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Forum Discussion
OlegP
Sep 15, 2018Apprentice
Latest 2.3.2.32 firmware cripples the XR500
I’ve only had the XR500 router for about a month. Unfortunately, so far I’m not at all impressed with the main selling feature that is DumaOS and I’m frustruated to the point of potentially exchangin...
- Oct 01, 2018
A quick status update on the issue. I few days ago I replaced the brand new Arris TM1602 modem that I got from Spectrum/Charter last month since I’ve just found out that the Arris modem has that garbage Intel Puma6 chip.
In its place I put an equivalent Netgear CM600 and now I’m running the .32 FW without any speed or MAC address issues; however, I still get WiFi devices disconnect on me for a few seconds when on the 2.4Ghz band.
So the .32 FW issue might have been related to the Arris modem, even though it seems to run fine with the XR500 on the .22 FW version.
OlegP
Sep 15, 2018Apprentice
I also have Spectrum for my ISP. Last month I got a brand new Arris modem from them since everyone was getting bumped up to the 200/10 speeds. On the same day I decided to upgrade my aging ASUS router that had served me so well. That’s when I went with the internet hype and got the Netgear XR500. Oddly enough, there aren’t any reviews on smallnetworkbuilder even though this thing has been out for many months.
I only started getting the speed issues post firmware upgrade. After reading these forums and the ones on NetDumas own site I’ve came to a conclusion that this router might not be for me because waiting 3 months between firmware updates is just insane, especially since I’m actually getting slower internet speeds with a equipment that touts itself as the ultimate gaming router.
Also, performing factory resets on the router after every firmware update is just the icing on the cake.
Rushal
Sep 15, 2018Guide
Yeah, I'm sure the Arris modem doesn't help the cause. Feels like around the time of the 200/10 bump things went down hill in this area. Don't think any of that is an excuse for the router issues though.
Atleast you can downgrade your firmware if the last one was working fine for you.
- OlegPSep 15, 2018Apprentice
I don’t know. Speeds seemed to be fine on the previous firmware.
I haven’t downgraded it yet but I wondering if it won’t just re upgrade itself anyway when going thru the initial setup. I assuming that I’ll have to reset the damn thing again back to factory after performing a downgrade.
- RushalSep 15, 2018Guide
Haha, yeah. You can downgrade without resetting but it'll be the first recommendation if you have issues.
There is a radio button in Settings → Administration → Firmware Update. You can choose disagree to updating the firmware automatically.
- OlegPSep 16, 2018Apprentice
I did a speedtest today after work and I’m still sitting at 97mb out of 200mb with no internet traffic running in the background. Still can’t toggle the MAC address to use the router’s default. At first, I was planning on downgrading the firmware one of these days, at least to get my internet speed back up. But then I was like what’s the point?
It’s the weekend, so I’ll give it till Mon or Tue to see if I get a legitimate response on the ETA of the fix from either Netgear or Netduma. If it takes longer than a week to get another firmware patch to fix this bull**bleep** or I get no answer then I’m exchanging for another router. I’ve already got my sights on the ASUS AC3100. It seems to be equally or better specced and appears to have decent QOS settings.
I’ve had the XR500 since August 26 btw and I’m for sure not waiting 3 months for a fix.