I have been using my RAX80 as an access Point only for over a month now, not many if any issues. Only thing is I'm on the older firmware still. Seems to be the most stable one. And since it isn't my "router". I'm using an older one for that function. Everything is mostly "OK".
I would still rather Netgear fix this issue completely so I can go back to using it as my all in once device. From the looks of it. We are still waiting or just about to quit the product.
Hey, I am in India and bought this router at unbelievably high price of ₹28000. The idea was to make my online experience better. I use skype for video calling very frequently. I was looking for a stable experience. But, I still have to connect directly to my modem to get the calls working. I am on 250mbps connection. It works perfectly when I connect my laptop directly to modem. But the router speeds fluctuate too much and too frequently. This feels like getting cheated. Need a solution or refund.
We all wish they would fix this already. It's rediculous. I'be been fairly stable for weeks. Only 1 or 2 reboots in the last 2 months. I'm not touching the firmware on this thing, and since it is my AP only device. I think I can live with the firmware it is on for some time.
Most likely, I will update the firmware in the summer. Do a complete wipe of the unit (factory reset) and then udpate the firmware by downloading the file manually, and updating it locally to the latest (at the time) version. Letting it do the update itself seems to be at least half the issue why it stops working properly.
I just purchased in Feb 2020 and am having the same problem. If I use the SmartConnect to combine 2.4 and 5 g I get constant dropping of the wifi signal. This has apparently been a known problem for a year but Netgear has not corrected the issue yet. When can we expect a fix?
My firmware is V1.0.1.12_1.0.41
This feature is one of the reasons I bought this router. Please fix it or refund the hardware (I am still within my return period). I would like this to work rather than return the product.
Good afternoon Christian. My name is Matthew K and I have been having this exact experience since I bought this router last April, 2019. I have talked with support more times than I could even begin to tell you and I haven't heard anything about a fix to this issue from a single Netgear support agent. I have always bought Netgear everything and I am so disappointed and flabbergasted that I have just dealt with the horrific issues because I feel embarrassed to have such a bad piece of equipment. I don't understand why it has taken so many different people to complain before any of us even received a notice from Netgear that they are aware of this issue. The serial number of my Netgear Nighthawk ax80 is as follows :
My firmware notes only mention support for China.... I am in the USA so that does not sound promising.
My RAX200 has been just as bad as ever. Every day I debate just biting the bullet and getting a competitor's router, but the fact that I paid $600 for essentially a just-decent 2.4ghz router is making me fall for the sunk-cost fallacy.
I've got my eye on the TpLink archer AX6000 which seems to have some nice reviews & great real world test on Digitec (the Amazon of Switzerland).
Until now I've been in a similar situation to you, hoping a new firmware will suddenly transform this from a paperweight to a top end router. If this firmware doesn't really improve anything I'll try to return it as not fit for purpose, got plenty of time on my hands to try to sort it out at home these days.
I'm not technical like most of you. I bought this winged 8 channel 2 band router and I have the same problem today all of you have had for more than half a year. Everything connects and diconnects. Not what a consumer wants. Hundreds of 5 star reviews. What were all those people thinking???? I'm upset. What's the point of good looking plastic that doesn't work????
@GabboCH wrote: I've got my eye on the TpLink archer AX6000 which seems to have some nice reviews & great real world test on Digitec (the Amazon of Switzerland).
Until now I've been in a similar situation to you, hoping a new firmware will suddenly transform this from a paperweight to a top end router. If this firmware doesn't really improve anything I'll try to return it as not fit for purpose, got plenty of time on my hands to try to sort it out at home these days.
These days I'd say a big majority or reviews are completely fake or paid reviews (like 50% or more).
I don't trust any website or YouTube reviews these days as 90% are sponsored by the supplier... Bad review = no more products to review for free.
Netgear have actually been quite smart with this one. They 100% know it doesn't work but offer 90 days free support which fools many people into following the support route (I mean nobody would expect them to sell such a bad product right that couldn't be fixed with a few settings or firmware updates). By the time people realise there is nothing Netgear will do to help you make it work you are passed the return date & Netgear have their money...
Whilst technically capable on paper my main reason for choosing this was it was a little more vidually appealing to put in the living than something with 12 spider legs.
I have still not been able to return it so am €300 it of pocket.
If you are able to return yours I'd take it straight back to the shop. You'll just be eating hours trying different settings, firmware or constantly unplugging the device without any success.
