Just upgraded my router to the really nice Nighthawk X4S... I had an older nighthawk previously so I'm very familiar with these.

Here's my issue: Everything works great after setup. But after about an hour my wired devices lose their connection. looking at the routers config menu on the computer ALL physically connected devices are 100% gone... not a single wired device is listed. Only fix is to reboot the router. FYI, all wifi connections are rock solid.

Already took 1 unit back and unit 2 is doing the EXACT same thing. Seriously WTF!!!!! I had a very similar netgear router that I just replaced and I didn't have any of these issues. Looking online suggests maybe replacing my Cat5 cables, but I'm pessimistic cause this wasn't an issue until I switched out the router.


Please help with some ideas cause I'm about at my wits end!!!

Newest firmware on it? Sounds software related rather than hardware.

What all are you running on your network? XBox One, U-verse TV boxes, etc?

Yes, firmware was updated 1st thing after I powered it up and logged into it.

I only have 2 wired connections... Xbox One & Tivo (both of these drop out and are gone until I reboot the router, then they both come back online only to drop again shortly after).

Wifi connections are pretty typical... Windows PC, couple android phones, couple laptops.

jr15aggie said:

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Yes, firmware was updated 1st thing after I powered it up and logged into it.

I only have 2 wired connections... Xbox One & Tivo (both of these drop out and are gone until I reboot the router, then they both come back online only to drop again shortly after).

Wifi connections are pretty typical... Windows PC, couple android phones, couple laptops.

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Prior to the reboot, are the connections showing link lights on the back, or are they completely dead?

They are on, but neither wired device will gain a connection regardless of rebooting the device, etc. And looking at the config screen on my computer all the LAN items in the "connected devices" section are completely gone, but all the wifi devices are running strong.

Only solution is a router reboot which is only a very temporary solution.

Considering it has happened on both routers (the original and the replacement) I'm at a loss. I guess it's possible I'm that unlucky 1% that has a certain combination of devices it simply does not like for whatever reason. But everything I'm running is so basic, plug and play.

I run a small business so I'm tempted to plug in this problem router there, just to see if I have the same issues with the wired devices at my office.

Try running the Xbox One over Wifi and see if it the Tivo gets knocked off the network.

The reason I'm suggesting this is that I had significant issues with my Xbox One on the wired network, primarily when it was in sleep mode, playing havoc with the other devices. Apparently it's a common enough issue that AT&T suggested it to me when I was having problems with U-Verse. Switching the XB1 to WiFi solved my problems.

Found this:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/R7800-Loses-wired-internet-connection-but-wireless-still-works/td-p/1106204/page/3

There's a suggestion in there to roll back to a previous version.

tamusc said:

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Try running the Xbox One over Wifi and see if it the Tivo gets knocked off the network.

The reason I'm suggesting this is that I had significant issues with my Xbox One on the wired network, primarily when it was in sleep mode, playing havoc with the other devices. Apparently it's a common enough issue that AT&T suggested it to me when I was having problems with U-Verse. Switching the XB1 to WiFi solved my problems.

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Thanks... I've had that same thought! My Tivo is wired only, but I can definitely run the XB1 wireless to see if that changes the behavior.

mickeyrig06sq3 said:

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Found this:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/R7800-Loses-wired-internet-connection-but-wireless-still-works/td-p/1106204/page/3

There's a suggestion in there to roll back to a previous version.

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And thanks to you too! I have been going through those forums and found some similar issues, but this one appears to be exactly what I'm experiencing. I'm almost positive the firmware version they listed is what mine upgraded too. And looking at the time stamp on the forum, it is very possible this is a really crappy firmware release problem. It would at least explain why both routers had the same problem, because I upgraded both.

I'll look into factory resetting the router and seeing if that does anything.

Really appreciate you guys helping look into this, it has reaffirmed some of my thoughts. Feel free to add more, but for now I've at least got 2 very easy things I can try and see how it goes. If I get a resolution I'll post here... thanks!

Question cause I'm not at home to try it... will resetting the router to factory defaults also reset the firmware? If not can you typically find older firmware releases and manually download? I've never had to roll back the firmware on a router so not sure the usual protocol.

jr15aggie said:

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Question cause I'm not at home to try it... will resetting the router to factory defaults also reset the firmware? If not can you typically find older firmware releases and manually download? I've never had to roll back the firmware on a router so not sure the usual protocol.

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Normally factory default will only do the settings, not the firmware.

Here's a link for that firmware:
http://kb.netgear.com/30794/R7800-Firmware-Version-1-0-2-04?cid=wmt_netgear_organic

If that doesn't work, you can try flipping over to DD-WRT to see if that makes any difference.

Resetting to factory defaults will just affect the settings, not the firmware version. You'll have to pick one of the older revisions that works from this page. Click the "view previous versions" button to see all the old ones.

https://www.netgear.com/support/product/R7500v2?cid=wmt_netgear_organic#download

You guys rock! Huge help... I've got so much going on right now and this has been a big help. I'll let you know!

Just go to DD-WRT, its always an upgrade over stock.

FatZilla said:

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Just go to DD-WRT, its always an upgrade over stock.

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Not always as it doesn't support IPv6 correctly yet, at least on the R7000.

OK, I loaded the older firmware. Only thing I can do now is wait and see if I get the same results. The fault typically occurs within a couple hours, so if all is well later on tonight it will be a good sign that it worked.

tamusc said:

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FatZilla said:

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Just go to DD-WRT, its always an upgrade over stock.

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Not always as it doesn't support IPv6 correctly yet, at least on the R7000.

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True, but IPV6 is still not mainstream for most home users and wont be for many years. By then i expect DD-WRT to have working IPV6 for its supported models. In features like web blocking, time metering, port forwarding etc, the DD-WRT will almost always offer more and flushed out features.

There is also tomato, not sure if it works on this model.
http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato
https://advancedtomato.com/

I ended up going with XWRT (which is a branch of the Merlin firmware for Asus routers made for non-Asus routers) a while back as it was far more robust than DD WRT and included full IPv6 support, including an IPv6 firewall. IPv6 is damn near essential now (not some time in the future) if you have multiple gaming consoles of the same type (like two Xbox One consoles) on your home network. There really isn't any other way to get them working at the same time that doesn't create a huge security issue.

http://xvtx.ru/xwrt/

Any luck?

So far so good with the older firmware. Massive thanks to you guys!!!

In hindsight, firmware made the most sense considering I had the same issue on 2 routers. I'm guessing the Xbox One has something to do with the issue as well since that fella in the netgear forums also mentioned having an XB1. Wonky firmware upgrade that didn't play nice with the xbox I guess.