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Forum Discussion
Orbi MR 2.1 Update 3/23/18
Our teams are still working through the issues, but I wanted to provide a quick update on OrbiOS 2.1. We usually wait to release our software until it's available across all Orbi product lines, but in a departure from our normal processes, we’re going to the release BETA software for our products in a staggered manner. The first wave to be released are only for the RBR50 and RBS50, which is used in the RBK50 and RBK53 (Costco) kits. If you have a kit that includes a different hardware product (including RBK52W, RBK40 series or RBK30 series) or a RBK50 or RBK53 with an add-on satellite (RBS40, RBW30), please hang tight. We’re not quite done with it yet, but will update this thread when it’s ready.
Edit for clarity: This release supports both Circle & Ethernet backhaul
Edit2: Updated with the 2nd wave of firmware for RBR40, RBS40, RBR20 and RBS20. This supports the following SKUs: RBK40, RBK43, RBK44, RBK20, RBK22, RBK23.
Edit3: Updated for RBW30, to support RBK30, RBK33, RBK52W, and others
We’re not yet going to push this release this for auto-firmware upgrade, and will let you know before we do. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Support.
Rel Notes:
- Fixes issues where Internet access is not available on some devices, but available on others.
- Fixes an issue where Satellites get disconnected from Router
- Provides protection for the MDNS packet flood issue
- Addresses an issue where websites set to unmanaged are unreachable
- Multiple other connectivity & RF improvements
BETA MR 2.1.3 software can be found here:
RBR50: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=rFfsb14M2q
RBS50: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=0UBXh9aus6
RBR40: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=dnNl6nqBSj
RBS40: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=FEaFlGNCuW
RBW30: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=x990UeDEdo
RBR20: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=IOMUioMSLU
RBS20: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=S5JDrBEG2f
How to do a manual firmware upgrade: https://kb.netgear.com/31573/How-do-I-manually-upgrade-firmware-on-my-Orbi-Satellite
Orbi Product Team
761 Replies
- Couple of quick ones:
- Is the officially released firmware v.2.1.3.4 for RBR50 & RBK50 different in any way from the beta version offered previously? Reason I ask is that my HP printer disconnects from the RBR50 router, whether connected by wireless or an Ethernet connection. Only fix has been to power cycle the printer to reconnect. My system has been stable with this one exception which was never an issue prior to beta/official v.2.1.3.4
- Is it ok now to add my RBW30 plug-in satellite back in? If so, what firmware should be applied to work properly with the RBK50 devices at v.2.1.3.4?
Thanks.
Go in and set a static IP address ON the printer or set up a reserved IP address ON the router for the printer.
Might check to see what modes and security settings the printer supports. Some don't support AES. Try setting a manual channel on 2.4Ghz to 1,6 or 11.Chairman007wrote:
Couple of quick ones:
- Is the officially released firmware v.2.1.3.4 for RBR50 & RBK50 different in any way from the beta version offered previously? Reason I ask is that my HP printer disconnects from the RBR50 router, whether connected by wireless or an Ethernet connection. Only fix has been to power cycle the printer to reconnect. My system has been stable with this one exception which was never an issue prior to beta/official v.2.1.3.4
- Is it ok now to add my RBW30 plug-in satellite back in? If so, what firmware should be applied to work properly with the RBK50 devices at v.2.1.3.4?
Thanks.- Hi Furry ... just some feedback. I was assuming that the orbi stability issues were the cause of my printer disconnecting. Wasn’t able to fix it by the latest beta which fixed all other stability issues. Solved by resetting the HP Officejet 6968 to factory condition and removing and reinstalling software. All A-ok now ... no longer disconnecting.
What is the recommendation for the update process and the best settngs to avoid disconnects etc?
My experience had been quite stable and I was on the "bad release". I updated last night, as it was now advertised. The router and satellite appeared to have updated fine. Do I now need to do a factory reset, if so, which unit first?
Also any settings that we should not be using, I have the fast roaming and MU-MIMO etc all enabled.
