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Unable to bring up Orbi management login page
Something strange seems to have happened this morning. Yesterday my RBR50 and four RBS50 satellites were functioning just fine, and had been since late December when I added the last two satellites....
OK I'm back in business.
I ended up doing the factory reset, but now I don't think that was actually necessary.
After the factory reset I spent an hour or more re-syncing my 4 satellites, changing the router's IP address to 192.168.21.1, and then adding address reservations for the 20-odd devices that are using my LAN.
Then I went through all the settings of the router to make sure I had set everything up the way it was before.
When I came to "Always Use HTTPS to Access Router" under Web Services Management in Advanced Setup, I didn't remember how I had set that before, but it seemed it would be useful to avoid the constant nag from the browser when I load the Orbi web page.
THAT WAS A MISTAKE!!
After it was applied, it kicked me out, and then I had the exact same issue as before.
I remembered reading that Firefox was the recommended browser, and since I was having no luck with either Chrome or Edge, I downloaded Firefox and voila, it worked. Firefox seems to have more detailed handling of certificate issues. In this case Netgear's certificate was a year or more out of date. Firefox let me proceed anyway, where Chrome and Edge would not.
So in Firefox I immediately unchecked the HTTPS box, and now once again I can access the Orbi from any browser.
My guess is that something got upgraded or revised in Chrome and Edge recently, and today was the first time I tried to access the Orbi management page since that happened. I really have no idea.
But at least now I have Firefox installed in case I have future problems accessing Orbi's page.
I think you will find that all browsers behave the same way with the unencrypted Orbi web site:
The first time the URL is entered, the browsers complain, "Not Safe" because it is not encrypted. After the user instructs the browser to proceed to the web site, the browser no longer complains. This continues until the browser cache is cleared. It was not the use of incognito mode. It was because the browser had been there once already and remembered not to complain.
Until recently, all browsers did a similar thing with respect to the encrypted Orbi web site. On the first attempt, they complain that the SSL certificate is self-signed. After being told to proceed to the web site, they no longer complain.
What is new with Chrome, Edge, and apparently some other browsers, is that they simply will not open the encrypted web site because of this new complaint about SSL_KEY_USAGE_INCOMPATIBLE. Firefox appears to be one of the few browsers which has not implemented this new restriction.
There is a long discussion about this new issue here:
My solution is to just continue using the unencrypted web site.
In that case I have to report my experience is different from what you describe.
I can type in http://192.168.21.1 to Chrome normal mode, after having gone there successfully a few minutes earlier in Incognito mode, and I get this:
Note that Chrome automatically INSERTS the "s".
I can edit that URL, and delete the "s", but it keeps putting it back in.
The only thing that works is to use the full URL like this:
http://192.168.21.1/adv_index.htm
(or without the "adv_").
Whereas in Incognito mode I can type it without the page htm appended, and it doesn't insist on putting in the "s", and it works every time.
So apparently for Chrome to "remember" the insecure site, and to remember it's OK to go there in normal mode, one needs to enter the full URL including the particular page (xxxxx.htm) involved.
I'm no expert on HTML nor browsers or how they work. I'm just reporting what my experience is now.
Thanks for continuing on this strange odyssey. I am using Windows 11, Chrome Version 122.0.6261.70 (Official Build) (64-bit).
Just opened Chrome again and typed in IP address of Orbi router:
Version 122.0.6261.70 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Chrome has not added the 's'. When I press 'Enter', the 's' does not appear.
The same thing happens on Android 13, Chrome 122.0.6261.64 on a Samsung tablet. Enter the URL as 'http' (no 's'. nothing after the IP address). Opens the unencrypted web site. Firefox is also on this Samsung tablet. Works the same as Firefox on Windows (opens https version of Orbi web interface.) Edge on Android tablet is the same as Edge on Windows. (probably because Edge is built on Chrome.)
I cannot find a setting that will cause the 'http' to be changed to 'https'.
Interesting...
That makes me think my situation is due to Bitdefender, my antivirus program.
It has its tentacles in both the Chrome and Edge browsers, I believe.
So just now I disabled the Bitdefender "Anti-tracker" extension in Chrome, and typed in:
http://192.168.21.1 and hit return.
The Orbi page came up (log in prompt), no sweat.
Then I re-enabled the extension, and the behavior didn't change.
Meaning I'm not able to repeat what I saw the other day, where the browser kept adding the "s" all by itself on the URL line. This is nuts... But I don't have time to fool with it any more; the router is working again.
OR, maybe Chrome fixed whatever was causing the problem, and pushed out a new browser version in the past 48 hours.
I don't think there's a way to turn off automatic updates in Chrome.
As of a few minutes ago I was on the same version as you: 122.0.6261.70.
As I went to check my version just now, it initiated an update all by itself, bringing me to 122.0.6261.95.
Here is a screenshot: