Firmware V1.12.0.18 Discussion

Well, may have solved one problem. I don't think that all access methods to netgear.downloads.com was completely blocked by the Netgear router that I'm using as my wired-only router with the Orbi in AP mode. However, I just tried openDNS (free to use), and that does fully block netgear.downloads.com. This will hopefully be more effective in blocking the Orbi from finding newer firmware.

I'm just going to keep posting this until one of you actually answers.

DarrenM or ChristineT
I think the general consensus here is that we don't feel like we're being listened to and the response is totally inadequate, so who can we escalate this to?

We know you're there. We know you're ignoring us. When is this embarassment of incompetence and customer service going to end? Is an update too much to ask? 

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Atld wrote:
Bought this a week ago, enjoyed the speed and coverage in the house, then it updated to the newest firmware and now lots of issues. I installed the previous version and it worked for an hour then auto update installed V1.12.0.18 and problems came back, wifi dropping, satellites loosing contact and general slowness. Has anyone heard of a coming update or how we can keep the old firmware and not auto update? Turned the old router back on for now, based on this forum seems like an issue that has been going on for too long so it will be returned this week. Can anyone recommend a comparable option?

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If I were in your shoes, I would return the Orbi to the retailer while you still can. Other users have been asking for the ability to disable upgrades to the latest firmware for many months, to no avail. Eventually, if retailers get too many returns, they will just stop carrying the Orbi. Maybe, at that point, Netgear will get the message and add the option.

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RogerSC wrote:

Well, may have solved one problem. I don't think that all access methods to netgear.downloads.com was completely blocked by the Netgear router that I'm using as my wired-only router with the Orbi in AP mode. However, I just tried openDNS (free to use), and that does fully block netgear.downloads.com. This will hopefully be more effective in blocking the Orbi from finding newer firmware.

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I'm not surprised blocking "netgear.downloads.com'" didn't work, if that's really what you blocked.

Good to know that OpenDNS worked, but relying on a third party free service that might go away at any time seems like an entirely unreasonable requirement to solve this update problem, IMO.

Maybe I'll try that when the replacement for my bricked Orbi router comes back, though. Be sure to let us know how many days it lasts without updating.

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madbrain wrote:

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RogerSC wrote:

Well, may have solved one problem. I don't think that all access methods to netgear.downloads.com was completely blocked by the Netgear router that I'm using as my wired-only router with the Orbi in AP mode. However, I just tried openDNS (free to use), and that does fully block netgear.downloads.com. This will hopefully be more effective in blocking the Orbi from finding newer firmware.

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I'm not surprised blocking "netgear.downloads.com'" didn't work, if that's really what you blocked.

 

Good to know that OpenDNS worked, but relying on a third party free service that might go away at any time seems like an entirely unreasonable requirement to solve this update problem, IMO.

 

Maybe I'll try that when the replacement for my bricked Orbi router comes back, though. Be sure to let us know how many days it lasts without updating.

 

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Yeah, openDNS is like me, older than the hills...can't remember when it wasn't around, and now its been bought by Cisco. The "free-ness" of it may go away, but just using openDNS and blocking a site or two has always been free. If you want to do something more interesting, like parental controls, etc., then you'll pay. 

At any rate, if openDNS goes away, then it does. I'll find another way to do what I want to do in that case :-). But its here now, and free to use for simple things.

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scornwell wrote:

I'm just going to keep posting this until one of you actually answers.

If you can post on Amazon and put in a negative review, you will get a response really quickly from one or more Netgear support people.  I guess they pay more attention when it is on a site that sells thousands of their products.  I Sadly, most of their responses are "canned".  Still, I am making it my mission to post as many places as possible so people can be warned before they buy.  

YabbadabbaDoooo I've got a call in with tech support. Spent a couple of hours on the phone with them two weeks ago, gathering before and after data. 

The lack of a response here just beggars belief. They're ignoring us, quite intentionally, while they amble about putting together a fix at a glacial pace. Whether it's arrogance or incompetence, I have no idea, either way it's pitiful.

The number of paid shills among the Amazon reviews is pretty alarming too.

This is scary. I have just forked out the money to buy the Orbi, but after reading this I am seriously considering cancelling the order.

Is there any indication of what is happening with the fix?

I do have an online support ticket open and have already answered the questions but not optomistic to a quick resolution from the standpoint that one version of the FW works fine the other does not, just push back the old version or allow the option to not update to the newest version.  This is too bad as I really liked the week of solid performance with this set up, so shopping now for a similar system.

RBR50

RBS50(2)

1.11.x was broken for many users.  1.12.x appears now to be broken for even more users- they're not heading in the right direction.

I believe they've lost control of the releases, and are now playing Whack-A-Mole trying to correct the issues, but cause more after each try.

They need to go back to 1.10.x or previous branch, and start from there.

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hsheppard wrote:

This is scary. I have just forked out the money to buy the Orbi, but after reading this I am seriously considering cancelling the order.

 

Is there any indication of what is happening with the fix?

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I would cancel the order.  I had my chance to return mine but let it go because 1.11.0.20 had just come out and my system was running the way it was advertized.  

