Device Manager not showing any connected devices

ChrisR11 wrote:

My claim of having the latest firmware is based on using the product as intended for the consumer, via its built in update checker.

For the benefit of anyone who turns up here following this discussion, it might be useful to explain why that is not a reliable check. Logical, yes, infallible, no.

The built in update checker with the GUI or an app can miss various "hot fix" updates. It can also get it wrong if a device is a long way behind the current. Some updates are pretty dramatic and won't work if they see an old version that isn't compatible with the new one. That's  pretty rare event, but it can happen, sometimes when Netgear makes significant changes to a device and its features.

So the only reliable guide is to look at the installed firmware version and compare that with the list of versions in the support pages for a particular device.

Disclaimer: Just another user with time on their hands.