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Forum Discussion
What 3rd party firmware are we using these days for the R7800?
I have posted before about issues with Netgear firmware updates. My other posts list those issue in detail. https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/Requests-for-firmware-changes-on-R7800-Router/m-p/1965649#M167032
Obviously, I am no longer on firmware 68. I have the latest and greatest. Yes, I have done a factory reset. Had hoped that a future updated firmware would fix things. Yes, I added the items to the suggestion page. Yes, I replaced the cable modem. Yes, I changed the cord. Some have suggested going to a 3rd party firmware, but I have resisted. I am ready, now. If it bricks, I don't care. Yes, this router is no longer my primary. Yes, I am still ticked that Netgear didn't support this router during it's lifetime. Yes, it is their firmware updates that made it bad, in my humble opinion.
Are we going with OpenWRT, Voxel or DD-WRT? Or something else?
13 Replies
If you want opinions on 3rd party firmware, you'd find it on those sites. Not on the official forums.
Thanks for replying so quickly. In prior posts, I was trying to work through the official forum for resolution. Some had posted that the answer was a 3rd party firmware. I resisted and gave an answer similar to yours. Thought I would join the crowd rather than fight it.
I'm not saying don't go with 3rd party firmware. Some have used it (i've tried it) and liked it. I'm just saying you'd have to actually ask on their sites whats currently working the best.
The R7800 has a pretty active group on Small Net Builders.
Will check it out. Thanks.
OhBeWan wrote:
Had hoped that a future updated firmware would fix things.
Forgive me if I don't dive through past conversations, but what things still need fixing?
My R7800 soldiers on with little, if any, sign of issues.
Perhaps I am not doing the sort of things that bug you.
There are 5 issues listed: 3 have to do with the way attached devices are dealt with. 1 deals with the router's inability to find the internet after reboot. 1 deals with randomly dropping wireless clients.
I am a home user that has 30 devices or more connected. About half are wireless. I have to do port forwarding and static IP's within the network so identifying what is on the network is important to me. If you have fewer devices and not very many are wireless, then maybe you would not have noticed these issues.
OhBeWan wrote:
There are 5 issues listed: 3 have to do with the way attached devices are dealt with. 1 deals with the router's inability to find the internet after reboot. 1 deals with randomly dropping wireless clients.
You don't say here what you mean by "the way attached devices are dealt with" but this is a constant refrain with many Netgear routers. They are hopeless at keeping track of what's connected. But it seems to depend on how you are checking that. Apps on mobiles are far worse than the browser graphical user interface (GUI) or, my preferred option, the desktop genie and its "map".
As to reconnecting, no problems here – again you don't describe the issue– but I did find that it depends on the modem in front of the router. Some modems are so slow to connect that the router threw in the towel and timed out. That one went away when I changed the DSL modem/router (D6400 in bridge mode) for a DM200.
Wireless is also not an issue here.
