Drksider81 Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 So im in the market for a new gaming router..the nighthawk xr 500 is one of the few i have narrowed down to..actually was going to purchase until i saw several reviews with complaints about connectivity issues and dropping service... as all of the post are from 2019 im wondering if there has been a solution to this problem yet..dont really want to spend the money if not as connectuon issues are the reason im replacing my equipment to begin with..thanks for any help on this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Netduma Fraser Posted February 6, 2020 Administrators Share Posted February 6, 2020 Hey, welcome to the forum! The problem is there yes but does not affect everyone - you only hear from people who have the issue of course and there are a lot more people with the router than you would see on a support forum or giving reviews. There is no firmware fix type solution at this stage, however the next version of our software DumaOS 3.0 is a significant upgrade on the existing firmware and so should resolve that issue as well. We're aiming to begin beta testing soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinwabee Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Drksider81 I can tell u as someone who is on their second xr500 and 2-3 hrs of my life lost that I can never get back in being on the phone with tech support foreigners who dont comprehend well because of the language barrier and all they have to offer are the stepstheir screen says to do...DONT BUY ONE. I will be returning the second one later today (had the two routers about a total of a month and a half). I, like you read reviews and saw what you saw regarding reboots and connectivity issues but figured “i’ve never had issues with routers in the past, maybe they’re just doing something wrong” and so I took a chance anyway and i’m just trying to save you the trouble. My issues started about a week after I had initially purchased the first router. It worked beautifully for the first week and I thought all was well and was glad I had took the chance and made the purchase but then it just so happened I was my daughter’s bball game and someone rang the doorbell so I logged into my security app to see who it was. After doing this I went into the netgear app and decided to just reboot the router thru the app (for no reason at all other than just to do it to make sure everything was functioning properly thru the app) and that’s when the problems started. Could not connect back to the router, get connected back to my security system to look at cameras or anything. When I got home later that night I saw the amber internet light (which you will surely come to despise that light if you dont heed my warning) and it was flashing. Rebooted router, nothing. Rebooted modem and router, nothing...same amber light. Rebooted modem and router again and finally success. I thought ok, just a hiccup...nope. 2 days later random reboot and no internet. Had to reboot modem and router again until they’d work. That same night while laying in bed watching a vid on my phone the connection goes out and I stroll downstairs to what...you got it AMBER INTERNET LIGHT. Called tech support the next morning and spent about 2 hrs or so on the phone with foreign jane (i’ll spare u the long story and just say) at the end of the day she had me do a factory reset by holding the reset button for a minute. Of course that worked (but as I told her this is just a bandaid to a bigger problem and this shouldnt be happening). All was fine for about 6 hrs until that same night, same thing, dropped connection. Packed it up and took it back the next morning. I really wanted to like the router so I exchanged it for another. Long story short it didnt take long for the new router to act up. Had it for almost 3 weeks or so now and its dropped connection at least 4 times. Now, for all those who might read this and you are stuck with this router...what I learned is that if you get the amber internet light after a reboot and like me your next step is to reboot the modem and router you may not need to. I was simply unplugging the ethernet cable at the back of the router that comes from the modem and waiting a few seconds and plugging it back in and once plugged in it would blink orange for about 5 secs or so and then go white...(its as if theres a glitch that doesnt allow it properly recognize that the internet feed is plugged in after a reboot. It physically knows theres a cable plugged in cuz the light is amber and when unplugged the amber light goes out but it wont go work until unplugged and plugged back in, at least thats what I found). This worked fine for the first 3 reboots but then last night which is what has me at my final straw with this router, that trick would not work and despite 3 reboots of the modem and router with an additional 3 reboots of the router it will not connect to the internet. Plugged in my old apple airport and bam back up in no time. I’m not wasting my time calling tech support cuz A. Its a joke and B. I dont have the patience for them and sure I can factory reset it and get it working for 3 days. STAY AWAY FROM THIS THING MY MAN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gkontos10 Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 On 2/6/2020 at 8:02 PM, Netduma Fraser said: Hey, welcome to the forum! The problem is there yes but does not affect everyone - you only hear from people who have the issue of course and there are a lot more people with the router than you would see on a support forum or giving reviews. There is no firmware fix type solution at this stage, however the next version of our software DumaOS 3.0 is a significant upgrade on the existing firmware and so should resolve that issue as well. We're aiming to begin beta testing soon. Hey my friend because am one of the users that had this speed drop a long time now without any solution.. When do we have expect upgrade to arrive?