NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
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 fixes. Please use the manual firmware upgrade process to apply to your Orbi.
Release note:
- Fixes issues with the Apple HomeKit connectivity
- Fixes the wireless crash and reboot issue when the router is under stress
- Fixes WiFi disconnection and IOT issues
- Fixes an issue where devices on the Guest Network are able to see (but not connect to) some devices on the main network
- Fixes an issue where device boot order caused devices connected over Ethernet Backhaul to connect wireless backhaul
- Updates the OpenVPN certificate from MD5 to SHA-256
Note:
CBR40 will be available later this month.
We look forward to hearing your feedback.
-NETGEAR Team
808 Replies
- I think its getting to the point that if you hate someone and they need a wireless router, to get back at them to get even, recommend a orbi enthusiastically.
I was hestient on recommending however having luck with mine we figured we'd try it out. He's got a return policy so if something happens, he can return it.
deleteed
Will Netgear provide a refund for my orbi? After 6 months of waiting for a stable system; the longest I have gone without losting internet is about a week. Now, with the latest firmware I can't go more than 24-36 hours without having to reboot the system.
When it works its amazing. I am getting over 400mb/s across my house. The WIFI itself never goes down; but it always loses connection to the internet requiring a reboot. My wired computers work fine so it is definitely the orbi.
My orbi is set-up as simply as possible - as an AP with a static IP.
At this point, I just want my money back. I was patient for 6 months. My family calls me daily about having no internet - and keeps falling back to our cell phones costing us a fortune in cellular data. Any recommendations for a reliable high-performance mesh network replacement? I was thinking of trying Asus AIMesh with a bunch of asus routers as they were rock-solid routers in my previous house (before I needed a mesh)
You'll need to contact NG phone support or a forum moderator to help you. Nothing regarding any refunds are dealt with here in the forums. Forums are for help, information and troubleshooting for users and there products.
What is the Mfr and model if your ISP modem?
DSL, cable or Fiber?
Bypasst he Orbi system with a PC connected to the ISP modem and test to see if anything happens?
Any wireless neghbors near by? if so, how many?
Site wrote:
Will Netgear provide a refund for my orbi? After 6 months of waiting for a stable system; the longest I have gone without losting internet is about a week. Now, with the latest firmware I can't go more than 24-36 hours without having to reboot the system.
When it works its amazing. I am getting over 400mb/s across my house. The WIFI itself never goes down; but it always loses connection to the internet requiring a reboot. My wired computers work fine so it is definitely the orbi.
My orbi is set-up as simply as possible - as an AP with a static IP.
At this point, I just want my money back. I was patient for 6 months. My family calls me daily about having no internet - and keeps falling back to our cell phones costing us a fortune in cellular data. Any recommendations for a reliable high-performance mesh network replacement? I was thinking of trying Asus AIMesh with a bunch of asus routers as they were rock-solid routers in my previous house (before I needed a mesh)
It's the Orbi. I have worked on internet tech for 20+ years.
But for the sake of answering; I am using a motorola mb8600 modem attached to gigabit comcast ethernet. modem is in bridge mode. The modem is routed through a pfsense box that is attached into a gigabit switch; the orbi is attached into the same gigabit switch. A windows domain controller provides dhcp for the house; and the orbi is set to a reserved address; all routing information is correctly specified. The internet has never failed when the orbi loses connection - I often would VPN into the house just to remotely reboot the router (now my family has the app to do it). I have an old basic wifi router also in AP mode that only reaches one room and is slow; but has never failed every time the orbi has failed. The wifi radios on the orbi including through the satellites are working fine even when it can't connect to the internet. - I can always connect to the orbi via a wifi connected device (regardless of whether the device are connected to the main hub or any satellite) or from within the house via a wired connection. About once every day or so; all wireless devices through the orbi lose access to the internet. The app always states the internet is offline; the orbi web interface always claims its online (whether the internet works or not). Rebooting it always corrects the issue. I am running the latest firmware but have never had a stable system (previous firmware went about a week before starting to frequently fail). We are streaming more as we go into the summer so its possible the orbi can't handle traffic load.
At this point; I just need a reliable system and am curious what people have replaced their orbi with.
