XR700 - DumaOS 3.0 Beta Firmware

[Retired_Member]

That is definitely true they should make their own routers instead of using netgears specific routers because this isn't really fair it's there firmware they should at least upload it to the servers it's super terrible for partnership if I were you I would not partner with them unless they actually come to a conclusion to make it a fair partnership

[BartXR700]

Hi Nighthawk Guys, any progress on DumaOS 3.0 for XR700? Thanks 🙂

[XR700-Owner]

So, NetDuma DO in fact make their own routers like the R1v and the R2 (www.NetDuma.com). And if you haven't read past conversations, they have already finished their part of the firmware and sent it to Netgear so they can finish their part to it. I can understand how it must have felt in the beginning of the partnership thinking they could possibly get more of a buzz circulating about the NetDuma name. However after dealing with Netgear for years personally I could have saved you the headache as Netgear has always had consistent issues with their firmware. They should have pitched this kind of gaming rich feature set to Linksys or even TP-Link. Netgear has usually been good on their price/performance in the market but always lacks in firmware stability and customer support. I do however enjoy their dumaos platform and still think the beta is superior to even the latest Netgear firmware, even with it's obvious security holes. I'm anxious as well for Netgear to get their $hîtt together and release the full version of the dumaOS but from what I'm expecting it'll be another few months before released. I do know that there were some pretty serious flaws in the basic functions of the router (Netgear's side) where things like dhcp weren't working right (since launch) and I think I read somewhere in this forum that NetDuma had suggested they fix that lol.

[BusBat]

Hello NetDuma and NetGear people!

It seems as I won't be able to try the version 3 features after all. After being waiting for it for more than a year and getting up hope for a release "soon" my XR700 decided to give me problems after only 22 months of service...

Why?

Shortly before Christmas I realized that my Wi-Fi didn't work. Tried to log in to the router but instead of being met of the ordinary GUI I found the dreaded message I've read about in other forums: 

DumaOS not loaded yet!

Don't worry we will redirect you shortly.

Well, shortly turned out to mean never. Almost the same message I've seen waiting in this forum for the version 3 of the Duma GUI... 

Anyway, I found the tip to try this as a login to the router:

http://routerlogin.net/adv_index.htm

Which worked and allowed me to have some contact with the router, which was great. 
I could see that I was connected to Internet but I couldn't reach the ordinary admin pages or getting the Wi-Fi to work again. 
The router had turned into being a very expensive switch with very few ports.

Oboy, how I regret the "upgrade" from XR500....

To make a long and teadious story short: I've spent an obscene amount of time in trying to get the router to work: Downgrading and upgrading the firmware, change settings and reboot different settings, doing resetting and the STFP-upgrade as NetDuma people have suggested in other posts. 

But the results have all been the same: I'm stuck and not getting the ordinary admin or Wi-Fi working again. I'm utterly disappointed of having a hardware that has such a short lifespan and that I can't reach the ordinary admin page. Finally I had to throw in the towel and accept the hard fact: My expensive XR700 has given up. I saved a log following the tip a ChristeT posted to another user with similar problems as I have now in order to get a debug dump. I can send it over if it can help. But where? 

I'm depending on having a good and reliable Internet connection together with a well functioning Wi-Fi and can't have a damaged router that may misbehave even more. 
so, I had to polish of the dust and put a very old Wi-Fi Router that is 8+ years old...

It's slow and doesn't support features that are required today, but it works!

How a router for USD 700 can brake broken after 2 years but a router that costed about USD 150 can function after a decade is just... surprising and leaves a bad taste in my mouth of the reliability for Netgear routers. Sad but true. I know that everybody I've advised to get the XR500 are happy with the performance and functions - especially if the can get and use the new geo fencing for games. But I needed better Wi-Fi and shifted to the XR700. 

I guess my router is more or less bricked and that I won't get a replacement du to the fact that I've had it for 2 years and that means that I will never get the NetDuma 3 which is a shame. I have waited for it so long. 

So, if nothing unexpected happens and I receive a replacement, which I doubt, I will leave the Netgear "eco system" and I will try ASUS. I really enjoyed the NetDuma GUI and was looking forward to get the new GUI. 

I guess this is a "so long" from me and I really hope all XR700 users won't get my problems and that they will enjoy the NetDuma 3 GUI. Who knows? It MIGHT be around in 2022. 

Thanks for reading and hopefully it will be of use for other XR700 users that get the equivalent to Windows blue screen ie: "DumaOS not loaded yet! Don't worry we will redirect you shortly." I can't speak for others, but that message would worry me extremely after the experience I've had. 

