reconnected, in fact, the Alexa routine that exictues at 4PM turned on the light as expected.
There was only one minor issue, and I don't think it's really an issue. The 1.0.1.100 firmware was not detected by the automatic firmware updater built into the router. However, since the computer is hard wired to the router via a gigabit switch i updated that way, and all seems to be working.
As I mentioned, performance wise, I haven't had a lot of problems, it's always been consumer vs enterprise for me when it comes to routers, wanting something in between so i have control over just about anything.. If this doesn't work out long term, i'll go back to the Airport Extreme and look at something different down the road. Also, one thing I do like about the Nighthawk is, I do have the option, to voice control it with Alexa, not sure if it works with google home or not.
P.S. I am typing this post with the R7000 powering the network.
@iFrog Pleased to read things went well. The issue about the update not being found on the router has been mentioned before in other threads and it was the same for me. I downloaded the update directly from the Netgear site to my desktop and uploaded the file from there directly to the router.
I'd recommend disabling the auto update feature if you haven't already done so.
You cannot uncheck the 'Enable Routers PIN' in Wireless settings. Well you can uncheck the box, but when you hit the apply button, it just checks itself again, so a bug there.
If the NTP server loses sync, you'll get a warning in red at the top of the admin page, it's got typos in it and looks sloppy. Needs sorting.
I split my networks up and I run Guest Networks on both 2.4 and 5g. Keeps things in order for me.
I find the Nighthawk App useful, but I won't be carrying out any firmware updates using it.
I've run into wireless speed issues with my phone, (iPhone 7 Plus) but i'm not sure if it's a router problem as it's the only device that does it. And , the mobile speeds were always worse even with the airport than wired, or even larger devices such as a laptop.
i have about 400 Mbps down and 23 up on wired Devices download goes to about 480 down as long as on gigabit. the iphone is connected to the 5Ghz channel as well as the ipad and macbook pro, while the iMac is hard wired. According to the speedtest app the iphone only gets about 40 down but the normal 20 to 23 up, the ipad is about 370 to 390 down and the same upload. So with all things considdered only the phone seems to have a really big issue with wireless.
There was only one minor issue, and I don't think it's really an issue. The 1.0.1.100 firmware was not detected by the automatic firmware updater built into the router. However, since the computer is hard wired to the router via a gigabit switch i updated that way, and all seems to be working.
As @Portwey84 says, this is a well known issue. It actually has a purpose. Netgear, and other outfits that deliver on-line updates, think Microsoft, like to stagger delivery.
Netgear regularly puts updates on the support pages before they hit the update FTP server that feeds the "check for updates" feature.
This has a couple of benefits, first it doesn't men that everyone tries to update at the same time. It also means that the people who keep their eye on the support pages get them first. Then if the sky falls in and it proves to be broken firmware Netgear can keep the release off the FTP server.
Even if you do find an update with the automated system, experienced users prefer the approach that you took. Download the firmware and update manually.
Just another user with a set of boilerplate macros.
I wanted to let everyone know that I fixed the phone's wifi issue I toggled wifi off and back on, when the phone reconnected the speed was back, so it may have had something get stuck after changing the routers.
Also, I usually flash the way already discussed here, the automatic check is just a convenience . Usually works well, but hard wired is just that extra insurance of success. So, I want to end the post for now saying I've had a successful change over. I haven't rebooted my network in a while, but overall it feels a bit snappier with the nighthawk vs airport, though neither one are a slouch.
I wanted to let you know, I've gone back to my 2013 Airport Extreme for the time being. I encountered some very strange issues with the R7000 which I never had with either the earlier stock firmware, or DD-WRT, so i'm leaning between failing hardware since it's just sat collecting dust not use, or bad wireless drivers in the latest firmware, or a conflict between the wireless chipset in my iPhone and the router.
Either way, what happened was this:
the iPhone 7 plus would only get about 40 Mbps down on the speedtest app, and my connection is 400 Mbps down. The funny thing is, initally when i first had the issue, i was able to simply toggle wifi off in the settings for the phon, then the speed came back normal when toggling back on, and reconnecting. The other thing I noticed was the speedtest app was sluggish on LTE as well, so there could be an issue with the phone, since all other wireless devices were working. The problem(s) I observed were:
Turning on the guest network seem to have introduced the second problem, at least it looks that way.
The second problem was after using the phone, my other devices such as Google Home, and Alexa were no longer able to access the internet.
So, either the guest networking feature has a bug, or there is something wrong with the iphone wifi chipset that's crashing the router. Since it's the only wireless device I observed problems with. Other than that, the router seems to work normally. I went back to the Airport and the iphone no longer has Wifi issues. I wonder if it's an apple thing. I've heard more so years ago from now, but apple devices don't always play with third party routers in the nicest way at times.