I wanted to provide some performance testing results for the latest firmware. I honestly don't know if these are good because I don't know what expectations I should have over Wi-Fi.
Setup:
The server is a Windows 10 PC running xjperf 2.0.2 wired into a RBS50 Satellite running 2.1.4.16 firmware.
The client is a Windows 10 laptop running the same version of xjperf, but is wireless to the same satellite.
I first performed an internet speed test from the wired PC:
The results are consistent with what I am paying for from internet provider (200Mbps/5Mbps).
I then setup xjperf to transfer a 1GB file from the client to the server and ran the test three times. Please note that both devices are running NMVe M.2 storage devices so storage read/write times are not a limiting factor in this test. This was the result from LAN speed test:
In 3 tests, the file took between 22-25 seconds to transfer and you can see the thruput on the graph above. Again, I don't know if this what I should expect from two devices connected to the same satellite, one wired, one wireless. I just wanted to provide some feedback.
Overall, the connection has been fairly stable. I had to reboot the router once when devices would refuse to connect to certain websites. I verified that DNS was working properly by running nslookup from the affected devices, but then they would timeout attempting to load data. Rebooting the router fixed the issue and the connection has been good for a day again.
Will have to wait for your pics to get approved.
Whats the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem your using?
For DNS, have you tried using 1.1.1.1 and 9.9.9.9 for DNS on the Router?
ajshurts wrote:
I wanted to provide some performance testing results for the latest firmware. I honestly don't know if these are good because I don't know what expectations I should have over Wi-Fi.
Setup:
The server is a Windows 10 PC running xjperf 2.0.2 wired into a RBS50 Satellite running 2.1.4.16 firmware.
The client is a Windows 10 laptop running the same version of xjperf, but is wireless to the same satellite.
I first performed an internet speed test from the wired PC:
The results are consistent with what I am paying for from internet provider (200Mbps/5Mbps).
I then setup xjperf to transfer a 1GB file from the client to the server and ran the test three times. Please note that both devices are running NMVe M.2 storage devices so storage read/write times are not a limiting factor in this test. This was the result from LAN speed test:
In 3 tests, the file took between 22-25 seconds to transfer and you can see the thruput on the graph above. Again, I don't know if this what I should expect from two devices connected to the same satellite, one wired, one wireless. I just wanted to provide some feedback.
Overall, the connection has been fairly stable. I had to reboot the router once when devices would refuse to connect to certain websites. I verified that DNS was working properly by running nslookup from the affected devices, but then they would timeout attempting to load data. Rebooting the router fixed the issue and the connection has been good for a day again.
My cable modem is a Hitron CGNM-2252 with the resedential gateway function disabled. The Orbi is performing all the routing, dhcp, etc. For DNS, I am using the OpenDNS servers.
FURRYe38 wrote:
Will have to wait for your pics to get approved.
Whats the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem your using?
For DNS, have you tried using 1.1.1.1 and 9.9.9.9 for DNS on the Router?
I ended rolling back to 2.1.4.10. I was having a LOT of issues with this firmware. Connections would drop and then I would have to reboot the router and sats - after which, the LAN speed would drop to about 2Mbps between the router and sats.
I can't recommend this firmware.
I don't know much about this stuff, I just want this product to work. I don't need any special features, just solid wifi across the whole house and my HomeKit stuff to work. For me and my iPhone X, everything works great, never had a problem. For my shared HomeKit access (my girlfriends iPhone X), she constantly has issues connecting remotely to the HomePod hub. I went back to 2.1.4.10 and it fixed the issues for a week, now it has come back. Any suggestions?
- I bought a router and satellite for my mother to extend her WiFi coverage into the kitchen. Since then it like I have a second job as network support for her home. I am now in the USA and her network is down again. Whilst I have been away she has had the ISP out to look at her issues. They took out the ORBI system and she is using her standard free Virgin router. The internet works now just without the range. I will be giving her my Ruckus R500 mesh system (which is bomb proof) when I get home as I simply don't have the time for this level of hand holding...
I tried to click on the link for the RBR50 and RBS50 firmware to download then manually update the Orbi. It states "requested file does not exist, Please enter the file information requested, file code (blank box)" How can I update manually when I can't find the most recent firmware 2.1.4.16? Please point me in the right direction.