Thanks
Mark
I would do the manual update. Update the Satellite(s) first, then send the update file to the router. After FW has been updated, do a FULL Factory reset on both router and satellite(s) then set up from scratch. Do not load any prior saved config router files. Set up from scratch first, the router, then make sure wireless is working there. Then set up the Satellites. After all is set up, save off a new router config file.
I recommend using IE11 or FF browsers to do the FW update. Be wired with the router and satllites when doing the FW update.
If you don't have much or any MIMO supporting devices, features llike MIMO can be disabled. if you only have 1 satellite, disable Daisy Chain.
MarkSewellwrote:What is the recommendation for the update process and the best settngs to avoid disconnects etc?
My experience had been quite stable and I was on the "bad release". I updated last night, as it was now advertised. The router and satellite appeared to have updated fine. Do I now need to do a factory reset, if so, which unit first?
Also any settings that we should not be using, I have the fast roaming and MU-MIMO etc all enabled.
Thanks
Mark
- Had so much issues with my last rbk53 unite netgeAr told me go return it get a new one. So i did and everything works well over 2 months they close the case and oh nooo **bleep** hit the fan! Same issues starts without any settings or firmware changes! Smh !!!! So they re open it get me to update to this latest firmware but guess what yall I am supposed to get 400-480 mbps i get a constant 250-280 mbps hard wired or wireless. Direct from mu modem im getting 480mbps on this rbk53 with this update its half. The last update which worked for 2 months i got a excellent 400-480 mbps constantly till it crashed. Whyyyyyyyyy Netgear WHYYYYYYYY! Fix all your bugs already we are sick of this honestly! Look at the speed difference from now & 1 month ago.... smh
Sevo123 wrote:
Had so much issues with my last rbk53 unite netgeAr told me go return it get a new one. So i did and everything works well over 2 months they close the case and oh nooo **bleep** hit the fan! Same issues starts without any settings or firmware changes! Smh !!!! So they re open it get me to update to this latest firmware but guess what yall I am supposed to get 400-480 mbps i get a constant 250-280 mbps hard wired or wireless. Direct from mu modem im getting 480mbps on this rbk53 with this update its half. The last update which worked for 2 months i got a excellent 400-480 mbps constantly till it crashed. Whyyyyyyyyy Netgear WHYYYYYYYY! Fix all your bugs already we are sick of this honestly! Look at the speed difference from now & 1 month ago.... smhDid you retest the speed directly from the modem immediately preceding or after the last test from the router? The reason I ask was had a similar situation but was basing my comparison of what I saw directly to the modem from four weeks ago until the speed drop last Friday. Realized I hadn't ruled out other possibilities and retested PC directly to modem again after router and... same slower speed I saw on the Router. I have Comcast as a provider and I logged into my 24down/8up cable modem and see that Comcast was only lighting up 8 of my downstream channels. Rebooted the Cable Modem twice and no change, went to the Comcast Status page for my region and low and behold they were listing outages. After 3 days Comcast seemed to sort it all out and I was back to a full 24 channels down and speed was back to what I was expecting both connected to the modem and router. Connection to ISP at times ever had about 13% packet loss. I live in the North East.
- I tried both ways. It was confirmed that the modem is goving out excellent speeds constantly but my rbk53 unit is giving lower speeds and this is because of these firmwares. The older firmwares are giving same fast speeds as the modem. My old unit once Netgear made me switch out get a new one... Support gave me a beta firmware about 1 month ago but same issues so I sticked to the firmware they removed 2.0.1.7 i think ... the speeds were perfect plus I had wired backhaul. Then my system crashed randomly and I got this new firmware. Now were back to slow speeds Im 100% its a firmware issue.
What mfr and model# is your ISP modem? There a built in router here by chance?
Perform a full factory reset on both router and satellite(s) then set up from scratch.
