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xr500 odd problems/stability


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Myself and My roommate both play Ghost Recon Wildlands pvp on the ps4 and Im having some problems I hope can be sorted out.

 

Originally I had a Airport extreme as our primary router and after reading online about the best way to configure settings for two ps4's on the same network with the apple router I learned that the apple router was not the best for online gaming. Several people reported having great luck using a netgear ac1900 router with the NAT filter set to open. I bought one on Amazon and it seemed to work much better. While within the return period I learned of the xr500. It seemed to be the holy grail so I went ahead and returned the ac1900 and bought a xr500 from Amazon. I also decided to replace my modem (Arris TM 1602) with a Netgear cm600 as I read about a problem with the arris and the puma chipset.

 

For the most part it seemed to work better but after about a week we started having problems with the gameplay. It seemed when we were playing that one of us would have a great connection and the other would not. Originally I thought It was just my roommate bitching because he was just not having a good game but after about a week I realized that rebooting the router would result in both of us having a very good connection (and roommate going from no kills to a 7:1 kdr) and improved gameplay. Now it has become a necessity to reboot the router before we play every night as if I dont 9 out of 10 times one of us have connection problems (bullets registering and lag)

 

So currently connection is charter spectrum> Netgear cm600 modem> Xr500 router all devices connected to xr500, Nat filter set to open, Qos enabled when high priority device detected, Geo filter set for USA, Anti buffer bloat set to 70%.  We both get open NAT in Ghost Recon Wildlands and connection test in ps4 checks out. As an experiment I have tried turning off wifi on the router while we play but did not seem to make any difference.

 

Odd problems I have noticed:

About a week ago while playing I checked the QOS setting and noticed that instead of both playstation consoles having priority that there were two devices that I did not even recognize on my network that had priority. I changed it back to the consoles having priority but did not notice much of a difference. 

 

Also I have noticed in the last couple of days that multiple devices in the network keep changing device type to playstation. I have been changing them back as I find them thinking maybe that is causing problems.

 

Several devices on the network keep dropping connection, Harmony hubs and nest cam outdoor seem to be the main problem (I read that a future firmware update should correct this).

 

Now after return period has expired My roommate is pissed off as he split this $300 gaming router with Me per my recommendation and is wanting me to change router back to Airport extreme as we truly had a better gameplay experience but Im telling him it should get sorted out with a firmware update. Im on the most current firmware btw.

 

When rebooting the router (on a nightly basis now) I have been using the Netgear app on my phone but notice that sometimes I have to reboot more than once for everything to be stable. Would it be better to just pull the power when rebooting?

 

Both consoles are connected directly to the router with cat 6 cable.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

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Use Geo-Filter in Spectating Mode - whats the ping to the game?

NAT Filter Open shouldn't be necessary

Disable DumaOS Classified Games and add consoles manually

Device Type changing to PlayStation is fixed in next version

Assuming those dropped devices are on WiFi, change channels to least congested, also change consoles to not use instant on mode

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Use Geo-Filter in Spectating Mode - whats the ping to the game?

NAT Filter Open shouldn't be necessary

Disable DumaOS Classified Games and add consoles manually

Device Type changing to PlayStation is fixed in next version

Assuming those dropped devices are on WiFi, change channels to least congested, also change consoles to not use instant on mode

 

Changed geo filter to spectating mode

When adding consoles manually should i choose "games console" under the basic settings?

Does it matter that under traffic prioritization the service is detected as xbox?

the ping seems to be around 70ms every time I check but this game also uses p2p instead of dedicated servers so I assumed this might be normal. thanks for the suggestions.

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Yes choose games console - it will show as Xbox but will work just the same

Interesting okay, that's slightly high but depends where you're connecting to

The best ping I ever saw was 43ms last night but pretty sure some in the group we were playing were using a lag switch as the gameplay was terrible. Once again could just be the fact that the game uses p2p instead of dedicated servers.

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I am experiencing a similar situation, playing on the nintendo switch, I select it as wii ... and playing P2P games I am suffering a terrible lag, I feel identified with the user who has exposed his problem.

 

I've checked the speed test and the connection goes well.

 

Yesterday it happened to me that the cable connection was lost, I have the router 15 days ago.

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Yes very true, keep us updated with the results from the changes i suggested

Will do. In the future if we were playing different games would I change the settings you suggested back to default? I thought the Duma classified game setting was supposed to automatically recognize console games. Will post back tonight or tomorrow and let you know if it works better. Oh and if I need to reboot the router do you recommend just pulling the power or restarting with the app? 

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It does but the reason I asked you to go the manual route is because you mentioned devices changing to PlayStation so want to make sure they're not getting prioritized by mistake. I'd restart from System Information :)

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So for the last 4 or 5 days I have not restarted the router and things seemed to be a little better. Last night roommate complaining because his bullets aren't registering so I rebooted the router and He proceeded to go 7-1,6-1,5-1 kdr on the next 3 games. 

 

And please tell me devices connected to wifi will stop disconnecting with the next firmware update. Nest cam drops connection all the time (not a huge deal) but our nest thermostats keep dropping connection (It was 109 in Texas yesterday) and roommate woke up from nap with the house at 79 degrees and nest app informing him that both thermostats lost connection.

