Nighthawk R7000 Slow Internet Passthough Speed Weird Problem Help

[mikedahammer]

I just bought a new combo pack of the Motorola SB 6141 and the Netgear Nighthawk R7000. I cannot figure out is the problem I am having with the Internet speed. If the cable modem is wired directly to the PC I get about 92MB download speed and 12MB upload. However, once the cable modem is plugged into the Netgear Nighthawk and then wired to the PC my download speed drops to 12-15MB and 12MB upload. This is true on the wired side as well as the wireless side.


I cannot figure what is wrong. I updated the firmware on the Netgear but still have this issue. I even RMA’d the first Nighthawk I received since it did the same thing but now that this is the second one I have no idea what the issue is.

Has anyone ever seen this? If I hook up my old wireless G router I have the same issue so it has something to do with the DOCSIS 3.0 and the router. I have also tried changing cables etc.

 

[mikedahammer]

I just wanted to let anyone who finds this thread the problem had to do with Comcast assigning a IPV4 versus an IPV6 address. The problem went away after a few cycles of the router and comcast refreshing the signal. I hope this helps someone else out. Also, to add some more info my laptop can get 92 megs download via the wireless but my desktop wireless adapter is capping out around 40 megs a second. The location for the laptop and desktop were done right beside each other so I ordered a new wireless adapter for my desktop to see if i can squeeze 90 megs out of the new one.

 

[philly215]

I just bought a new combo pack of the Motorola SB 6141 and the Netgear Nighthawk R7000. I cannot figure out is the problem I am having with the Internet speed. If the cable modem is wired directly to the PC I get about 92MB download speed and 12MB upload. However, once the cable modem is plugged into the Netgear Nighthawk and then wired to the PC my download speed drops to 12-15MB and 12MB upload. This is true on the wired side as well as the wireless side.


I cannot figure what is wrong. I updated the firmware on the Netgear but still have this issue. I even RMA’d the first Nighthawk I received since it did the same thing but now that this is the second one I have no idea what the issue is.

Has anyone ever seen this? If I hook up my old wireless G router I have the same issue so it has something to do with the DOCSIS 3.0 and the router. I have also tried changing cables etc.

I am having the same issue, I also have the SB 6141; before I upgraded to the Nighthawk I was getting 96 for my download now am getting 50...Just to make sure I installed my old router and it jumped back up to 96. No help from netgear support they want 300 to 400 to config my router and clean my laptop.. ummmm yea ok... Really thinking about sending this back to Amazon....

 

[mikedahammer]

I am still having an issue with comcast and the 6141 and the nighthawk. Comcast has come out to my house and has acknowledged that there is an issue but has not provided any fix. The were supposed to the maintenance crew check the nodes and the street connections but no one has gotten back to me. I am going to flash the router to dd-wrt by Kong to see if that makes it more stable. I am still struggling with the situation and wish I had a more definitive answer for you.

Maybe me telling you I still have issues is enough for you to decide to send it back, but if you figure out your issue let me know because maybe it is the same on mine. Sorry I could not be more helpful.

 

[macgurutx]

Another thing to make sure you check, or anyone else that has this problem, is your QOS setting.

I was having an issue where my upstream bandwidth was topping out at 1.2Mbs via the R7000, but 5Mbs when I was connected directly to my cable modem.

Under the Advanced tab, then setup, then QOS. QOS was enabled, and it was configured for 1.2. So all of my speedtests and real uploads were getting constrained.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23852/~/how-do-i-optimize-my-internet-gaming-experience-with-upstream-quality-of

 

[GoCleanYourRoom]

I was having the same issues too--same setup (R7000 router and 6141 modem) switched off the guest network and my speedtest jumped from 5-12 Mbps to 60-70 Mbps via the 2.4 Mhz "N" adapter on my computer. Wired,the connection is still faster, but shutting down the guest network makes all the difference.

 

[greenlife802]

I was having same issue with Nighthawk. Have a 110Mbps connection (from Comcast and also through an SB6141) but was only getting 10 Mbps (or less) passthrough on wireless 5G band (at start of test speed would sometimes be as high as 50 Mbps, but over a few seconds would drop to nothing..)

