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Orbi router solid magenta (not the satellite)
My Orbi router (not the satellite) stays solid magenta after rebooting. When I login to the router, every parameter looks OK. The router is in Access Point mode and has received an IP address from my cable box. The satellite doesn't seem to have any problem (ring light is off). The wifi connection also works fine. What does solid magenta on the router mean? The Netgear FAQ only mentiones solid magenta for the satellite.
125 Replies
- Their only advice is to contact support but they are helpless themselve.
I dealed with them 4 months and had to spent aprox 3 complete days Every week beta testing their ideas nothing worked and we all gave it up
Thats the state of this fu+#|,>ing 500 Euro issue
Netgear isnt yet able to Exchange their own devices, they offered me to exchange it against a USED device, so I had to beg amzon to take care of netgears duty.
All ridiculous... I think they will ultimately address this issue. Maybe high hopes on my part.
I assume Netgear believes most people use as a router (it would be challenging for me due to my network layout) and the router bugs have top priority. I assume they also think "well it still pretty much works...." My main concern is I left a very stable setup and it was stable from day 1, not one funny oddity. I think I only did 2-3 FW updates on the Time Capsule in the 3-4 years that I owned it and I couldn't tell you what they fixed because it was not obvious. I will play with it more when I get home. Someone mentioned going to a static IP helped. I was planning to do that anyway.
I think this must be a pretty good product or there would not be so many positive reviews in general. The only reason I replied and I hope others do as well as I want Netgear to know that many people are seeing and to address it.
I wouldn't hold your breath - there's no sign that Netgear is even reading these forums
I just bought this from Amazon after moving from cable to fios internet only.. Have a problem of very old spread out apartment with thick walls and need access at both ends. Purchased the Orbi with some hesitation after horrible experiences with Netgear's tech support for my previous Nighthawk 8 Router. But can't trust them to be reliable to their customers, not to show interest in making a good product great - they are too easily satisfied as long as it's selling.
Confused about whether to return it, what instead with such good range, or just shrug off that this is so expensive and its lifetime reliability seems really questionable.
go into advanced setup - router / ap mode and reselect then save. it will reboot. boom light gone
"go into advanced setup - router / ap mode and reselect then save"
I'm not sure I understand. If I navigate to Advanced Setup -> Router/AP Mode, there are two choices: Router Mode and AP Mode. Router Mode (which is what I need) is already selected.
- Just select it again even though it already is.
Pressing a button that's already selected a second time does someting?? OK, the next time it goes magenta on me, I'll try that, though I don't see how that could do anything. In the meantime, I've noticed that the router auto-updated itself recently. It went from v. 1.10.1.2 all the way to 1.11.0.20 in one jump. Perhaps that will fix this problem. It only happens maybe once a month and the last time was two weeks ago so the jury is still out.
In the meantime, my solution was to get an automatic router rebooter (3GStore remote IP power switch UIS-522B). I plug in the modem and router, and connect it to the LAN. If it detects the WAN connection has been lost, it power-cycles the modem and then the router. We'll see if that fixes the problem.
Well works for me every time.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8BRdVAhcXUlWlNPVW9UdFJaMlU/view?usp=sharing
- If it makes you feel better than press the ap button but dont change anything then press the router button. Or vice versa depending on your setup.
Well once again, yesterday morning I awoke to find the Orbi base station solid magenta. My automatic network monitor had rebooted the modem and the router three times and that hadn't helped.
So here's a warning. I decided to call Netgear and had to use my phone to look up their number. Right at the top of the search results was listing called "Netgear Technical Support | 1-800893-1168" | Router | Wireless". In my hurry, I failed to notice that the associated URL wasn't netgear.com but some place called www.routersupport247.com. ** DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER!! * It is a scam.
Their M.O. is to get you to open a remote desktop session. Then the guy opens a cmd window and gives a tree command. This lists your entire directory structure. While that's going on he's telling you he's "scanning your PC for malware". And then sure enough, at the very end pops up this line:
"C:\Documents and Settings\Owner> trojan found !! network error 17 devices".
So at this point it ought to be obvious what's going on. This "message" appears *after* the command prompt, and the cursor is sitting there blinking at the *end* of the line. So he just quickly pasted a pre-defined string with that text into the cmd window and says (do your best Bombay accent here) "Oh, you can see, you have a trojan!". In any case, "tree" isn't a malware scanner to begin with. That's where I accused him of being a scammer. He just hung up on me. The next step of course would be to get your credit card to pay for him to "remove" this (non-existent) trojan.
But the most annoying part is that during all this, the Orbi suddenly came back to life on its own. So now I had nothing to show the real Netgear support. I did notice though that now I'm now on firmware v. 1.12.0.18.
I think this whole magenta business has to do with f/w upgrades. I need to find a way to stop this. Automatically chopping your Internet access to do an upgrade is totally obnoxious anyway. What if I was in the middle of recording a movie on my DVR? Or doing something really important like trying to place a trade with my broker?
