Mynet N900 barely usable; hope fw update comes soon

WD Legacy Products My Net Networking Devices
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When it works, my Mynet N900 router is the best there is in terms of speed and features. But now that it is so frequently disconnecting from the Internet, it’s barely usable. After a couple of weeks of frustration, I finally pulled out an old router that I had been expecting to sell on eBay. I really hope the next firmware update fixes this problem. I believe I’ve tried all the suggestions I could find on this forum and elsewhere.

I’m wondering if possibly it could be that it struggles to maintain an Internet connection when more than five devices are on the WLAN. What’s strange, though, is that my desktop, which is connected to the router via ethernet cable, loses Internet connectivity, too. My old router is slower and isn’t dual band, but at least it’s reliable.

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I got same problem with the latest firmware 1.05.12 it keeps on LAN disconnected sometimes and after while it reconnects. 

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I just purchased this router this week and set it up last night.  It upgraded to the 1.05.12 as part of the initial setup.  It seemed to work last night and most of today but experienced this problem this evening.  I ended up cycling the power and all seems to be well once again.  I wonder how widespread this is?  Perhaps a bad lot?  

If this is a frequent problem, perhaps I should return it to the store before the 14 day return policy expires!

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ts7tech wrote:

I just purchased this router this week and set it up last night.  It upgraded to the 1.05.12 as part of the initial setup.  It seemed to work last night and most of today but experienced this problem this evening.  I ended up cycling the power and all seems to be well once again.  I wonder how widespread this is?  Perhaps a bad lot?  

 

If this is a frequent problem, perhaps I should return it to the store before the 14 day return policy expires!

    • *I’d just monitor it for a few days and see. With my router, the problem got progressively worse. What’s strange, though, is that it performed very well for the first few weeks. If yours is going to misbehave, I hope for your sake it does so right away.
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I’m glad to see I am not the only one with persistent issues like this.  Tech support has yet to respond to any of my issues on the N900. The hardware of the unit and the features it presents are exactly what I need and there are no competitors that can do all that this N900 can do. Now if only it would work. We need to have WD address this issue and give us a solution. If there were a bad batch, identify it from all those that are having issues and replace the units.  I have relied on WD for years with HDDs and expected the same here.

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varxx and RocketScience, those comments were very familiar to me.  I want to love this thing, because when it works it is great.  But, the thing just doesn’t work.

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Im in the same boat…   just thought I would drop this out there… the problems I am having all seem related to heavy network traffic…  my theory is that the unit is not equipped with enough memory or CPU in order to accomplish all that it is advertised to do.

If I disable all the advanced features QOS and WMM etc… and use it just as a router… I can run my 25 devices (Amazing how that adds up when family is visiting with iPhones/Android phones/Nintendo DS’s/Xbox 360/Wii and other laptops and tablets iPad’s… iPods) just fine.

The moment I try to perform a backup with TimeMachine… or even just a large file copy onto the 2TB internal drive… everything starts to fall apart…

I have avoided doing any high speed traffic transfers (Internal network) for the past couple days and the router hasn’t had to be reset yet…  

This is NOT a solution…   I paid for this router to perform with the features its supposed to perform with… and it doesn’t.

Hopefully some firware update will make the unit stable… until then I am wondering about setting my old router up as a second wireless network getting an IP from the WD…  I dont know.

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@yourguide: Multiple devices could be the problem. In the past month I’ve moved from 4 or 5 devices to 10 or 11. But I’m *very* surprised a $200 router like this has trouble supporting that level of activity.

If this is the problem, do you think this is something that can be fixed with a firmware update?

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Agreed… I’m sending mine back to Amazon while I still have two weeks. There is definately something wrong… I’m losing connection at least once a day sometimes twice… . my old apple extreme… never gave me any problems…

I’ll get is again if they fix it… it does run pretty hot…

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If you can still return it, HURRY!

It doesn’t get any better. And, it will let you down just when your WIFE is using it, and you know how that can go!

It is too late to return mine to Fry’s, so I have asked WD to just buy it back. Might get a reply in three or four months!

My last Linksys, the E3000, lasted two years with great reliability and WiFi coverage; the MyNetN900 is very poor in comparison WHEN IT WORKS RIGHT!

