Orbi RBR20 Losing Configuration

Thanks for the feedback. I totally agree, the router should not reset to default settings on its own. It only happens when there is a loss of power or if I reboot the Orbi. I had a strong password, and have taken the precaution of changing it and also enabled 2 layer authentication- but the router still continues to lose its settings on reboot and several devices are having issues connecting to the internet. I’ve been working on this problem strictly through the app and remotely as I’ve been out or town. Now that I’m back, I’m going to see if a factory reset fixes this issue, if not, then I’m going to manually update the firmware (currently at 2.2.1.210) - Netgear support shows a more recent version is available. (2.3.1.44), that for some reason is being auto updated. If this doesn’t work, not sure what I’ll do next. This has been a great system since I installed it, except for this issue that cropped up in the last few days.

OP here.

 

The pw is NOT the issue, it's long and secure and unique.

 

All of the consequent replies to my post ignore the fact that I'm dealing with the .44 firmware, and that's the version that loses all configuration settings once it's rebooted.

 

I'm growing more certain that this is a firmware bug, that is not yet resolved in the .44 version.

I have the same problem. Reset router and save config? Really? That’s the lamest resolution I have ever heard of. A router should not be loosing its config after a reboot. I reboot orbi and the custom WiFi ssid is lost along with everything else I added. This product is junk.

I can appreciate the 'poor password' comment, but I assure you, it is nothing that simple.

Along the way of my discoveries and testing.. hopefully it can benefit the OP or give him/her some ideas to investigate. There are no 'Red Flags' to point in any particular direction, so I'm hitting all the usual suspects, based on pure speculation and past experience. ie:

1. Bug in the router code
2. There are 2 devices on their network, I'm not 100% trusting of
3. Dirty electicity/surges from a cheap old power-strip
4. The ISP is Verizon FIOS, and they have a 2 hour limit on DHCP WAN IP assignments.
5. The Satellite is faulty

So let's tackle in sequence:

1. Bug in the router code

With regards to the Original Poster (OP) having his RBR20 firmware v2.3.1.44 auto-update, that's surprising, as my 2.2.1.210 system cannot yet see it, and while the unit had auto-updated from the version that was installed out-of-the-box, I'm not certain it can auto-update under this version. A Manual update check fails to see new available firmware, yet it's clearly posted on the RBR20 (V2.3.0.28), and RBW30 (V2.3.0.4) support pages. So I've downloaded it and am manually updating the firmware from local device.

According to the Release Notes for both Satellite and Router, the 2.3.xx versions "Added the customer firmware pull" as a bug fix. Not the most friendly piece of info. Does that mean they broke, then fix auto-update? Whatever.. When all else fails, Update and Reboot!
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2. There are 2 devices on their network, I'm not 100% trusting of

My friends parents have 2 'Chinese TV boxes' on the network. Basically, Android streaming boxes that connect to sources to view native Chinese broadcasts.. naturally they also connect to various pirate movie sites and cable TV feeds. They also poll for UPnP, which was enabled by default on Orbi. One of those boxes had opened 2 ports, so I shut off UPnP and a device restart allowed it to resume service. Suffice to say, I'm slightly suspect of Chinese pirate streaming boxes. And I've never ever encountered a valid reason to permit UPnP on any device.. ever.

I would love to isolate these units on another VLAN or Subnet.. but that's a level of geekery that Orbi does not support, and it would just confuse the device owners and frustrate them with an overload of gadget complications.

My best option in this firmware version, is to enable Guest Networking and force these 2 boxes onto that, while restricting device visibility to other devices. In the very remote chance that one of these pirate boxes actually "hacked" into the Orbi. Doing this prevents them from having accessibility to it.

Why this isn't the default condition for all home-wifi systems, I don't know. Every device should be isolated from every other device, unless explicitly permitted.

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3. Dirty electicity/surges from a cheap old power-strip

Easy fix. Picked up a multi-outlet APC Surge Protector / Line Conditioner. Both Orbi and the FIOS ONT will be plugged into it.
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4. The ISP is Verizon FIOS, and they have a 2 hour limit on DHCP WAN IP assignments.

I have seen a few other posts, which have noted Orbi losing Internet connections - but not configs. Usually this happens when Orbi was rebooted. Could this be related to a new DHCP poll and assignment? Extreme Longshot, but I discount nothing. Unfortunately, unless I'm watching the logs at the moment a config loss happens, I cannot correlate the events. But I've also sat thru several new DHCP WAN updates, including one a few minutes ago, and the only impact was one of the streaming Android boxes, pausing while it reconnected across the new route.

But if this causes ORBI to lose configs, we return to Option 1 - Code bug.

It also annoys me, that lack of static-IP, as well as a ridiculous frequent DHCP update, that I cannot establish any Wan IP uptime checks to know exactly what time the box drops offline.

Additionally, the very 1st time I connected to VZW FIOS, my Orbi was replacing the VZW crappy router. VZW would not let me online until I cloned the WAN MAC of their router. The 1st time my Orbi lost configs, 2 weeks ago, when I rebuilt the config, I managed to get online without cloning the MAC. I assumed VZW loosened their sphincters.

Tonight, when I rebuilt it for the 3rd time.. I reset it to factory defaults, and once more, I was unable to get online until I cloned the old VZW router MAC. There was no question about it, because I had failed PING responses from the FIOS gateway router at the nearest POP.

Lastly.. I'd been using non-VZW DNS. Namely, Cloudflare and Quad9 DNS servers. In the past, VZW has been draconian about using their network. Because I had success using the Orbi WAN MAC and non-VZW DNS, I assume there is no longer an issue with that.

However, for the purpose of testing this, I'm going to keep the "permitted" WAN MAC clone and use VZW DNS.
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5. The Satellite is faulty

For the purpose of testing, I deleted and unplugged the Satellite until further notice.
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So far, I've had the problem repeat itself at 10, 7 and 3 day intervals. So now we just sit back and see if it happens again.

To the OP, and anyone else who ran into this issue.. no matter how stupid a suspect cause sounds.. fix it. If there's one thing a few decades in technology has proven to me.. it's that "Technology Blows". The more advanced it becomes, the easier it breaks.

I've been banging at this for most of the day, because the damned thing has given me fits after the firmware updates, including after 2 factory defaults resets. I'm really suspect of one of the Chinese Android-TV boxes now, because despite isolating it to the guest network - ie: I manually configured it to use a non-advertised guest SSID and prevented it from seeing other network devices - it STILL tried to reconnect to the main advertised SSID. I had changed the main SSID WiFi password, so it failed, but the fact that it actively tried to jump off the SSID I manually assigned to it, makes me suspect it.

With regards to resetting my WAN MAC to clone the old VZW router, and keep the VZW DHCP assigned DNS? Well.. thanks to their **bleep**ty settings, I'm seeing DOS attacks hit the router and being dropped. Never saw these when I used Quad9 or Cloudflare DNS and the Orbi WAN MAC.

For now, I'll stick with RBR20 firmware V2.3.0.28 and no Satellite, and we'll see how it goes over the next week or so.

This is not the type of troubleshooting I would expect, nor typically tolerate, from a Home WiFi system. Usually it's business gear that is this much of a PITA. I'm not really amused.