Wired speeds were fine. Tried several different channels and factory resets of the router, wireless speed was still slow. Tried changing channels (I'm the only router on the channel). Logged onto Netgear website and submitted a support ticket.... within 2 hours they emailed me back with an RMA and the next day a new unit was being FedEx'd to me. Tech support rep said it's a known hardware issue in some units... I was super impressed with the customer service, it seriously was a no hassle replacement that took all of 15 minutes of my time.

UPDATE: I received the replacement router within a few days. Awesome. Except it had the SAME PROBLEM. As soon as the new router was on and I logged in, I upgraded to the latest version of firmware, did a factory reset, and ran Speedtest. And I had the same problem: internet passthrough speed on all my wireless devices was awful. Less than 10Mbps when I have a 110+Mbps connection. (Wired speeds were fine, so was not a provider or modem issue).

Contacted support again and they instructed me to manually download latest firmware on laptop and manually upgrade router, doing a factory reset both before and after the upgrade. They also told me to try turning off WMM (made no difference in passthrough speed, but did lower my laptops link speed from 433Mbps to 54Mbps!).

The only thing that changed since I first got a Nighthawk back in July 2014 (and I ran speedtests then and had a 110+Mbps wireless speed at that time), is that the firmware has upgraded several times... which got me thinking...

I downloaded from Netgear support the last 5 versions of firmware for the Nighthawk. http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/en/product/R7000#searchResults

I then manually downgraded the Nighthawk to each previous version (doing a factory reset both before and after each installation) and ran Speedtest each time. Once I got down to Version R7000-V1.0.3.24_1.1.20 (Released 2/12/14) and ran Speedtest, the PROBLEM WAS SOLVED. Wireless speeds on all devices (laptop, HTC One M7, and iPad Air 2) were all back up to 110Mbps or more!!!

Hope this experiment helps out someone else... if your're experiencing slow internet passthrough speeds and it's not your link speed (i.e. radio interferrence) that's the issue, there seems to be a serious problem with the last couple newer versions.. Try downgrading to firmware version R7000-V1.0.3.24_1.1.20

 

[bob423]

I was having same issue with Nighthawk. Have a 110Mbps connection (from Comcast and also through an SB6141) but was only getting 10 Mbps (or less) passthrough on wireless 5G band (at start of test speed would sometimes be as high as 50 Mbps, but over a few seconds would drop to nothing..)

Wired speeds were fine. Tried several different channels and factory resets of the router, wireless speed was still slow. Tried changing channels (I'm the only router on the channel). Logged onto Netgear website and submitted a support ticket.... within 2 hours they emailed me back with an RMA and the next day a new unit was being FedEx'd to me. Tech support rep said it's a known hardware issue in some units... I was super impressed with the customer service, it seriously was a no hassle replacement that took all of 15 minutes of my time.

UPDATE: I received the replacement router within a few days. Awesome. Except it had the SAME PROBLEM. As soon as the new router was on and I logged in, I upgraded to the latest version of firmware, did a factory reset, and ran Speedtest. And I had the same problem: internet passthrough speed on all my wireless devices was awful. Less than 10Mbps when I have a 110+Mbps connection. (Wired speeds were fine, so was not a provider or modem issue).

Contacted support again and they instructed me to manually download latest firmware on laptop and manually upgrade router, doing a factory reset both before and after the upgrade. They also told me to try turning off WMM (made no difference in passthrough speed, but did lower my laptops link speed from 433Mbps to 54Mbps!).

The only thing that changed since I first got a Nighthawk back in July 2014 (and I ran speedtests then and had a 110+Mbps wireless speed at that time), is that the firmware has upgraded several times... which got me thinking...

I downloaded from Netgear support the last 5 versions of firmware for the Nighthawk. http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/en/product/R7000#searchResults

I then manually downgraded the Nighthawk to each previous version (doing a factory reset both before and after each installation) and ran Speedtest each time. Once I got down to Version R7000-V1.0.3.24_1.1.20 (Released 2/12/14) and ran Speedtest, the PROBLEM WAS SOLVED. Wireless speeds on all devices (laptop, HTC One M7, and iPad Air 2) were all back up to 110Mbps or more!!!