Sevo123wrote:
Had so much issues with my last rbk53 unite netgeAr told me go return it get a new one. So i did and everything works well over 2 months they close the case and oh nooo **bleep** hit the fan! Same issues starts without any settings or firmware changes! Smh !!!! So they re open it get me to update to this latest firmware but guess what yall I am supposed to get 400-480 mbps i get a constant 250-280 mbps hard wired or wireless. Direct from mu modem im getting 480mbps on this rbk53 with this update its half. The last update which worked for 2 months i got a excellent 400-480 mbps constantly till it crashed. Whyyyyyyyyy Netgear WHYYYYYYYY! Fix all your bugs already we are sick of this honestly! Look at the speed difference from now & 1 month ago.... smhI fianllty gave up on this system. It apears that no one at netgear can get it working properly. I had the latest firmware in beta and the most it worked was about 1 1/2 days.
I personally founfd the best fix was to replace with a velop. Been rock solding for a few weeks now. very time I go back to try the orbi again it just can't kep working.
Be nice if netgear would hire som good engineers to fix it as i think the ones they have now are having any luck.
- Not to be mean or anything. I had jus shares off issues with netgear but speed has never been one of them. I am on gigapower and wireless or hardwired in to satellite I get close to 350. Hard wiring in to main router I get 940 ish. Or above 800 most of time. There are a lot of factors that go in to speed. I truly haven’t had any speed issues.
Who is your isp? It could be at times the cable provider is little slower if a lot of people are online.
Are you plugging directly in to router or satellite?
Do you have QOS on? If so turn it off it might be slowing down your test results.Just curious, what FW version are you using?
nkdwrote:
Not to be mean or anything. I had jus shares off issues with netgear but speed has never been one of them. I am on gigapower and wireless or hardwired in to satellite I get close to 350. Hard wiring in to main router I get 940 ish. Or above 800 most of time. There are a lot of factors that go in to speed. I truly haven’t had any speed issues.
Who is your isp? It could be at times the cable provider is little slower if a lot of people are online.
Are you plugging directly in to router or satellite?
Do you have QOS on? If so turn it off it might be slowing down your test results.
Auto updated overnight. A few things refused to reconnect until explored manually (work laptop and a nest thermostat). However, all appears to be working as it should with good wireless speeds from the satellite.
One quick feature question. Is there a reason, in this new age of IoT, we can't identify objects in the Attached Devices tab as "Smart Thermostat" or "Smart Speaker" when these are becoming amongst the most common IoT devices? How about at least groupings for "Smart Home Devices". Network Device seems a little too basic when I can select silly things like iPhone 5 or iPod Touch....
Havok_ I have mentioned this to the Moderators many times in several threads for a while to update the list it is severely outdated but no one has bothered to edit the list they have, takes 5 mins to enter additional relevant entries.. it is not going to happen no one cares we already spent the money.
Yay! After being somewhat stable for a while now my system auto updated to the latest firmware V2.1.3.4. Satellite is now continuously loosing the connection to the router. Thank you Netgear!!!
They REALLY need to give users the option to DISABLE auto-update. Please VOTE:
Perform a full factory reset on both router and satellite(s) then set up from scratch.
joelinhowrote:Yay! After being somewhat stable for a while now my system auto updated to the latest firmware V2.1.3.4. Satellite is now continuously loosing the connection to the router. Thank you Netgear!!!
Yes that is my intention. But not so easy for my wife and kids that get home before me and find a network that is not working because of this auto update. Would have been nice if I could control when to update to minimize suffering due to angry wife and kids.
Well maybe an odd thing. Things have changed as we see. Seems to be in flux.
- Our Orbi system worked perfectly on the last production firmware. On this latest firmware and a factory reset our HomeKit home automation setup has become unreliable. Inevitably the ecobee system, casetta, or hue will show offline / no response now.
Try disabling Beamforming, MIMO, Daisy Chain and or Fast Roaming?
bsholbrookwrote:
Our Orbi system worked perfectly on the last production firmware. On this latest firmware and a factory reset our HomeKit home automation setup has become unreliable. Inevitably the ecobee system, casetta, or hue will show offline / no response now.- All of these options are already turned off
Just want to put it out there that I do use this sytem in Router mode, but I have it behind my ATT router (the ATT wireless is turned off and mine is hard wired to it and hands out wireless to the house on the 10.0.0.x network).
It's too bad this site doesn't have an option for user surveys. It'd be helpful if we knew problems were predominantly on systems in an early mfg run and/or how they were set up. Mine was purchased from Amazon at end of June 2017.
