Firmware V1.12.0.18 Discussion

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nxc wrote:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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Dustin278 wrote:

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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.

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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.

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OK - I may take this plunge.  I have a ton of IP reservations set by MAC addresses - is there any way to impor those without reconfiguring everything manually?  Thats the main reason I havent taken this step.  Like some 60+ reservations tied to port forwarding.

OK - I may take this plunge.  I have a ton of IP reservations set by MAC addresses - is there any way to impor those without reconfiguring everything manually?  Thats the main reason I havent taken this step.  Like some 60+ reservations tied to port forwarding.

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Wish I had better news, but I'm unaware of a way to back those up on their own.

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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.

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That last statement is pretty much a given at this stage. Even from a cosmetic perspective the UI is sloppy and inconsistent, I have little reason to doubt the code is any different. 

The kinds of bugs and regressions we're seeing bare all the earmarks of a minimally competent development team with equally competent quality assurance. When you add lacklustre customer support and community management to the mix you have the perfect storm of incompetence, arrogance and indifference. 

It's a shame, the hardware seems solid, but it's let down by just about everything else. 

Well I finally got some movement from my support ticket. Fingers crossed I will have some good news in the next couple of days. 

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DarrellRiffe wrote:
What just happened? Out of nowhere, my Orbi RBK53 shut everything down, and rebooted to initial state, showing my only router as Orbi28 (NOT my system SSID, passwords etc.). At first, I thought that it must have been an auto-firmware update. But no- once up , it is the same ole 12...18 update that shows up. This, after going through the complete setup again. Now, I'm getting drops out the Wazoo (whereas I wasn't before with 12....18), even though I set everything to the original SSID and password. What the hell is going on? I'm about to take a sledgehammer to this system and replace it with ... well, anything would be an improvement . Same firmware version that was tolerable before , but now things have gone to hell . Very unhappy at the moment. Thanks to AT&T cellular, I can post this. Without, I'd be dead in the water.

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I am sorry this happened to you, but this is EXACTLY what happened to me.  After the disaster that was 1.11.x, I tested 1.12.16 and then upgraded to 1.12.18.  For almost two weeks it was perfect, then, while replacing UPS's on the two sats and the router, I of course had to power them off and back on.  Since powering back on. 1.12.18 has been a disaster, exactly as you describe.  Something is flaky in this firmware, because from 1.10.x backwards everything was stable.

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RogerSC wrote:

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.

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How can you tell which frequency clients are connected to if the SSID is shared between bot 2.4 and 5Ghz?  I haven't found an option in the menu for this.  I've only seen that if you go into the Satellite's menu, that you can see what devices are connected to each sat.

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Tim-in-CA wrote:

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RogerSC wrote:

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.

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How can you tell which frequency clients are connected to if the SSID is shared between bot 2.4 and 5Ghz?  I haven't found an option in the menu for this.  I've only seen that if you go into the Satellite's menu, that you can see what devices are connected to each sat.

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This short thread will tell you how to get the "Advanced attached devices" screen that includes the information you're looking for:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Devices-connected-to-router-or-satellite/td-p/1255900

To quote from that posting, using telnet to the Orbi router:

shell> config set enable_adv_attached=1

shell> config commit

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RogerSC wrote:

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Tim-in-CA wrote:

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RogerSC wrote:

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.

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How can you tell which frequency clients are connected to if the SSID is shared between bot 2.4 and 5Ghz?  I haven't found an option in the menu for this.  I've only seen that if you go into the Satellite's menu, that you can see what devices are connected to each sat.

