NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
New Orbi firmware 2.1.2.18 update issues?
I noticed that there was a new firmware version 2.1.2.18 for Orbi RBK50. Has anyone installed this version, and has there been any issues after the installation. Please provide any details that you may have.
Thanks,
Dave
334 Replies
I just bought an Orbi100 kit. I upgraded to firmware RBR50-V2.1.2.18 and RBS50-V2.1.2.18
The Wired Satellite backhaul has an irregular response. Have other users encountered the same problem? I'm the only device connected to the 5g; WiFi scan shows no other network on that frequency.
This is a sample ping from wireless client to satellite RBS50:
MACBOOKPRO-C8A8-298:~ philippeflichy$ ping 192.168.223.121
PING 192.168.223.121 (192.168.223.121): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=2.133 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2.346 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2.372 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=3.092 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=4.352 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=2.804 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=108.457 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=72.484 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=58.553 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=1.915 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=1.409 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=392.419 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=1.775 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=13 ttl=64 time=2.198 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=14 ttl=64 time=1.757 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=15 ttl=64 time=2.186 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=1.440 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=17 ttl=64 time=2.411 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=2.248 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=19 ttl=64 time=103.525 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=20 ttl=64 time=85.235 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=21 ttl=64 time=76.098 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=22 ttl=64 time=63.008 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=23 ttl=64 time=2.546 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=24 ttl=64 time=2.155 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=25 ttl=64 time=1.955 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=26 ttl=64 time=2.596 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=27 ttl=64 time=2.144 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=28 ttl=64 time=2.824 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=29 ttl=64 time=1.368 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=30 ttl=64 time=2.640 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=31 ttl=64 time=1.688 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=32 ttl=64 time=2.983 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=33 ttl=64 time=73.367 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=34 ttl=64 time=36.703 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=35 ttl=64 time=110.634 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=36 ttl=64 time=1.947 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=37 ttl=64 time=1.873 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=38 ttl=64 time=2.265 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=39 ttl=64 time=2.823 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=40 ttl=64 time=2.033 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=41 ttl=64 time=1.616 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=42 ttl=64 time=2.695 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=43 ttl=64 time=123.573 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=44 ttl=64 time=3.054 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=45 ttl=64 time=6.431 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=46 ttl=64 time=2.637 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=47 ttl=64 time=117.351 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=48 ttl=64 time=30.336 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=49 ttl=64 time=13.624 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=50 ttl=64 time=1.602 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=51 ttl=64 time=2.717 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=52 ttl=64 time=2.014 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=53 ttl=64 time=2.057 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=54 ttl=64 time=3.341 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=55 ttl=64 time=1.534 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=56 ttl=64 time=2.675 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=57 ttl=64 time=125.058 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=58 ttl=64 time=108.228 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=59 ttl=64 time=90.566 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=60 ttl=64 time=2.118 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=61 ttl=64 time=1.877 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=62 ttl=64 time=1.315 ms
^CYes, I have the irregular ping times on local network as well. 2.1.2.18 so far has been better than 2.1.1.16 and 2.1.2.10, which actually appeared to drop pings (may have actually been just way-too-long returns).
I think others have observed similar issues on wide variances of ping response times. I've compared the tests to previous ASUS router, it definitely originates in the Orbi. Either some QoS issue or something - I have tested same when connected to the router instead of satellite, and also get the variances - just not quite as bad as when going through the satellite.
PhiloF wrote:I just bought an Orbi100 kit. I upgraded to firmware RBR50-V2.1.2.18 and RBS50-V2.1.2.18
The Wired Satellite backhaul has an irregular response. Have other users encountered the same problem? I'm the only device connected to the 5g; WiFi scan shows no other network on that frequency.
This is a sample ping from wireless client to satellite RBS50:
MACBOOKPRO-C8A8-298:~ philippeflichy$ ping 192.168.223.121
PING 192.168.223.121 (192.168.223.121): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=2.133 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2.346 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2.372 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=3.092 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=4.352 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=2.804 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=108.457 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=72.484 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=58.553 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=1.915 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.223.121: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=1.409 msThanks for confirming! I have the same amount of drops when connecting to the main unit. It is so bad that I have audio drops I never encountered this with my previous Apple system... Wondering if I should send all these supposed marvels back to Amazon .... The coverage and the signal are definitely very good but what's the point if I cannot listen to my music ?)
Had no issues and was stable until today. The router become unresponsive. I'm assuming it crashed. Simple reboot fixed it but nontheless a bug. By far the best stability I have encountered thus far with Orbi. First time I went an entire week with no reboot!
I did the uprgade and ran fine for a day, then started seeing issues. I'd get drops and eventually completely lose signal and the only way to recover was to power cycle bioth the router and satellite. Today was even worse - I'd get dropped 5or more time in an hour, twice completely lost service and had to power cycle the units to restore wi-fi. I just downgraded my firmware to 2.0.0.74 which seemed to be the most stable fo rme. EXTREMELY disappointed in this - it's a brand new unit and I've had more trouble in the last week than I had in a year with my previous setup. For the price of this system, we really should be getting a great system, this system right now is a joke.