The other people here reporting 5Ghz issues diesn't seem to suggest they had only certain devices fail, but rather the whole network was gone, while I experienced problems with specfrici devices, or in this case, the phone seems to have triggered the problems here.
FYI, i haven't used my iphone with the R7000 since it's been on ios 13, the last time i had the R7000 in use was when ios 12 was still the current public release, so that should tell you how long I haven't used the R7000, and have been relying on the Airport Extreme.
@iFrog Sorry to read you've had so many issues. I wish I had your download speeds lol! My max download speed on fibre, is just 37mbps and an upload of just 9mbps and I have no issues with it, more than fast enough for Netflix etc.
As for compatibility issues with Apple, my Wife and I both have iPhone XR's both on the latest iOs update and they both work absolutely fine on 5g wireless. Currently, I have 10 devices utilising 5g band, 4 Amazon Echo/Dots, 2 iPhones, 1 Android phone and 3 media streamers, one of which is a now rather ancient Apple TV I recently brought out of retirement. Those 10 devices are split so some are utilizing the 5g Guest network, i.e the media streamers.
Anyway, here I am, 8 days in on the new firmware and no problems, i.e no wireless drop outs of any description. Maybe I'm just lucky?
@iFrog Sorry to read you've had so many issues. I wish I had your download speeds lol! My max download speed on fibre, is just 37mbps and an upload of just 9mbps and I have no issues with it, more than fast enough for Netflix etc.
As for compatibility issues with Apple, my Wife and I both have iPhone XR's both on the latest iOs update and they both work absolutely fine on 5g wireless. Currently, I have 10 devices utilising 5g band, 4 Amazon Echo/Dots, 2 iPhones, 1 Android phone and 3 media streamers, one of which is a now rather ancient Apple TV I recently brought out of retirement. Those 10 devices are split so some are utilizing the 5g Guest network, i.e the media streamers.
Anyway, here I am, 8 days in on the new firmware and no problems, i.e no wireless drop outs of any description. Maybe I'm just lucky?
I know, it's really strange, From day one, the Router has usually been stable as far as performance. As I've mentioned before, it was more a matter of software for me, when it comes to options, and features (hence why I switched from Netgear's stock firmware to DD-WRT) last year for a bit. To give you an idea of how long the R7000 sat unused was probably since May, or June of 2019, and I only fired it up again a couple days ago to try the new firmware. In years past before deciding to stick with AirPort products, most of the third party consumer routers I would get, would either have really bad firmware, or if they worked, they would eventually overheat and die. My first airport extreme lasted about 7 years without any problems. Then I got the 2013 Airport Extreme, that I have now, and it's been rock solid, I got the R7000 mainly because I wasn't sure if Apple was going to still provide frimware updates, and thought Netgear would have better support than actually turned out to be the case. Now I'm considering a Synology Router, it looks to be more of the prosumer product I'm looking for, and people have said good trhings about both their routers and NAS units. Has anyone here had experience?
Anyway, maybe this is just a bad firmware, or at worst case the hardware has finally failed. The good news is, when I plugged the Airport back in, and power cycled the modem and airport, everything is stable again.
New R7000 Firmware Version 1.0.11.100 - 6 days so far Zero Issues (except the known/old WPS issue)
I have had issues with firmware updates on this router in the past. The key seems to be to reset everything before and after the udate. I unplugged all ethernet cables except the one for the pc doing the update. This disconnects my wired devices as well as my MOCA network. I then reset the router using the hole on the router and a paper clip, unfolded. I then rebooted the PC and went right into the browser to install the new firmware. After the firmware update I give the router a few minutes to completely reboot. I then re-apply my router settings, and reboot the router again. Then again wait for the router to completly boot up. I then connect the moca bridge and wait a couple minutes. Then I reboot every network device one at a time, to force a new dhcp and/or wireless connection.
It has been several days now, network sppeds are good, no dropped devices, no issues. On the network I have Android, IOS, Windows, MOCA bridges, moca conected tivos, doorbell, water heater, tablets, phones, etc... I will update this post if I have an issue.
Re: New R7000 Firmware Version 1.0.11.100 - 6 days so far Zero Issues (except the known/old WPS issu
That's how I applied the update over a wired connection and a brand new stock setup from factory defauts. For me the router really started having issues after i tried to enable the guest network.
Re: New R7000 Firmware Version 1.0.11.100 - 6 days so far Zero Issues (except the known/old WPS issu
@iFrog Is it worth just checking that you don't have Smart Connect enabled? Mine is unchecked. Not saying it makes any difference, but you never know.....
