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OrbiOS 2.1.1
The Orbi team at NETGEAR is aware that some users are experiencing higher than expected Orbi Router reboots, special characters in WiFi Passwords and WiFi / Internet disconnects. We believe these is...
Let me give you a quick update on where NETGEAR is with the OrbiOS.
Just before Christmas break, we paused the distribution of OrbiOS 2.1. Very soon, we're about to restart the distribution of a slightly updated version of the beta (2.1.2). In addition to the major new features introduced in 2.1 (e.g. Circle, Ethernet Backhaul), this firmware is expected to address the high CPU issue, as well as the special character in PSK issue as well as support for the Outdoor Orbi. Check Release Notes for complete list.
We are continuing to work on the issues with Google devices that have been documented in the press (several users have provided links here).
My recommendation is that you should either use the Orbi Mobile App (if you haven't seen it recently, check it out, we've made some major improvements) or the Web UI to check for new firmware or wait until your system gets auto-upgraded.
To answer your question, Stars_fan. When Orbi are connected over Ethernet backhaul, the 5GHz band becomes hot standby.
Orbi Product Management
Another unhappy user:
- Tested with latest realease and with latest beta, same results
- Router does not reboot very often but wifi stops working ever few hours for few seconds to minutes (even on windows laptops)
- Wired backhaul seems to make it worse - more frequent disconects
- Router will lockup and reboot as soon as satalite is connected to wired network
- Have to turn of the Satalite, let router come up and then power on the satalite
- Have a large number of Android devices, including Google home and Chromecast
- Same defivices worked fine on Cisco router + Netgear Nighthawks in AP mode
2.1.2.10 seems to be fine in my setup with 1 Pixel2, 2 Google Homes and 2 Chromecasts but only when running without the satellite. As soon as I turn the satellite on, the router reboots as soon as I wake my phone. I've noticed that when actually casting content to anything (Homes or Chromecasts) there are periodic wifi drops when I wake the phone, but the router at least stays up.
As an aside, the Cisco AIR-CAP1700's I run at work in an 8 point mesh with a Cisco WLC2100 central controller also have issues when there are several of our Pixel/Pixel 2 devices in the office. I have also received alerts from our IPS that there is a potential DoS attack coming from the devices after long sleep times. Google really needs to address this instead of passing it over to the other hardware manufacturers.
Well google does have an issue with there devices, but so does Netgear.
For example:
- connecting the Satalite via wired ethernet cause the Router to reboot (thats a pure Netgear problem).
- Windows laptop wifi connection losses access to external (internet sites). Can ping the router, the router can ping internet sites but laptop cannot ping internet sites. This is happens on Windows and Mac Laptops. Disconnecting and reconnecting the Wifi fixes the problem. This is clearly a routing issue with the router (not the satalite).
Have tried doing a factory reset on the router and the satalites (have 2 of them). Lets see if there is a firmware update to fix this in a week otherwise will have to abadon Netgear for good.
TPLINK Engineer's findings (hope Netgear have similar brains):
NETGEAR, NOW YOU KNOW WHAT TO FIX, SO PLS. FIX IT.
Following initial research and investigation, our engineering team is confident that they've determined one of the key origins of the issue. From what we have gathered so far, the issue appears to be related to some of the recent versions of Android OS and Google Apps.
This issue stems from these devices' "Cast" feature, which sends MDNS multicast discovery packets in order to discover and keep a live connection with Google products such as Google Home. These packets normally sent in a 20-second interval. However, we have discovered that the devices will sometimes broadcast a large amount of these packets at a very high speed in a short amount of time. This occurs when the device is awakened from its "sleep" state, and could exceed more than 100,000 packets. The longer your device is in "sleep", the larger this packet burst will be. This issue may eventually cause some of router’s primary features to shut down – including wireless connectivity.
Generally, you will need to perform a reboot to release the memory to solve this issue. You may also try disabling the “Cast” feature on your Android device to help mitigate the issue until an update is released to permanently fix this issue on the device itself.
- All my Google products function fine on 1.11.0.20 however. So it's Google products AND Netgear firmware.
2 home minis, Chromecast and Android 8.1 with zero issues right now, knock on wood.this problem applies to firmware > v2