- What a piece of horse sh*t router set. Upgraded to the latest firmware and wan connectivity on WiFi lost. I don’t have android or google devices. I have a Roku and Apple TV. And many iPhones. Have At&t internet service with my orbi setup in dmz on the At&t router and modem combo unit. Will buy another router if this doesn’t work!!
My current configuration has hit almost 2 days: 01:23:02:47
This seems to be working...
I purchased this system to simplfy my home wifi. Upon inital install I upgraded to 2.1.1.16 and hard wired 2 satellites in my home for the full speed backhaul. I was pleased with the system in general, but surprised by the length of time it took to reboot the system. Then 2.1.2.18 firmware arrived and the system became unusable. After spending 2-3 hours trying to reboot and reset the system, I decided to return the system while I could receive a full refund.
Then I purchased 3 UniFi (Ubiquiti) AP AC LR and used my original router (Asus RT-AC87R). The installation was a breeze and the "functional speed" of my devices has never been better! I can add additional AP's and once provisioned, they will function exactly as all the previously installed units. One SSID and I can't be more HAPPY!
YMMV, but I’m now just over 7 days since upgrading to 2.1.2.18. Zero reboots. Systems seem to have settled in to what appears to be the closest router or satellite. I do still have my 1 chromecast device turned off but it was on an already smart TV anyway as a backup. No issues with my android 7.0 December security patch Verizon phone.
Starting to think this is my stable system now, but hopefull as next versions come down the pike that we won’t slide backwards at all.
I've been pretty happy with the Orbi until now. However, my router unit has now lost sync twice in the last 3 or 4 days on the latest firmware. Going back to the previous firmware and see if happens with that release. I don't recall this happening with 2.1.1.16...I can live with the other web admin GUI peculiarities of 2.1.1.16, but when the router loses sync, I lose my internet. That's not good. If I can flash back to 2.1.1.16, and no more loss of sync, and I don't get auto-flashed back to 2.1.2.18, I'll be much happier.
We'll see.
wrote:I've been pretty happy with the Orbi until now. However, my router unit has now lost sync twice in the last 3 or 4 days on the latest firmware. Going back to the previous firmware and see if happens with that release. I don't recall this happening with 2.1.1.16...I can live with the other web admin GUI peculiarities of 2.1.1.16, but when the router loses sync, I lose my internet. That's not good. If I can flash back to 2.1.1.16, and no more loss of sync, and I don't get auto-flashed back to 2.1.2.18, I'll be much happier.
We'll see.
Been a couple of days now...Orbi with 2.1.1.16 has been well-behaved, aside from the web admin GUI "Attached Devices" problem (not a big thing for me). No loss of sync, and no auto-flash back to the latest firmware.
Also replaced a couple of old iPads with new iPad Pro's, no new problems as a result of that. Although I realize that the clients that are apparently causing the most problems are Google devices, it's always good to keep an eye on things when one puts newer, faster devices on one's network *smile*.
Doing well at this point.
The beta (2.1.2.18) is working fine for me since I installed it. Very stable, just like 2.0.0.74.
- Hi,
There's a beta version of 2.1.2.18? If so where did you get it?
itzcoatl13 wrote:
Hi,
There's a beta version of 2.1.2.18? If so where did you get it?No, there *was* a beta version of 2.1.2 that was a preview of 2.1.2.18. There (currently) is no more recent version available.
I have the RBK50 (RBR50 + RBS50) and have been suffering with intermittent reboots for months. The .18 firmware has not helped, I get anywhere from a few hours, to one-three days before my WiFi drops and I see that my router is rebooting on its own. Incredibly frustrated. I am still within the one-year hardware warranty but no longer within the 90-day support window, so apparently this community is my only option and there are no answers from Netgear here.
- This is an interesting scenario. I had the same issues with the new update and at the same time I was having a problem with my fios router; it would reset to default. I contacted fios and they sent me a new router and now everything works, with 2.1.2.18. I wonder if somehow the orbi update affected the fios router.
Please contact support and they'll help you.
Hi Netgear. Do you recommend that everyone who is having problems contact the support?
Well, I managed to create a support case and get a number to call but the result isn't great. Since I have Android phones, a Google Home and Chromecast devices, the call rep says it is up to Google to issue a fix and in the meantime I can disconnect all of those devices. One of the devices is a Vizio Smartcast TV (with Chromecast built-in) so does that mean I have to leave my TV unplugged for a week to see if it helps? I might as well unplug the router and be off grid...
I don't understand why the firmware can't be coded to start throwing away packets if it gets flooded by an Android device, rather than blowing up and rebooting.
