RAX120 WAN Port Aggregation To CM1200

[Nighthaw-Newbie]

Just did overhaul of whole home WiFi to CM1200 and three RAX120’s (1 as router and 2 as Wireless access points). Trying to do WAN port aggregation from modem to router then use multi-gig LAN to go through multi-gig switch and on to my other 2 RAX120’s as wired access points.  Don’t know how?  Spent 2 hours on phone with Netgear today. End result. They told me RAX120 cannot do WAN port aggregation...just LAN port aggregation downstream for file transfer. This makes no sense. The modem can do it and the older RAX80 can do WAN port aggregation, but not the RAX120??? Told me to take all three RAX120’s back and buy RAX80 or RAX200??  Said Netgear engineering doesn’t have WAN port aggregation on the roadmap for RAX120?  Surely this is not right?  Don’t want to take these back. What is the best way to connect this setup to achieve multi-gig internet speeds from all three RAX120’s?  Help please. 

[Nighthaw-Newbie · Accepted solution]

Thank you everyone. Managed to get it fully set up today on WAN port aggregation. Should’ve known you guys would smoke Netgear Level 2 technical support. Thank you!

[schumaku]

Amazing this does take two hours - an eye in the documentation and the data sheets does make it clear.

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@Nighthaw-Newbie wrote:

They told me RAX120 cannot do WAN port aggregation...just LAN port aggregation downstream for file transfer. This makes no sense. The modem can do it and the older RAX80 can do WAN port aggregation, but not the RAX120???

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Both the RAX80 and the RAX120 had been announced together in autumn 2018, the FCC approval dates differ by just about 10 days.

https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-routers/RAX80.aspx says:

"This router is the industry’s first home router with Multi-Gig internet support, achieved by aggregating two gigabit Ethernet ports. It’s a router that’s ready for the Multi-Gig Internet wave coming in DOCSIS® 3.1." 

No similar indications on the RAX120 marekting and docs.

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@Nighthaw-Newbie wrote:

Told me to take all three RAX120’s back and buy RAX80 or RAX200??

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Well, if the offer is right - why not.

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@Nighthaw-Newbie wrote:

Said Netgear engineering doesn’t have WAN port aggregation on the roadmap for RAX120?

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Engineering does not make roadmaps - product managers and marketeers are. And not offering WAN port aggregation  on the RAX120 does read more like a product differentiation.

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@Nighthaw-Newbie wrote:

Surely this is not right?  Don’t want to take these back. What is the best way to connect this setup to achieve multi-gig internet speeds from all three RAX120’s?  Help please. 

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Not with the current firmware, and not with the current specifications of the RAX120 I'm afraid. Who knows if some 3rd party firmware will introduce this feature - can't see an obvious technical limitation.

Netgear does misleadingly use the term Multi-Gig or Multi-Gigabit for port aggregation in the marketing and user documentation of the Nighthawk routers supporting Port-/Link-Aggregation for the WAN/Internet connection. Multi-Gig representing Ethernet ports able to operate on multiple Gigabit link speeds like 1G/2.5G, 1/2.5G/5G, ...  A LAG or aggregation of multiple 1G ports is not Multi-Gig. The 2.5G port on the RAX200 on the other hand is a Multi-Gig port - that's appropriate.

[avtella]

The RAX120 can do WAN aggregation. It’s WAN+LAN1.

The support people you spoke to must not be knowledgeable. This isn’t the first feature aspect that they’ve lacked testing on unfortunately.

This is similar to some people who contacted support regarding HT160 support before it was added in an update and support told them it didn’t support it, I pointed out to some of those users that the unit was indeed FCC tested at HT160 and chipset capable of HT160.

[avtella]

Go to “Internet Setup” page and select WAN Port aggregation after connecting WAN and LAN1. I should have clarified this earlier.

[schumaku]

Amazing, the 1.0.0.78 Release Notes (-> reference here) does talk of a feature fixed which was never introduced not documented, indeed: 

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• Fixes some web GUI page issues for the function of WAN aggregation port (Internet port + Ethernet port 1) or the Multi-Gig Ethernet port to be set as the WAN preference

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[Nighthaw-Newbie · Accepted solution]

Thank you everyone. Managed to get it fully set up today on WAN port aggregation. Should’ve known you guys would smoke Netgear Level 2 technical support. Thank you!