What kind of tests you use, while testing speed? I tried to use RAX as iperf3 server and mac with 1x1 MU-MIMO and as result 800 MB/s with drops to 600. And channel utilization 98%, I guess this is maximum for 80 Mhz wide)
I use openspeedtest which is placed on docker on my server, the server is connected by 10gbps link to the switch and the 10gbps switch to the AP to the 5gbps port. So generally RAX is used as a DumbAP because the routing router is also on the server. However, from my tests, as I wrote above, the router is useless, my apartment is not large, only 30m2, and RAX does not cover even half of it with fast wifi, one wall is an insurmountable obstacle. Now, after marge, developers should focus on wifi.
There is strange things with 160Mhz wide band, such as wrong frequencies
root@OpenWrt:~# ubus call iwinfo info '{ "device": "radio0" }'
{
"phy": "phy0",
"bssid": "00:03:7F:12:69:83",
"country": "US",
"mode": "Master",
"channel": 36,
**"frequency": 6130,**
"frequency_offset": 0,
"txpower": 26,
"txpower_offset": 0,
"quality_max": 70,
"noise": 0,
"htmodes": [
"HT20",
"HT40",
"VHT20",
"VHT40",
"VHT80",
"HE20",
"HE40",
"HE80",
"HE80+80",
"HE160"
],
"hwmodes": [
"n",
"ac",
"ax"
],
"hwmodes_text": "ac/ax/n",
"hwmode": "a/g",
"htmode": "NOHT",
"hardware": {
"id": [
0,
0,
0,
0
],
"name": "Qualcomm Atheros IPQ8074"
}
}
I would like to express my gratitude to developers for supporting this router! I think it will be a great all-in-one OpenWRT device, taking my personal good experience with R7800 OpenWRT into ax WiFi era. Here is some feedback from the average consumer Joe about RAX120v2 so far:
- Wired and 2.4GHz WiFi connections seem stable(-ish). I have not been able to use this router too much yet, but definitely at least no big problems spotted so far
- 5GHz WiFi, as mentioned by other forum members, has very small range. Even though TX power is >20dBm, the range drops very quickly and is quite unusable even in a smaller apartment
- 5GHz WiFi is prone to crashing, bringing all WiFi networks (including 2.4GHz) down, requiring rebooting the router to bring them back up. Spotted the message "HW problem - can not stop rx aggregation" in system log, searching for it brought me to the following post in OpenWRT forum. I have not been able to test too much yet, but I see indications that crash on RAX120 is triggered by same conditions - when client is connected to 80MHz channel with weak signal. 5GHz WiFi seemed to work more stable with clients far away in 20MHz mode. Did not check 40MHz yet. Similarly, keeping all clients off the 5GHz WiFi completely also has not made any crashes yet. Maybe others have similar experience?
1 Like
Does anybody tried SQM Cake maximum speeds on RAX120 with this NSS mods IPQ807X NSS Build - #713 by asvio ? As I understand, this thing add Hardware flow offloading. So without it my maximum is 870 mb/s with additional parameters "nat dual-dsthost" and "nat dual-srchost"
Stock firmware finally upgrade to https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GPL/RAX120-V1.2.9.52_gpl_src.tar.bz2 and it fix the notorious reboot issue after one and half year.
I compared RAX120-V1.2.8.40_gpl_src <-> RAX120-V1.2.9.52_gpl_src and I can't figure how they fix it. Notable changes are:
- Remove
netatalk - Add
libpng - ReadyCloud related stuff removed
libd2dil.soreplaced withlibdillib.so- SMB config changes
net6confchanges: something related to ipv6 lan
1 Like
Hi All
I loaded a snapshot from December 26 into the router and was faced with the fact that Multi-Gig port does not work. Driver aquantia is visible in the system, ethtool shows lan5 as multi-gig. But unfortunately the connection to this port does not work. There is no data exchange - it seems that the port is disabled. Please tell me how to enable this port?
Thanks!
UPDATED
I launched this port thanks to these instructions:
Maybe it will make setting up the router easier for someone 
1 Like
should this merge back to master?
Tell me please, is there a way to increase the transmission power on 5GHz channels? 2.4 is very powerful, and 5 both channels are only 21 and 26 dB 
Despite the fact that in the settings I can set more.
Thanks!
Perhaps for this it makes sense to contact the author of the repository ...
i expected rax120 gain more audience after 24.05 version cut, so more bugs can be fixed later. right now, rax120 support is more like technical preview.
Are there any guesses as to what causes such problems with wireless networks? Colleagues from neighboring forum threads have been using IPQ807-based devices perfectly for over a year now and everything works great (xiaomi ax3600, ax6000 and others). Even IPQ NSS Build is nearly functional (builds based on software from qualcomm)
Hello, is there any option to flash the stock firmware from OpenWRT without disassembling the router?
I used the unbrick method mentioned in the wiki article.
Actually, I forgot that TFTP can be run without disassembling the router. Thank you very much!
Just got a used RAX120v2, flashed snapshot factory plus sysupgrade, installed multigig firmware from boretom's repo with mtdwrite ( https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/netgear/netgear_rax120_nighthawk_ax12#write_mbn_file_to_mtd_partition_to_be_loaded_automatically_by_u-boot ).
Installed a serial port into the enclosure so I can plug in any time.
The multigig 5Gps port seems to be working ok, currently using at 2.5G as trunk.
Everything seems to be working alright, but, as many have said, Wifi is horrible!
- 2.4GHz (phy1) only runs with 20MHz bandwidth, setting to 40MHz has no effect, wifi analyzers show it only at 20MHz. Setting at "30dBm" has decent range on par with other routers set to "20dBm". "iw phy1 info" shows support for HT40.
- 5GHz (phy0,phy2) works with 80MHz bandwidth. Setting to 160MHz device Luci shows device as active, but SSID disappears from wifi devices, basically 160MHz does not work.
- "iw phy0/1" info" shows support for 30dBm on 5GHz, but txpower is stuck as 26 or 27. Usable range for 5GHz is about 6 inches, beyond that you might as well switch to 2.4GHz. The actual output power appears to be much less than "26dBm", just like with the 2.4GHz "30dBm" is more like 20dBm on other routers in terms of range.
- etc...
The link speed for 5Ghz a few inches away ranges from 500Mbps to 1.2Gps, so It seems worthwhile to put the time in to get the thing to work.
- What do I need to do to get some improvement with 5GHz?
- Are there drivers/settings from the stock image that can be ripped out and inserted similarly to the Multigig ethernet driver?
- Where should I start poking and prodding?
Thanks!
What processor is installed in your router? ipq8074 or ipq8074A ?
There are two ways to find out:
dmesg | grep "SoC Version"hexdump -C /proc/device-tree/soc_version_major
If I understand correctly, the first revision of the router used processor ipq8074. Here is the proof: https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/netgear/netgear_rax120_nighthawk_ax12#oem_kernel_bootlog
[ 0.220195] DMA: preallocated 256 KiB pool for atomic allocations
[ 0.220251] CPU: IPQ8074, SoC Version: 1.2
[ 0.220271] <CORE> glink_init: IPC Logging Disabled
Laser marking on chip confirms that this is 8074
I guess this is a second revision, just a v1 firmware in log (hardware v1 and v2 uses the same stock firmware file with version v.1.x.x)
Then it’s generally surprising that your WiFi somehow works.
Does this mean that there is no chance of Wi-Fi working normally?