Compatibility issues with Netgear Nighthawk routers with Smart Connect

[Lukeyy19]

I spoke to Steam Support about this issue but they were unable to help and suggested I post here as this forum is frequented by the development team.

There is an issue that myself and other users of the Steam Deck that have a Netgear Nighthawk router with Smart Connect are having where the WiFi on the deck does not automatically reconnect when waking it from sleep, it then takes several manual attempts to reconnect every time as you can see in the following video - https://youtu.be/LIJAOPZBgCQ

You can see in the following link that there are other people experiencing the same issue with Nighthawk Smart Connect and the Steam Deck - https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/uaszze/not_reconnecting_to_wifi_from_sleep/

The Smart Connect feature combines the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands into one SSID and then just automatically uses whichever is appropriate and it's always worked fine on any other device I have used on my home network, just not the Steam Deck.

Once connected it works fine, it's just a massive hassle to reconnect every time I wake it from sleep, having to do it manually and then tell it to retry upwards of 4 or 5 times with it telling me the password is wrong, when it's not.

My specific model of router is the Netgear R8000P Nighthawk X6S AC4000 but people are reporting the issue with various different models with Smart Connect.

When I spoke to steam support they first offered me some troubleshooting steps but they made no difference.

This is a home network, when I connect to the standard 2.4Ghz at my workplace it works fine and if I disable the Smart Connect feature and connect to either of the 5GHz networks or the 2.4Ghz one directly it works as expected, but with Smart Connect it doesn’t, but Smart Connect is very useful, I shouldn’t have to disable it to get one device to work.

Changing the channels makes no difference and I tried disabling Wi-Fi power management on the steam deck and it also made no difference.

Hopefully Valve can address this.

[Joseph Stalin]

There is another thread describing issues similar to your own. You may want to have a look, although I believe this issue is still unresolved: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/3186864498794889745/

[Cypherous]

Yeah its not a smart connect issue, the deck has a known issue reconnecting to 5ghz wifi networks when you wake it up, apparently there is a fix for this in 3.3

[Lukeyy19]

Still having this same issue even after the 3.3 Update and after reinstalling the OS.

More reports of others having the same or a very similar issue here- https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/wskvxy/deck_never_reconnects_to_wifi_after_sleep_i_have/

[jbratch]

Not sure if this has been resolved for you yet, but I had the same problem with my Netgear 6330 router. I ended up switching the MTU on the WAN to 1492, and it seems to be working now. This was an issue I had many years ago with an IBM Thinkpad (yes, that many years), and this was the solution. I tried it for the Deck, and it seems to have worked. Worth a shot, at least...

[Joseph Stalin]

Originally posted by jbratch:

Not sure if this has been resolved for you yet, but I had the same problem with my Netgear 6330 router. I ended up switching the MTU on the WAN to 1492, and it seems to be working now. This was an issue I had many years ago with an IBM Thinkpad (yes, that many years), and this was the solution. I tried it for the Deck, and it seems to have worked. Worth a shot, at least...

Tested, didn't make a difference for me (Netgear AC2600). Maybe still worth a shot for others.

[Joseph Stalin]

My issue is (finally) resolved after enabling IPv6 on my router and forcing it to be enabled for the network in Desktop mode on Steam Deck. Instant fix for my situation. Found another user's post on Reddit with this solution: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/whgavp/certain_websites_not_loading_on_my_new_deck_but/ioxkw03/, hopefully Valve can follow-up on this so it isn't required by users.