Nighthawk MR60 Mesh Router Bricked by Firmware Update

To everyone viewing this post,

Thankyou all for taking the time to post suggestions for helping me to resolve this dilema with my Nighthawk MR60 mesh system router.

Unfortunately, sixteen hours of attempting to upload firmware into my router by ethernet ultimately did not work.  Generally, I would be able to establish communications with the router and begin the uploads (tried >12 times) and the transfer would begin without issue.  I could follow the progress of the upload via the number of 'blocks' transferred in real time.  At approximately 50 to 60% of the transfer, the router would stop responding and the upload would cease.  I tried using earlier versions of the router firmware and performing hardware resets of the router.  Nothing helped.  I was under a time pressure to re-establish wifi in my household, so late in the day I resigned myself to the necessity to scrap the Nighthawk system and purchase a newer replacement system.

My prior Nighthawk mesh router system (with two satellites) was only one year old and out of warranty.  I was initially miffed that a firmware update that Netgear was urging me to apply to the system caused this problem and essentially destroyed my system.  Initially I resolved to never buy anything ever again from Netgear.  However, late in the process of attempting to re-upload the firmware I reached out to Netgear Tech Support for advice on getting this router to resuccitate.  I expected to be told that there was nothing that they could or would do for me, given that the 90-day warrenty had expired.  However, I was pleasantly suprised to find that one of their support specialists patiently worked with me through many of the later slow firmware upload attempts.  This gentleman (I don't remember his name) really went the extra mile to try to help me, even though we ultimately didn't succeed in reviving the Nighthawk router.  Interestingly, the story didn't end there.

I purchased a Netgear Orbi router packaged with two satellites.  Right after I set up this new system and I was starting to set up the new passwords, the same Netgear tech support called me back without any prompting on my part.  Once again, this support specialist walked me through setup and registration of the new mesh system, even though I didn't need any help at that point.  For well over another hour this specialist patiently worked with me, again 'going the extra mile'.

Ultimately, I got my new system running just in time.  The cynic in me suggests that the extrodinary level of Tech Support assistance might have been partly motivated by an interest by Netgear to permanently estrange customers and avoid negative press in social media and other locales of the internet.  We will likely never know.  Perhaps I should have tried Eero routers as an alternative, but both Netgear and Eero were getting similar reviews for their wifi products in the media, so I went with 'Better the devil that you know'.  Too often, 'tech' companies seem to be ruthlessly making their products go obsolite on very short product cycles, all in the apparent interests of forcing their customers onto a perpetual treadmill of hardware/software upgrades for little more than forced purchasing with little real gain in functionality.  A famous, multi-trillion dollar computer company named after a common variety of fruit comes to mind.  However, my wife and my own needs of the moment dictate that we cannot move sideways to roll-your-own solutions like Linux computing and hard-wired netorking in our house.  Sigh.