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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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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
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
FURRYe38 As I said in my post, after doing all that, and the DNS issue still existed, I downgraded back to 1.4.1.68, the only firmware that works. Now that auto-update is off, my router works and will continue working, albeit without some possibly-serious security updates.
However, in the interests of helping out the community, I will now update back to 1.4.3.88, I'll turn on IPv6, and I'll let you know what happens.
Thanks,
Dan
