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RBR50 will not factory reset nor can I connect in any way
Last sunday we had a quick power outage and we lost everything. My backup generator came on and everything came up, or so I thought. The router and Starlink, one 10 port netgear gb switch were on a surge protector in which I have no tested as good as well by APC. The router came up and somehow broadcasts, but it is unstable and I cannot reach it. I have used every single trick I have read about here from a standard reset (amber) to the power cycle while holding reset (red) and no go. The weird part is that my SSID will still broadcast.
The way it had me fooled for an hour or so until I jumped on it is that my Starlink connection comes with the wireless router and I was not finding that the double NAT was causing any issues, so I left it in after the last time I hooked up checking stats. What I didn't realize at first was that the Starlink took over the mesh and auto assigned ip's out to my two satellites. One was hard wired but the second one is backhauled wireless from the router via the original setup. Somehow the Starlink device took over when the router failed, except it is very glitchy.
The router itself is a mess. The data that I can pull to say "what I have going" is nothing like it should be. I can power down everything else including Starlink, just to have nothing else going on and plug my laptop into the router. I get an assigned ip via the 192.168.1.xxx format, but the router is not 1.1. It actually comes up as 192.168.1.250 for some reason. In between the 200 times I have reset this thing, multiple times I have been able to get another SSID up that I am positive is the router of NETGEAR75. I have no clue where this name comes from, my orbi says it should be orbi93 with some crazy password that also doesn't work. The SSID that does broadcast is the one I assigned to my network when I set it up but that password doesn't work either.
1. No idea how it still "somewhat" functions. I cannot essentially do anything to get to it.
2. Nothing I find helps connect via the forums here. orbiconnect.com (on router), orbiconnect.net, direct ip connection (says 404 cannot connect (dead lifeless screen), ipscanner shows me the ip but no home page comes, can reach either satellite back through the network once i realized their ip's
3. I wonder if I had this password for the supposed "NETGEAR75" if it would even let me in.
Let me add more frustration. I went through hell with a Nighthawk that was a door stop due to Netgear's terrible firmware issues and bought the Orbi set when it just seemed like the right thing for the size of a home. Never. Never will that ever happen again. Too many issues that seem to be self inflicted and I work too much to come home and try to troubleshoot their hardware all the time. The past issues with firmware I have been mitigated by flashing again, full reset of the satellite and believe it or not, patience. Waited 2 days one time and it just "fixed" itself. No more.
If you have any ideas, please let me know. Thanks for reading my novel of frustration
10 Replies
Did you press the reset button in back for 15 seconds then release then try to access the RBRs web page at 192.168.1.1?
Try a 30-30-30 reset on the RBR?
Try a TFTP re-load of FW:
https://kb.netgear.com/000059634/How-to-upload-firmware-to-a-NETGEAR-router-using-Windows-TFTP
Need to press the reset button for 30 seconds then release, then it send to PUT the command and upload the FW.
Make sure you enable tftp: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-tftp-windows-10
Video walk through using a tftp client. Use the built in one for windows 10 though. the video is more of an example of how its done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXhMgQS5k1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9DLrLQrpaw
I had a problem on a Windows 10 PC where this didn't work to use TFTP, so I switched to a Windows 7 PC and the TFTP worked.
Mac TFTP: https://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0001247Try nmrpflash:
https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflashIF any of this fails to recover the RBR, may need replacing.
- I have tried every combination of reset.
I cannot actually connect to any homepage like normal on the router at all. I know the ip is for some reason 192.168.1.250(not set by me) and get a 404 error no connection.
The thing that kills me is that the SSID I set of old still holds and somehow acts like it works but I cannot do anything but ping the router. Tried win7, win10 and win11 with chrome and edge and no go.
The big issue I feel is that the unit will not reset at all. 30 seconds holding while powered, unplug the power still holding 30 seconds, then power on still holding. Does nothingLast restore could be this:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/custom-firmware-build-for-orbi-rbk50-rbk53-rbr50-rbs50-v-9-2-5-1-18sf-hw-v-9-2-5-1-18-1sf-hw.64414/page-3#post-590839
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Is-my-13-month-old-RBR50-bricked/td-p/2009904/jump-to/first-unread-messageIf not, RBR needs replacing. Good luck.
Nerfball wrote:
Somehow the Starlink device took over when the router failed, except it is very glitchy.
This is not likely.
If the router continues to broadcast the WiFi SSID, and the satellites continue to support connections, then the router is indeed continuing to function. The Starlink has not "taken over".
Factory Reset not working has appeared on the forum (very seldom). (Just recently there was a post about the 30-30-30 method being successful.)
Nerfball wrote:
One thing the instructions said was to turn the router off for at least 10 seconds and power it back on until the amber power LED flashed. That never happens. When my RBR50 comes up, it goes right to green. The only way I get an amber power LED is to hold the reset while it is booted up and at first it is solid, then after like 5 seconds it is flashing
This is not what the Factory Reset instructions specify. A regular "power on" does not turn amber and then begin to flash. Factory Reset calls for holding the Reset button until the Power LED turns amber and then begins to flash. Going directly to Green is what the router is supposed to do when powered up.
If there is a computer that can be connected to the router, either with Ethernet or over the WiFi name that is being broadcast, can you please try this:
Once the computer is connected to the router, determine what the "Gateway IP Address is". On Windows, this can be found by opening a command window and entering the command ipconfig /all. (Normally, one would expect the Gateway IP address to be 192.168.1.1.)
