Alternative to Netgear Nighthawk RAX120

[ArtoriaPendragon]

Hello, I'm looking for suggestions to replace my RAX120v2. I got it literally this week for the new house and it has been constantly rebooting itself ever since I got it set up. I've tried resetting it, revering to older firmware, connecting it to a UPS, adding fans to help with cooling, and just about every tip I've been able to find online regarding how to resolve this issue. I'm really sick of spending more time trying to get the thing to work than actually going online so I'd like to get a router that just works. 

 

The house is approximately 3500 sqft, two floors, and we've got gigabit with CenturyLink.

[Falcon1986]

47 minutes ago, ArtoriaPendragon said:

and we've got gigabit with CenturyLink.

And you're running the CenturyLink device in bridged/passthrough mode I hope.

 

48 minutes ago, ArtoriaPendragon said:

I got it literally this week for the new house and it has been constantly rebooting itself ever since I got it set up.

By "rebooting", do you mean the RAX120 shuts off completely and restarts? I.e. you see the LEDs turning off and on?

[ArtoriaPendragon]

5 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

And you're running the CenturyLink device in bridged/passthrough mode I hope.

 

By "rebooting", do you mean the RAX120 shuts off completely and restarts? I.e. you see the LEDs turning off and on?

 

I am indeed running in bridged mode and yes, the entire unit just shuts off and restarts.

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, ArtoriaPendragon said:

I am indeed running in bridged mode and yes, the entire unit just shuts off and restarts.

The RAX120 seems to be a troublesome wireless router, which you wouldn't expect from something that costs $300+ retail.

 

Skimming through Google shows that quite a few people have a similar issue to yours and no one has found a fix yet. It might be time to return the device and see if you can get your money back or exchange with something that will be more reliable.

 

Short of that, you can try this way of doing a factory reset. Download new copies of the firmware from Netgear just to make sure you don't have anything corrupt. Then perform a factory reset through the router interface, log back into it and re-upload the firmware image. After it flashes and reboots, log back in and perform a factory reset again. See how it performs. DO NOT import any settings file. Perform your setup fresh.

[Donut417]

6 hours ago, ArtoriaPendragon said:

and we've got gigabit with CenturyLink.

The biggest issue your going to have is finding a router that supports Gigabit Fiber. Most routers even if they have Gigabit WAN dont support Gigabit internet. You might want to check out Smallnetbuilder.com as they would have more info. Your specifically looking for the WAN to LAN and the LAN to WAN throughput. Many people who go Gigabit end up building a router with PFsense installed. The biggest negative with PFsense is that is not a all in one solution. Meaning it will do DHCP, Firewall and NAT but you will need a switch and Wireless AP. 

 

Outside of all of that like @Falcon1986said update the firmware if a new one is available. 

[DogKnight]

Damn. Sucks to hear about those issues. Wasn't aware a few people were having issues with the RAX120. 

I have had a RAX120 for almost a year now. It has worked flawlessly for me (touch on wood). 

The only slight issue I am experiencing is sometimes the fan will spin up to an audible level for about 30 seconds at a time. Probably happens once every 3 hours of so. And it's likely due to the fact it needs a good clean as it tends to collect a lot of dust where its located. 

Otherwise it has been great. Works well with a gigabit connection and the 5gbe port for LAN is awesome. One of the reasons I chose this model.