 

fyi in the four years Ive owned the thermostats they have never lost wifi connection with Airport Extreme router.

 

A $300 router should work as well or better that a 4 year old Airport Extreme. If you have a beta firmware that might help with the wifi issues I would like to try it if possible.

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Sent you a PM with the firmware. Fix will be in next release

Will you please pm me the firmware as well. I have been patiently waiting for the release, but the constant wifi disconnects have been taxing. Thank you.
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every time i swap over to consoles, TP stops working for me, then it always leads to me just rebooting which is a hassle. I have tried manually implementing my consoles into TP but I often find myself having to restart in order to get it going again.  I have also tried leaving ticked dumaos classified games on, and still the same thing happens when I have to force reboot in order to get my TP up and running again

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every time i swap over to consoles, TP stops working for me, then it always leads to me just rebooting which is a hassle. I have tried manually implementing my consoles into TP but I often find myself having to restart in order to get it going again.  I have also tried leaving ticked dumaos classified games on, and still the same thing happens when I have to force reboot in order to get my TP up and running again

 

What do you mean by stops working? Also can you make a new topic regarding your issues please

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I have not noticed My nestcam or thermostats loosing connection since the beta firmware but my harmonyhub in my garage keeps loosing connection (not a huge deal). All the gaming benefits aside a $300 router should work at least as well as the Airport extreme it replaced that was probably 4-5 years old. I still have faith that it will get sorted out with a firmware update but this router should not have been released in the state it is in IMO. The first xr500 I bought was used on amazon and had the same problems so I thought maybe it was defective but replaced it with a brand new unit from Micro center while on sale and learned that the used router from amazon was not defective. Now I kind of wish I would have kept the one from amazon as its east to return an item to them. 

 

Still rebooting every night before we play and crossing fingers.

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Guest Killhippie

I have not noticed My nestcam or thermostats loosing connection since the beta firmware but my harmonyhub in my garage keeps loosing connection (not a huge deal). All the gaming benefits aside a $300 router should work at least as well as the Airport extreme it replaced that was probably 4-5 years old. I still have faith that it will get sorted out with a firmware update but this router should not have been released in the state it is in IMO. The first xr500 I bought was used on amazon and had the same problems so I thought maybe it was defective but replaced it with a brand new unit from Micro center while on sale and learned that the used router from amazon was not defective. Now I kind of wish I would have kept the one from amazon as its east to return an item to them. 

 

Still rebooting every night before we play and crossing fingers.

Why should a $300 router be in better shape than a $150 dollar router or a $400 one? Price is not the issue and does not mean it will work with every product you have. Nest don't list the XR500 or R7800 (same hardware near as damn it) as incompatible thankfully https://nest.com/uk/support/article/Some-routers-may-cause-issues-with-adding-a-Nest-product-or-Wi-Fi-connections#routers-thermostat

 

 Tbh sometimes its your clients that are the issue and a four year old discontinued router is not a good comparison as a probably a four year old car may not be compatible with Airplay 2 on an iPhone running iOS 11 for instance. Apple routers were simple and did not have a wealth of features either but they worked well. The more complicated a router gets the more issues can appear. That Apple router did not have a DPI engine for a start, probably had different firewall settings too. You have to do research, check the clients compatibility before you buy a more modern router and look on their sites for ways they say a router should be set up. You see you are having issues and I can only imagine your frustration, I however don't have any and the 11 Wi-Fi devices I have have not dropped once. Different devices probably, but you cant say it the router 100% since not everybody has the same issues you have to look to your network set up/Client set up and compatibly. How you set your router up (did you use smart connect) How far away is the Harmony hub and what frequency is it connected to? Have you gone to their site to trouble shoot?

 

 The XR500 hasa issues but for a very complicated device with two lots of firmware (Netgear's Linux OS and DumaOS) its pretty stable, I have seen more expensive routers like the R9000 (X10) that's a $423 router have massive issues with just loading their GUI let alone Wi-Fi drop outs etc. Asus AC88U's loosing 2.4Ghz/5Ghz radios due to heat issues and that's a $339 router. Price does not guarantee you a smooth ride, but the XR500 for most is a good router built off the very successful R7800 (which at launch could not hold a connection to any Apple gear for about four firmware updates until they figured that out) it came like that out the box like that too!

 

 It takes about a a year for a router that's released to become stable and even then the more features the more bugs it will have and even now the R7800 has regression issues with its GUI as well after the last update and that router was released in 2016. Research and reporting bugs and being patient is the best option, if you want a tried and tested router don't go for a new router like the XR500. Being at the bleeding edge is not always fun and not all clients will support your choice of router either, that's always been the case and as new specs come out it will only get more complicated. Wait until the 802.11ax routers are released later this year/early next year... A whole new frequency to be backwards compatible and people will rush out to buy the latest and so called greatest without having any 802.11ax clients and then they will be in a world of hurt as the current crop of routers coming to market are based on a still pending ratification and manufacturers are hoping nothing to much changes otherwise the first crop wont be fully compatible with the final draft...