I recommend using the modems DMZ for your Orbi router while in router mode. This will help with any double NAT issues.
Yes, the reason your Orbi router sets up 10.x.x.x is that your ISP modems is using the same default 192.168.1.1 that most NG routers use. So during setup, the wizard will change the NG routers IP address pool to not conflict with the modesm IP address pool. You can change from 10.x.x.x to 192.168.0.1 if you like.
Havok_wrote:Just want to put it out there that I do use this sytem in Router mode, but I have it behind my ATT router (the ATT wireless is turned off and mine is hard wired to it and hands out wireless to the house on the 10.0.0.x network).
It's too bad this site doesn't have an option for user surveys. It'd be helpful if we knew problems were predominantly on systems in an early mfg run and/or how they were set up. Mine was purchased from Amazon at end of June 2017.
I asked about this and was told that while beta builds are made available, there are changes to FW and in between builds will and can effect how configurations are used on prior versions of FW. So for users installing any of the Beta builds, you need to perform a factory reset and set up both router and satellite(s) afterwards to ensure the new FW is seated well and no prior configurations will be in the mix. You need to set up from scratch, then save off a new configuration.
I was told that once the official FW is released and no longer Beta, then factory resets will not be needed after upgrading FW. The user configurations should persist and continue to work well after upgrading with official released FW.
Will Orbi systems be auto updated to beta builds? Because I have had my system auto updated to new firmwares in the past that has broken things and I had to roll back to older firmware and factory reset and manually install the new one in order for things to be stable. At this point I dont trust anything released by Netgear. Beta or official.
FURRYe38wrote:I asked about this and was told that while beta builds are made available, there are changes to FW and in between builds will and can effect how configurations are used on prior versions of FW. So for users installing any of the Beta builds, you need to perform a factory reset and set up both router and satellite(s) afterwards to ensure the new FW is seated well and no prior configurations will be in the mix. You need to set up from scratch, then save off a new configuration.
I was told that once the official FW is released and no longer Beta, then factory resets will not be needed after upgrading FW. The user configurations should persist and continue to work well after upgrading with official released FW.
Please review first post in this thread:
"We’re not yet going to push this release this for auto-firmware upgrade, and will let you know before we do. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Support."
joelinhowrote:Will Orbi systems be auto updated to beta builds? Because I have had my system auto updated to new firmwares in the past that has broken things and I had to roll back to older firmware and factory reset and manually install the new one in order for things to be stable. At this point I dont trust anything released by Netgear. Beta or official.
FURRYe38wrote:I asked about this and was told that while beta builds are made available, there are changes to FW and in between builds will and can effect how configurations are used on prior versions of FW. So for users installing any of the Beta builds, you need to perform a factory reset and set up both router and satellite(s) afterwards to ensure the new FW is seated well and no prior configurations will be in the mix. You need to set up from scratch, then save off a new configuration.
I was told that once the official FW is released and no longer Beta, then factory resets will not be needed after upgrading FW. The user configurations should persist and continue to work well after upgrading with official released FW.
"Provides protection for the MDNS packet flood issue"
Please check into this protection. Since installing this firmware I'm having nothing but problems with Apple Homekit devices that connect via Wifi/Ethernet (bluetooth devices that connect to my appletv homekit hub are OK). The devices flap between "No Response" and online in the Home app.
What FW version were you using before?
Has a factory reset been performed after you updated to this Beta? If not, please factory reset both router and Satellite(s) then setup from scratch.
eljarvisowrote:"Provides protection for the MDNS packet flood issue"
Please check into this protection. Since installing this firmware I'm having nothing but problems with Apple Homekit devices that connect via Wifi/Ethernet (bluetooth devices that connect to my appletv homekit hub are OK). The devices flap between "No Response" and online in the Home app.
Already did a factory reset. I was using whatever the last stable 2.0 firmware was. With all the **bleep**ing around i've had to do with this piece of **bleep** i'm thinking of grabbing an old Cisco ASA5505 from work and using the Orbis strictly in AP mode.
