Firmware V1.12.0.18 Discussion

I agree with you on this but it's in their terms. 

I've gotten no response from Netgear requesting the new firmware. Had two tickets open with them, no offer of any beta or new release software. Returning to costco tday, tired of dealing with them.

This is the Netgear strategy (as I see it).  Spend no money on software engineers.  Spend no money on support.  Spend money on people who monitor amazon.  

And there are no facts that suggest that the other poster signed some sort of agreement not to distribute the beta (perhaps he/she did, but I don't see it in the post).  Once again, general seat of the pants "feelings" don't count much in life.  

Having received beta firmware for the Orbi,  I can confirm you sign an agreement to not distribute.

1.12.0.20 was pushed weeks ago for the 40's not the 50's.

My system updated itself to 1.12.0.18.  this is ridiculous.  I've never had a router that auto updated.

---

bsemerick wrote:

My system updated itself to 1.12.0.18.  this is ridiculous.  I've never had a router that auto updated.

---

The newer "wireless systems" like mesh systems, the orbi, etc. all do this. Standalone wireless routers generally don't. In fact, when you initially configured your router, you agreed that Netgear can upgrade/update your system without your permission. If you don't believe me *smile*, reset your router and satellite, and go through the initial configuration again, you'll see it there.

At what version did auto update begin? I'm at 1.3.0.26 and it's working well, however, I'd like to manually update to the version that enabled guest network but don't want to get sucked in to auto updates.  Also. If 1.12.0.18 is so problematic for users, why doesn't Netgear pull it from their update servers?  I work for a CE brand and we can do that if users experience FW update issues.  Netgear appears to be clueless

Well that lasted a few hours, then Orbi stared dropping the internet connection, now it's back to the same poor speeds. 

Time to roll back the firmware again.

---

Tim-in-CA wrote:

At what version did auto update begin? I'm at 1.3.0.26 and it's working well, however, I'd like to manually update to the version that enabled guest network but don't want to get sucked in to auto updates.  Also. If 1.12.0.18 is so problematic for users, why doesn't Netgear pull it from their update servers?  I work for a CE brand and we can do that if users experience FW update issues.  Netgear appears to be clueless

---

Bump ... any feedback to what FW version started auto updates?  I'm at 1.3.0.26 and would like to update to the first version that supports Guest Networking, but worried I'll encounter auto upadating to 1.12.0.18

Firmware 1.12 does work for some people, perhaps many people. Hard to tell... I suspect most people who have no problem have no reason to check in here. My Orbi router & satellite have been working just fine for me and my relatively small collection of a dozen or so devices.

Yes, it worked for me as well for a couple of weeks, until I rebooted the devices, then it was back to the same behavior as was experienced with 1.11.x.

I thought we were getting a new firmware last week.  Has Netgear responded at all about any of this?  It is growing rather annoying.  Im tempted to jump through the NVRAM clear hoops but would prefer to have the proper firmware release.  I see newer 1.12.0.20 builds available for other similar devices but not my RBR50 which I am tempted to return to Costco as I had worse coverage but fewer drops with a multi flavored router DD-WRT WDS setup.  I don't have any Netgear contacts like some folks do to ask for Beta firmware so this whole process is annoying.

#frustrating

---

n4cho wrote:

I thought we were getting a new firmware last week.  Has Netgear responded at all about any of this?  It is growing rather annoying.  Im tempted to jump through the NVRAM clear hoops but would prefer to have the proper firmware release.  I see newer 1.12.0.20 builds available for other similar devices but not my RBR50 which I am tempted to return to Costco as I had worse coverage but fewer drops with a multi flavored router DD-WRT WDS setup.  I don't have any Netgear contacts like some folks do to ask for Beta firmware so this whole process is annoying.

 

#frustrating

---

Darren will reach out to you, here on this forum, if he wants you to use the Beta.  I would recommend returning it if you're within your return window.  It's been over a month and a half of this mess and so far, no official word on a fix.

