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Forum Discussion
Solved
RBR40 Firmware Trials, Tribulations, and Partial Solutions
Summary
RBR40 = Firmware issues and bugginess
RBR20 = small, simple, solid reliability
RBW30 = Simple addon satellite
Orbi Overall = Powerful and highly customizable. Perfect for network geeks and tweakers. Possibly too challenging for avearge home users.
The Story
Last week I bought the RBK23 kit to upgrade my home network to mesh. I live in a mid-sized condo, so the issue I face isn't square footage, but signal blockages due to concrete, rebar, and steel studs. The condo is two stories, and there is a concrete interior balcony that is pretty much impenetrable to wifi. The RBR20 and its two matching satellites worked perfectly once configured, but there was still one room that was getting a weaker signal.
The plan was to buy another satellite, but Amazon had a deal on the RBK30 that included an RBR40 router and a wall plug satellite for exactly the same price as the RBW30 wall plug by itself. Since my RBR20 router was connected to a 4 port switch to allow my printer and network hard drive to be hard-wired, I figured that the RBR40 would be a good replacement because I could get rid of the switch.
Things did not go according to plan.
First the RBR40 firmware refused to update. After a couple of hours trying to manually update it, I found and used the workaround... First update the firmawre manually to V2.0.0.56, and from there update again (manually) to V2.2.1.210 This brings the firmware up to the latest release, which includes better access control, and most importantly, true mesh networking via daisy chaining.
Now the bad news.
Despite hours of attempts, and solution searching, it eventually proved impossible to connect all three satellites to the router. I'm typing this after giving up, and stiffing the updated RBR40 into my computer junk drawer.
The good news.
The RBK23 and its RBR20 router had no trouble (well it took several attempts!) getting all 3 satelllites the two RBS20s and the RBW30 into a working mesh network. The switch is separate from the router again, but working fine.
Resources:
RBR40 latest firmware rBR40 V2.2.1.210
http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBK40/RBR40-V2.2.1.210.zip
RBR40 intermediate firmware rbr40 v2.0.0.56 (required to apply the previous update)
http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBK40/RBR40-V2.0.0.56.zip
Summary
RBR40 = Firmware issues and bugginess
RBR20 = small, simple, solid reliability
Thanks for suggestion, but yes, I tried those things and more.
Keep in mind that the same issue would apply to the working solution, ie/ the RBW30 synching to the RBR20 (works fine) is the same as getting the two RBS20 satellites synching with RBR40. For whatever reason, I was able to (eventually) get any combination of two satellites to synch with the 40, but only the 20 successfully connected to all 3 satellites.
i may try again after the next firmware update for the RBR40, but since my setup is now working and stable, I’ll leave it “as is” for now.
3 Replies
DickDuke wrote:
..........
Despite hours of attempts, and solution searching, it eventually proved impossible to connect all three satellites to the router. I'm typing this after giving up, and stiffing the updated RBR40 into my computer junk drawer.
..........
reliability
May be a trivial question, when you buy an RBK package the Satellites and the Router are all already synced, but when you add a Satellite thatisn't synced with an existing Router you need to do the syncing by pressing the Sync button on the Satellite and the Router until they sync then do the same with the other Satellites, have you done that?
Thanks for suggestion, but yes, I tried those things and more.
Keep in mind that the same issue would apply to the working solution, ie/ the RBW30 synching to the RBR20 (works fine) is the same as getting the two RBS20 satellites synching with RBR40. For whatever reason, I was able to (eventually) get any combination of two satellites to synch with the 40, but only the 20 successfully connected to all 3 satellites.
i may try again after the next firmware update for the RBR40, but since my setup is now working and stable, I’ll leave it “as is” for now.
Makes me wonder if there is a HW failure of the 40 series with 3 satellites.
DickDuke wrote:
Thanks for suggestion, but yes, I tried those things and more.
Keep in mind that the same issue would apply to the working solution, ie/ the RBW30 synching to the RBR20 (works fine) is the same as getting the two RBS20 satellites synching with RBR40. For whatever reason, I was able to (eventually) get any combination of two satellites to synch with the 40, but only the 20 successfully connected to all 3 satellites.
i may try again after the next firmware update for the RBR40, but since my setup is now working and stable, I’ll leave it “as is” for now.