Cheers everybody and good luck with the very expensive XR700 of yours!

[XR700-Owner]

Richard, have you tried a hard reset from the back of the router? If you have try the 30-30-30 approach. You'll need to put a paper clip or push pin in the back of your router to push in the reset button. Do this with the router on and fully loaded (usually when all the lights are on and stable). Count to 30 but do not pull out the paper clip when you've reached it, instead power off the router (with the reset button still being held in) and count to 30 again with the reset button still being held in. Once you've counted to 30 keep that button pressed in and power on the router and count another 30 seconds with the reset button still being pressed. After that just release the reset button and let the router boot. So you're basically holding in that reset button for 90 seconds but turning the router off after the first 30 seconds then turning it back on after the second set of 30 and holding it in 30 seconds after that. I've used that method since the old dd-wrt days when the 54g band was the new hotness! I don't know what the condition of your router is, maybe it needs a good cleaning? I personally take a leaf blower to all my equipment once a month or so. Also if you get the chance when your xr700 is back up and running, you can set the rapp retry to 5 times by going to the dashboard and clicking on the 3 lines on the rapps box and setting it to 5 instead of 3. Also I've gone into the debug.html page on mine (192.168.1.1/debug.htm) and changed the fan algorithm numbers to 0. This will make the fan run all the time (which is what I personally want). Another little tip, I only use IPV4. Now I know my isp gives out ipv6 and the router can use it but I've found many routers (TP-Link included) that when I enable ipv6 the firmware wants to get buggy and things start to not want to work right. Well that's it from me, I hope it helped for what's it's worth. I'd hate to see a good xr700 retire to being a paperweight if it can be put to use vs using a decade old router.

[Waldimir_Plutin]

Hi, I recently got a XR700 that I found for a good price and I was looking into Geo Filtering for Halo Infinite, since it keeps connecting me to servers across the atlantic ocean.

I was experimenting with the Beta OS provided in this post, but I keep running into issues. Like for example, at some point I was able to queue with a friend that lives in the same region as I and we would be both get connected to the same server. But now he seems to connect into the game lobby while I´m not and the game on the terrible connection starts without me, with him still in it.

Sometimes I get error messages when doing anything on the router and disable Geo Filtering doesn´t work either occasionally. But it´s a two-year-old beta, I get it.

Nevertheless, do you guys have any advice on how to avoid some of the known issues with this Beta OS or how configure a game like Halo Infinite with good results on Netgear approved DumaOS 2.0?

Speaking of Netgear, I assume they´re taking their time to review the finalized version. In case there are any news on that or how long that usually goes, would be appreciated.

Something else; if some of you have an XR700 or XR500 as well as a Netduma R2; what is the biggest take-away and is the R2 better for gaming in general? Since those seem to receive regular updates, because they´re Netduma´s own routers.

Thanks for reading, Cheers.

[Netduma-Liam]

@BusBat Sorry to hear this, what lights are illuminated on the front of the XR700 and what color are they? That may hint at the cause of the issue.

One slightly obvious suggestion but worth saying: Remember to either clear your browser's cache or try accessing it from an incognito window when troubleshooting like this. We've seen cached pages cause so much pain and confusion!

If you haven't already, please do also raise a support ticket with NETGEAR at support.netgear.com, you may still be within your warranty period and may be able to request an RMA. 

[Netduma-Liam]

@Waldimir_Plutin 

Thanks for posting, when your friend gets put into a game without you, are you seeing any blocked server icons on the Geo-filter map? 

Are you hosting the search? Otherwise you won't be able to use Geo-filter if somebody else is searching.

With regards to new firmware, the 3.0 full release will be released by NETGEAR once it's ready. We've also got new DumaOS improvements and features to port over to the Nighthawk Pro Gaming range so we're also going to start on that soon.

[XR700-Owner]

When playing with friends, your xr700 is only working for your connection, not theirs. My son was having issues not being able to play in matches with his friends on nba2k 22. It's not just the filtering. So if you have your device added to geofilter, make sure the filtering is turned off on that device. Also turning on fast search and ping assist (I set mine to 50ms) seems to work well for me. It's not filtering any of my devices which is fine, but it still pings the server which can alleviate lag spikes. I also have my congestion control (in QoS) set to always and sliders set to 70% as I have many devices which also helps with lag.

[Waldimir_Plutin]

@Netduma-Liam 

Thanks for your message. Yes, I do see the blocked US servers while I have a Geo Filter set stay on EU servers. But at that point it is too late. The game seems to connect to a server first and only then, when the game is about to start and loading of the actual players is initiated, the connection cuts off.

