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Forum Discussion
FURRYe38
Feb 25, 2019Guru - Experienced User
New - NetGear Orbi Firmware Version 2.3.0.32 now available...
FW 2.3.0.32 is now available on our support site :
https://www.netgear.com/support/product/RBK50.aspx#download
RBR/RBS 50 Series Only.
To manually update the firmware, there is a need to load an intermediate firmware (2.2.1.212). We need to follow the following update path V2.2.1.210 --> V2.2.1.212 --> V2.3.0.32.
New feature and enhancements:
- Adds NETGEAR Armor support for SKUs with the RBR50 router. This includes the RBK50, RBK53, RBK50V, and RBK52W.
- Adds customer firmware pull.
- Expands the IP reservation function from 64 clients to 253 devices.
- Adds weak admin password checking
Bug Fixes:
- Includes bug fixes for stability when using Ethernet backhaul in large deployments:
- Wireless backhaul might not change to Ethernet backhaul when an Ethernet cable is connected.
- Reduces the time to stabilize topology with Ethernet backhaul
- Reduces the Ethernet backhaul loop that might cause kernel panic
- Includes bug fixes for stability and performance:
- Fixes the LAN/WAN bidirectional throughput on the DHCP mode drop issue.
- Fixes the downstream drop issue when port forwarding is enabled.
- Fixes the issue where some online games periodicity lag.
- Fixes the issue where the PPPOE connection unstable
- Fixes the issue where the client’s connection type does not display correctly on the Attached Devices page:
- Wireless client connection will show as wired
- Client occasionally shows as connected to the wrong satellite
- Fixes multiple IPV6 issues
- Fixes an issue related to the SSID containing special characters
- Fixes the issue where the user sometimes can't register their Orbi Voice
- Fixes the email address issue on the Security Email page
- Updates the DDNS No-IP privacy policy
- Fixes the following security issues:
- Roll-out NETGEAR Q4 PSV items
- [MR2.2][Guest Isolation] The guest client can access the GUI via an IPv6 address
Let us know how it works for you...
385 Replies
- Beer79AspirantI have also noticed drop in WiFi performance, this happened before the latest firmware. Satellite and backhaul are all showing strong 5ghz performance, but on the main router the 5ghz performance has been halved even when right on top of the router. Not sure if the internal 5ghz radio has failed? 2.4ghz is strong across the board, have done factory resets have tried to revert firmware back to older versions but still nothing seems to improve the 5ghZ signal strength on the router.
- walkerxGuide
when i get round to updating to latest firmware (just monitoring the connection statuses on current firmware, etc) if i need to perform a factory reset, can you use the configuration backup and restore without issues
- Chuck_MMentor
Yes but you shouldnt need to factory reset.
- orbilovApprentice
If performance is bad at point blank range it does sound like a hardware issue. Is the hardware under warranty?
- Chuck_MMentor
You may need to explain a few things.... not sure when you purchased your unit... it comes with a period of warranty.
If performance is bad, I would start out by updating firmware to the .32 version and then fully explaining your setup here and what you think your issues are.
I would do that under a new thread to gain the full attention of all.
- thombeApprentice
So odd one
I manually did the interim update firstly for the satellite from 2.2.1.210, to 2.2.1.212, and then the router.
after both reboots, i manually updated satellite then router to 2.3.0.32
two observations.
i have manual channels
2.4ghz - ch6
5ghz - ch44
as those have worked for me.
I have now tried changing those to auto, and different channels but no change, so i have put them back to my original settings.
However with the latest firmware the signal strength is noticeably worse.
and my second issue is that the guest network is now suddenly available, even though it is still disabled.
i tried, rebooting, enabling guest wifi, then disabling it.
In addition I am starting to get some disconnects from clients, but that may be now from clients that are now in a low wifi area, when before they had good coverage.
so far it has remained. I obviously don't want to do a reset, so will fiddle about with it later on tonight at home.
I am using the orbit in AP mode.
I shall tinker about and let you know if anything changes, but wondered if anyone else had found this or similar
- FURRYe38Guru - Experienced User
Try a factory reset on the system and setup from scratch and let us know your findings please.