Hope this experiment helps out someone else... if your're experiencing slow internet passthrough speeds and it's not your link speed (i.e. radio interferrence) that's the issue, there seems to be a serious problem with the last couple newer versions.. Try downgrading to firmware version R7000-V1.0.3.24_1.1.20

Is your fix still holding true? I have the same problem. 50 Gbps with a modem to PC connection but on pass through, the speed starts out being 30 to 40 Gbps but gradually decays over the day until a reboot of the computer (I automatically power cycle the router every night). I have Win 7 with R7000 to latest firmware - your fix is intriguing.

Bob

 

[greenlife802]

I was having same issue with Nighthawk. Have a 110Mbps connection (from Comcast and also through an SB6141) but was only getting 10 Mbps (or less) passthrough on wireless 5G band (at start of test speed would sometimes be as high as 50 Mbps, but over a few seconds would drop to nothing..)

Wired speeds were fine. Tried several different channels and factory resets of the router, wireless speed was still slow. Tried changing channels (I'm the only router on the channel). Logged onto Netgear website and submitted a support ticket.... within 2 hours they emailed me back with an RMA and the next day a new unit was being FedEx'd to me. Tech support rep said it's a known hardware issue in some units... I was super impressed with the customer service, it seriously was a no hassle replacement that took all of 15 minutes of my time.

UPDATE: I received the replacement router within a few days. Awesome. Except it had the SAME PROBLEM. As soon as the new router was on and I logged in, I upgraded to the latest version of firmware, did a factory reset, and ran Speedtest. And I had the same problem: internet passthrough speed on all my wireless devices was awful. Less than 10Mbps when I have a 110+Mbps connection. (Wired speeds were fine, so was not a provider or modem issue).

Contacted support again and they instructed me to manually download latest firmware on laptop and manually upgrade router, doing a factory reset both before and after the upgrade. They also told me to try turning off WMM (made no difference in passthrough speed, but did lower my laptops link speed from 433Mbps to 54Mbps!).

The only thing that changed since I first got a Nighthawk back in July 2014 (and I ran speedtests then and had a 110+Mbps wireless speed at that time), is that the firmware has upgraded several times... which got me thinking...

I downloaded from Netgear support the last 5 versions of firmware for the Nighthawk. http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/en/product/R7000#searchResults

I then manually downgraded the Nighthawk to each previous version (doing a factory reset both before and after each installation) and ran Speedtest each time. Once I got down to Version R7000-V1.0.3.24_1.1.20 (Released 2/12/14) and ran Speedtest, the PROBLEM WAS SOLVED. Wireless speeds on all devices (laptop, HTC One M7, and iPad Air 2) were all back up to 110Mbps or more!!!

Hope this experiment helps out someone else... if your're experiencing slow internet passthrough speeds and it's not your link speed (i.e. radio interferrence) that's the issue, there seems to be a serious problem with the last couple newer versions.. Try downgrading to firmware version R7000-V1.0.3.24_1.1.20

Is your fix still holding true? I have the same problem. 50 Gbps with a modem to PC connection but on pass through, the speed starts out being 30 to 40 Gbps but gradually decays over the day until a reboot of the computer (I automatically power cycle the router every night). I have Win 7 with R7000 to latest firmware - your fix is intriguing.

Bob

Hi,

Please see my update on the issue here: http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=94148

The latest firmware R7000-V1.0.4.14_1.1.50 released just a couple days ago appears to have fixed my problem. Get it here: http://support.netgear.com/product/r7000

 

[id11vcna]

I just bought a new combo pack of the Motorola SB 6141 and the Netgear Nighthawk R7000. I cannot figure out is the problem I am having with the Internet speed. If the cable modem is wired directly to the PC I get about 92MB download speed and 12MB upload. However, once the cable modem is plugged into the Netgear Nighthawk and then wired to the PC my download speed drops to 12-15MB and 12MB upload. This is true on the wired side as well as the wireless side.


I cannot figure what is wrong. I updated the firmware on the Netgear but still have this issue. I even RMA’d the first Nighthawk I received since it did the same thing but now that this is the second one I have no idea what the issue is.

