Nighthawk RAX45 - connection issues

[liketheyogurt]

So recently purchased two RAX45 from costco about a month ago. i have them connected to another router and set up as access points for my home. two weeks into it, i had issues with the 2.4Ghz band where it wouldn't let me connect to it. I had recently done a firmware upgrade and one recommendation was to reset the router. i did and it started to work again. This week, the 2.4Ghz band stopped working again. i restarted the router and it worked again. Then yesterday, the 5Ghz band stopped working. Again, after a restart, it started working again. Has anyone else had this issue? Any resolution? I'm about ready to return them. 

[Christian_R]

Hello liketheyogurt,

If you recently purchased the device I would recommend contacting our support team as newly purchased devices are provided with 90 days of complimentary support. You may open a ticket by registering your device using the link below. 

https://www.netgear.com/support/contact.aspx

Christian 

[jverheul]

I am on my second RAX45 from Costco. The first one stopped connecting to the internet on 5G. Now my second one is doing it too.

Firmware Version

V1.0.2.82_2.0.50

2.4G seems unaffected, so far. 

These issues happen after 90 days so I have never been in a position to contact support, I just get another from Costco. 

[liketheyogurt]

That is why I buy from Costco. I have an issue with these units because I own two of them and they both went bad.

[Posh808]

The most stable version for me is firmware 1.72

When Netgear figures out why the costco ones are being returned so often they will fix the problems plaguing this otherwise well built router. 

It is now June 25, 2021 and all other firmware after 1.72 still drops my wifi connections. Especially my 5G. To a lesser extent it would drop my 2.4G connections as well.

Iam disappointed and upset as i now cannot return this item (past 90 days) to get a better one like my previous TP-Link router which I never had a problem with.

I heard great things about the Nighthawk routers and bought one. Lesson learned.

• You SUCK Netgear.

[filmcrew75]

I couldnt agree more. I regret buying a netgear router. I had a buffalo router with DD-WRT before that worked much better. I should have never gotten rid of that.

[CoolCar]

New RAX45-100NAS and on first day started with intermittent 5GHz radio and mostly No Internet messages on 5GHz.  Based on Support Agents suggestions, I reset the router, manually uploaded the latest firmware again - Version V1.0.5.106_2.0.70 but still the problem does not go away.

From Day 2 things were worst - l am unable to see the 5GHz SSID. We tried to change the channel from 44 to 48, also removed the security on the channel. Multiple Windows 10, Android and Apple devices can not even see the 5GHz SSID. We also checked the lights on the router are all white and ok. I tried enabling and removing security on 5G Guest network but even that is not visible.

The guest network at 2.4 is also broadcasting and visible and working OK.

But I feel this is useless to keep broken router unless Support escalates this for a solution.

[FURRYe38]

Try revertting FW:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Routers-with-WiFi-6-AX/Nighthawk-RAX45-connection-issues/...

---

@CoolCar wrote:

New RAX45-100NAS and on first day started with intermittent 5GHz radio and mostly No Internet messages on 5GHz.  Based on Support Agents suggestions, I reset the router, manually uploaded the latest firmware again - Version V1.0.5.106_2.0.70 but still the problem does not go away.

From Day 2 things were worst - l am unable to see the 5GHz SSID. We tried to change the channel from 44 to 48, also removed the security on the channel. Multiple Windows 10, Android and Apple devices can not even see the 5GHz SSID. We also checked the lights on the router are all white and ok. I tried enabling and removing security on 5G Guest network but even that is not visible.

The guest network at 2.4 is also broadcasting and visible and working OK.

But I feel this is useless to keep broken router unless Support escalates this for a solution.

---

[CoolCar]

Yes had tried reverting to older firmware. Returned the router and the replacement also having similar issues on 5GHz. 2.4 is reliable though.

[Worstever22]

We have issues with our rax45 not connecting to internet. Only 6 months old. What’s going on with net gear products??? And it seems their warranty runs out just shy of when this happens for others as well.

[timstein]

I was having a similar issue, and I found an answer to fix the 5ghz connection was to turn off QoS on the Router. I don't remember where I saw it at, but after turning the QoS off my 5ghz started acting just like the 2.4ghz and is working just fine.

[Drew-M]

Like Timstein said turning off QoS fixed all the issues I was having with the 5g network. Not sure why it caused so many issues, but just happy to have a functioning router again