When I press the automatically blocked server or icon, I can no longer allow or deny the connection on the interface. Basically, nothing happens when I press the icon after I´ve been disconnected from the server.  And yes, I am the one hosting the search. Again, it did kind of work at some point. And by that, I mean that it always just connected me to the right server immediately. Without me having to interact with connection at all. I´ve rebooted the router multiple times, but that does not seem to do the trick. At this point, I´m starting to think that it was just luck that the both of us have been connected to the right server every single time, but it does not seem very likely, since we were playing for an entire afternoon and evening.

[Waldimir_Plutin]

Are you sure that Geo filtering only works for me, even though I'm hosting the game?

I thought it does work, because we were connected to the exact server I wanted, over and over again for multiple hours.

[XR700-Owner]

If you're hosting then the other players would just be joining the server you're joining so yes it should work if you're hosting (leader). You could always try flushing the cloud.

[Waldimir_Plutin]

The game has a UI that indicates on what is happening during the “Searching for Game” process. And “Connecting to Server” seems go through and only when “Loading other Players” starts, is where his game starts to actually load and my game doesn´t and that is the exact moment I see the blocked server on the Geo Filter interface.

I was just thinking that I can´t be the only one with this problem, since Netduma even released a video on how to setup DumaOS for Halo Infinite. So it does seem to be a priority. But of course, I am using an old beta version of the OS, so that can always be a problem.

[Netduma-Liam]

Apologies perhaps I wasn't very clear, what I mean is that Geo-filter will only work if you're hosting, it will work for all of those that are in your party.

It sounds as though it's kicking you out because it's trying to load you into a server that's blocked. What should actually happen is that the game client notices this server isn't available when it boots and it shouldn't try to put you on it.

Could you please make sure that any time you make a change to Geo-filter, you close down the game client and boot it up again?

[BusBat]

Hey,

Thanks for trying to help. 
In my post I tried to tell that I have Done all the tips from different forums. 
But I have never ben able to find the there dots...

After having spent an obscene amount of hours to get the router up and going without any change I reduced that my hardware (maybe in conjunction with DumaOS) is somehow broken. I have been working with computers and extremely more advanced network setups, and I really don't give up. But sometimes you have to. My hourly cost toghether with the amount of time spent is now above what this router cost me!!! 
I appreciate your dust and cooling tips because they prolong hardwares lifecycle. The fan setting I might have seen, but I was focused on getting the thing up before tuning. I take away dust every 6 months from my different hardware and it's fans. And where possible, I tune the fans in order to not stress the hardware under heavy load (ie video rendering). I also have an air condition so heat problems shouldn't be the immediate problem. If it is, I seem to be out of luck. 

From all the time spent on trying everything possible, I have given up to get my current hardware. If it was new I would say it was close to a DOA and would insist to have it replaced. As stated I'm extremely disappointed that the hardware (that has been in a well managed and cool place - I've built a couple data centers over the years) just managed to stay up and running for 2 years. 

iIf I get my XR700 replaced I will give it a shot again. Especially with the version 3 GUI. 

BUT until then (which I would be positive surprised to get) I will (later today) give the equivalent from ASUS a go. I've done all I and the forums have given suggestions about and tips about - to no use or luck for me. It is now a router without Wi-Fi that you can't access via the normal admin interface. No matter what I've tried. Basically it is now the biggest and most costly 4-5 port GigaSwitch I own... I've given this router much more attention than I've should and have done for old Cisco, wellfleet/Nortel routers with the difference that they booted up in the end but my XR700 is stuck in whatever error mode it is stuck in.

I've just got the tryout replacement router delivered to my doorstep (ASUS ROG GT-AX11000) and hopefully I will be up and running within an hour or so. And if I can replace my XR700 with a repaired or new one, I'd like the Netgear/Duma goodwill to help out a customer that's very disappointed with the defect hardware and that have had great expectations for an official ver 3 of the NetdumaOS. 

But to be honest I don't expect that to happen and that will end my upgrades of Netgear gear. I can understand that a router with a price tag of around USD100 just manages to be alive 3 years before degrading rapidly. But for a USD700+ product... No, that's unacceptable - for me. 