Has anyone ever seen this? If I hook up my old wireless G router I have the same issue so it has something to do with the DOCSIS 3.0 and the router. I have also tried changing cables etc.

I am having the same issue, I also have the SB 6141; before I upgraded to the Nighthawk I was getting 96 for my download now am getting 50...Just to make sure I installed my old router and it jumped back up to 96. No help from netgear support they want 300 to 400 to config my router and clean my laptop.. ummmm yea ok... Really thinking about sending this back to Amazon....

Look at the Netgear forums. There are several instances where this was resolved by rolling back the firmware version.

 

[ShaffinB]

I solved this problem by turning off the "Internet Traffic Meter" Advanced> Advanced Setup> Traffic Meter. Our ISP just started installing 1000Mb Fiber to all residential homes in our city, I waited a year but I finally have it. I have a friend with the same Nighthawk router and fiber connection. He could get our full 980Mbps down but I could only get 530Mbps. So being a network technician and reading the posts here ( thank you all btw) I figured it was a setting that had a glitch in it from one of the updates ( also with going back to old firmware solving the problem). Hopefully Netgear will see this post and update the firmware with a fix in the next release.

 

[Taiken]

I solved this problem by turning off the "Internet Traffic Meter" Advanced> Advanced Setup> Traffic Meter. Our ISP just started installing 1000Mb Fiber to all residential homes in our city, I waited a year but I finally have it. I have a friend with the same Nighthawk router and fiber connection. He could get our full 980Mbps down but I could only get 530Mbps. So being a network technician and reading the posts here ( thank you all btw) I figured it was a setting that had a glitch in it from one of the updates ( also with going back to old firmware solving the problem). Hopefully Netgear will see this post and update the firmware with a fix in the next release.

I have had no luck at all. I have used older firmware and I don't have anything enabled that would slow my computer down. My phone seems to be getting faster internet speeds vs my computer. i normally get 50 down and 20 up on my previous router, a Dlink DIR 655, on all devices. Now, my phone is getting almost 40 down and my computer is getting 15 down.

 

[frankienutz]

I solved this problem by turning off the "Internet Traffic Meter" Advanced> Advanced Setup> Traffic Meter. Our ISP just started installing 1000Mb Fiber to all residential homes in our city, I waited a year but I finally have it. I have a friend with the same Nighthawk router and fiber connection. He could get our full 980Mbps down but I could only get 530Mbps. So being a network technician and reading the posts here ( thank you all btw) I figured it was a setting that had a glitch in it from one of the updates ( also with going back to old firmware solving the problem). Hopefully Netgear will see this post and update the firmware with a fix in the next release.

Which firmware did you use to roll back to? they just released Firmware Version 1.0.4.18 on 2/11/15 .... Did you have QOS also turned on by default?

 

[fredglive]

I have same issues with my Nighthawk R6700, which is a step down from R7000, (only one firmware currently available with R6700).

I disabled Traffic Meter as suggested by ShaffinB (Thank you) and it fixed my issue instantaneously. Both my download and uploads improved dramatically. Most notably uploads which were at .043 with Traffic Meter enabled, now at 28.30mbps:

Before: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4294247558
After: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4295766829

Thank you all for the input, as I was about to return the router to NetGear, which obviously requires a new firmware patch. I had the Optimum modem replaced just today, but issue persisted, so checked out this forum as only remaining variable was router.

I hope this helps the next user with similar issues.

Something else I noticed on my R6700 Settings...........
If applicable regarding upload:
Under Upstream QoS tab, make sure Mbps is set, not Kbps, which was set by default on mine.

 

[kmitch]

I had the same issues with a Nighthawk R7000 - my modem hard wire was getting 120 MB down and 45 up, but the router slowed it to 55 Mbps down and 30 up. I spent time with netgear tech support which didn't do much - their only added value was changing the channel to 11, but later I used 6 and it was faster, but not much. The biggest thing was going into QoS and selecting the 'optimize for streaming' option. I did this, meaning that priority would be given to Netflix, VUDU, etc. But then when I went to speedtest, my wireless in general is now running 119 Mbps down and 40 up, so it was the fix. I am using the latest firmware version. For some reason the trick was selecting that optimization for streaming option.