Return the darn thing while you still can. I am going to bite the bullet and go shop for a Linksys, or a D-Link, or a Netgear.

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Same problem, just recieved mine about two week ago and everytime I try to copy a large collection of files to the built in HDD the thing crashes.  When I transfer I do it from my main computer.  It looses both Lan and WIFI and has to be unplugged, not even power cycled with button on the back.  I work retail and I love the concept but if we cant get a fix or any word from WD I am definatly not recommending this to anyone.  Anyone tried pluggign something into the USB on the back and transferring that way?

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I bought the N900 7xgb port version just before Christmas and have had a ton of issues with it at first even after updating the firmware to the 1.05.12 firmware to include the following:

  1. Unit would loose dashboard/admin interface first followed by wifi shortly there after where the SSID’s will still be listed as visible but unable to connect and then after about 30 mins of that, the wired ports would drop out as well.

  2. Under large file copy attempts on either a or b/g/n (greater than 1gb and yes tried both nets independently and not at the same time while also turning off the unused wifi to eliminate potential interference issues) then unit would totally lock up and require power removal for about 30 seconds before it would actually attempt to boot the router back up.

  3. Built-in DLNA would crash when streaming files to my Sony bdp-s580 after about 15 mins requiring the same 30 seconds of power removal.

  4. After about 4h of being on with a 2TB usb hdd hooked up to port 1 (the blue port on the back), the router dashboard would crash and the external drive would not be accessible but wifi/lan/wan still functioned for internet and file shares from my laptop to other computers on the network.

After conducting research on this router, several of these seem to b problems with it that are documented by many others.  The first thing I tried to fix the issues were simply wedging a CD case under the front of the router to prop it up a bit and let more air flow to the fan than what the small standoffs give.  This as eliminated almost all my issues with the unit.  After the CD fix, the only issue I have now is when doing large file copies over 20GB at one time instead of breaking them up into a few smaller transfers with pauses between.  This has led me to believe that something in the router is simply over heating under heavy/continuous loads.  I have also noticed that the internal fan never really seems to turn on, and when it does, it doesn’t spin very fast.  My next attempt is going to be propping the router up on it’s side and putting a small desk fan pointed at it and see if that gets rid of the heavy load crashing and will report back.  Should this work, then it simply means that WD needs to adjust the fan speed vs temp/load ratio they are using.

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@Maddog82: That’s an interesting possibility. I’m tempted to reinstall my benched N900 and see if it works better on stilts. I also wonder if that’s something that WD could fix with a firmware update. At any rate, I hope you’ve either notified WD or that someone from WD actually reads this forum.

Thanks for posting.

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After giving WD support a week to respond to my support request on this and receiving nothing but an automated email telling me they try to respond within 24hrs, I reluctantly returned the unit while I was still within the store’s 14 day return period. The unit continued to randomly lock up at all times and load levels. It was located in my <70 degree basement and elevated so there was over an inch of clearance below the fan.

As the posts to this board would suggest, this model is plagued with unresolved issues. Interestingly, when I returned the unit the store didn’t ask if I wanted to exchange it. In fact, they tossed it into a bin labeled “defective” without even opening it or questioning what was wrong or why I was returning it. Kind of makes one think they’ve been through this a few times before.

In my opinion, despite some great features, this thing is a piece of junk. Unfortunately that seems to be the case with many consumer grade wireless routers. Buyer beware!

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hello

i am an unhappy owner of a mynet n900.

This is the worst router i’ve ever bought.

Every few hours the line will go down. The wifi is horrible: it will lose the signal without any reasons (i’m working 1 meter next to the router).

I hope WD will fix the problems or the could give us back the money.

I’m coming from an apple airport extreme and i thought i would step in something much more better. 

But guys this router is unstable… i’ve switch off and bought in the meantime a tplink for 30,00 euro: at least this tplink is stable…

What it makes me angry is that i’ve spent 150 euro for this **bleep**.

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I too have all the same problems. I get disconnected every now and then wirelessly and when the computers are wired. The transferrates to and from the device is horrible at the moment, and with the frequently crashes, it’s just not completing.