I have the RBK40 system (AC2200) and I believe pretty much everyone on this thread has the RBK50/53 system (AC3000).  They have pushed 1.12.0.20 to the RB40 (and 30) sytems with a long list of "fixes".  Here is a link to the release notes.  They are identical to the notes for 1.12.0.18, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Also, the other day when I was reviewing the release notes, I could not find the download or notes for 1.12.0.18.  I swear it wasn't there for any device and now it is back and virtually identical to 1.12.0.20...wtf?

https://kb.netgear.com/000045832/RBR40-RBS40-Firmware-Version-1-12-0-20

I would assume something will be coming to you soon.  Whether it works or not seems to be a total crapshoot these days.  I had rolled back 1.12.0.18 to 1.11.0.20, since for my system, that FW was gold.  Eventually it auto updated to 1.12.0.20 and at first I was having the same issues again of connection drops, internet outage, slow speeds, etc..  I tried factory reset and rollback but it kept auto updating within a day and even with rollback it wasn't stabilizing again.  I had to do a clean, manual load of 1.12.0.20, turn off Beamforming, change channels a number of times, do several power off/on resets of the modem, router and satellite.  After many frustrating hours, somehow it seems to be generally stable now but not back to what it was on 1.11. 

Good luck to all.  I am going to just suck it up and have a friend who works at Cisco set me up a professional grade network with his employee discount.  I work for myself from home and each hour I spend screwing with the Orbi is an hour I can't bill a client.  Time is real money for me.  Anyone want to buy a slightly used RBR40/RBS40?

Each gap represents the Orbi RBK50 & two sats going nuts and rebooting for a few minutes.  During that period, the WAN is unreacable and devices can't connect to the WIFI.  1.12.0.18... 

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scornwell wrote:

YabbadabbaDoooo I've got a call in with tech support. Spent a couple of hours on the phone with them two weeks ago, gathering before and after data. 

 

The lack of a response here just beggars belief. They're ignoring us, quite intentionally, while they amble about putting together a fix at a glacial pace. Whether it's arrogance or incompetence, I have no idea, either way it's pitiful.

 

The number of paid shills among the Amazon reviews is pretty alarming too.

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I mean, this thread has been "solved" almost from the day it was opened.  The whole thing is absolutely amazing!!!

It is anything but solved... 1.12.0.18 and 1.11.x are very badly broken.

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@TXGunLover wrote:

Each gap represents the Orbi RBK50 & two sats going nuts and rebooting for a few minutes.  During that period, the WAN is unreacable and devices can't connect to the WIFI.  1.12.0.18... 

 

 

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What's the target IP for your ping test?  I'd like to do the same.

Rodney

Rodney,

It's my public IP address.

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@TXGunLover wrote:

Rodney,

 

It's my public IP address.

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Does it sit on your network?  i.e. are you accessing it via NAT loopback or is it being tested from outside your local network?  (I just set one up to test www.google.com over IPv4 and IPv6.)

Rodney

It sits outside my network...

https://www.dslreports.com/pingtest

What I've gathered from reading this thread and my own experience is that v1.11 is broken for some, and v1.12 is broken for others. For me, v1.11 and v1.12 are both fine in router mode, but v1.11 is broken in AP mode. V1.12 is working well for me in AP mode, aside from the functionality that Netgear has removed (like disabling 2.4GHz. wireless and being able to disable auto-update for the firmware if needed). This makes it virtually impossible to go back to a previous version and have a stable router, since the Orbi will just auto-update itself for most people. 

So a situation has been created where if the latest firmware doesn't work for you, then you're pretty much out of business. It would be helpful if Netgear would give out some useful information like what domains to block to prevent the Orbi from finding new firmware on it's own, and settings (using telnet) that will prevent the firmware from auto-updating. But to this point, they've avoided giving out any work-arounds, as far as I've seen.

The time has passed for Netgear to expect it's customers to just wait for the next firmware. It's time for Netgear to give out the information needed for users to work around these problems. While this isn't a Netgear support forum, it's a user peer-to-peer forum, Netgear clearly monitors this forum, and needs to help it's users. If they don't feel that they should help their users just because they need help, then they should help because having all these public postings can't be good for Netgear's business. If I had read this thread before getting an Orbi, I'm pretty sure I would have found a different solution for my router needs. This has gone on way too long.

I'm using the RBK50 system, V1.12.0.18 in router mode and have constant disconnects from multiple devices on my network.  I've had to hardwire in some primary devices to get some stability.  I wasn't able to get my iPhone to get an internet connection for most of the day yesterday, turning on/off wifi, rebooting, etc, even though it showed as connected to wifi.  Android phones have slow speeds and then often drop internet connections and sometimes regains it at the same location after some time.  Google Home constantly disconnects and doesn't recover requiring a reboot.  The list goes on.

I tried downgrading to the previous version and ended up having to spend two hours on support to reset my Orbi system since satellites wouldn't stay connected.  I personally don't care about the features which were removed in the latest version, I just want/need a stable wifi connection for my devices.

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IDGuy42 wrote:

I personally don't care about the features which were removed in the latest version, I just want/need a stable wifi connection for my devices.

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I think we all agree this is priority #1.

I'm just going to keep posting this until one of you actually answers.

DarrenM or ChristineT
I think the general consensus here is that we don't feel like we're being listened to and the response is totally inadequate, so who can we escalate this to?

DarrenM We know you're there mate, how about you show your customers some basic courtesy and respond?

I just purchased the Orbi RBK50 and found these forums.

Before setting everything up, I downgraded the firmware on both router and satellite.

I then used https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Firmware-V1-12-0-18-Discussion/td-p/1320421/page/5 to stop the auto update from happening.

Everything is runnning fine for me. My auto update settings were slightly different than the post above and after commiting the NVRAM and performing a reboot, one of the settings when back to enabled. I then set it to disabled for a 2nd time, commited the NVRAM and rebooted 10+ times and it's been running perfect for a few nights now.

Thanks dazzywazzy, that's good to know. I'll have to re-check the NVRAM settings after doing some reboots to make sure the auto-update stays off.