 

[shiowen]

I have same issues with my Nighthawk R6700, which is a step down from R7000, (only one firmware currently available with R6700).

I disabled Traffic Meter as suggested by ShaffinB (Thank you) and it fixed my issue instantaneously. Both my download and uploads improved dramatically. Most notably uploads which were at .043 with Traffic Meter enabled, now at 28.30mbps:

Before: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4294247558
After: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4295766829

Thank you all for the input, as I was about to return the router to NetGear, which obviously requires a new firmware patch. I had the Optimum modem replaced just today, but issue persisted, so checked out this forum as only remaining variable was router.

I hope this helps the next user with similar issues.

Something else I noticed on my R6700 Settings...........
If applicable regarding upload:
Under Upstream QoS tab, make sure Mbps is set, not Kbps, which was set by default on mine.

Thanks fredglive! My problem was the last thing you mentioned: the QoS setting. I was thinking QoS works in such way that it reserves a bandwidth that is specified by the user. So I set the value here to be 512 Kbps. However, after reading your post, I went to the QoS setting again and found out that this value should be your actual upload bandwidth! So after correcting the value, my upload speed went from 0.4 Mbps to 6Mbps. Thanks again for saving my life!

 

[gbzaid]

This is a pretty old post but in case people out there i still having this problem like me i wanted to add. I had the same exact problem people are describing here, fast speeds through wired, slow crippling speeds through wireless. I've tried everything tech support told me. I've been replaced it to have the same exact problem with the replacement. After many hours of calling and texting and another suggestion to replace it, i'm just going in to replace this with an apple airport extreme. I knew netgear wouldn't have the reliability that apple is known for. Fuck this piece of shit, netgear BLOWS.
BTW i am on the latest firmware and i've tried changing QOS settings, disabling traffic meter(it was disabled by default) changing the fragmentation number to 2304, changing preamble to short, changing to channel 11, reflashing firmware to same version, resetting it then and "leaving it there for 30min -1 hour" as suggested by genius tech support". I've tried everything on this thread, Thank you all for your suggestions, i think we can isolate this as a MASS HARDWARE ISSUE.

 

[avera003]

THANK YOU !!! greenlife802 who ever you are!!! I tried everything you did to fix the issue but nothing seemed to work. Once I downgraded the firmware it WORKED!!! The only thin I noticed was that my upload speed was cut in half. Im still happy and will figure that one... some other frustating time.

 

[Abe_FX35]

im having the same problem, R700 Router and i have FIOS Gigabit internet, when router connected i only get 300-400 Mbps....remove the router and do direct ethernet to FIOS box i get almost 1 GB speed ! what do i need to do ? been Frustrated for weeks !

 

[tevya]

I know I'm way late, but turning off QoS solved the issue for me. It was limiting each device to 3mbps up and 60mbps down (when my internet is capable of 200, often topping out at 220). Turning off QoS and using the LATEST firmware (as of today) worked for me. I get full speeds. And I really like the new feature that combines the 2.4ghz and 5ghz into a single network and connects each device to whatever is best. Now my 1st gen Chromecast is available on the network to all my newer devices that normally were on the 5ghz.

But most importantly, turning off QoS fixed it. QoS is trying to reserve speed for when multiple devices each need some of the bandwidth, but it does it even if there's no real bandwidth issue. Thanks to all who have posted helpfully here. It was what I needed to get it figured out. But I didn't have to roll back Firmware versions or any of that junk. It's working great with all the latest features, as long as QoS is turned off.

 

[sbanj17]

im having the same problem, R700 Router and i have FIOS Gigabit internet, when router connected i only get 300-400 Mbps....remove the router and do direct ethernet to FIOS box i get almost 1 GB speed ! what do i need to do ? been Frustrated for weeks !

I am having he same issue with my Google fiber. It was working fine for a while, when suddenly it would barely get to 200mbps. I haven't been able to fix it. I've rolled back to several different firmwares and tested each without luck, 1.0.3, 1.0.4,1.0.7 and no luck. Anyone have an answer?