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I understand that a developing product needs updates. Sometimes these updates require changes to what data is expected for an element of the settings config. As a customer, when a firmware update is incompatible with my settings, it is absolutely unacceptable that I would have to re-build my entire config from scratch after updating firmware. Netgear may not be able to update my settings but you should at least give us a tool to fix it. It is NEVER ok to lose a customer’s hard work, that’s just bad business. Here is how we fix it:
- Give us a tool to download the config in a human-readable format. I don’t care if it is TXT, CSV, XLS, or whatever… Just give us something we can work with.
- With every firmware update, the “release notes” should include details of ANY changes to the settings requirements so we know what to adjust in our human-readable files. (ex: “The [setting] field for [control] on [screen] is now restricted to numeric characters.”) This points us directly to a potential problem. Netgear just needs to track such things and release the info with every update.
- Maintain a “white paper” with a list for the requirements/limitations for every settings value. This goes with number 2 above to allow us to fix problems.
- Along with item 1 above, we need to be able to upload this human-readable settings file back to the device.
- Auto settings debugger: When an attempt is made to upload a human-readable settings file, a check should automatically be performed to see if the file being uploaded conforms to the latest established rules. Any errors should be identified with the specific item and what the fault is. In the event of an error, the user should be prompted to override or abort with “abort” as the default. In the event of success, the config is uploaded with a success confirmation.
This isn’t rocket science here. I get that you need to do things that could break my old config. All we are asking is that you give us the tools to fix it. To reiterate my earlier point, “Start over” is NEVER an ok thing to tell a customer.
This one feature set would also solve several other problems:
- uploading a port forwarding list
- maintaining a block list
- revising routing tables
All of these items would be downloaded/uploaded in one shot with the above suggestions.
As an organizational note: If the human-readable download were actually a ZIP file it could contain multible human-readable files where any setting containing lists could actually be seperate files within the ZIP. Maybe all the settings could be broken out into files containing relevant sections instead of a single long list. If you need to take it in small bites, fine. Dump everything into a single human readable file for now, add the error checker later, break the file into smaller relevant pices when you get the time. I don't much care how you break down the task, just give us a took to fix the things you break and provide it sooner rather than later. We need items 1 & 4 yesterday, the rest will be nice when you can get to it.
Thank you for your consideration.
45 Comments
I could not agree more with the OP: demonic1 on 2016-12-28 10:26 AM
I totally support a change in the way Netgear is doing firmware updates.
It is perfectly understandable that a firmware update might deprecate a feature or add a feature. This makes restoring a saved settings config to new firmware very risky. However Netgear seems not to care that they break things for the home/small biz user. If they did care we would not have these issues.
Again the OP demonic1 put his finger on what I also think is happening: Netgear seems to have very poor version control with the programing teams. Things that are fixed get broken in the next update, or new things get broken.
Here is how demonic1 put it:
demonic1 wrote:
<snipped>
Perhaps, the bigger issue here may be change tracking. NetGear has demonstrated, on numerous occasions, as documented throughout the forums, a severe lack of procedure when it comes to documenting and coordinating changes. As we have seen many times, a bug gets fixed in an update and then is broken again in the next update. This suggests that they have different teams working on different solutions using different versions of the code.
Also consider the web UI (in my case R7800) it is so jumbled one wonders if the whole thing was built by different freelancers that come and go with no continuity of approach and certainly no one supervising the over all organization.
[I also hate the way a change in one section of settings does not ripple out to other sections of settings. Change a device name in 'Attached Devices' and it DOES NOT change in the reserved list. Same device, same router... Unbelievable!]
As for using a telnet connection, that would seem doable ONLY if settings items remained in the same declared field or even page. Otherwise I would think that I would have to compare the structure of the new firmware with the way the old version was built. It is also a fix that few in the target market could implement.
But this does wet my appetite to get a look at the config dump.
Here is my bottom line: Netgear should at minimum provide notes with firmware updates that indicate changes to the underlying settings db structure. It should also provide an attribute in the saved config file that could be read by the new firmware update to flag an incompatible db structure. It would also be cool if there was a tool that could update the saved config to what ever the new firmware structure required.
When ever there is new firmware for my router I print each page of the web UI to a file, then after the update I manually re-enter all my setups. A big pain in b*tt, but too many times I have been burned by a router broken by a saved config loaded into new firmware. One should never do this on Netgear routers. (BTW, I could always restore my previous config into new firmware on my old D-Link. It always worked, except on one occasion where the new firmware would not allow an import from an old config.)
And my last note:
The OP started this thread on: 2016-12-28 10:26 AM
It got moved to Engineering Investigation on: 2017-09-08 02:12 PM
As I write this it is 2019.04.21... So is it realistic to think that Netgear actually cares that they break things, add to the difficulty for support personnel and end users? Given the time frame on this thread my answer would be that it is not a realistic expectation at all.bc
First, some way of supporting compatible or evolvable config files shoudl be a product requirement by Netgear Marketing. This is not rocket science. This is 2021. At the very least, the file should be viewable in a text editor. In this way, I could at least load up a bunch of MAC addresses to add in someplace as I upgrade to newer routers/access points.
Look at any Cisco router since the 1990s.
Come on, Negear. Truly support your customers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
aps in Seattle.
_aps
Look at any Cisco router since the 1990s.Does Cisco make "domestic" routers these days?
I can't find any.
I can not figure out your point?
This was first posted around five years ago, and has been listed as being investigated by engineering for a significant part of that time.
Has there been any progress at all?