Besure to enable Beamforming and MIMO under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings.
thombe wrote:
So odd one
I manually did the interim update firstly for the satellite from 2.2.1.210, to 2.2.1.212, and then the router.
after both reboots, i manually updated satellite then router to 2.3.0.32
two observations.
i have manual channels
2.4ghz - ch6
5ghz - ch44
as those have worked for me.
I have now tried changing those to auto, and different channels but no change, so i have put them back to my original settings.
However with the latest firmware the signal strength is noticeably worse.
and my second issue is that the guest network is now suddenly available, even though it is still disabled.
i tried, rebooting, enabling guest wifi, then disabling it.
In addition I am starting to get some disconnects from clients, but that may be now from clients that are now in a low wifi area, when before they had good coverage.
so far it has remained. I obviously don't want to do a reset, so will fiddle about with it later on tonight at home.
I am using the orbit in AP mode.
I shall tinker about and let you know if anything changes, but wondered if anyone else had found this or similar
So I updated my RBK23 units today manually, since it wasn't happening automatically. It was succesfull, but I beleive daisy chain topology is still bugged. After I had updated everything I decided to disable daisy chain topology to see if things would work work properly. Well oddly enough on attaced devices it was showing that one of my sattlites was coneecting to other rather than connecting to the router. So I had decided to power cycle both the modem and Orbi and see if that fixed it.
When everyting booted up again the two sattelities connected to the router but it took a few extra minutes and I think its because they were trying to connect to one another, so apparently having daisy chain topology enabled still means disabled now.
Also I have also been getting some DDOS attack warning in my logs today since the update. Some were from California but the latest one a few hours ago, 203.54.134.170 in the log. I had decided to check it on https://www.iplocation.net/ and it came up it being from Australia, New South Wales. Should I be concerned?
Ugh please no Auto Update!
I'm happy here on V2.2.1.210
My house is working fine.
- mastervisa30Luminary
Firmware Version 2.3.0.32 didnt work for me,i have droops out all the time on my 2 satellites,
poor signal and not connected all the time,my kids and wife are going mad on me.have tried reset and asked people on this forum for help but still have the same problem.
But i was going back to firmware version 2.2.1.210 and now its working again.
Iv been using orbi a wile now and the firmwares is a nightmare sometimes.
I called my store i can send it back if i want?but i dont know?
Maybe i should go for aimesh asus?ore wait for the new wifi 6 ax orbi/asus
this is startimg to be a nightmare,have been working long time now and suddenly droops out on the new firmare.
I like to test but not my wife and kids:)
- raven_auVirtuoso
mastervisa30 wrote:
Maybe i should go for aimesh asus?
I don't think you will be happy with AiMesh.
I have three ASUS devices and I try each new firmware release.
They don't last very long before I swicth back to somehing else.
The Velops used to be fairly good but lately they get kicked out in favour of the Orbis within a day or two.
People have spoken very highly of Google mesh devices and I suspect the Ubiquiti Amplifi HD mesh devices are fairly good too but I don't have any of these.
But, now that I've identified the settings to leave off for me to have a stable network, I'm staying with the Orbi for a while.
From what I have seen in the forums what works for me likely doesn't work for others and I believe many of the problems people have are due to one or more particular devices that don't play well with the Obi. Consequently Netgear must play "wait for Qualcomm to fix it" game that takes a long time, not that Netgear are all that quick at fixing things either, a double gotcha.
I'm a new Orbi user. Set everything up few days ago and last night did a two step manual firmware upgrade to this latest version. Everything seems to operate ok so far, although one iphone had to be rebooted to see the wifi (sounds crazy that was only required for one wifi device). Anyhow, I noticed the Armor advertised in the new firmware so wanted to see what that was about but have no idea how to activate it. It does not seem possible at all via computer (browser), so I downloaded the Orbi app to my Android phone to see if that would work. I was able to connect to the router and app seems to work fine, with exception when I select Security button I get message 'Orbi - Device is off-line'. No idea what to make of this since the device is obviously not off-line (I am able to use that same app to run speed test, see network map, etc).
Does Armor actually work on Orbi, or is the new firmware only placholder for service that will be rolled out to this router?
