NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
OrbiOS MR 2.1 issues
I wanted to reach out to provide a quick update on OrbiOS 2.1 software. We believe that these issues are affecting some users. Rest assured that we've been following this issue and working hard beh...
Did you try a Factory Reset and reconfigure manually? Sometimes rolling the firmware back leaves wrong bits of data in the NVRAM. Factory reset and pressing the reset button for 15 seconds should set it up ready for your configuration.
Bought the RBK50 and set it up in Virginia, had no problems but rolled the firmware back to 2.0.1.4 as a precaution.
Delivered the RBK50 to Portugal and it has been working fine, no need to reboot it at all.
I don't know if there are any differences in hardware but I have been reading the complaints here and they do not match my experience. Still, I do not want to upgrade to 2.1.x.x until ... 2.2 or higher. Seems that Netgear suspended the auto-upgrade feature whether an individual unit is set on Auto, or not. I have not disabled the Auto feature, though I have seen where one can do so.
So my advice is (a) do a factory reset (but 15 seconds may not be long enough - RTFM for a more certain experience) and (b) aside from either activating a Guest network or changing the network name/password or admin login password, *DON'T* change the other settings.
Even 2.0.1.4 is set to use 5 MHz backhaul.
My experience was that the 25 Mbps wired performance ("fast" - but not 700+ Mbps that I have in Baltimore MD) was maintained via ORBI WiFi in the Virginia condo of the original setup. As well, the 9.8 Mbps wired performance in rural Portugal (yeah, not very fast - it is based on DSL) is maintained at 8+ Mbps throughout a much larger house.
YMWV. Best of luck to all.
Be aware there is no way to reliably disable the auto-upgrade feature in the Orbi. There are procedures elsewhere in the forum to use Telnet to change settings in the NVRAM to try, but it has not proven to work reliably. You've probably mistaken some other GUI element for an autoupgrade control.
Unless you block Internet access to the Orbi to prevent it from seeing the Netgear servers, you will most likely get the firmware update when Netgear posts it.
bardiferouslywrote:I don't know if there are any differences in hardware but I have been reading the complaints here and they do not match my experience. Still, I do not want to upgrade to 2.1.x.x until ... 2.2 or higher. Seems that Netgear suspended the auto-upgrade feature whether an individual unit is set on Auto, or not. I have not disabled the Auto feature, though I have seen where one can do so.
"I don't know if there are any differences in hardware but I have been reading the complaints here and they do not match my experience. "
Most likely there is an unknown combination of connected devices, traffic, and/or configuration that is triggering a bug on the Orbi. Those of us that don't see issues don't have whatever is triggering the problems. That is what makes these kind of issues hard to track down. Figuring out the unknown bug trigger with so many variables in home networks can be challenging.
- Wow! I’m so surprised to see this thread. I’ve got RBK40 a few days ago and since part of the reason why i chose netgear over google wifi was due to circle, hence i upgraded straight to 2.1.1.18 version and things are very smooth since then. The only reason i searched for this thread was due to 2.1 firmware being listed under previous releases, and that confused me a bit.
Anyway, I’m a bit worried now because I’m slowly moving over my 20 odd wireless devices in my house to orbi and that might trigger the issues others are seeing.
I’m thinking of sending this back and getting google wifi + circle. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Malikonswrote:
Wow! I’m so surprised to see this thread. I’ve got RBK40 a few days ago and since part of the reason why i chose netgear over google wifi was due to circle, hence i upgraded straight to 2.1.1.18 version and things are very smooth since then. The only reason i searched for this thread was due to 2.1 firmware being listed under previous releases, and that confused me a bit.
Anyway, I’m a bit worried now because I’m slowly moving over my 20 odd wireless devices in my house to orbi and that might trigger the issues others are seeing.
I’m thinking of sending this back and getting google wifi + circle. Any suggestions?
Thanks,Many of us are running large complex networks with the Orbi and firmware 2.1.2.18 and no issues. I dont doubt there are problems. There will always be bugs so it comes down to how much do you trust the hardware and how much do you trust Netgear to give us stable software. It looks to me like they tried to pack a lot into the last major release and it didnt get tested enough in the real world. There are also indications that there are some issues in the backhaul that have been ignored because they have not risen high enough in the bug list and have mitigation (reboot the sat etc). Another opportunity for Netgear to step up.
I'm in the same boat as you, new Orbi customer, somewhat anxious but enjoying the product. I plan to stay put and see how things go and make a decision closer to the end of my return window (90 days with Costco).
