Update V1.9.1.12 Netgear officially announcing 'Improvement in wireless connection Stability'

Bing-Stroller
Luminary
May 11, 2017
Good Luck !!!

Good to hear Netgear have made this available to someone who has been actively trying to sort out these problems.

Also well done to Netgear !
- gfrey
  Apprentice
  May 11, 2017
  Yep believe it or not, the Netgear folks are listening and are working hard to fix our issues. I think most of the complaints will be resolved in the next major firmware push. It will be nice when they get most of these complaints fixed so they can start working on my list of enhancements! LOL
  - Flash008
    Luminary
    May 11, 2017
    I would not speak too soon.....
    
    Updated to test code 60 minutes ago....
    
    Sent Netgear my observations minutes ago.
fbraz50
Apprentice
May 11, 2017
Flash008 wrote:
Good news, and bad news.

Bad news first.

I was on travel this past week. I returned home today, and discovered my Orbi did auto-update to 1.9.x (after blocking http and https TCP, not UDP). I did see the previous posts indicating the additional firewall steps required to block Orbi auto-update. I will work on that this weekend (Netgear, I have a work and personal life, hence not extensive time to continue fighting Orbi).

And yes, my family told me this morning that “the internet began having problem in the past 2 days”. I wonder why????

The good news….

Netgear sent me an invite for a beta code release. But, they asked me to sign/agree to an NDA. So, to avoid losing my access to the beta code I now have, forgive me for not sharing too much.

I have the files as of 30 minutes ago and will load that new code/firmware tonight (after family goes to sleep).

May the force be with me, and with us ALL.

And thank you Netgear for showing me, and us all, that you seem to be listening and you care.

How does one go about gaining said beta access?

I ask because as I've mentioned before I had to revise my blocking methods. It's only thanks to my Ubiquiti router that I have so far been able to avoid the update. I even tried to manually update it a few days ago to see if maybe I was losing my mind but the packet loss problem came back as expected.
- AmitR
  NETGEAR Employee Retired
  May 12, 2017
  We've been putting in significant work on these disconnect issues and wireless stability and every new release typically has improvements in it. The challenge is that there are literally thousands of devices running multiple versions of software that a router or WiFi System needs to work with, and occassionally interoperability issues arise as the two systems try to talk to each other. When that happens, rest assured that we're working very hard to stay on top of these issues and solve them.
  
  When we come up with a proposed fix, we always want to test out our fixes in a real-world environment, before rolling it out for everyone and we use the beta program for that. At this stage, we think we have a solution for some of them but we want to test it out in a smaller environment. If you're interested in helping us, please feel free to contact Support.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Orbi Product Management
  - Flash008
    Luminary
    May 13, 2017
    Netgear,
    
    I understand Netgear, but your response only further validates my previous posts. Yes, there are FAR TOO MANY wireless client devices vastly ranging with capability, compatibility, and other artifacts which can cause instability. Many of the problems can be identified with the end-user’s ability to have advanced control of their Orbi, giving that user the ability to find the one, or more, features that do not work with their devices. Information about the connected devices such as RSSI, MCS Rates and other data points can quickly identify what I client device is doing. What you have caused with your LOCKED-DOWN Orbi configuration is HOURS, DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS of end-users trying to identify their problems using far more complicated methods, NOT REQUIRED by other Wireless router/AP OEMs. All we asked for was transparency and access to advanced settings which I can think of NO REASON why you would restrict this. If your argument is “simplicity, ease of use, etc”….Well, I think I am not alone with saying, you failed! And what is sad, you didn’t need to fail. You only needed to open up the platform a little so users could quickly identify their problems.
    
    I understand that most users are not technical enough to understand RSSI, MCS Rates, and other data points and what the mean. Which is why they depend on technical support and friends and family who are technical, for HELP. But, how could I help them with your locked-down platform? I am VERY technical. I understand WIFI in-depth. But any technical person needs information and ability to change behavior settings of WIFI.
    
    Again, I thank you for your attempts to make something great, I thank you for showing your response and attempts to heal this platform. I thank you for working with me, and others, who are SERIOUS about helping you remediate the Orbi problems. The beta code you allowed me access to is doing MUCH better than 1.9.x.
    
    But please listen to us. 20 years I have been doing this I.T. crap here in Silicon Valley for small, mid, enterprise and government customers. I live about 30 minutes from where you all sit in Santa Clara. We all know there is no one solution to help everyone. Every technology product usually requires a little customization to make it play friendly in various environments. I know you know this, so why is Orbi so locked down?

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Update V1.9.1.12 Netgear officially announcing 'Improvement in wireless connection Stability'