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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 issues are related to the OrbiOS 2.1.1 firmware. We are actively working to address these issues, and expect to fix them with a firmware upgrade soon. In the meantime, we’re temporarily suspending auto-upgrading users to OrbiOS 2.1.1.
While we work through some of the issues, we’re releasing a new Beta firmware (2.1.2), which contains:
- Support for LED control & scheduling for Orbi Outdoor Satellite (RBS50Y)
- Fixes high CPU utilization on Orbi Router, which could be causing other issues
- Fixes the Attached Devices UI showing all devices connecting to the Orbi Router
The Beta firmware 2.1.2 files can be obtained from here:
RBR50: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=n2X2ARvI7o
RBS50: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=yBsnhHaBiw
RBR40: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=8xFS1yg8fn
RBS40: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=Hu3hbx814i
RBW30: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=PRpkMfJynw
RBS20: http://files.netgear-support.com/go/?a=d&i=OGhLlDB9mQ
Instructions for performing a Manual Upgrade: https://kb.netgear.com/000037217/How-do-I-check-and-manually-upgrade-the-firmware-on-my-Orbi-satellite
If you are having issues with 2.1.1, having higher than normal disconnects or if you have purchased an Outdoor Orbi Satellite (RBS50Y) please upgrade to the new Beta firmware through the manual upgrade process. Feel free contact NETGEAR Support if you’re having issues with MR 2.1.1 (even if you’re outside of the 90 day window).
We apologize for these issues.
Orbi Product Team
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
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I may be in wrong topic so I apologize up front. New to Netgear world. Please tell me where to look. The netgear community forums could be better organized/ tagged in trying to zone in on root cause of issues - firmware, connected devices, IoT, etc. Not crazy about the search engine here either. Lastly the similar yet different naming of Orbi routers and satellites and permutations thereof make it clumsy to search
I installed my Orbi a few days ago. The firmware on the RBR40 router is 1.12.0.30.
My point is I am still on level/version 1 firmware AND I need to reboot my router everyday. So I do not see this as a firmware version 2 issue.
I have an Arris Surf cable modem SBG6580. Are there any known compatibility issues with Arris?
I also have my Galaxy S6 phone on Android OS 7 - I did not upgrade to Oreo.
Thanks in advance for any guidance/suggestions.
Like Icarus I feel I went too close to the sun or maybe too close to the "bleeding" edge of tech advances. ORBI mesh network great idea but I don't want to be part of their gratis testing community. I only need an extender. Returning my ORBI. Already purchased a less expensive alternative Netgear dual channel extender and it doesn't drop wifi. I believe Netgear makes good products.
Wake up ORBI product group - before its too late.
Gave this a go but had multiple reboots and/or resetting all WiFi connections. Occurred every few hours. I do have an Android 8.1 device however the timing never seemed to coincide with my device waking or connecting to the orbi.
Even if it's 8.1 the issue needs to be addressed.
Rolled back to .74 and I've noticed even .74 has rebooted or dropped connections a couple times however it's only about 1x per day.
As far as I know I did not have this issue when I first got my orbi. I set it up once and the whole family was happy after battling dead spots with a WiFi router, aps and extenders.
So the hardware is very capable.
I updated to the beta software and am seeing no issues. The reporting of the connections seems to be correct now, but it will take another week to be absolutely sure. With the two previous software versions my connections would initially show correct, but over time they would all migrate over to the router. My ipad which is usually used in an area in the house close to a satellite, but far away from the router, would then lose significant download speed. I've not had any reboots in the three plus weeks I've owned system. i happen to catch my ISP going offline briefly on one occasion, and this caused the router (only) to light up magenta. Service came back a few minutes later when the ISP recovered, and curiously nothing out of the ordinary was logged by the Orbi.
I have 8 devices continually connected to the system and another three or four (computers) that typically come and go. No Android or NEST devices. My wife's iphone now connects using 5G where before it would only use 2.4G. The crazy DOS and ARK attacks from it are also no longer showing up in the logs.
I spoke too soon. My wife's iphone has started its ARP and DOS attacks again. At least it's still happily connected through 5G.
Installed V2.1.2.12 a couple of days ago on my RBK 43 system and now have an uptime of just over two days. So far so good. Daisy chain is on, with one sat connected to the other, and one to the router. Wireless backhaul.