Then, open a web browser to http:// (whatever the gateway IP address is).
@Nerfball wrote:
Somehow the Starlink device took over when the router failed, except it is very glitchy.
This is not likely.
If the router continues to broadcast the WiFi SSID, and the satellites continue to support connections, then the router is indeed continuing to function. The Starlink has not "taken over".
When the router is turned off and totally powered down and my SSID is still being broadcast, the only way for that to happen is for the satellite to hold a configuration, which it just may be doing. I can connect to the satellites but their configuration seems to be little to nothing directly. I remember setting the backhaul and so forth through the router initially.
In those instructions for restarting the router on step 9 seems to be plainly telling me to expect an amber flashing light which doesn't happen. Says it right there unless there is something more I read right through.
I have been working with computers since the Commodore64, I know how to get around windows better than most. For sure, this router is not resetting back to 192.168.1.1, but 192.168.1.250. Better than this is that was never an ip I used for my network anywhere including static devices because that was not my structure. I can ping it, but that is about it. Nothing can actually connect.
I didn't see this post in the middle
If the router continues to broadcast the WiFi SSID, and the satellites continue to support connections, then the router is indeed continuing to function. The Starlink has not "taken over".
When the router is 100% powered down, it is impossible to broadcast yet by backhauling with a cable to both satellites, the SSID I set on the router before still gets broadcasted by the satellites and ends up working. I can only guess that the setup from the router to the satellites holds even though I gave them static addresses from the beginning and they now accept the new network scheme.
That is what I meant by the Starlink system taking over the control. They were not set to dhcp but it seems they are now. Maybe when the router dropped, there is some sort of failsafe in the setup but I do not remember ever seeing it.
Again, I can get to the gui of the satellite but I have nothing to go on for how it looked before. I set the satellites up through the gui of the router in the beginning and never connected direct except the one time a satellite needed a re-flashed firmware.
This message is a bit of a mess with lots of confusing things going on. It might help if you stuck to the details without throwing in all the asides.
Let's home in on things that might make sense.
Take this:
Nerfball wrote:
I...I have been able to get another SSID up that I am positive is the router of NETGEAR75. I have no clue where this name comes from, my orbi says it should be orbi93 with some crazy password that also doesn't work. The SSID that does broadcast is the one I assigned to my network when I set it up but that password doesn't work either.
Another SSID? What are we to make of "the router of NETGEAR75".
NETGEAR75 is usually the "factory" SSID allocated to your Netgear router.
Unless you have worked hard to get rid of it, the "password" is on the label on the thing. Along with the username and password for the browser graphical user interface (GUI).
Then there is this bit:
Nerfball wrote:
The way it had me fooled for an hour or so until I jumped on it is that my Starlink connection comes with the wireless router and I was not finding that the double NAT was causing any issues, so I left it in after the last time I hooked up checking stats.
What is this "Starlink connection"? What is the modem/gateway/ONT that sits between the router and the Internet?
Newer Netgear routers try to avoid double NAT by adjusting their own settings. (Life has moved on since the era of CP/M.)) So you won't see the usually conflicts.
That could be the reason for this:
I get an assigned ip via the 192.168.1.xxx format, but the router is not 1.1. It actually comes up as 192.168.1.250Given how many times you have reset everything, I wonder if you are flailing around rather than tackling things methodically.
Hard to tell given the random nature of your posts.
Ok, we can now drop the bullcrap. I program plc's, design power/control cabinets for automation for a living, that is what I like to do and do it well. Methodical is out the door when a piece of hardware doesn't do anything that others report it should be doing and then you need to think outside the box.
"
Another SSID? What are we to make of "the router of NETGEAR75".
NETGEAR75 is usually the "factory" SSID allocated to your Netgear router.
Unless you have worked hard to get rid of it, the "password" is on the label on the thing. Along with the username and password for the browser graphical user interface (GUI)"
No, get your facts straight. The orbi comes with a sticker on the label that tells me the standard SSID is orbi93 and the password is also right there. BUT, since you cannot get this thing to actually reset through all the different ways posted on these forums, you will never see this id. How it comes up with the NETGEAR75, who knows. Never seen it before.
"
What is this "Starlink connection"? What is the modem/gateway/ONT that sits between the router and the Internet?
Newer Netgear routers try to avoid double NAT by adjusting their own settings. (Life has moved on since the era of CP/M.)) So you won't see the usually conflicts.
That could be the reason for this:"
Come on, you are now making me laugh. Double NAT doesn't cause your router to quit working, at the most the address translation x2 slows things up and if you are trying to remote to a pc on the inside, you will normally not find it as the address is translated by the outside NAT device. You are now making crap up. The Starlink router can be taken out. The only reason I leave it in is so I can access directly to the dish when I am away and troubleshoot anything for my wife. Wireshark found nearly no difference except a very slight latency increase. This router has seen this setup for four plus years with no issues. My issues for fixing things before were all related to firmware upgrades that went to crap. Reflash and for the most part things worked ok, one time two days and it fixed itself.
You are posting that others are "flailing", please do not respond again as you not passing anything that is helping. The other two, Crimp and fluffy were about 90% of the other posts I was reading to figure out the different resets. How to get through them and what SHOULD happen. Nothing is correct, nothing.
