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Forum Discussion
Orbi Firmware v2.5.0.38
Hello Orbi Community,
As you may be aware, there has been a new firmware version available for the RBR50 & RBS50. To access the firmware version, please use the links below:
RBR50: v2.5....
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router
What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or maynot be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).
abonko wrote:Ever since upgrading to this version of the firmware, the quality of our internet has been terrible. 1) Videos being streamed will hang for a few seconds; 2) Internet connectivity will periodically drop completely, requiring me to reboot the Orbi. When this happens, the app will say the Internet is offline; 3) My device list in the app has become completely corrupted. It lists more/fewer devices than are actually connected and device names are all messed up (my laptop in the list now has the name from another device).
I genuinely hope this is being looked into as a matter of urgency, because the poor quailty of this build is appaling.
And yes, I did a factory reset afterwards and that has made no difference.
FURRYe38 - I appreciate that your intentions are pure and you are genuinely trying to help, but as ryanaroha pointed out, if everything was working perfectly beforehand then why are these questions even necessary? Maybe it's a mistake on my part for not pointing out such detail in the first place. So allow me to set the record straight.
My satellite Orbi is connected to the primary Orbi via a physical LAN cable, utilizing Ethernet Backhaul. My primary router is connected to my Comcast router which is setup in bridge mode. This is the exact configuration I have run for nearly a year now without a single issue. In fact, the performance and stability of this configuration has been so amazing I have raved about the Orbis to friends, family and anyone else who would listen.
You could argue I chose to apply the firmware update, but given how much I was pestered to upgrade via the Orbi app I'm not sure that's an entirely fair assessment. Nonetheless, I upgraded. Within an hour of upgrading all of my issues began. I can say with absolute certainty that not a single other aspect of my network configuration changed. Hence, the only logical cause of my issues is the firmware upgrade. All other possible variables are irrelevant.
Someone earlier mentioned downgrading back to the previous version. How do you do that? Is it only through the desktop login?
Thank you everyone for the feedback.
abonko wrote:Someone earlier mentioned downgrading back to the previous version. How do you do that? Is it only through the desktop login?
I don't use any of the phone apps, so I'm completely ignorant as to the capabilities there. I also don't allow any remote management, so if there's some cool central website or something, I can't speak to that either. You can find instructions online for downgrading, but here's how I did my downgrade to v2.3.5.30:
- Download RBR & RBS files from https://kb.netgear.com/000061080/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-2-3-5-30
- Unzip both files
- Use desktop web-browser to login to web-ui of satellite(s) (e.g., https://ip.of.my.satellite)
- Select firmware update, browse to RBS*.img file and follow directions
- Go get a cup of coffee ... after ~10min when satellite comes back up, check if performance is back to normal (some folks have reported that everything was good after downgrading just their satellite, but that wasn't the case for me)
- Login to web-ui of main router (e.g., https://ip.of.my.router)
- Go to Advanced > Administration > Firmware Update > Manual Update
- Browse to the RBR*.img file and follow directions
- Go do some yoga and say a little prayer that Netgear will start investing in QA
Yes these questions are necessary. Each user has different configurations and experiences which we don't know about fully unless we ask some specific questions.
Like, "Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last update?" I and others are not seeing these issues you post about with v.38 as we apply FW updates manually and reset and setup from scratch.
I have asked others as well to factory reset there system and setup from scratch and this has resolved there problems. A factory reset and setup from scratch is a last resort and valid step to see if problems will be resolved.
You can downgrade as well and thats your choice. However you may run into this issue again upon next FW update the NG comes out with.
Good Luck.
Factory reset should be viewed as a last resort. Understand problems with firmware releases before hand.
- I have the same issues. My Orbi was the best router I've had, now its among the least reliable. I lose connection so much I often disable wifi on my cell. I've done the factory reset. It made no difference. There is something wrong with the firmware.
Here's an update on my latest, in the hopes it helps narrow down the cause of the issues.
I finally broke down and performed a Factory Reset and completely setup my network again from scratch. Although this did help marginally, stability is still not back to what it was before this Firmware. My devices still lose Wifi connectivity, albeit not as frequently as before. The interesting observation is that the connectivity issues give the appearance of the Wifi range being reduced compared to the previous Firmware version. I highly doubt this is case, and as such I have simply dismissed this as being just more of the same overall connectivity issues I have been experiencing since upgrading. I will see how this plays out over the next week and may decide to rollback to the previous Frimware version next weekend.
- My issues had to do with internet connectivity, not connecting to the router. I would frequently get an exclamation point in my Android status bar. My roku would need to be put through wireless setup to reconnect. Basically, it seemed that once a device was connected and actively using the internet, all was well. If a device went "idle" it would stay connected to the router but be cut off from the internet.
I hope those are helpful observations.
