Orbi Firmware issue

Over the weekend, I updated my firmware to v2.5.0.38.  I thought it would be a good thing to do and unfortunately, didn't do the normal amount of research that usually do, but got a REAL education.

After making the update, it became clear that it was nothing short of a disaster!  I operate most everything on an iOS platform, with the exception of a couple of windows work computers, and a pool automation system. 

The first clue came when after doing a restart of the router and satellite, my HomePod showed as 'Not Responding'.  Then, my pool automation system (Hayward) lost the link from my hardwired router to the system box.  Next, after checking what was going on through the app, it showed the satellite as 'online' but the router as 'disconnected - no internet'.  This was strange since every device had internet access, but the router said something different.

All of this is in addition to the fact that most everything was moving at just slightly greater than dial-up regardless of the fact that I have AT&T Giganet Fiber service.

After a very frustrating weekend, I determined that the ONLY fix was to downgrade both the router and satellite to the previous version of firmware that I knew worked well, v2.3.5.30.  I downloaded the update files from the support website for both the router and satellite, made the downgrade by using the web interface and a LAN cable connection directly to the internal IP address for each unit, and changed my SSID just to clear out any issues with re-connecting all of my devices (which there are plenty, including smart lights and switches).

It was quite the ordeal and it took me many hours to 'start over' again from scratch, but EVERYTHING is working just like it did before venturing into this fiasco.

From what I have read on this board, as well as other independent forums, the greatest amount of pain of this 'upgrade' is suffered by APPLE or iOs users, in general.

My STRONG suggestion is that anyone that has suffered this fate, take the time to roll back to v2.3.5.30, or whatever firmware version you know worked, and wait for the developers to figure out what, and why, there seems to be so many issues with this update.

I am a HUGE supporter of the ORBI product, and have purchased numerous mesh systems for my daughters and sons-in-laws since none of then are tech savy in any way.  I did immediately call them and let them know of the issues that I experienced. I will continue to be a huge supporter of the product, but will add the caveat that they do NOT upgrade, or if they do and experience similar issues, manually downgrade (which I suspect I will have to do for them) to the above older version.