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I had the same issue as you did @xlr8r. I can tell you right now that it comes down to two issues: 1) The router is having issues with DHCP when it comes to assigning local IPs to devices in your network, thus causing it to disconnect everything. 2) The router is having issues with DHCP when it comes to leasing a new IP when your ISP decides to change the IP address to your network from the modem. A lot of ISPs work on dynamic IP addresses, which means that every so often, your IP lease will end and your IP address will either be renewed, or get changed entirely from their end to your modem. Once I said, "Screw it!" and got an EdgeRouter from Ubiquiti, I used the Nighthawk as a simple access point, and the internet has been working perfectly fine. This leads me to believe that one of the two things I listed above are the issue with the Netgear Nighthawk router disconnecting all the time. I believe its most likely my second point, simply because when it does disconnect, I reboot the router and then it has problems getting an IP from the modem period. It tells me that the cable is disconnected and to check the modem to see if its working... I have to reboot the router a few times, plug the WAN cable out and back in for the router to get an IP from the modem again.

I'm not the only one: - https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Pro-Gaming-Routers/XR500-DHCP-lease-change/td-p/1712252 - https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Pro-Gaming-Routers/XR500-DHCP-issue/td-p/1627017 - https://forum.netduma.com/topic/27594-xr500-constant-dhcp-lease-changes/ I'm sure there are many others having the same issue that aren't posting in forums. I apologize for the harsh words before, I was frustrated. But this is a problem happening to multiple users, not just me.

It's definitely not the modem. I actually did have an issue with my modem initially; my ISP was unintentionally giving out defective modems to customers that had the Intel Puma 6 chipset which is known to cause the modem to randomly reboot due to the faulty chip. I got that replaced with a new modem that works perfectly fine, but the router still drops connection every time the modem changes the IP address. All signs point directly to the RX500 since I plugged in an older router that I had before I got this one and it worked fine for weeks with no issue.

I've come here to say that this hotfix update has done absolutely nothing to fix the internet dropout problem. This router unfortunately does not support ISPs that have dynamic IP addresses too well, and quite frankly its embarrassing. I've worked with the staff here numerous times to fix my problem, and no matter what they've told me or given me in terms of firmware updates, the problem still persists. Every time the router releases and renews the IP address given by my ISP, my entire network loses connection and I have to reboot it. Even with this hotfix, it will work for a little while longer than it usually does until it happens again. I've had enough, and I am getting rid of my RX500 router in favor of Netgear's new AX8 WiFi 6 router. I clearly see there that they have gotten rid of your router software entirely and instead opted for their own in-house solution, most likely due to the fact that you guys can't seem to figure out how to fix a simple DHCP release & renew with your router software. I've tried to be nice and understanding with the staff here when it comes to this, but this is getting ridiculous and there are other routers out there that simply do not have the problem that you guys have with internet dropouts.

Another couple of days in, and still no random disconnects or reboots needed to get the router working. Its been 100% stable.

Two days into the beta firmware, and there are absolutely no problems so far. It seems like this firmware may have finally resolved the issue, but I will continue to post in this topic every two days with updates.

I've successfully installed the beta firmware, did a factory reset and all seems good so far. I'll come back in a day or two with an update on the status of my issue.

Its happening in general. I'll reboot the router and all of a sudden it is no longer able to detect internet coming from my modem until I either reboot it again, or plug out and plug back in the ethernet cable. Right now its fine so I don't believe its my modem or ISP. Thank you for the beta firmware, I will also try getting in touch with Netgear's technical support to see if they are aware of this issue.

May I also get this hotfix? I'm having the same issue as everyone else: random disconnects across the board on both wired and wireless connections. This is very frustrating considering I paid top dollar for this router only to have to reboot it every couple of hours. I am also running on V2.3.2.32. Its a great router, its just that this bug is a crucial one and should be getting a lot more attention from the devs. One thing I noticed is that it seems to be an issue with the internet port. It will not detect the internet connection coming from my modem until I reboot it, unplug and plug the CAT6 cable back in from the modem into the router. It shows an orange LED for internet and cannot connect until I follow those steps, and then it goes back to a white light.

If it happens again I'll be sure to create a Pastebin of the logs for you to check out.

It 100% did put random devices into the Geo-Filter. I originally had 2 devices that I set specifically in the Geo-Filter, and when the extreme lag in my game started occurring, I signed into my router to find out that two completely different devices with different MAC Addresses than the one I originally had it set to were applied instead. The device manager seemed to randomly rename the two devices that I had originally set in the Geo-Filter specifically. That might most likely be why the Geo-Filter chose two random devices from my network to fill in the gaps since the names of the original two devices changed and the Geo-Filter could not find them. Both devices I had Geo-Filter set for before the glitch occurred were PCs, one is used to mainly play Overwatch, and the other is used by a family member and is usually playing Fortnite. The Fortnite PC was changed by the device manager to a console device out of nowhere.

Okay so here's an update: I downgraded to the firmware that Frazer provided me and did a factory reset, and the internet drops have gone away. But a new issue has occurred with the Geo-Filter and a few other issues. I will list the bugs below. It does not keep the settings I originally put, and puts random devices in the list to Geo-Filter that I did not put myself. There is also unbearable lag in my games. I will turn off Geo-Filter, play a few games and see if this persists. When I add a second device to the Geo-Filter, it automatically lists it as a console instead of giving me an option to choose what game I want to Geo-Filter for specifically. Device manager randomly renames devices and classifies them as random types when I had them set to something else. This is pretty unfortunate, considering the latest firmware has an internet dropping problem, and the downgraded firmware has a Geo-Filter and game lag issue. I'm not sure what to do here.

Thanks for the very quick response, Netduma support team! I will try the downgraded firmware and keep you updated if the issue persists. UPDATE: I had to factory reset my router after the downgrade, since the router for some reason was not able to detect an internet connection from my modem. Once I factory reset and put all my settings back to how they were, its up and running with no issues so far. I'll have to wait a few days and see if the issue I was having with the latest firmware is still present though, but so far so good.

So for two days straight now, my XR500 has randomly dropped both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections completely. You can still connect to the router, but internet is not available. Once I reboot the router its back to normal until the following day when it drops connection again. I have a few settings enabled such as Wi-Fi Smart Switch, Anti Bufferbloat when high priority traffic is detected, and Geo Filter for two of the devices in my home, both on Filtering mode. I'm running on version 2.3.2.22. I will see if I can keep an eye on the logs next time this issue occurs.