The biggest factor for me, I think, was moving one of the 2 satellites about 20 feet from its original location. It's in the same room as before but this meant one fewer wall between it and the Orbi router in my 2300 sq ft. house. Made a huge difference for that sat; getting up to 240 mbps on an xBox wired to the sat via a switch. The other sat, a bit closer and with fewer walls, shows up to 600 mbps on a PC with ethernet to it. And on a PC wired to my router I'm getting up to 940 mbps, according to Comcast's speed test. Somewhat lower on other test sites. (I have Comcast Docsis 3.1 gigabit).
Just saw this theread and installed 2.1.2 after having massive problems with 2.1.16. I really hope this beta will fix most of the disconnections we have had latly.
ktd wrote:Just saw this theread and installed 2.1.2 after having massive problems with 2.1.16. I really hope this beta will fix most of the disconnections we have had latly.
Just remember this beta is only supposed to address the specific things they called out in the release post. It’s NOT supposed to be a stable, final release with everything fixed.
My setup is one RBR50 and two RBS50 all running in AP mode. Network has been stable and working fine except that satellites show up in attached device area of the router webpage rather than the satellite section. I am able to confirm that satellites are working and have devices connecting to them by visiting the satellite webpages and viewing the connected devices.
Today I updated firmware to v2.1.2.10 by updating satellites first and then router.
Immediately after upate my wifi network stopped working. It appeared that the router decided to set up a new network at 10.0.0.1 rather than continue to operate on the 192.168.x.x network I am running. Multiple reboots of multiple components eventually sovled the problem, can't say which action made the difference.
Network now appears to be operating normally, but satellites are still showing up as attached devices rather than as satellites. (During the update process one satellite showed up for a while in the "connected satellite" section with a "poor connection" warning, but it has stabilized to showing up as an attached device.) It also appears that none of the devices connected to the satellites are showing up on the attached device list.
Your mileage may vary...
My mileage varied...
Came back home from work the next day to family complaints that wifi wasn't working. Examined system and found the following symptoms:
1. Both satellites were now showing up as satelllites rather than as attached devices.
2. Internet connectivity was extremely slow and unreliable. As an example, would take several minutes to load the google home page and would fail to load even that perhaps half the time. Same applied to any website. This was true for computers connected to Orbi by WiFi and for computers connected to Orbi by ethernet.
3. Could not print wirelessly to wifi printer. Succeeded in printing only after connecting both computer and printer to orbi router via ethernet.
That third point convinced me it was my internal network having problems rather than any problem with my broadband connection. Rebooted a few things without success. Then reverted to 2.1.1.16 and performance immediately returned to normal.
It's been my experience that it takes a long time for all devices to properly display in the attached device screen. As an example, I reverted the firmware last night and as of this morning 16 of my ~30 network devices are showing up in the display with the satellites showing up as attached devices. Everything seems to work regardless of display, so I've never worried about it much. As mentioned in prior post after the 2.1.1 upgrade my satellites initially showed up in the attached device section of the web display and my network performance was fine. I speculate that my network performance problems began some hours later when the satellites registered as satellites rather than attached devices.
Well, my satellite did show up as one right from the start, but after hooking it up to the LAN and thus creating a networked backhaul, the devices list was just nonsense, as it reports all devices as being located on the router, which may make kind of sense, depending on how the MACs are matched to the router or sat.
The router can of course see all the MACs from the wireliess clients on it's own LAN interface, and each MAC would be needed to be examined, if it also is present or local to the bridge on any satellite. Other than that, my combo has been solid for two days, no glitches, no reboots… however, no Android devices for that matter, so I can't comment on that issue. I will have to grab a Android device from the office tomorrow and see, if it crashes the router, if it connects to the wifi. Any particular version of Android needed to force a crash?
I was having constant hang-ups and reboots because of Android 8.1, which prompted me to turn off the wifi on my Pixel 2 XL. After that the router wasn't rebooting anymore, but it would still get hung up and freeze constantly, every hour or so. After installing this beta I've been rock solid for over 4 days now. I'm guessing the CPU was getting seriously overloaded. I still have my wifi turned off on my Pixel 2 XL, but at least all of my other devices can finally connect and stay connected. I hope the reason Android is causing the reboots is figured out by Netgear/Google soon because it's getting pretty annoying at this point. It's been weeks since this is a known issue now. It's like playing a game of how long I can live without wifi on my Pixel vs going out and buying a router that works. I'd rather not spend another few hundred bucks on a new system, just hope they can get this fixed ASAP!
