R7000 latest Firmware update

My R7000 as of last week, after a year of running fine, started to drop my devices and started showing "Internet Offline" message in the Nighthawk app.  When it happens, website won't load, movies and apps on my AppleTV box stop playing in the middle of streaming or get the spinning circle and no connection to network message. 

Everytime I've checked for a firmware update on my app it says there is none.  I bought it last June from Netgear online.  The firmware currently shows V1.0.9.88_10.2.88

So after reading a number of posts in this thread, it appears I'm stuck in the no firmaware updates issue.

I'm hooked to gig fiber at home.  The cable from the house's outside box runs to a small adapter box inside which then has an ethernet cable from that directly into the R7000.  Even rebooting it doesn't always fix the issue.  Some of these Internet Offline sessions, when not rebooted, will last 30-60 minutes then go online again without doing anything.

I'm sitting here typing on my Surface which is connected, yet my phone won't.  It doesn't matter if it's set to the Smart Connect feature or to the separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.  It just randomly decides to send devices offline.

So I would like to try the firware update using the browser.  Which firmware is the most stable and where is it found?  Does the browser do all the downloading and firmaware updating?  I own a Macbook Pro and Surface 4, but I only have ethernet jack on my Macbook's multi-connection hub.  So it's either a direct connect using the Mac or over 5GHz using the Surface.

Thanks for any help.