Firmware V1.12.0.18 Discussion

With this many people still having issues with the Orbi products, I find it odd that we don't seem to be getting much communication from Netgear. The Orbi costs $350-$500+ for the 2 or 3 pack. It's not a sub $100 entry level router. While there are some users on here who are downright angry, I think the fact is that most of us just want the Orbi to work. It is a powerful product with great potential.

In addition, it's odd that such a high priced product is limited to 90 days of "complimentary" tech support. I've only had my kit for less than 2 weeks but I'm not sure I'd like to keep it with only a 1 year warranty and only 70ish days of support left. Luckily I have a 90 day return period for any reason, but I'm still hoping for the Orbi to get better.

It'd be great if the following could be directly addressed:

• Removal of option to disable/enable 2.4Ghz/5Ghz bands
• Removal of turning off either band via schedule
• Removal of adjusting power output of both bands
• Removal of debug feature allowing users to see which specific band a device is connected to

The Orbi could also use the following improvements other than the obvious stability issues:

• An actual option to disable automatic updates
• Attached Devices shows that devices are attached via wired/2.4G/5G connection and either router, sat1, sat2...etc
• Ability to create separate SSIDs
• Ethernet Backhaul (Seems to be coming August/Sept) according to rumors
• USB shared storage
• By device QoS
• Other "advanced" features 

The Orbi was released late August 2016 and the main key features I've seen added are a guest network and shared USB printer. In exchange, we've lost functionality. If I were a prospective buyer viewing these forums right now I'd be wary of making a purchase. 

Also, if the firmware team is truly still tied up with stability updates, perhaps expanding the team is needed. The Orbi is now almost 1 year old and is yet to be a stable device for many.

I've seen some argue that these "advanced" features aren't part of the Orbi's target market, but there are quite a few users on the forums calling for these configuration options. Adding these features would increase the Orbi's marketability as it would be more of "an Orbi for all." This way those that prefer minimal user interaction and those that prefer fine tuning their system would be satisfied.

DarrenM AmitR Any chance we could get a response? Thank you.

Upgrade has fixed BT YouView so happiness. But... function to turn off wifi between certain times seems to have disappeared so not good as v useful function when you have teenagers. Anyone else noticed this? Have raised a ticket as would like it reinstated. 

looked around and unable to find the answer to this.. but in Firmware V1.12.0.18 the radio power is now missing, does that means its now on auto? locked to what i had set it to? 100%? anyone have any ideas?

I had such high hopes for this router, but am seriously starting to regret my decision to purchase this.  Since it has been installed, I have seen intermittent network / Internet dropouts, and I just experienced one again a few seconds ago.  Like others, it generally only lasts a few seconds, but as many of you know, a few seconds is enough to drop that Skype call or get you booted from your online game.  We're fairly heavy users, with 25+ devices in the house, including a couple of teenagers that are constantly streaming videos and gaming, and as of a couple of months ago we decided to become cord-cutters, and now use Playstation Vue, Hulu, and Amazon TV heavily.

My router was automatically updated to 1.12.0.18 firmware, and I did experience the issue that many of you have seen where the satellite didn't reconnect to the main unit.  This is what drove me to the forum in the first place, and to see if there was potentially a new firmware version that I could install.  Who would have guessed that the firmware update was what caused the problem in the first place.  That issue is fixed now (a complete reboot of the entire system, and most of my network devices), but I am VERY disappointed to see that the intermittent dropouts have NOT been fixed.  To make matters worse, Netgear's response to try to fix this issue appears to be disabling a WHOLE BUNCH of useful features, such as schedules (are you kidding me...this has been one of the MOST BASIC features available for routers for YEARS!)

I didn't spend $400 for this.  I spent the money to get me speed, coverage for my entire home, and most important, network stability.  The speed is there, but I honestly don't believe that the coverage is any better than my R7000 Nighthawk (I have that running in AP mode, and can connect to it anywhere that I can connect to the Orbi), and the stability of the Orbi is terrible.

One of the suggestions I saw was to completely factory reset the Orbi if you are still having problems after the firmware upgrade.  I am willing to do that, but I don't want to do that if I'm just wasting my time.  So, can anybody tell me if I can TRULY expect any improvement if I factory reset my unit?  Is it a 1 in 10 shot, or a 1 in 1,000,000 shot?

I'm just so disappointed.  Is it time to switch to Asus or Airport Extreme, or do I seriously start looking at commercial routers?  So far, just about every consumer router I have purchased from Netgear, D-Link, Linksys, Trendnet, and TP-Link have been crap (my old Linksys WRT54G was the best router I ever owned, but from what I've read online the new versions of this router aren't that good).  I can say this:  I would have a VERY hard time handing over hundreds of more dollars to Netgear after this experience.

Sorry for the length of the message...I guess I just needed to vent my frustrations.  I am interested to hear your feedback though regarding the factory reset of my Orbi.

Thanks,

Jason

Looking at https://www.netgear.com/support/download/   V1.12.0.18 no longer appears  - does that mean it's been officially pulled?

Enough frustrations... I have packed my Orbi and it will return back to Costco tomorrow.

V1.12.0.18 has turned the best WiFi system I ever had into glorified paperweights. I've had to turn the Orbi off and plug in my old power-line adapters to get a stable network again. I'm just going to wait for Netgear to push out a new firmware.

Can anyone confirm that exporting your configuration from V1.12.0.18 will successfully import to V1.11.0.20 ?

Finally....

Its working on my Orbi

still the same setting on 2.4g ch1  5g ch48

Went to create a thread and noticed this beast...

Just purchased the RBK50 set. Router seems to work fine and the satellite works great when first paired, but as soon as the satellite gets powered cycled it no longer works properly until the whole system is factory reset. The strange thing is, that the satellite's ring does show it is connected (solid blue ring) and detects when it drops connection from the router (pulsing magenta ring), however if you plug into the satellite it doesn't assign IPs, and the Orbi status page shows no connected satellite.

Anyone having sucess downgrading the firmware? If so, does it just auto-update and break itself again?