Firmware versioning

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Dd852 wrote:

Sorry for the question as I'm sure this has been discussed but I just can't find it -- but why are there now two current firmware versions for the same hardware? 

I am confused why there are still fixes for the 2.3 series when we seem to have moved on to 2.5.

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The answer is simple, but confusing.  The Orbi SSL Certificate expired last August, and Netgear was criticised for letting this happen.  To be honest, the SSL certificate affects only a tiny portion of users and can be worked around.  But, scorn continued to be heaped on Netgear.

Independent of the SSL issue, Netgear released the new 2.5 firmware.  People immediately began to complain that while fixing some issues, Netgear had "broken" the device naming feature that many of us have spent a lot of time refining.  The hue and cry was tremendous and the general advice was, "if you want the device feature to work, you have to 'go back' to 2.3."  And, by the way, Netgear neglected to install a new SSL certificate in the 2.5 firmware.

So now, Netgear was faced with an awkward situation. Maybe they can make everybody happy (temporariliy).  The people who have not complained about the issues in 2.5 could have the Cert fixed.  The people who complained and 'went back' could also have the Cert fixed.  Both would be happier while Netgear worked to undo the damage they did with the 2.5 firmware.

Alas, the new Cert is still a problem because instead of purchasing a new Entrust certificate, they "self signed" a certificate and web browsers continue to complain.

The moral of the story is that users cannot blindly install every firmware release as soon as it comes out.  Unless there is something that is not working for them and the new firmware release notes say that it addresses the issue, wait.  Wait.  Wait.  When there is a concensus that the new firmware helps more than it harms, then update and those irritating notices will disappear.  Until then.  WAIT.