Orbi firmware v2.1.1.16 discussion

TLDR: I have the same issues with my RBK50+2xRBS50 after the auto update which happened around the 19th Dec. My satellites went magenta one day and just stopped syncing with the router even after reboots. After about 6hrs of troubleshooting, I was able to return to a good working state after rolling back to V2.0.0.74.

Full Story:

I bought my RBK53 from Costco this Black Friday (2017) and set it up on Dec. 3rd.  I don't recall what initial firmware came with this Costco unit.  I also don't recall if i chose to update the firmware during my first initial setup.  If I did do an update, it would have likely been version v2.1.1.12 or older.  I had no problems setting this up the first time and it worked GREAT the past 3 weeks that I've owned it, exactly what I wanted.  I've pretty much left the settings at default.  My only changes are the admin password, SSID name/password (wpa2) and 5 ip reservations.  Very vanilla setup.

On the morning of Dec 19, 2017 my satellites turned magenta and were not synced to the router. Device connectivity through the router was still good (wired and wireless).  Power cycling the satellites didn't work.  Rebooting the router via GUI made things worse as now WiFI was off.  I noticed that my wifi password was only displaying the first 3 letters of the password in the GUI, where previously it displayed the full password in plain text.  This is when I noticed the firmware version was the latest v2.1.1.16 (which is dated 12/12/2017).  I was able to get wifi to turn on again by retyping my wifi password in the Wireless>Security Options.  My satellites still wouldn't sync so I brought them really close to the router.  Power cycling again made no difference, but resetting via reset pinhole (until blinking amber) did finally get them to sync.  Once synced and working as expected, I power cycled 1 satellite using the on/off button on the satellite to see if it will automatically sync like it normally should.  Unfortunately, it would never sync unless I factory reset using the pinhole method.  Additionally, factory resetting the satellite when it's far away where I originally had it on another floor of my house wouldn't work.  The satellites needed to be within 20ft of the router.

Rebooting my router always turned off the wifi some reason as well.  What a cluster.   I rolled back to v2.1.1.12 and did all the same troubleshooting.  I had the same symptoms and problems (wifi is off after reboots, Wifi password in gui only shows first 3 letters, satellites won't auto sync after reboots.)  Reluctantly knowing the security risks, I decided to roll back to v2.0.0.74 since some users reported some stability there.  Here are the steps I used to get to a working state:

1. Rolled back my 2 satellites to v2.0.0.74.  Note that Netgear KB articles state to always do firmware updates on the satellites first then the router.  Also Netgear articles state to use wired ethernet when uploading and doing firmware updates.

2. Defaulted my Router using the GUI. Advanced>Administratorion>Backup>Revert to factory defaults.  Ran through the basic setup and Admin password and setting up Wifi.  I skipped setting up the satellites since I am rolling back firmware first.

3. Rolled back firmware on the Router to v2.0.0.74.  Immediately I noticed that my Wifi password in the gui is not correctly showing the full password which I took as a positive sign.  Additionally, wifi stayed on this time.

4. For good measure, I decided to default the router again (step 2) to run through the first time setup.  Only this time I did go and sync the 2 satellites.

After this, I am back to a good working state.  My Wifi is still on after rebooting my router, and the satellites now auto sync if they are turned off/on and no longer need to be within 20ft distance from the router.  Phew...

For the 3 weeks I had the Orbi, I have loved it.. until now.  Damn the auto update!  Give us the option to turn auto update off in the GUI!!!!  I went ahead and telnet into the router to turn off auto update in nvram.   I did not do this on the satellites as I was curious to see if those will auto update with the router configurednot to auto update via nvram config.

On a side note - I noticed in the forum someone did a nvram erase  and nvram commit and said it didn't reset their device.  I have found that you need to issue the 'reboot' command in your telnet session for for the changes (reset) to take affect.  

Has anyone with issues tried steps 1-4 that I mentioned on v2.1.1.12 or vv2.1.1.16?  I was going to try this when I have time, but seeing that Netgear has suspended pushing v2.1.1.16, I will take that as an acknowledgment that there are indeed some issues with that code level on select Orbi devices. 

Good Luck out there!