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Solved
RBR50 performance degradation after 2.5.0.38 firmware update
Hi everyone, Updating my Orbi RBR50 router and RBS50 satellites to the latest firmware release package (2.5.0.38) seems to have resulted in a significant deterioration of my network's performance...
So... after reverting my RBR50 and RBS50s to firmware 2.3.5.30, which Netgear considers the last stable release, the network slowdown that came out of nowhere is gone. However, this doesn't cure the random spikes in latency that were driving me absolutely spare. After receiving no meaningful assistance from Netgear's dev team, I've opted to just broom my Orbi setup and replaced it with a more reliable mesh system from another manufacturer. Specifically, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 WiFi 6 triple-band system. It's proving to be much more stable than the Orbi was and thus far has offered slightly better performance, though it's about 1 1/2 times the size and looks like a futuristic take on Stonehenge.
Well, my tinkering with the Orbi router's security settings seems to have yielded... something?
I wasn't able to find any combination of settings that yielded a return to normal performance after several hours of experimentation. After my testing was done and I manually re-entered the default security settings, for no reason I can identify the falloff in network speed about half of what it was before I started tinkering (~50Mbps instead of ~100Mbps). Not a huge difference, all told, but enough to be detectable using a speed test or any speed-sensitive task. The periodic network lag, however, is apparently unaffected. Every few minutes on most any online game (tested most extensively using Overwatch 1.4.2.x) the ping goes completely to hell if I'm connected through the Orbi but stays stable if I'm upstream of the Orbi as a client on the cable modem itself.
(I guess it shows the base level of hardware quality that my ping under normal conditions is actually better on the Orbi with the modem in bridge mode than connected directly to the modem in router mode. Only by a few milliseconds, but it's something.)
I'm going to poke the mods and see if any action is being taken, and if I don't get at least some confirmation and a moderate level of detail that something is being done I'll draft a unpleasant missive to select senior management at Netgear and then revert my system back to the last stable release and keep going backwards until I find one that's not impacted.
So... after reverting my RBR50 and RBS50s to firmware 2.3.5.30, which Netgear considers the last stable release, the network slowdown that came out of nowhere is gone. However, this doesn't cure the random spikes in latency that were driving me absolutely spare. After receiving no meaningful assistance from Netgear's dev team, I've opted to just broom my Orbi setup and replaced it with a more reliable mesh system from another manufacturer. Specifically, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 WiFi 6 triple-band system. It's proving to be much more stable than the Orbi was and thus far has offered slightly better performance, though it's about 1 1/2 times the size and looks like a futuristic take on Stonehenge.