---

@TXGunLover wrote:

---

n4cho wrote:

I thought we were getting a new firmware last week.  Has Netgear responded at all about any of this?  It is growing rather annoying.  Im tempted to jump through the NVRAM clear hoops but would prefer to have the proper firmware release.  I see newer 1.12.0.20 builds available for other similar devices but not my RBR50 which I am tempted to return to Costco as I had worse coverage but fewer drops with a multi flavored router DD-WRT WDS setup.  I don't have any Netgear contacts like some folks do to ask for Beta firmware so this whole process is annoying.

 

#frustrating

---

Darren will reach out to you, here on this forum, if he wants you to use the Beta.  I would recommend returning it if you're within your return window.  It's been over a month and a half of this mess and so far, no official word on a fix.

---

Fellow Costco purchaser here as well. I'm not having issues, but am reticent to update to the latest FW for fear of experiencing the myriad of issues reported here. Had mine for a week, but am at much older FW that lacks Guest Networking (and auto-updating :smileyhappy:). One of the primary benefits of purchasing at Costco is that you can return it at ANY time for a full refund. Routers are not part of the 90 day return policy. Had a TP Link Deco system that I bought from Amazon and had to push them to issue a refund as Echo devices were dropping off the network. I’m in a holding pattern on FW updating the Orbi until newer, more stable FW is released.

One of the primary benefits of purchasing at Costco is that you can return it at ANY time for a full refund. Routers are not part of the 90 day return policy. 

Exactly why I purchased it there :)  I just wish someone at Netgear would say 'hey yeah this is a thing, ETA is x.'  

I mean I saw them close the issue for ethernet backhaul with a 'working on it next' sort of comment.  Where is that at? 

The lack of communication is annoying.

---

Tim-in-CA wrote:

---

@TXGunLover wrote:

---

n4cho wrote:

I thought we were getting a new firmware last week.  Has Netgear responded at all about any of this?  It is growing rather annoying.  Im tempted to jump through the NVRAM clear hoops but would prefer to have the proper firmware release.  I see newer 1.12.0.20 builds available for other similar devices but not my RBR50 which I am tempted to return to Costco as I had worse coverage but fewer drops with a multi flavored router DD-WRT WDS setup.  I don't have any Netgear contacts like some folks do to ask for Beta firmware so this whole process is annoying.

 

#frustrating

---

Darren will reach out to you, here on this forum, if he wants you to use the Beta.  I would recommend returning it if you're within your return window.  It's been over a month and a half of this mess and so far, no official word on a fix.

---

Fellow Costco purchaser here as well. I'm not having issues, but am reticent to update to the latest FW for fear of experiencing the myriad of issues reported here. Had mine for a week, but am at much older FW that lacks Guest Networking (and auto-updating :smileyhappy:). One of the primary benefits of purchasing at Costco is that you can return it at ANY time for a full refund. Routers are not part of the 90 day return policy. Had a TP Link Deco system that I bought from Amazon and had to push them to issue a refund as Echo devices were dropping off the network. I’m in a holding pattern on FW updating the Orbi until newer, more stable FW is released.

---

For what it's worth, you can usually roll back without issues if you want to try a newer firmware and run into trouble. One of the reasons I went through the debugging effort to keep running the latest version is to benefit from security fixes that have been pushed. Routers are notoriously wide targets for bad actors, and running old firmwares, however seemingly stable, should not be something we recommend without considering the associated risks. However light they may be in practice. :)

For what it's worth, I've been running v1.12 latest stable for ten days now, with no apparent issues. Everything is fast and stable, wired and wireless, both router and satellite.

Best of luck!

It has been working well for me so far with the 1.12 firmware (knock on wood) but it has only been little more than a week since I got it, so too early to tell. 

But reading through all these comments, I'm now worried that it could go down any moment, so keeping my Asus router as a backup at all times. 

---

Myeviltwin wrote:

It has been working well for me so far with the 1.12 firmware (knock on wood) but it has only been little more than a week since I got it, so too early to tell. 