Also, out of curiosity, how many WiFi enabled devices do you have connected at any one time?
@iFrog Is it worth just checking that you don't have Smart Connect enabled? Mine is unchecked. Not saying it makes any difference, but you never know.....
Also, out of curiosity, how many WiFi enabled devices do you have connected at any one time?
Hi,
As far as Smart connect, I don't use the feature, so by default it's off, and I do make sure it's disabled.
As far as Wifi devices, I have about 20. However, with that said, I only have one or 2 active at a time, unless the particular device does background, or tasks while idle.
I have an Echo Plus 2nd generation, and Echo dot 3rd both on 5ghz
I have my Macbook Pro on 5ghz which is asleep or off most of the time
I have my iMac which is wired, but Wifi is on, and not connected to a hot spot simply for location services to work.
i have my iPhone 7 Plus and iPad Air 2 on 5ghz (only the iPhonehad wifi speed issues)
I have my Sony smart TV connected to 5ghz, but i use external devices for streaming rather than the TV's built in apps and the external devices are all hard wired.
I have two amazon smart plugs on 2.4ghz and smart bulbs on 2.4ghz
and the last two major devices on 5ghz are my google home, and google home mini.
As I mentioned above the network was working until i tried to enable guest mode, and the iPhone connected after guest mode had been enabled. Even after disabling guest mode and power cycling the router, things were still screwy. I could try a hard factory reset with the new firmware in place, to see if that makes a difference. I really don't need guest mode, i was only going to enable it for IOT devices, however I've been running my smart devices on the same network as my other devices for a while, and haven't had any issues.
As a rule of thumb, I don't like the auto connect features such as smart connect, I like manual control over which band things connect to.
Re: New R7000 Firmware Version 1.0.11.100 - 6 days so far Zero Issues (except the known/old WPS issu
So, I decided to try this new firmware as well after having to revert back to .42 with the two previous firmwares. Like others on here, I have an older R7000 that is 6 years of age. It has worked reliably until updating past the .42 firmware. Nothing but issues since, but reverting back to .42 has been fairly stable although not issue free like it was before updating..
So I was hopeful that this new firmware would be stable and fix the past issues, especially since it has been a long time between updates.
Initially, the firmware update seem to go well. But in less than 2 days of updating, I have had sporadic reboots, devices being denied access and losing connections.
Just prior to logging in to write this, I had the router reboot...I checked the log and the only thing I see in it at the time was a
WLAN access rejected: incorrect security] from MAC, which I believe was my work laptop VPN trying to connect.
I am going to do a hard reset, install the new firmware again, and hard reset again, and try setting up again. Having been familiar with the issues of the prior firmware, I am suspectingm that I am going back to .42 again, unfortunately.
Maybe some of you guys are right, maybe it is a router age thing with different chipsets causing issues, but you would think that would be tested by Netgear to see if there are things they need to do to avoid that.
I will do the hard reset procedure and see if that helps clear it up..if not back to .42, although I am tempted to leave Netgear products for good as well.
It appears Vietnam made units are more reliable. My R7800 was also made in Vietnam and have had very few issues with it
I wasn't able to find out where mine was made I checked the bottom where the serial, wifi and other info is, and couldn't find a specific made location.
What are the thoughts at this point of running this router with open firmware? it usually runs better, and I did it for most of the time I used the router before going back to the Airport Extreme. The other question is, since there are new standards out now, is it even worth worrying about this router at this point, or would that time and energy be better spent investing in a newer model with newer hardware / standards.
As I've said before, I'm happy with my 2013 Apple Airport extreme, and basically the R7000 and airport pretty much have the same hardware when it comes to chipset, and they both give me about the same speeds at least they did when I tested them recently
The only reason i'm asking at this point, is that router isn't going to last forever, so will need to replace it at some point Hopefully before it dies and i don't have a choice.
Re: New R7000 Firmware Version 1.0.11.100 - 6 days so far Zero Issues (except the known/old WPS issu
Mine says made in China...so your theory is possible, although I would think it is more a a chipware version that may account for the differences.
So, I did the hard reset, multiple times actually and reentered all my setup again. The odd issue I had was on initial setup...after hard reseting and installing the latest firmware..I would get to the admin password, security page and did not have a next or apply button (using either Edge, Explorer or Chrome) so I could not get past that page. After more than an hour of trying, I finally got it to setup through the Nighthawk app, enough so I could bypass that page and finish the setup.
Not sure what cause the lack of an apply button on initial setup on the PC....finally back up and running on latest firmware though...fingers crossed at this point on it working the way it is suppose to. One thing I did notice is everything connected back to the router without any hiccups...so hopefully.....we will see what happens tomorrow though.
