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

Forum Discussion

user12's avatar
user12
Follower
Dec 31, 2014

WNR1000v3 came with firmware from wrong region

When upgrading my firmware, I got the message that the update (for North America) was different than the installed version. I checked, and sure enough, what's was there was a version for 'all regions other than North America'. Even though I bought this router in the US.

So, I have two questions -

First - is that common and no big deal?

Second - why would there be two versions, one for North America, and one for all other regions? What could be the reason to have different versions?

4 Replies

  • Babylon5's avatar
    Babylon5
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Dec 31, 2014
    I don’t have an answer to your first question, it would depend on the supply chain.

    The second question is often more important where the router includes a modem, yours does not. In your case the only practical difference is the number of wireless channels available, the US licenses channels 1 to 11 on the 2.4 GHz band, in other areas of the world other channels may be available e.g. channels 1 to 13. You could check what channels are available to you in the router admin pages, and if higher than 11 set the wireless channel to be used to either 1, 6, or 11 and avoid the Auto setting.
  • Fairytail's avatar
    Fairytail
    Virtuoso
    Jan 02, 2015
    The reason why it has firmwares for NA and other regions because there are settings in NA which are not applicable in other regions and vice versa. For example wireless channel, in NA there are only 11 channels unlike Europe that has 13 channels. You must apply your firmware depending on your region.