 

But reading through all these comments, I'm now worried that it could go down any moment, so keeping my Asus router as a backup at all times. 

---

It's always good to have a backup! While I obviously don't have any inside information, further testing and debugging has me convinced that as long as you never use the speedtest you should be fine.

---

nxc wrote:

---

It's always good to have a backup! While I obviously don't have any inside information, further testing and debugging has me convinced that as long as you never use the speedtest you should be fine.

---

I've used the built in speed test and it hasn't caused my system to do anything. Do you have any idea what the speedtest does that could cause issues??? 

Running the Speedtest appears to set a few internal values that are used to sit limits for up and downstream bandwidth. The speedtest doesn't seem to be very reliable in terms of choosing the best partner ISP, and will often produce a test result that is significantly below what your connection is capable of. Never running the Speedtest appears to prevent some switches from being flipped, which more or less means the router treats all content equally and shuffles it along as fast as possible.

There are a number of hidden settings and magic variables in these routers, and there's more than ample evidence for some really sloppy coding practices.

This firmware has been working okay for me as an Access Point since the router auto-updated to it. There is one problem that I see, which is that the Orbi's 2.4GHz. wireless is not being used by any of my clients, and I'm in a crowded network neighborhood. Yet my 2.4GHz. wireless channel width is 40MHz., which is pointless, other than to crowd my neighbors. Since I'm not using 2.4GHz. wireless, it isn't a big deal, but the Orbi would be using a 20MHz. channel width if the "20/40 MHz. coexistence" worked correctly.

---

nxc wrote:

Running the Speedtest appears to set a few internal values that are used to sit limits for up and downstream bandwidth. The speedtest doesn't seem to be very reliable in terms of choosing the best partner ISP, and will often produce a test result that is significantly below what your connection is capable of. Never running the Speedtest appears to prevent some switches from being flipped, which more or less means the router treats all content equally and shuffles it along as fast as possible.

 

There are a number of hidden settings and magic variables in these routers, and there's more than ample evidence for some really sloppy coding practices.

---

Eek! If we have run the speed test is there an easy way to reset this?

Tim-in-CA wrote:

---

Tim-in-CA wrote:

At what version did auto update begin? I'm at 1.3.0.26 and it's working well, however, I'd like to manually update to the version that enabled guest network but don't want to get sucked in to auto updates.  Also. If 1.12.0.18 is so problematic for users, why doesn't Netgear pull it from their update servers?  I work for a CE brand and we can do that if users experience FW update issues.  Netgear appears to be clueless

---

Bump ... any feedback to what FW version started auto updates?  I'm at 1.3.0.26 and would like to update to the first version that supports Guest Networking, but worried I'll encounter auto upadating to 1.12.0.18

---

Well, I spoke too soon.  Just checked my system remotely from work and found that the router FW updated to 1.12.0.18 on its own ... must have happened last night.  I’ll have to check the satellite FW when I get home to see if these updated correctly.  I’ll heed the advice of others and not run the router’s speed test.  Hopefully this didn’t fubar my system.  Fingers crossed!

---

nxc wrote:

Running the Speedtest appears to set a few internal values that are used to sit limits for up and downstream bandwidth. The speedtest doesn't seem to be very reliable in terms of choosing the best partner ISP, and will often produce a test result that is significantly below what your connection is capable of. Never running the Speedtest appears to prevent some switches from being flipped, which more or less means the router treats all content equally and shuffles it along as fast as possible.

 

There are a number of hidden settings and magic variables in these routers, and there's more than ample evidence for some really sloppy coding practices.

---

Thanks. I have not dug into the system since it's running okay for me. At least for now

---

Dustin278 wrote:

---

---

Eek! If we have run the speed test is there an easy way to reset this?

If you are not having any issues then I would suggest leaving things as they are. If you are having issues, I would suggest trying the instructions I posted a few pages back regarding erasing NVRAM settings and manually restoring default firmware settings. After that you can reconfigure everything to taste, but avoid the Speedtest or modifying any QoS settings.