A good product should work straight out of the box, require minimal setup & then never need touching again... This is what I'd expect for my €300 anyway...
The only thing that I have been able to research is that every 24hrs the lease expires on your device from the router, which means that your device asks the router to stay connected for another 24 hrs. When the time expires, a new IP address has to be assigne to the device, but usually it keep the same address. For my case, the router IP address is 192.168.1.1 which is very common and it should assign an IP address to your device like 192.168.1.25. What I have noticed is that the router assigns an IP address of 169.254.7.7 or some real strange number and then makes all your devices saty offline because it doesn't keep the same IP address structure. You can try this by connecting to your 2.4GHZ band and then trying the 5GHZ (or viceversa) and see what IP address is assigned. One way to get around this (for some devices) is to assign your device a static IP. Not all devices let you do this but if you are stuck with this router this is the only thing that has worked for me. I agree with all the previous posts. Give it back. I have tried other brand routers and havent been able to find the same quality as netgear. I will defenitely not recommend any Netgear AX router to anyone. But for the time being buy yourself a negear x4s or x6s for much cheaper. You will get the same speeds on 5GHZ since we are only up to 1Gig.
Been failry solid for a few months now. Still on the older Firmware. I haven't touched it. I believe I did reboot it at least 1 time in the last few months. other than that. I have left it alone as a WiFi access point only. No LAN connections, separate WiFi for 2.5 and 5Ghz as I have always had. Seems to be fairly stable on this firmware for me.
My only suggestion would be to revert back to factory settings. Manually update the firmware before putting anything on it (settings, specific IP ranges, security, etc). test it out with factory only settings and say current firmware for a week. See if it just works not connected to anything. Then bring it over to your network.
this is a very finicky router to say the least. But, I think it "can" work. Just like a really fragile piece of glass work, but not be a total paper weight. 😞
I am having the same issue. I just bought this router and it keeps disconnecting my devices multiple times a day. Are there logs I can read to check whats going on with the router?
well, here is the issue. I bought it used, so when registering it, I cant. It says its registered to someone else, thus, I can't request support. What hell do I live in?
Feel free to try the support route but, If you read the other RAX80 posts in the forum, you are unlikely to get a solution for this issue.
I had 3 months of support, provided multiple log files & didn't have any suggestions for goes to solve my issues.
You might get a better performance if you downgrade to an old firmware, disable smart connect & turn off most of the features but then you will probably have to reset the router manually each day.
The fact that it doesn't work out of the box without any settings changes says it all.
There is a hidden admin page where you can enable logging but like the rest of the router these log files often don't work & are empty. I'll post the link when I can get to my pc.
I would suggest saving your time & getting rid of the router for something else.
After all this time, the only thing that's ever worked for me is disabling AX features, including ofdma, and disabling mu-mimo in the advanced WiFi settings page.
The router acts normal when I do that with the exception of occasionally dropping the Huawei devices from the network occasionally but allowing every other manufacturers device to remain connected.
I have about 30 devices connected across 5g, 2.4g, and wired.
Access Point (AP) mode is useless. This is generating all the issues. Change to router mode and all the issues went away for me. Even if the recommended netgear mode says that you shouldn’t if the TV receiver is before and all that. Change to router mode. If after that you still have a problem i recommend you get the X6 router which is AC. This AX8 router has a bit more coverage than the X6 but not enough to be a $100 difference.
RAX 35 ax6 Router.. You know, Im going to try to assign my desktop a static IP address to resolve my issue... heres why. Ive had this router since january, multiple tech tickets and wasted time on calls, received a " new " router and returned the old to netgear..... problems persist ( dropping 2.4 and 5G signals intermittently ) but the strangest issue is: the only device I have hardwired is my desktop, if I turn the desktop off at night, EVERY morning the network is down , wireless and wired. Power cycle the router to bring back up, I havent check to see if its issuing a Link Local address ( 169.254..) but its beyond frustrating and makes no sense at all. I will try this tonight and get back to you, your post is the only thing ive seen that is even is the ballpark with my issue... netgear is useless... about to switch back to ASUS or TP LINK when my patience with this is depleted. Side note * I updated with both routers, out of the box, to the only updated firmware ver. available... perhaps a mistake?? cant downgrade to test.
I tried that also with assigning an IP in AP mode. Didn’t work. You need to do router mode and then do whatever you want after that. Anything in AP mode will show promise for an hour or so and then take a crap. Don’t waste your time. I wasted a good two weeks.