So before I get out the trusty Wireshark, does anyone happen to know the IP of the mothership the Orbi phones home to check for upgrades? We need to block that. *I'll* decide when to take an upgrade, thank you very much.
Running latest firmware 1.11.0.20. (July 2017). Similar issue to others in this thread. The system was running well for several weeks running Orbi as an access point (AP). Then, a solid Magenta light appears on the router but NOT satellite. Satellite is reachable via web interface but router (base station unit) is not reachable via the web interface. The base station also will not respond to pings. Read many of the messages posted here. Rebooted unit and network modem. Magenta light persists. Strangely entire wifi function still working well. Finally, I try one last thing. I had assigned a fixed IP address to the Orbi base station but NOT the Orbi satellite on my network modem/router. I removed the fixed IP address and allowed the Orbi base station to acquire IP via DHCP. The problem appears solved. It seems with this current firmware version, Orbi base station does not like having a fixed IP address assigned to it and running as an access point (AP)
I today updated from 1.11.0.20 to firmware version 1.12.0.18 and since then also have a solid magenta ring on my RBR50 and no more access to the UI system (via browser nor Genie app). I'm running the system (router and satellite) on AP mode and besides the constant solid magenta ring and no Ui access the system is working fine and fast. Does anyone have a solution available? Thanks!
Hi PrezWRC
As I mentioned in my previous post, I had the exact same issue on firmware version 1.11. I am using the ORBI as an Access Point (AP). The solution that worked for me was to switch from having a fixed IP number for the ORBI to allowing it to acquire an IP through DHCP. The ORBI does NOT seem to like having a fixed IP assigned to it. The symptoms I had were a solid magenta light on the ORBI router (not the satellite) and no access to the web UI interface. Once I allowed the ORBI to use DHCP again these issues were solved.
In order to correct this issue, you need to adjust the settings on the main router for your home network that is doing the DHCP, NOT on the ORBI itself. (All of this is applicable when using the ORBI as an Access Point (AP) only.)
HTH
Hi HTH
Many thanks for providing the solution! Releasing the AP and Satellite from the fixed IP's I had assigned from the main router solved the issue. After rebooting the Orbi(s) the magenta light went away on the AP and access to the UI was available again.
Cheers
PrezWRC
:-( Sorry about that. Netgear really should fix firmware to correct this and other "Magenta light" issues.
I still had the magenta LED issue on fw 1.11.0.20. Now we're up to 1.12.0.18 (where do they come up with these four-part numbers?) We'll see if that fixes it.
And I'm running just the Orbi, in router mode. One thing that doesn't work is selecting AP mode and then re-selecting router mode.
For me, the auto firmware update with no way to turn it off is the real deal killer here. What if I'm doing something important on the Internet, like downloading a 3 GB ISO, or trying to record a streaming movie, or place an order with my stock broker? And all of a sudden the Orbi decides it's time to reboot itself to install some new firmware?? That's simpy not acceptable, not from a router this expensive.
I went with Netgear because I've had good luck with their routers i the past and I'm familiar with their UI. But this is it. I'm looking around for something else now.
After installing latest FW (2.1.1.16) the system has been running solidly - and then the magenta ring showed up. The wifi was running well, but I could not use the browser (orbilogin) or the app as the unit was effectively offline. The unit is in AP, wired correctly and has two satellites.
Somehow the unit thinks it is not connected to the internet even though it is. Someone theorized that it is trying to go to some site on the web and for some reason cannot get to it, so assumes it is offline and turns magenta.
I am currently experimenting with the one area where the unit WILL go out to the web and get data - the NTP server. I have changed my server from the default netgear server to: 0.pool.ntp.org - I did this 24 hours ago and so far, no magenta. Will update if anything changes.
Since my last post on Sept 28, I saw the Magenta problem just once (on the second satellite). I pushed the sync button (accidentally as I was aiming for the power button) and the light turned off and has been fine since then. But then again, my Orbi (1 router, 2 satellites) has auto-upgraded twice, first to 2.0.0.74 and then to 2.1.1.16. Still no sign of magenta lights on any of the orbi boxes.
Model Name Device Name Current Version Status Router RBR50 RBR50 V2.1.1.16 No new firmware version available. Satellite RBS50 RBS50_1 V2.1.1.16 No new firmware version available. Satellite RBS50 RBS50_2 V2.1.1.16 No new firmware version available. Same here.
Usage as Access Point. CAT 6 cable from yellow Internet port to LAN Port of ConnectBox router from Unitymedia in Germany. Latest (as per Jan 6th 18) firmware V2.1.1.16 on both router and satellite.
Symptoms
WiFi devices loosing connection, magenta LED ring glowing on router.
Actions
Endless reboots, resetting etc.
=> Netgear support team please stop the guessing thus convince your bosses to invest significant resources in problem solution