 

 Like with anything do research before you buy make sure your clients are compatible by checking for routers on compatibility lists as I said, don't always think its the router and make sure everything is up to date and be aware some clients may never get patches for bugs or major security major holes. My B&W Wireless Zeppelin speaker ($699) has never been patched for Krack, once again price guarantees you nothing. Hope your issues are fixed soon.

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I have not noticed My nestcam or thermostats loosing connection since the beta firmware but my harmonyhub in my garage keeps loosing connection (not a huge deal). All the gaming benefits aside a $300 router should work at least as well as the Airport extreme it replaced that was probably 4-5 years old. I still have faith that it will get sorted out with a firmware update but this router should not have been released in the state it is in IMO. The first xr500 I bought was used on amazon and had the same problems so I thought maybe it was defective but replaced it with a brand new unit from Micro center while on sale and learned that the used router from amazon was not defective. Now I kind of wish I would have kept the one from amazon as its east to return an item to them. 

 

Still rebooting every night before we play and crossing fingers.

 

Have you done the troubleshooting on this page as its the only device having an issue currently: https://support.myharmony.com/en-au/wi-fi-wont-connect-or-frequently-disconnects-from-the-hub

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  • 1 month later...

So Everything seems to be better with the beta firmware I was given. Nest cam has only dropped connection a couple of times and only the harmonyhub in my garage constantly looses connection (I assume its just a weak spot for the wifi but its ok as the hub still works) and most importantly my nest thermostats have not lost connection. 

I noticed this morning that the wifi on my iphone x was a-lot slower that normal so I did a few speedtest. I have Charter Spectrum cable internet 100 mbps down.

Garage 34.4 mbps down and 9.08 mbps up

Upstairs bedroom 18.0 mbps down and 8.01 mbps up

Kitchen (30 feet from router) 37.4 mbps down and 9.47 mbps up

Standing two feet from router 46.6 mbps down and 9.41 up

 

Rebooted router and ran again as soon as router was back up when six feet from router 110.0 mbps down and 7.68 mbps up (also fast.com on my macbook pro connected to wifi reported 110 mbps down also)

 

51 minutes later speedtest app on phone is reporting 53.8 down and 9.74 up (six feet from router)

Garage 17.2 mbps down and 2.58 mbps up

Bedroom 33.3 mbps down and 9.52 mbps up

 

Tried rebooting router again and am getting between 60-70 mbps (6 feet from router) on both iphone x and macbook pro. Qos was set to "when high priority traffic detected" (70 mbps is normal when qos is being used). Tried setting qos to "never" just to rule out that maybe it is limiting my speed when not being used but still getting between 60-70 mbps down.

 

Does this seem normal? As soon as i rebooted i was getting 110 mbps down but now can only get 60-70 mbps even with qos disabled. Iphone and macbook are connected to the 5 ghz wireless.

 

***Edit***

So I went upstairs and rebooted the modem (Netgear CM 600) purchased at the same time as xr500 router. Connected modem directly to Imac with cat 6 cable. Ran 6 test in a row on speedtest.net and was getting between 213-216 mbps down and 11 mbps up. Fast.com reported between 190-210 mbps down after 6 test in a row. I only pay for 100 mbps down but maybe charter bumped up the speed without telling me.

 

Trying to update connection in duma os but noticed when I go to setup wizard I keep getting an error "problem detecting the internet connection"

***Edit2***

Rebooted xr500 again and am consistently getting 60 mbps down with iphone x and macbook pro from 6 feet away from router. Where exactly in duma os do I update the speed settings?

 

***Edit 3***

So finally got duma os setup wizard to recognize that there is an internet connection. Ran speed test (in duma os setup wizard) and it reported 214 down and 11 up. Clicked on qos and the settings seemed to take effect. 

Ran 3 test on fast.com 1st 130 down (excited figured its heading in the right direction). 2nd test 45 down (WTF) 3rd test 58 down. Ran 3 test on speedtest.net 1st 48 down and 11 up, 2nd 54 down and 11 up, 3rd 28 down and 11 up. WTF is up with this? Connected directly to the modem Im getting 215 mbps. Does a factory reset seem in order?

 

***Edit 4***

Pulled Airport extreme out of the closet and connected. (Six test in a row From macbook pro 6 feet from router) fast.com reports

210 down

220 down

210 down

230 down

220 down

220 down

six test in a row from speedtest.net (from macbook pro 6 feet from router)

212-217 mbps down and 11-12 mbps up.

6 test in a row on speedtest app on iphone x (6 feet from airport extreme)

212-214 down an 11-11.8 up (mbps)

 

 

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So I updated to the newest firmware and the wireless speed seems much more consistent. Still trying to decide if I should go ahead and restore the router and setup again. If so what is the recommended way to restore? I seem to remember reading about doing a factory reset three times in a row. Any suggestions?

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My speeds seem good but bufferbloat gets bad after just a few days, resetting the router fixes it but it is getting frustrating going from a router that needed a reset once every 6 months to one that needs it every few days. Solutions? 

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