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Forum Discussion
New - R7900P/R7960P/R8000P Firmware Version 1.4.3.88 Released
Security Fixes: 04/13/2022
Fixes security vulnerabilities.
For more information about security vulnerabilities, visit https://www.netgear.com/about/security
Download Link:
R7900P:
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Lets not assume that NG isn't going to fix this. Fixes don't come over night. Seen it take well over 9 months for new FW to be released. We've made NG aware of this and they know about it.
Reverting to working FW isn't necessarily a risk. Until a problem appears, current and older FW is safe to use. Also use IPv6 has helped users as a work around for DNS seen as well. User will need to be patient.
Starting with R7900P Firmware Version 1.4.2.84, released in 2021, the R7900P router developed a serious flaw where web browsers would fail to load pages the first time they were accessed. This problem occurred in Chrome, Edge, and every other browser, and users were forced to downgrade to Firmware 1.4.1.68 in order to continue to use their router. This is all documented in this forum post from 2021:
Recently, on April 12th, 2022, a new firmware update, 1.4.3.88, was released. My router automatically installed this update, losing all of my settings in the process. Unfortunately the new firmware has the exact same website issue, so I've once again had to revert to 1.4.2.84.
Actually, it's worse than that. There is a serious error in the old 1.4.2.84 version. If you disable the "Router Auto Firmware Update" option and hit apply, the router's interface software crashes, and the router has to be rebooted. The setting is not saved. This is why my router auto-updated to the latest firmware even though this was not ideal.
So, I had to install the latest firmware, configure it to not auto-update, then revert to the previous firmware, in order to get the router to not break itself by installing the unusable new updates.
Netgear, are you going to fix your firmware problem with the R7900P? This was an expensive router and I'm hopeful that you will fix this serious firmware flaw. The 1.4.2.84 firmware version continues to work perfectly, but the broken updates say they have "security fixes" and I would like my system to be as secure as possible.
Thank you,
Dan
Did you factory reset the router and setup from scratch after v.88 was loaded?
One thing to try is to enable IPv6 feature on v.88 and see if the DNS issue continue to still appear or not. Others have mentioned that this helps. NG is aware of the DNS issues.
Synthdan wrote:
Starting with R7900P Firmware Version 1.4.2.84, released in 2021, the R7900P router developed a serious flaw where web browsers would fail to load pages the first time they were accessed. This problem occurred in Chrome, Edge, and every other browser, and users were forced to downgrade to Firmware 1.4.1.68 in order to continue to use their router. This is all documented in this forum post from 2021:
Recently, on April 12th, 2022, a new firmware update, 1.4.3.88, was released. My router automatically installed this update, losing all of my settings in the process. Unfortunately the new firmware has the exact same website issue, so I've once again had to revert to 1.4.2.84.
Actually, it's worse than that. There is a serious error in the old 1.4.2.84 version. If you disable the "Router Auto Firmware Update" option and hit apply, the router's interface software crashes, and the router has to be rebooted. The setting is not saved. This is why my router auto-updated to the latest firmware even though this was not ideal.
So, I had to install the latest firmware, configure it to not auto-update, then revert to the previous firmware, in order to get the router to not break itself by installing the unusable new updates.
Netgear, are you going to fix your firmware problem with the R7900P? This was an expensive router and I'm hopeful that you will fix this serious firmware flaw. The 1.4.2.84 firmware version continues to work perfectly, but the broken updates say they have "security fixes" and I would like my system to be as secure as possible.
Thank you,
Dan
<< Did you factory reset the router and setup from scratch after v.88 was loaded? >>
Yes, I did. Given that I expected Netgear to not release a second firmware update with the same problem, I did a factory reset and started over from scratch. After rebuilding all of my wifi settings from scratch, I tried going to various web pages and immediately experienced the exact same DNS issues. Then I reverted my firmware back to the previous working version.
<< One thing to try is to enable IPv6 feature on v.88 and see if the DNS issue continue to still appear or not. Others have mentioned that this helps. NG is aware of the DNS issues. >>
No, I haven't tried that. Others on this thread have said they did try that and it didn't work. I suppose I can take some time to try the firmware upgrade again and see for myself.
