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Orbi RBK753 (the forum pulldown doesn't have the correct model)
Last week, the firmware update was forced onto my RBK753 overnight when all of my systems were doing backups. All PCs to servers and all servers to cloud backups were interrupted due to this unplanned interruption. If any devices needed the backups from that night, a lot of manual data re-creation would have been required. While some might be ok with forced, unscheduled interruptions, I find that unacceptable and NG needs to provide opt-out or scheduling capability for firmware updates.
I started using Nighthawk 5 years ago after decades of Linksys use. I chose Orbi for my mesh upgrade because the Nighthawk performed so well. Nighthawk never forced automatic, unscheduled updates and I could schedule network downtime as needed (and could also revert if testing failed).
Netgear, please give us the option to schedule updates and opt-out from unplanned updates.
Last week, the firmware update was forced onto my RBK753 overnight when all of my systems were doing backups. All PCs to servers and all servers to cloud backups were interrupted due to this unplanned interruption. If any devices needed the backups from that night, a lot of manual data re-creation would have been required. While some might be ok with forced, unscheduled interruptions, I find that unacceptable and NG needs to provide opt-out or scheduling capability for firmware updates.
I started using Nighthawk 5 years ago after decades of Linksys use. I chose Orbi for my mesh upgrade because the Nighthawk performed so well. Nighthawk never forced automatic, unscheduled updates and I could schedule network downtime as needed (and could also revert if testing failed).
Netgear, please give us the option to schedule updates and opt-out from unplanned updates.
23 Comments
It should be users choice whether to update the firmwareof the products they own unless it's a critical security vulnerability.
Please stop auto updates for FW - current system is now completely unstable and I've only had the devices for 4 months!! At the cost of £500+ this isn't your standard sub £100 router - we deserve to be able to control our updates!
Please stop auto firmware updates. My system has been made unstable entirely due to the last 2 updates, neither of which provided anything I needed or wanted.
I would agree that Netgear should not be forcing auto updates. This needs to stop as you don't offer automatic support with the forced update, so you are setting up for a class action suit for customers that run into issues and are not able to get resolution from Netgear, or don't want the hassle if their systems are working fine.
Have been having mysterious issues for a couple of days, just discovered that two of my units updated to the broken v4 firmware, but two others didn't. So even the brain dead auto update didn't work right.
given the LONG history of poor quality firmware updates, we MUST have an option to disable them. This caused issues with work all day long, and If it happens again I'll replace the entire system with a competitor. Going right now to give a one star rating on Amazon because of the issue.
Since a couple of days, my expensive but so far excellent Netgear RK852 mesh network has become very unstable. I bought them 1.5 years ago and during the lockdowns in the last 18 months it worked perfect: I can hardly recall any wifi issue since installing them. (So I actually was advocating these expensive devices to friends b/c of their extreme reliability.)
This all changed a few days ago. Suddenly, both the satellite and the router are constantly dropping wifi. You can sometimes work for 20 minutes, sometimes for 10 minutes, then wifi is gone for a couple of minutes. Then it comes back.
On the last two days, while on a business trip abroad, the router actually completely froze: even the ethernet connections were down as the RBR850 is acting is the router for the wired network as well. My wife lost two working days, my son was unable to follow his online classes.
The culprit: an automatic firmware update to v4.6.3.16 that has rendered these expensive devices (EUR 800 for the router and 1 satellite) almost completely useless. I already tried to downgrade but learned that the devices quickly auto-upgrade back into that extremely buggy v4.6.3.16 release - and there is no way to stop auto-upgrades.
NETGEAR, THIS IS UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE!!!!! I bought these devices to have a trouble-free connection, which I had for 18 months. So 1) allow all of us to disable auto-upgrade and 2) TEST YOUR FIRMWARE BEFORE DISTRIBUTING IT, and 3) BE ASHAMED THAT YOU DID NOT YET AUTO-FIX THIS CRAPPY RELEASE FOR EVERYBODY, or provide an automatic roll-back, to all your customers you suddenly have thrown in internet connection hell.
AN EXTREMELY ANGRY CUSTOMER (SOON: EX-CUSTOMER IF YOU DON'T PROPERLY ADDRESS THIS)
ADD ME TO THE LIST! 16 days of escalation with NG support and endless amount of hangup from inexperienced techsupport staff in India fearful of taking over for all the failed attempts by pervious reps has rendedred me an angry customer. Your untested FW has bascilly bricked my home network in the middle of a pandemic. Wife and I are working from home. We are at our wits end. This is unacceptable... Test the damn FW befor eyou shove it down out gear without an opt out or reasonable downgrade path.
As I posted in the firmware thread, I just ordered a non-netgear replacement system and plan to rip it out as soon as it arrives. There's two others at work who are waiting to see how the new stuff works and then plan to dump orbi too.
And no, it's not other netgear stuff - they've lost me, and everyone I know or influence, as a customer. Forever. Bad firmware is bad. Bad firmware with no way to block updates? Unacceptable. Silence on the issue? Lost customer.
It's 5 months since the defective firmware was first pushed out and still no fix. Two mouths ago I fixed my network by returning the RBK753 to the retailer. I hope that the retailer gets lots of returns and ships them all back to Netgear for refunds too. Netgear won't learn anything if it doesn't cost them.
Needless to say, I didn't buy any Netgear as a replacement and won't purchase Netgear ever again.
Updating firmware helps you achieving better connectivity with Orbi network. If you don't update the satellite and router regularly, you may see fall in performance Scentsy Login of Orbi devices. Some issues in your router and satellite are automatically resolved as you update their firmware and Automatic firmware updates restart your Orbi router and satellites as part of the update process, which means that you lose Internet access for a few minutes. Automatic firmware updates happen between 1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. local time.