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Forum Discussion
RAX50 5GHz not connected to internet
RAX50 suddenly lost 5GHz connection to internet. 5GHz signal is rated "excellent" by client devices but client devices using 5GHz network can no longer connect to internet. 2.4GHz works fine and clie...
RAX50 suddenly lost internet connectivity but only for the 5GHz network. The 2.4GHz network is fine. Maybe it's a firmware problem? Router has Firmware Version V1.0.17.142_2.0.100. The Router Firmware Update tool says: "no new firmware version available" but Netgear Support website lists V1.0.17.144 as the latest version. Before I circumvent the Router Firmware Update tool to manually download and install version .144, I'd like to know why I got the "no new firmware" message. Am I likely to make matters worse by manually installing .144?
This is a common situation with Netgear routers. Netgear releases new firmware, which users can download and install manually. But, the Firmware Update process in the router management system does not recognize the new firmware. The most common explanation (on the Forum, because there is no formal documentation) for this is that Netgear wants to have a period of time where "early adopters" can discover unexpected problems with the new firmware and this allows Netgear time to discover what is happening. Actually, in the past couple of years new firmware has been released and pretty quickly "pulled".
One would expect that nine months would be long enough for firmware to move from "try at your own risk" to "it's safe to install".
If the new firmware is installed manually and "something goes wrong", then the user can simply manually install the previous firmware.
Thanks for this helpful information. I'd rather not complicate things by manually updating firmware if the update will not correct the 5GHz malfunction. Release Notes for .144 firmware says it fixes security vulnerabilities. Any idea what vulnerabilities? In other words, how essential is the update? If a manual update to .144 creates problems, where can I find instructions and firmware to return to the .142 version?