TP-link, Linksys, and others have already gotten it fixed... How long for a Chromecast/Android fix Netgear?.. does Netgear even care?
For everyone having reset issues (without Google Home - I can't speak to that, but I do have a Chromecast and two Android smart TVs), I did the following and have been running solidly for almost 5 days now. Previously, I was having reset issues every 24-48 hours.
- Download the router firmware:
- Download the satellite firmware:
- Follow these instructions to factory reset your router and satellites: https://kb.netgear.com/31486/How-do-I-reset-my-Orbi-system-to-factory-default-settings
- Power on your system and synch your sattelite(s) to the router using default settings
- Once you have the IP address for your satellite(s), login and manually apply the firmware update to the satellite(s) FIRST
- Once your satellites have completed the upgrade, login to your router and manually apply the firmware update to your router
- I don't know that this step is necessary, but I unplugged and power cycled all my devices after the update
- Once completed, I went in and did all my customizations (SSID name, reserved IP addresses, port forwarding, etc)
- Personal preference, but I disabled beamforming and daisy chaining; I left MU-MIMO enabled
- Extra info - My system is running in Router mode connected to a bridged Arris DG860P2 cable modem
I have 100Mbps/5Mbps internet service and this test was performed from my PC which is hardwired into a satellite about 60 feet away from the router, the tested server is about 20-25 miles from my home:
Hi Ajshurts
any updates are you still stable doign the full manual update?
TIA
I've done the manual upgrade to the new 2.1.2.18 firmware and then downgraded again as I had issues every time. The last of my Android devices got the software fix on Friday, so yesterday I updated the firmware to the new 2.1.2.18 again. I had some issues but not too bad. This morning, it was nothing but trouble for three solid hours. Drops and disconnects every few minutes. So I rolled my firmware back to 2.0.0.74 and immediately all my issues cleared - been running 12 hours now error free. And nothing else was changed, only the firmware. The new firmware has major issues, and they need to be addressed quickly.
I'm running it in AP mode which should make a firmware upgrade pretty easy, I never had issues before with an other routers running in AP mode like this one.
Firmware 2.1.2.18 was not flying well with me in a home full of Google and Android products (Pixels, Nexuses, Motorolas, Google Homes, Sony Android TV, and Sony Soundbars with Cast built-in). My Pixel 2 XL is on Oreo 8.1 with the .75 beta Play Services, everything else is on Oreo 8.0 and lower.
First couple days of 2.1.2.18 seemed to work ok. But as the week went on it seemed like everytime my Pixel 2 XL was connected the Orbi would drop connection and/or reboot sooner or later.
Over the last 3-4 days, Orbi would drop/reboot every hour or so even when my Pixel wasn't connected. It was more often the longer I kept my Pixel connected. It became unbearable. I couldn't watch DirecTV Now, and my work online kept stalling.
Yesterday I decided to downgrade (yet, again) back to 2.0.0.74 and everything was stable and a dream. I've only had one disconnect ever since (about 22 hours in after downgrade).
Planning to keep it this way until the next Orbi update. Even then I will wait for the verdict on that.
I updated my RBK50 system which is set up in AP-Modus from 2.0.0.74 to 2.1.1.18. The router would work fine but the satellite wouldn't connect to the router anymore. The same happened with firware 2.1.1.16. I downgraded to 2.0.0.74 again and all works fine. I now also prevented auto-update using the following instructions:
Optionally page 5 of this thread has instructions on how to enable telnet using debug mode and disable auto-update by editing the config file. https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Firmware-V1-12-0-18-Discussion/td-p/1320421/page/5
Will wait until Netgear releases a true working update to 2.0.0.74 and then install it.
Good luck, Cheers PrezWRC
I have had my Orbi RBR50 + RBS50 system for over six months and it has performed with no issues until about a week or two ago. The issue is that some of the W-Fi connected devices lose connection to the internet. The WiFi connection is still present, just no internet. Stopping and restarting the wifi (some times it takes several times) will regain the internet connection for a while.
I started to research the issue on this forum and learned that recently ver 2.1.1.18 was released to solve issues with ver 2.1.xxx.xxx. My router automatically upgraded and I suspect that is when my problems began.
I also noticed that my sattelite was not connected and was still on version 2.1.1.74. I had not used wifi outside for some time so didn't notice the loss of the sattelite. I turned it off to rule out it being an issue.
I plan to roll back my router to ver 2.0.0.74 and wait for a fix to ver 2.1.1.18 that really fixes the problem.
I'd like to update my post. I figured out that the fact that my sattelite was disconnected was the issue. My devices connected to the sattelite but it had no internet connection.
Several days with the sattelite powered down resulted in trouble free operation. I reconnected the sattelite and made sure it updated it's firmware. All is operating well with new version.
Why the sattelite lost connection and did not automtically upgrade is a mystery, but unless I have more issues, a mystery I will leave unsolved.