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This short thread will tell you how to get the "Advanced attached devices" screen that includes the information you're looking for:

 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Devices-connected-to-router-or-satellite/td-p/1255900

 

To quote from that posting, using telnet to the Orbi router:

 

shell> config set enable_adv_attached=1

shell> config commit

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Thanks.  Seeing as this involves messing with debug settings, I'm going to hold off for now until I REALLY need it.  I don't trust the stability of the system if I start making low level setting changes (although, this seems like something an owner of an advanced router would want to know).  I'm only a few days into the latest FW and didn't want to upset the apple cart and doom myself to failures.  Disappointing that I need to be so cautious with a $500 system and treat it like a Faberge Egg!  :smileyfrustrated:

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Tim-in-CA wrote:

 

Thanks.  Seeing as this involves messing with debug settings, I'm going to hold off for now until I REALLY need it.  I don't trust the stability of the system if I start making low level setting changes (although, this seems like something an owner of an advanced router would want to know).  I'm only a few days into the latest FW and didn't want to upset the apple cart and doom myself to failures.  Disappointing that I need to be so cautious with a $500 system and treat it like a Faberge Egg!  :smileyfrustrated: 

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I understand your feelings. Yes, it surprises me that you have to use telnet to turn this on, but Netgear's effort with the firmware of the Orbi has apparently been to make it as simple as possible. I do think that they've exceeded their goal in this one, though. I agree that a router should work well by default, but if you have to do some troubleshooting, as often happens in the real world, then you need this sort of information to understand how your network is working and fix it.

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Tim-in-CA wrote:

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How can you tell which frequency clients are connected to if the SSID is shared between bot 2.4 and 5Ghz?  I haven't found an option in the menu for this.  I've only seen that if you go into the Satellite's menu, that you can see what devices are connected to each sat.

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The "Attached devices" screen on the v2.0.0.62 beta there lists which device (router or satellite) and which band (2.4 or 5) each device is attached to.  It's the major noticeable difference in the updated interface.

I've been telling support that the beta appears to work at least on my system. The last message I got from support (on the 25th) says that their engineers are pushing for the update to be released a.s.a.p. 

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gbjackson wrote:

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Tim-in-CA wrote:

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How can you tell which frequency clients are connected to if the SSID is shared between bot 2.4 and 5Ghz?  I haven't found an option in the menu for this.  I've only seen that if you go into the Satellite's menu, that you can see what devices are connected to each sat.

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The "Attached devices" screen on the v2.0.0.62 beta there lists which device (router or satellite) and which band (2.4 or 5) each device is attached to.  It's the major noticeable difference in the updated interface.

 

I've been telling support that the beta appears to work at least on my system. The last message I got from support (on the 25th) says that their engineers are pushing for the update to be released a.s.a.p. 

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Have you rebooted the devices since loading the beta, as in after it had run for a while on the beta?

No.  Installed the beta on 8/21, then did a factory reset as instructed.  Haven't rebooted since (or had any reason to).

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gbjackson wrote:

No.  Installed the beta on 8/21, then did a factory reset as instructed.  Haven't rebooted since (or had any reason to).

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That's what happened to several of us on the 1.12.16 beta... it was fine after loading, but went flaky after a reboot.

I am running 1.12.0.18 and have been watching my satellites connect and disconnect every couple seconds. I made a 30s giphy to show whats going on. Its extremely boring, but in the 30s loop, you can see sattellites coming and going like mad. As you can imagine, wreaking havoc on the network.  Link to giphy here: http://gph.is/2x26V46

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davidwiener84 wrote:

I am running 1.12.0.18 and have been watching my satellites connect and disconnect every couple seconds. I made a 30s giphy to show whats going on. Its extremely boring, but in the 30s loop, you can see sattellites coming and going like mad. As you can imagine, wreaking havoc on the network.  Link to giphy here: http://gph.is/2x26V46

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I have found on many occasions that this page can be very unreliable. It can show the satellite is disconnected when it's actually fine, and vice versa.

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@TXGunLover wrote:

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gbjackson wrote:

No.  Installed the beta on 8/21, then did a factory reset as instructed.  Haven't rebooted since (or had any reason to).

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That's what happened to several of us on the 1.12.16 beta... it was fine after loading, but went flaky after a reboot.

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That's exactly my experience with the latest. I can erase NVRAM, factory reset, upgrade and it works great until it reboots or drops the internet connection, then it's a mess.

I have about 25 devices on my orbi and my s8+ is the only issue. I've rebooted the device as well with no changes. However, I use the Orbi in access point mode, not router mode, so it does not have as much to process.