- FURRYe38Guru - Experienced User
I would post your question here:
tgltgl wrote:
I'm a new Orbi user. Set everything up few days ago and last night did a two step manual firmware upgrade to this latest version. Everything seems to operate ok so far, although one iphone had to be rebooted to see the wifi (sounds crazy that was only required for one wifi device). Anyhow, I noticed the Armor advertised in the new firmware so wanted to see what that was about but have no idea how to activate it. It does not seem possible at all via computer (browser), so I downloaded the Orbi app to my Android phone to see if that would work. I was able to connect to the router and app seems to work fine, with exception when I select Security button I get message 'Orbi - Device is off-line'. No idea what to make of this since the device is obviously not off-line (I am able to use that same app to run speed test, see network map, etc).
Does Armor actually work on Orbi, or is the new firmware only placholder for service that will be rolled out to this router?
Thanks for quick reply and that link. After quick read of that thread I've decided to stay away from Armor until they fix the issues. Seems pretty clear it's not ready for widespread use if basic activation types of errors are still reported - and the fact that it's not even possible to activate in browser and only on phone apps (if they happen to work) is another indication it's not ready - really hard to believe this is actually the case so maybe I'm missing something there as well.
Hi so I had upgraded my Firmware a few days ago manually and things seem to be pretty good so far. However I do beleive that daisy chain topology is still a little bugged. When I decided to disable it, upon reboot one of the sattelites decided to connect to other one isntead of connecting to the router. So I had decided to power cycle both the modem and router, while this time both sattlites connected to the router but it took longer. I think its because the firmware still beleives topology is enabled when its still diabled.
- FURRYe38Guru - Experienced User
If you have the 20 series Orbi system and upgraded to v28, please post all of this here:
This thread is for the 50 series Orbi systems running v32 FW.
Thank you.
RedBatman89 wrote:
Hi so I had upgraded my Firmware a few days ago manually and things seem to be pretty good so far. However I do beleive that daisy chain topology is still a little bugged. When I decided to disable it, upon reboot one of the sattelites decided to connect to other one isntead of connecting to the router. So I had decided to power cycle both the modem and router, while this time both sattlites connected to the router but it took longer. I think its because the firmware still beleives topology is enabled when its still diabled.
Hi so I had upgraded my rbk23 to the current firmware a few days ago manually and things seem to be pretty good so far. However I do beleive that daisy chain topology is still a little bugged. When I decided to disable it, upon reboot one of the sattelites decided to connect to other one isntead of connecting to the router. So I had decided to power cycle both the modem and router, while this time both sattlites connected to the router but it took longer. I think its because the firmware still beleives topology is enabled when its still diabled.
One more thing I'm notcing since the last update is that I'm getting a lot of DOS attack logs now. Here are some of the IP address that are attacking me
208.89.12.137
37.49.228.162
13.124.33.60
43.228.66.23
185.94.111.1
These are just a few from today, now I checked on https://www.iplocation.net/ to find out where they where and they are coming from all over across the globe. With one being from Seoul Korea, now thankfully its not happening every minute but none the less its a little nerver racking, should I be concerned?
- Joboo7777ApprenticeWhat’s driving the need to go to this latest version? From reading this thread it seems like an early production release since it can only be manually installed. If I wait, will it eventually be pushed to the router as part of the routine auto update process?
Thanks- CrimpOnGuru - Experienced User
You are correct. (Like every product I have ever owned) Netgear's Orbi system is not perfect. Users find things that do not work entirely as they expect and Netgear's engineers make changes to the firmware. At first, they test "in house." When they believe a new firmware is "pretty solid", they invite a group of users to test it out (a "Beta Test"). When the beta test seems to be going well, they release the firmware to people who are eager for a new version. This is often people who find the current firmware deficient in one way or another. That is what is happening now.
If a user has "no problems" with their Orbi network, there is no urgency to update firmware. In several specific areas, when Community Forum members complain about Orbi, the Beta testers often say, "you are correct. that sucks. the new release has improved that function. please try the new firmware and see if it addresses your situation."
If you do nothing, one day your Orbi will have the new firmware automatically.
- Joboo7777Apprentice
Thank you for the response. I did read through the release note and noticed the release of armor security product with 2.3.0.32. I did some research within this comnunity but cannot seem to find alot of reviews/opinions on the capabilities.