Thank You
- Don’t know for sure but they may have discarded the update because it stinks. I’m ok in AP mode after the update but can’t use router mode because it constantly drops signal
You'll need to go to the support site and manually download the v.10 version of the FW thats posted there. Once you install it, your router may see the v.16 in the Check for FW updates in the UI. If they haven't removed v.16 from there update servers. Its how i got my friends Orbi set up the other day:
No complaints from him.
Tpars wrote:
I tried to click on the link for the RBR50 and RBS50 firmware to download then manually update the Orbi. It states "requested file does not exist, Please enter the file information requested, file code (blank box)" How can I update manually when I can't find the most recent firmware 2.1.4.16? Please point me in the right direction.
Thank You
Did you install through the user interface updating both router and satellite at same time? The orbi downloaded the firmware 2.1.4.16 automatically. I haven't installed it yet.. Things have been working well w/ the 2.1.4.10 firmware. Thanks for your feedback.
- Orbi sucks. They cannot get this right. I did not use it for 3 or 4 months because of poor performance. Set it back up, worked great, then the new firmware messed it all up again. I cannot even stream my Apple TV. Please fix this.
Foolishly installed V2.1.4.16 today. At first everything seemed OK. Then started having intermittant problems with my gigabit FIOS connection. Kept loosing internet connection. Rebooted RBK50, rebooted RBS50. 5 seconds of internet connection. Did this over and over. Called Verizon spent an hour on the phone with tech support. Nothing. Finally in utter frustration went back to older version firmaware. Only one I could find in my DL folder was V2.1.3.4 Installed that. Internet back. Had been running V2.1.4.10 with no problems for a while. After getting running with V2.1.3.4 again I reinstalled V2.1.4.10. So far things seem to be working. Keeping fingers crossed.
Next time try a ERASE on the router after updating to v.16 then set up from scratch. Be sure not to enable the speedtest app, traffic meter and access controls as these will impact your 1Gb ISP service.
madone28 wrote:
Foolishly installed V2.1.4.16 today. At first everything seemed OK. Then started having intermittant problems with my gigabit FIOS connection. Kept loosing internet connection. Rebooted RBK50, rebooted RBS50. 5 seconds of internet connection. Did this over and over. Called Verizon spent an hour on the phone with tech support. Nothing. Finally in utter frustration went back to older version firmaware. Only one I could find in my DL folder was V2.1.3.4 Installed that. Internet back. Had been running V2.1.4.10 with no problems for a while. After getting running with V2.1.3.4 again I reinstalled V2.1.4.10. So far things seem to be working. Keeping fingers crossed.
Working after resets:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-MR-2-1-Update-3-23-18/m-p/1548414/highlight/true#M27868
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/speed-slows-down-Orbi/m-p/1551822/highlight/true#M28289
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Is-2-1-3-4-in-auto-update/m-p/1553979/highlight/true#M28616
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-Satellite-RBS50-Not-Connecting-via-Ethernet/m-p/1556692/highlight/false#M28949If I was losing sleep, I’d list all the posts where a reset did nothing.
Im not losing sleep either. So don't worry about it. Back on topic now.
- Resets do nothing. Glad I bought these at Costco.
I was able to return mine to costco. No box, no packaging, no manuals. Just the router, 2 satillites, and three power cables in a generic box.
No questions asked. Thank goodness for costco.
- I’m still having frequent disconnections. I have updated the firmware and it’s up to date. I didn’t face this problem with the previous firmware. Can I downgrade? If yes, how?
Has a full reboot of the router and satelite(s) been performed after the update?
Any wifi neighbors near by? If so, how many?
Any other wifi broadcasts with in your home?
What channels are you using? Try channels 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz. Any unused channels on 5Ghz.
Disable MIMO, Daisy chain and Fast Roaming.
What is the distances between the router and satellite? Feet?
Whats the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem?
I've set up my friends RBK50 the other day using this same version of FW. Been stable since Sunday:
Abee wrote:
I’m still having frequent disconnections. I have updated the firmware and it’s up to date. I didn’t face this problem with the previous firmware. Can I downgrade? If yes, how?