Again, I sure appreciate your tips and it would have been fun to try the fan setting (and you probably have more up your sleeve) but unless a new or repaired one shows up, I will let my Nighthawk switches do their work until I replace them. Now I will try the ASUS ecosystem with aimesh and built in Trend Micro and the support groups for ROG. Hopefully I will encounter someone with your experience and knowledge there. As for the ROG Router hardware - well, I expect a lifespan of 3-5 years. Within an hour I will hopefully be walking around with a Wi-Fi analyzer and will be able to compare the performance of the new hardware compared to the XR700. I expect it will be close but with half the price tag and with a GUI that could use some NetDuma touch from what I've seen. 

Cheers from a chilly Sweden!

[BusBat]

Hey Liam,

The empty cache (and resetting DNS) is built in my spine... Due to my working xp over the years (Jeez, I wonder why ;-).
So, check on that box too. 

Which light? 
It's turned off now but what was lit for Wi-Fi was strangely the "60GHz" but not the 2,4 or 5 lights. 
White colors after the orange ones when booting.

And as stated, no matter what buttons or check boxes I tried, the Wi-Fi came up. 
If I was to try and explain it for a novice, I'd say that the Wi-Fi seems to have given up which interups the DumaOS to boot properly. 
Kudos for the back door to settings but unfortunately it was of no use for my problem. 

I have a dump if that eventually would clarify what's happened, but I need to know where to send it.

Thanks for trying but I understand that there isn't much you can do. 
In situations like these it would be great to be able and give you remote access to rip the info you need to make a conclusion. I know... Not for SOHO... But it should make things easier for everybody. 

all the best Liam

[Netduma-Liam]

Hey @BusBat,

No worries, thanks for confirming anyway.

I'd definitely recommend raising the case with NETGEAR at support.netgear.com. Unfortunately as a member of the NETDUMA team there's not too much more I can do to help on this one.

You can also provide them with the dumps as they'd be able to debug it further.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[ExpLiciTSainT]

I'm late to the game on the DumaOS 3.0 for the XR700. I haven't installed 3.0 Beta yet but see people talking about the release coming "soon". I am wondering, Geo-Filtering on my current version never really worked, just get kicked from games when it's on and I am hoping 3.0 is much better. Is it worth upgrading too or should I just wait for the official release?

[Netduma-Fraser]

@ExpLiciTSainT it sounds like your settings may be too strict, you have it covering an area without a server or that you may be playing with friends but not the party leader - do any of those sound like they could be right? I'd suggest making a new topic regarding this and we can focus on your issue or you could try the beta - it would give you Ping Heatmap and so you could find server locations if point 2 is correct.

[ExpLiciTSainT]

Looks like I have to enable filtering, then open the Xbox app, and then the game from the Xbox app and seemed to work as expected. My range was covering Halo Infinite's Seattle, LA, and Texas servers so I hope it wasn't a range issue. I was hoping 3.0 actually had Infinite listed vs Halo. I wasn't clear if they required different requirements but looks like "Halo" covers it? Seeing 65ms ping or less. I would like it to pull Seattle servers only if possible.

To be honest, I was one of the first people to buy this router and I've worked a lot in the past to troubleshoot various problems. From it disconnecting it's eth connection every 5 minutes (due to the VPN option I think) to Geo-Filtering kicking you out of the match when it connects. Due to that, I've been patient with Firmware updates and such. Little surprised the DumaOS 3.0 update Beta was posted 2 years ago, isn't listed on the firmware for the router on the support page, and doesn't seem to have a release date.

And a plus side, support seems to have been pretty good answering most of my questions so I'll give you all that.

[Netduma-Fraser]

Halo Infinite is listed on Ping Heatmap, for the Geo-Filter, you can give the PC a PlayStation or Xbox device type on the Device Manager and add it to the Geo-Filter and it will add with the console service which you can use to filter Infinite.

It has been just over a year since it was released so we are eager and working on getting a new firmware out as soon as possible.

[ExpLiciTSainT]

es, I went through the console just so I can set the proper profile but Halo Infinite is not listed, only Halo is listed. I assume the Geo-Filtering "heat" map is just called "Geo-Filtering Map"?

[Netduma-Fraser]

You're not on the beta so you don't have the option yet - Ping Heatmap. You're on profiles there which you don't really need to use, it just adjusts the Geo-Filter to our recommended radius

[ExpLiciTSainT]

Yes, that is why I was asking about the update. When selecting a console, it doesn't offer a profile for filtering. For PC, it's not really clear.

So is it worth upgrading to the beta?

[Netduma-Fraser]

For the Geo-Filter, you can give the PC a PlayStation or Xbox device type on the Device Manager and add it to the Geo-Filter and it will add with the console service which you can use to filter Infinite. Upgrading to the beta won't give a service for Halo on the Geo-Filter but it isn't necessary if you do this.