Does anyone following this thread have any experience with Armor? I'm coming from the ASUS ecosystem and looks to be very simliair to their AiProtection(ie Trend Micro) implementation which comes free of charge with the router purchase. Just trying to justify paying 69usd annually for something that many vendors provide for free. Am I missing some addtional capability that separates armor's subscription from other products?
Thanks
- HannoosHAspirant
Before the upgrade - everything was ok in ORBI RBK53 ... Download speed was about 57 Mbps and upload speed about 17 Mbps .
After the upgrade (which went well with no issues) the both upload and download speeds are not exceeding the 9.5 Mbps . I tried alot of configuration and reset factory settings but with no use . I opened a ticket with the support but still the problem persist and still have the issue .
Please support to resolve the issue or at least provide the steps to return back to the old firmware .
Just to highlight that I am using ORBI from just 3-4 days and this experices is not good for new users
- HannoosHAspirant
Just to highlight the older Firmware that was working with no issues with me before the upgrade to 2.3.0.2 is V2.2.1.210
- gr8shoVirtuosoHello. You’re likely going to get a series of questions such as how is your Orbi’s host router port configured (DMZ is the optimum answer).
But as for downgrading, would need to be done my going to the support website and downloading the two corresponding files for the base and satellites, and using the web GUI to manually apply them along with a corresponding factory reset.
If you can wait on some of the other help, might be a better choice from a total time perspective.
BTW, what ISP service you have there?
- FURRYe38Guru - Experienced User
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode?
What is the Mfr and model# of the ethernet switch if one is in the configuration.
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.Speed testing with wired or wireless connections?
Not everyone is having a bad experience with new FW.
HannoosH wrote:
Before the upgrade - everything was ok in ORBI RBK53 ... Download speed was about 57 Mbps and upload speed about 17 Mbps .
After the upgrade (which went well with no issues) the both upload and download speeds are not exceeding the 9.5 Mbps . I tried alot of configuration and reset factory settings but with no use . I opened a ticket with the support but still the problem persist and still have the issue .
Please support to resolve the issue or at least provide the steps to return back to the old firmware .
Just to highlight that I am using ORBI from just 3-4 days and this experices is not good for new users
- orbilovApprenticeISP speed and Wifi Speed are not the same Thing. Has Furrye38 mentioned repeated wired tessts would confirm what internet speed is available. Cable modem provided internet can be highly variable for the same household by time of day and what neighbors are doing etc. Fiber like Fios is
Much more consistent and sycronous (same)(download/upload speed from isp is indicator of services that will be much less variable generally).
Orbi Rbk53 system should be providing a mimimim of over 100Mbs and in most set ups 200 to 800Mbs. Distance, walls building material, floors not with standing. When i first put out my RBK53 system i tried different placements and learned that i could arrange some of them in different locations then prior equipment , but some of my home required same as before closer placement and less walls. That is 2 walls and around 30 feet were fine, 3 walls 40 feet were not. 3 Walls provided only around 60Mbs at best.
- pablohoneyLuminary
So the latest update is a manual update. Why do we have to do a manual update to get the latest update??? This is 2019 and Orbi is a premium router we should not need to do this. When I check for updates it says "No new firmware update is available".
- gr8shoVirtuosoThe technical reason for two step manual process was need to allow increase of firmware file size.
As for when the automated process will happen, NG would have to say.
I did the update manually. Supposedly once this step is performed end user can take control of when to apply updates which is my preference. I also have a preference of doing full factory reset when updates are applied, mostly as a precaution to avoid issues based on personal experience with updating router firmware.
Cheers - FURRYe38Guru - Experienced User
There was a major file size change so there is a need for the intermediate file to be applied first before going to v32 on the RBR. This is only for the RBR. You can upgrade the RBS directly to v32 from v210.
pablohoney wrote:
So the latest update is a manual update. Why do we have to do a manual update to get the latest update??? This is 2019 and Orbi is a premium router we should not need to do this. When I check for updates it says "No new firmware update is available".
- orbilovApprenticeSo just to clarify Orbi did put out the intermediate 212 update for the RBS as well. While it does not seem to be required, i personally would recommend the intermediate step as NETGEAR must have created the firmware for the RBS as well for a reason. Assuming less issues upgrading it this way. I followed the intermediate 212 firmware upgrade for both rbs and rbr before loading 2.30.32.