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brainbleach Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 I love the xr500. It's worked flawlessly since the day I bought it. If you are a gamer then I would recommend this router 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Netduma Fraser Posted February 8, 2020 Administrators Share Posted February 8, 2020 17 hours ago, Chinwabee said: Drksider81 I can tell u as someone who is on their second xr500 and 2-3 hrs of my life lost that I can never get back in being on the phone with tech support foreigners who dont comprehend well because of the language barrier and all they have to offer are the stepstheir screen says to do...DONT BUY ONE. I will be returning the second one later today (had the two routers about a total of a month and a half). I, like you read reviews and saw what you saw regarding reboots and connectivity issues but figured “i’ve never had issues with routers in the past, maybe they’re just doing something wrong” and so I took a chance anyway and i’m just trying to save you the trouble. My issues started about a week after I had initially purchased the first router. It worked beautifully for the first week and I thought all was well and was glad I had took the chance and made the purchase but then it just so happened I was my daughter’s bball game and someone rang the doorbell so I logged into my security app to see who it was. After doing this I went into the netgear app and decided to just reboot the router thru the app (for no reason at all other than just to do it to make sure everything was functioning properly thru the app) and that’s when the problems started. Could not connect back to the router, get connected back to my security system to look at cameras or anything. When I got home later that night I saw the amber internet light (which you will surely come to despise that light if you dont heed my warning) and it was flashing. Rebooted router, nothing. Rebooted modem and router, nothing...same amber light. Rebooted modem and router again and finally success. I thought ok, just a hiccup...nope. 2 days later random reboot and no internet. Had to reboot modem and router again until they’d work. That same night while laying in bed watching a vid on my phone the connection goes out and I stroll downstairs to what...you got it AMBER INTERNET LIGHT. Called tech support the next morning and spent about 2 hrs or so on the phone with foreign jane (i’ll spare u the long story and just say) at the end of the day she had me do a factory reset by holding the reset button for a minute. Of course that worked (but as I told her this is just a bandaid to a bigger problem and this shouldnt be happening). All was fine for about 6 hrs until that same night, same thing, dropped connection. Packed it up and took it back the next morning. I really wanted to like the router so I exchanged it for another. Long story short it didnt take long for the new router to act up. Had it for almost 3 weeks or so now and its dropped connection at least 4 times. Now, for all those who might read this and you are stuck with this router...what I learned is that if you get the amber internet light after a reboot and like me your next step is to reboot the modem and router you may not need to. I was simply unplugging the ethernet cable at the back of the router that comes from the modem and waiting a few seconds and plugging it back in and once plugged in it would blink orange for about 5 secs or so and then go white...(its as if theres a glitch that doesnt allow it properly recognize that the internet feed is plugged in after a reboot. It physically knows theres a cable plugged in cuz the light is amber and when unplugged the amber light goes out but it wont go work until unplugged and plugged back in, at least thats what I found). This worked fine for the first 3 reboots but then last night which is what has me at my final straw with this router, that trick would not work and despite 3 reboots of the modem and router with an additional 3 reboots of the router it will not connect to the internet. Plugged in my old apple airport and bam back up in no time. I’m not wasting my time calling tech support cuz A. Its a joke and B. I dont have the patience for them and sure I can factory reset it and get it working for 3 days. STAY AWAY FROM THIS THING MY MAN. I'm really sorry to hear that you have had a terrible experience so far. I would like to help you and see if we can get to the bottom of the issue though. Rest assured I'm not a foreign Jane. Would you be able to make a new topic so that we could try and figure this out together? From what you've said I'd like to know what your ISP modem/router is that the XR500 is connected to, how that is set up and more about your specific connection e.g. PPPoE, VLAN etc 12 hours ago, gkontos10 said: Hey my friend because am one of the users that had this speed drop a long time now without any solution.. When do we have expect upgrade to arrive?? I can't say anything more than we expect to do a beta test soon unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinwabee Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 On 2/8/2020 at 12:19 AM, Brainbleach said: I love the xr500. It's worked flawlessly since the day I bought it. If you are a gamer then I would recommend this router 100%. Lucky you. All I can say is if you havent had to reboot it yet or simply havent rebooted it then pray you never do. My first xr500 was great for the first week & change and then once I rebooted it the love affair was over. Purchased the second one and instantly rebooted it for the purpose of...if it was gonna show its ugly face I wanted to get right to it so it could be returned during the allowed period and it didnt take long, that same night to be exact to start its bs and then every 3 days after that. So it went back as well but we are already missing it. Like I said before when it worked it was great and we loved it but im convinced its a firmware issue (cuz 2 did the exact same thing) but I refuse to take that chance of keeping something that may not be fixed for that amount of money and thats assuming its just a firmware issue. Good luck to you with yours. Zippy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsNCo Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 On 2/8/2020 at 8:57 PM, Netduma Fraser said: I'm really sorry to hear that you have had a terrible experience so far. I would like to help you and see if we can get to the bottom of the issue though. Rest assured I'm not a foreign Jane. Would you be able to make a new topic so that we could try and figure this out together? From what you've said I'd like to know what your ISP modem/router is that the XR500 is connected to, how that is set up and more about your specific connection e.g. PPPoE, VLAN etc I can't say anything more than we expect to do a beta test soon unfortunately. I do hope it will come