I’ve tried using both 5.2 GHz and 2.4 GHz band and I have the issues with 4 different computers, stationary and laptop. In my excitement to this product I even went and bought a 450 Mbps card, which isn’t much of a joy with this product at the moment. I’ve been using both Windows 7 32 & 64-bit and Windows 8 32 & 64-bit-machines and the trouble are the same.

I also use the latest firmware; version 1.05.12.

I hope to see some updates soon, as I’m testing this product for an article, and this really seems to be an awesome product. The software is just **bleep** currently.

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Following Maddog82’s suggestion earlier in this thread, I propped up the back of my N900 with an old cell phone battery that was lying around my desk and reconnected it. Since doing so about 24 hours ago, I’ve had zero cutoffs, and the throughput has been excellent. I’m wondering if overheating was the culprit, after all (even though another user on this forum has reported that his router malfunctions even though it’s in a cool room and apparently has good airflow; perhaps he has the version of this router that includes a hard drive).

With this apparent success, I decided to mount my N900 on some kind of stand. I failed to find a ready-made stand online, though I did discover the Dr. Cool, a dedicated router-cooler made by Evercool:

http://www.evercool.com.tw/categories/global/cooler/creativecooler/rc_01/dr_cool.html

The drawbacks of Dr. Cool are that (1) it cost $US 20-25; (2) some owners have reported fan failure; and (3) I’d have to wait maybe a week to get it. Further searching found a comment posted by a fellow victim called senzar226 on a June 2012 CNET review of the MyNet N900. He approached the overheating problem by attaching plastic feet to the bottom of the router.

Following his description, I got four plastic 1/2" end caps from the plumbing section of Lowe’s (26 cents US each) and a roll of double-side indoor mounting tape (about $3) from the same store. I mounted the caps as close as possible to each corner on the underside of the router, being careful not to cover up any of the air holes. The mounting tape, intended for attaching things to a wall, makes for a sturdy setup that keeps the router well off the surface of my desk. Also, the plastic end caps are made in such a way that they don’t seem to slip.

I was surprised (well, maybe not so surprised, really) that only a portion of the underside of the router is perforated for air flow. I think this router must need a lot more airflow.

Here’s a link to the page where you can read senzar226’s comment: http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/western-digital-my-net/4505-3319_7-35331596.html

NOTE: I have the router-only version of the MyNet N900, not the “Central” version with a hard drive. I’m sure that baby runs even hotter. Also, my router is a couple of months old, so it can’t be returned. I did write WD tech support a fews days back, but they haven’t responded beyond the automated “message received” confirmation.

I’ll monitor this workaround and report in a few days. Also, before reconnecting, I did a factory reset of the router and this time did not update the firmware, though I don’t know whether that matters.

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After more testing I have concluded that the n900 I have deffinently has a temp/fan issue.  It would still lock up with a small deskfan blowing on the bottom of the router under 20+gb file copies.  The bottom would be pretty hot to the point where you didn’t want to leave your hand on it and I also noted that the onboard fan never came on.  The WD Quick View software was useless too other than to tell me that my N900 was no longer available but would not give any reason or error besides just not listing it when the n900 would lock up.

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So after using a desk fan, it still had issues at around the 20gb mark as noted in my last update.  This prompted me to go with a more forced air approach and set the router on my laptop’s cooling pad with the 2x120mm fans blowing right into all the vent holes under the router and I can feel the heat being exhausted thru the top/side-ish vents on the router. This has now allowed me to transfer 200gb without issues and confirms that at least my N900 has overheating issues that are NOT detected by the firmware since the lights on the front do NOT all blink at the same time as the manual says they should if it over heats.  Also the WD Quick View doesn’t report a temp issue, it simply stops reporting on the router at all.

On a super good note, now that it is cooled properly, this thing is FAST!!!  It did the 200gb of files at a rate of 54MBps to the usb drive hooked to port 1 (the blue port) which is very close the the theoretical usb 2.0 max of 60MBps (480mbps / 8 bits in a byte = 60MBps)

Now to just get WD to update the firmware to make their fan turn on sooner and spin faster so I don’t have to leave my laptop cooling pad under it

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A side not I feel should be added about the laptop cooling pad I added…it’s a usb powered cooler but CANNOT be powered from either of the routers ports for some odd reason.  The pad doesn’t even try to spin if ran from the ports on the router so I hooked it up to a usb hub I had laying around.