NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.

Forum Discussion

Popcorn2007's avatar
Popcorn2007
Aspirant
Oct 29, 2022
Solved

Firmware upgrade issue

Received email advising firmware upgrade. However when I check for updates just comes back with ‘Firmware check error’
  • FURRYe38's avatar
    FURRYe38
    Nov 01, 2022

    👍

CrimpOn's avatar
CrimpOn
Guru - Experienced User
Oct 29, 2022
Popcorn2007 wrote:
Received email advising firmware upgrade. However when I check for updates just comes back with ‘Firmware check error’

How I envy customers who get email from Netgear. Bought my Orbi in 2016. Registered it. Have never received any sort of email.

 

This situation reflects the disjointed nature of Netgear support mechanism.  It appears that the mechanism sending out email notices (to some customers) and the mechanism that "flips a switch" so that routers find updates when they search are not in sync.

There is a sort of mantra on the forum, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  Meaning that a customer who is not experiencing any sort of issue with the system should feel no urgency to change the firmware.  (Customers who are having problems are a different issue.)

 

Until the router "finds" the new firmware, the only was to update the firmware is to browse to the Netgear support site:

https://netgear.com/support Enter the product name (such as RBR750). Click on the link that comes up. Click on Downloads.

 

Then, download the firmware version you want (latest in your case).

Unpack the zip file to extract the firmware image.

Use the Manual Tab on the firmware update page to upload the firmware image.

 

Or..... wait until the router does it automatically.

  • Popcorn2007's avatar
    Popcorn2007
    Aspirant
    Oct 29, 2022
    Thanks for your quick response - just concerned as email indicated it was a security enhancement
    • CrimpOn's avatar
      CrimpOn
      Guru - Experienced User
      Oct 29, 2022

      Yes, this does put customers in an awkward bind.  "Hurry and do this now", but then the router says it can't find new firmware.

      As Pooh would say, "oh. Bother."

       

      Perhaps if you post the product number of the router and the current firmware release (found in the upper right corner of the web browser interface home page) or (somewhere) in the Orbi 'app', someone could comment on how significant this update is.

      • Popcorn2007's avatar
        Popcorn2007
        Aspirant
        Oct 30, 2022

        Hi,

        Thanks for the reply