soon! As I add more Home Automation devices into the network, I notice that there are plenty of disconnection issues with my HA products. It would mean entering into a bathroom at night with the lights not turning on or Alexa just randomly stop playing the radio when the routine for the length of the radio playing isn't over yet. The biggest telltale sign of a loss in connection is with my Broadlink which controls all the non-smart devices in the house. It will show a blue light indicating it lost connection with the internet but is actually just a disconnect with the router as I had no issues streaming videos or gaming at that point of time. It is just so random. Restarting the router might not really solve this issue. I even have an extender, but the HA devices still has issues. Oh yes! I did notice the issue gets worst when I have Hybrid VPN turned on and even when Hybrid VPN is turned off but I have a device saved in Hybrid VPN. Currently, when I have Hybrid VPN turned off and removed devices from it, the issues are somewhat less frequent. Maybe this can help you guys find the root cause of this issue. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Netduma Fraser Posted February 18, 2020 Administrators Share Posted February 18, 2020 On 2/17/2020 at 5:36 AM, AsNCo said: I do hope it will come soon! As I add more Home Automation devices into the network, I notice that there are plenty of disconnection issues with my HA products. It would mean entering into a bathroom at night with the lights not turning on or Alexa just randomly stop playing the radio when the routine for the length of the radio playing isn't over yet. The biggest telltale sign of a loss in connection is with my Broadlink which controls all the non-smart devices in the house. It will show a blue light indicating it lost connection with the internet but is actually just a disconnect with the router as I had no issues streaming videos or gaming at that point of time. It is just so random. Restarting the router might not really solve this issue. I even have an extender, but the HA devices still has issues. Oh yes! I did notice the issue gets worst when I have Hybrid VPN turned on and even when Hybrid VPN is turned off but I have a device saved in Hybrid VPN. Currently, when I have Hybrid VPN turned off and removed devices from it, the issues are somewhat less frequent. Maybe this can help you guys find the root cause of this issue. Thanks! Do these devices have a static/reserved IP at all? Could you try connecting them all to a guest WiFi network and see if it is more stable? That's very interesting about the VPN, was a server selected/entered even when being disabled? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsNCo Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 On 2/19/2020 at 2:50 AM, Netduma Fraser said: Do these devices have a static/reserved IP at all? Could you try connecting them all to a guest WiFi network and see if it is more stable? That's very interesting about the VPN, was a server selected/entered even when being disabled? All my Home Automation have static IP addresses that I input manually on the router to prevent problems with them. I don't think Guest WiFi will work. Because even my PC will be affected by it. It results in my PC's speedtest to become less than 15Mbps for both up and down. And you know... I have a 1Gbps connection. Another interesting point is, when this is happening, I will have issues loading my router page via my wired PC as well! So all my WiFi devices will straight up not have any internet connection while my PC is chugging along web pages not loading but videos via other protocol is trying its best to stream and ultimately fails too. Like I have a super high latency all of a sudden and no pages are loading. So you know it has something to do with the router as opposed to the modem or my ISP's internet connection. It happened when I use the VPN and then turn it off. After that, these problems will start happening. But I am not sure if it's really the main cause. But I hope my description on top will help you guys in tackling the bug. It's been 6 months and this issue still persists. But it's my fault because I forgot to come to the forum to keep you guys updated on this issue. It's been a crazy year. My bad! 😅 Unfortunately, even though I registered for the XR500 DumaOS v3.0 beta very early, I didn't get any messages from them. So I'm out of luck in that regard too. 😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Netduma Fraser Posted August 13, 2020 Administrators Share Posted August 13, 2020 22 hours ago, AsNCo said: All my Home Automation have static IP addresses that I input manually on the router to prevent problems with them. I don't think Guest WiFi will work. Because even my PC will be affected by it. It results in my PC's speedtest to become less than 15Mbps for both up and down. And you know... I have a 1Gbps connection. Another interesting point is, when this is happening, I will have issues loading my router page via my wired PC as well! So all my WiFi devices will straight up not have any internet connection while my PC is chugging along web pages not loading but videos via other protocol is trying its best to stream and ultimately fails too. Like I have a super high latency all of a sudden and no pages are loading. So you know it has something to do with the router as opposed to the modem or my ISP's internet connection. It happened when I use the VPN and then turn it off. After that, these problems will start happening. But I am not sure if it's really the main cause. But I hope my description on top will help you guys in tackling the bug. It's been 6 months and this issue still persists. But it's my fault because I forgot to come to the forum to keep you guys updated on this issue. It's been a crazy year. My bad! 😅 Unfortunately, even though I registered for the XR500 DumaOS v3.0 beta very early, I didn't get any messages from them. So I'm out of luck in that regard too. 😅 I'd suggest reinstalling the latest firmware via TFTP as if there are any issues in the boot process it will bypass this. Its up to you but would then advise doing a factory reset afterwards and that will ensure the freshest install. https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP What's your Netgear community username? We'll try and boost you up the list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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