Thanks,
Dan
Ok, for me, after I turned on IPv6 (auto-detect) it went away on the latest firmware, also put DNS on auto have fixed the DNS errors. Occasionally I'll get conn_reset on Chrome but only for a split second. Hate that I have to put specific settings for the firmware to fix. I avoided IPv6 because I was having problems with it on another firmware ironically enough (IPv6 caused my router to reboot randomly on the older firmware).
Synthdan Were you able to distinguish which firmware allowed you to configure auto-updater? I just updated to .88 and still get the option greyed out and a network reset error on the page that requires me to power cycle the router?
Have you enabled IPv6 using default settings there just to see if this resolves any web page DNS issues seen?
Atros04 wrote:
Were you able to distinguish which firmware allowed you to configure auto-updater? I just updated to .88 and still get the option greyed out and a network reset error on the page that requires me to power cycle the router?
FURRYe38 wrote:Have you enabled IPv6 using default settings there just to see if this resolves any web page DNS issues seen?
Atros04 wrote:Were you able to distinguish which firmware allowed you to configure auto-updater? I just updated to .88 and still get the option greyed out and a network reset error on the page that requires me to power cycle the router?
I have with no luck. Only a downgrade to .68 managed to fix the DNS issues, but I am now stuck in this loop where the auto-updater is greyed out and crashes if I change to disable. I will be following the instructions from synthdan.
<< @Synthdan Were you able to distinguish which firmware allowed you to configure auto-updater? I just updated to .88 and still get the option greyed out and a network reset error on the page that requires me to power cycle the router? >>
Atros04 The way I did it was this: First, I upgraded to the latest 1.4.3.88 firmware. Then, I did a complete reset on the router (by holding down the reset hardware button). One of the first questions the Netgear setup asks you is if you want to allow the router to auto-update. I said no, then proceeded to reset everyone on my network, including SSID names, passwords, port forwarding, and everything else. Then I backed up these settings to a backup file, just to be safe, and then I down-graded the firmware back to the last working version.
I now have the Auto-Update feature turned off, the settings backed up, and the working firmware back in place. It's frustrating to have to do this. If you try to contact Netgear's support, it will tell you that your product is out of warranty, so your only recourse is to post to the forums.
Needless to say, this is a long and involved process, and this isn't very good support from Netgear, particularly for an expensive high-end product. Be very careful to write down every possible network setting you have, if you're going to attempt this.
Best of luck,
Dan
So after you did all this, are you still having problems?
If still seeing any DNS issues, did you enable IPv6 on the router as well?
Be sure you make a backup of the router config to file for safe keeping, saves time if a reset is needed:
Synthdan wrote:
The way I did it was this: First, I upgraded to the latest 1.4.3.88 firmware. Then, I did a complete reset on the router (by holding down the reset hardware button). One of the first questions the Netgear setup asks you is if you want to allow the router to auto-update. I said no, then proceeded to reset everyone on my network, including SSID names, passwords, port forwarding, and everything else. Then I backed up these settings to a backup file, just to be safe, and then I down-graded the firmware back to the last working version.
I now have the Auto-Update feature turned off, the settings backed up, and the working firmware back in place. It's frustrating to have to do this. If you try to contact Netgear's support, it will tell you that your product is out of warranty, so your only recourse is to post to the forums.
Needless to say, this is a long and involved process, and this isn't very good support from Netgear, particularly for an expensive high-end product. Be very careful to write down every possible network setting you have, if you're going to attempt this.
Best of luck,
Dan
I have had the same issue with my R7060p Router and it was driving me nuts! I finally downgraded to the old 1.4.2.84 version to fix the problem. This the last Netgear product I am buying. Last year I had a 24 port Netgear die on me that had a 2 year warranty and I had to pay around $25-$30 for them to ship me a replacement. In the past they would just ship the replacement w/no charge when it was under warranty. Their customer service had gone down hill fast.
If you try enabling IPv6 on the router this helps with DNS issues. I have same v.88 loaded on mine. IPv6 enabled and no DNS issues. As others reported as well in this thread.
GenxBear wrote:
I have had the same issue with my R7060p Router and it was driving me nuts! I finally downgraded to the old 1.4.2.84 version to fix the problem. This the last Netgear product I am buying. Last year I had a 24 port Netgear die on me that had a 2 year warranty and I had to pay around $25-$30 for them to ship me a replacement. In the past they would just ship the replacement w/no charge when it was under warranty. Their customer service had gone down hill fast.