Turn on the wifi on your devices. I’m all Mac for computers and phones and the router rebooted itself regardless. I don’t think it has anything to do with your devices - it’s the router that’s faulty.
I have been up about 2 days on the beta sonfar so good. I switched to a wired backhaul and that has been good. I did get the pink light at first on the sat but after 10 min it seems to have done what it needed ro and it works. I did a reboot after that just to see if it was going to need 10 min every reboot and it just took 2-3 minutes to get going not 10 minutes. I do see whith the wired backhaul if i go to the update option it shows that i have 2 sats....when I only have one. The second never actually connects and provides status on an update being available. I have several nest protects, a nest thermostat, amd even a sump pump that i can log into and all are functioning as expected. 2 web cams also working fine.
Stable connection after installing this BETA. Router and all 3 satellites are up and running from last 3 days without any reboot. Packet loss still exists and hopefully will be resolved in full firmware release. Furthermore, I also suspect that the Android issue still exists, this had caused a reboot 3 days earlier when a guest's android device started using my wifi.
What are folks using to know whether/how often the network is rebooting? Obviously, if it happens when I am using it I am aware, otherwise I am not. I don't recall seeing that ability in the ORBI UI.
As to the person stating they went back to a Netgear router and extender, I would love to do so but I asked Netgear to replace my Orbi with something else and they said they would not. I am not having the same level of issues with my Orbi as others, but I would welcome an option from Netgear rather than throwing my $400 down the drain. My network is "stable enough" for the moment that I am not inclined to throw in the towel.
I rolled back to 1.11.0.20 (starting at 2.1.1.16, then basically each version all the way back) starting a few days before Christmas. My wife and I both work from home, spend a considerable amount of time on VOIP calls and use persistent VPN connections throughout the day. I wasn't able to get through the day without some sort of network interruption/problem until landing on 1.11.0.20, and that's where I'll be staying until Netgear gets its act together and releases a stable update.
Amit,
How many Orbi reboots should the the users expect ? Shouldn't it be zero ???
Very fed up with Orbi here. And I went back to my old R7000 due to experiencing these issues.
AmitR wrote: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 issues are related to the OrbiOS 2.1.1 firmware. We are actively working to address these issues, and expect to fix them with a firmware upgrade soon. In the meantime, we’re temporarily suspending auto-upgrading users to OrbiOS 2.1.1.
The Orbi app says my kp is 10.0.0.1
it is not I am in AP mode and the address is a 192.168 .x.x variant?
why the wrong IP address?
- I downgraded to 1.11.0.20 and it looks like it ran an auto update back to .74
Yup, my daughters Huawei honor 6x tried to reached wifi and bang, the router got rebooted. Exact date timestamp.
NETGEAR, are you listening? fixing a problem can be tedious, we know, but acknowledging gives your customers thought for comfort that they are at least heard. The Android issue is a plaque and needs to be resolved ASAP.
NETGEAR, you can't just assume all your users are siblings of a bitten fruit.
Hey guys, I read this and other post on ORBI firmwares, including the beta one. I am from Hk and bought the RBK53 (1 router and 2 Sat kit).
Firmware version is .74 out of the box. It has been stable since set up on 30-12-2017. I upgraded smoothly to the latest beta firmware to get support for wired backhaul. The upgrade was smooth and the performacne is also stable and satisfactory.
I note many of your guys's firmware version was version 1.x.x.x when out of the box.
Mine was labelled as Made in China, NOT Vietnam as some other has mentioned. I was wondering if the hiccups are hardware-related casue there might be slight difference in parts.
For what it's worth, mine says "made in China" and I'm plagued by the constant reboots.
I have been running th beta for few days and am still having issues though it is more stable. I have noticed that after some time one of my satellites will show as connected on the router page and show devices connected, yet I cannot sign in directly to the satellite by entering its IP (I can my other satelllite), also my HDHomerun Connect which is hardwired to the satellite is not longer recognized on my network and it is not functioning properly. Note it is a UPNP device. Rebooting satellite alone does not fix this. I have to reboot the whole system to fix the issue.
