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Forum Discussion
BretD
Jun 04, 2018Administrator
Orbi firmware update v2.1.4.16 availability
We’ve been monitoring issues that some customers have experienced in OrbiOS 2.1.4. In response, we’re releasing firmware that provides a permanent fix for the homekit issue along with various other f...
Wiler
Jun 17, 2018Aspirant
Just updated router and satellite to 2.1.4.16. Prior to update my backhaul wrireless status was good and now its consistantly poor. Anyone having the same problem?
- kingtjJun 24, 2018Star
I have a few things to add.
1. Unlike the vast majority of posts I'm reading in this 2.1.4.16 firmware update thread, I'm running the Orbi RBK43 setup as opposed to the RBK50. Not sure if that matters or not, but it looks like RBK50 got this update first and then Netgear finally released it for the RBK40 series just last week?
2. I did the v.2.1.4.16 update yesterday afternoon and didn't have any problems with it initially. It seemed to run fine until today. About an hour ago, everyone in the house started complaining to me that their Internet connection died. I ran to the main Orbi router to see what it was doing, and it started pulsing white on top -- indicating it restarted itself. My Comcast cable modem was still connected just fine.3. My backhaul wireless status of one of my 2 satellites now shows "poor", where it was consistently showing "good" when I looked at it in the last firmware version. I will say though ... this is the satellite I have out in a detached garage behind the house, and I think the signal gets weakened considerably when it tries to travel through the walls of the house and garage. One of the older firmware versions used to also indicate that satellite as a "poor" connection, so I tend to believe that's a more accurate reporting than the ones that kept saying it was "good"?
4. When the connection died an hour ago, it was right after I fired up the Blizzard Battle.net client on my gaming laptop that's connected via wi-fi. It was trying to do an update to the client and check for updates for games like Overwatch I have installed on it. Maybe just coincidence, but I'm guessing it put a greater load on the wireless router, causing it to crash/reset itself.
We have a fair number of networked devices in our house (about 38, last I checked the device list). Some used wired Ethernet but about 2/3rds. are on wireless. I've done all kinds of things to try to optimize the network already. Some changes definitely helped and others did nothing. (For example, I have 5 Wemo switches and plugs for home automation with Homekit. One thing I've learned is that Wemo's firmware stinks. If I get even a momentary power outage, the Weemos all reset themselves and if my 2.4Ghz wifi isn't configured so it's locked on a certain channel, instead of set to "auto"? The Wemos often fail to restart properly. They seem to memorize the last channel they were on before losing power and have problems if it changed. I also found I had to "pin" their IP addresses in DHCP reservations in the Orbi for best results. Until I did that, they'd often randomly drop off my network so Homekit couldn't see one or more of them for periods of time.)
All of that aside though? The Orbi doing its random crash/reset thing is my biggest issue with the product, and these firmware updates that keep promising they've addressed it seem to have done nothing. When I check the Orbi logs, they typically tell me nothing useful -- with the log often showing the first entry as the system initializing itself right AFTER it crashed/reset.