> In my opinion there is bug in last firmware. Probably there is issue
> with XML settings with invalid character [...]
That would not amaze me. In 2015, I got a DSL speed increase, and
found that my old (but otherwise reliable) Cisco 678 was my new
bottleneck. A (bargain-Ebay) DGND3700v2 had a better DSL modem, but
that router's port forwarding demanded identical external and internal
port numbers, making it useless to me. Encouraged by some pre-sales
discussions with Netgear, I got a (bargain-Ebay) DGN2200v4, which had
worse wireless capabilities, but more capable port forwarding. Sadly, I
found that with the DGN2200v4, I could get a green DSL LED, but only a
red Internet LED.
A second DGN2200v4 behaved the same way, and firmware updates didn't
help. Netgear "support" was of little value, but I did guess the cause.
My DSL password contained a UNIX-shell-special (XML-special?) character,
something like "abcd<efg". If I specified it as "abcd\<efg", then the
problem disappeared. I've since moved on to a different ISP with a
different, less exotic DSL password, and then to a D7000, so I've lost
track of whether the original DGN2200v4 problem was ever fixed, or if it
affected other models.
The point of the long, dreary story is that Netgear firmware can't be
trusted to cope with exotic characters in user-specified data. If a
user-entry can be corrupted internally, it's easy to believe that a
saved-and-restored datum could be corrupted, too.
