Re: New R7000 Firmware Version 1.0.11.100

dshamim · ‎2020-04-14

I have been on V1.0.11.100_10.2.100 since last 3 days now -

I upgraded from v1.0.8.x

after upgrading some devices would connect to the wifi, but wouldn't run the internet

took a while to troubleshoot that as only 2 devices were not working, one a smnart tv and another smamsun s7, the rest of the stuff was fine

after that read somewhere that some firmware versions are incompatible - so did a factory reset -

after that things were fine

today however - it hung up twice - all the devices were connected to the wifi but not internet - but I couldn't even get into the admin panel - the led lights did not indicate that internet was down

had to restart the router both times to get everything working

considering rolling back to 1.0.8.x if this keep happening

spcrick · ‎2020-04-14

Thats the same problem with most of us. The devices would show connected to wifi but no internet access. I noticed when that happens, the light on the 5g band doesnt blink much. When my devices are working fine, the light blinks continuously.

iFrog · ‎2020-04-14

Is there a way I can confirm this is strictly a firmware issue vs damaged hardware? I ask because in my case I over drve the wireless radios under DD-WRT. The output power wasn't limited like it was on stock firmware and I wanted to see what all the hardware could do. Similar to overclocking a CPU.

JWS9518 · ‎2020-04-14

Anyone have any clue why the apply button did not appear on initial setup with the username/password security questions with this firmware and I had to use the app instead to get past that point?

JWS9518 · ‎2020-04-14

@dshamim wrote:
I have been on V1.0.11.100_10.2.100 since last 3 days now -
I upgraded from v1.0.8.x

after upgrading some devices would connect to the wifi, but wouldn't run the internet
took a while to troubleshoot that as only 2 devices were not working, one a smnart tv and another smamsun s7, the rest of the stuff was fine

after that read somewhere that some firmware versions are incompatible - so did a factory reset -
after that things were fine

today however - it hung up twice - all the devices were connected to the wifi but not internet - but I couldn't even get into the admin panel - the led lights did not indicate that internet was down

had to restart the router both times to get everything working

considering rolling back to 1.0.8.x if this keep happening

I have found so far that hitting forget network on your devices and readding them, seems to help with connection issues for particular devices.. not sure if that is going to be foolproof, but so far it has worked. It is almost like the router sees the old connection as some kind of conflict and redoing it seems to fix it.

dshamim · ‎2020-04-14

@JWS9518 wrote:
@dshamim wrote:
I have been on V1.0.11.100_10.2.100 since last 3 days now -
I upgraded from v1.0.8.x

after upgrading some devices would connect to the wifi, but wouldn't run the internet
took a while to troubleshoot that as only 2 devices were not working, one a smnart tv and another smamsun s7, the rest of the stuff was fine

after that read somewhere that some firmware versions are incompatible - so did a factory reset -
after that things were fine

today however - it hung up twice - all the devices were connected to the wifi but not internet - but I couldn't even get into the admin panel - the led lights did not indicate that internet was down

had to restart the router both times to get everything working

considering rolling back to 1.0.8.x if this keep happening
I have found so far that hitting forget network on your devices and readding them, seems to help with connection issues for particular devices.. not sure if that is going to be foolproof, but so far it has worked. It is almost like the router sees the old connection as some kind of conflict and redoing it seems to fix it.

Thanks I will try that - last night I did 2 things -

1- I noticed that NTP settings had an error - it couldn't reach the netgear NTP server and router date time was mismatched, I set that up to a google NTP server

2- I reinstalled the latest firmware - just to make sure that it installs correctly (last time I updated the firmware, I didn't restart the router before the update - as indicaed in the readme for this firmware)

Lets see, if this still happens - will forget and add on all devices

last resort would be to try and downgrade the firmware back to 1.08.x

JWS9518 · ‎2020-04-15

Well, after dealing with this update the last few days, I am most likely going back to .42. I keep having various devices losing connection and then having a hard time getting them to reconnect to the network. I have had a few reboots as well, but that has not been the biggest issue. If I could just keep devices from losing the network and then refusing to connect back, it would not be so frustrating.

I really wish Netgear would get their act together on their firmware stability. Or at least issue guidance on what firmware works best, especially if there are differences with the devices in how they are manufactured.

shoman94 · ‎2020-04-15

Yup I moved on. ... It was time.

dshamim · ‎2020-04-15

After testing various things for this firmware

1- forgetting network, connecting again

2- factory resetting

3- redoing the firmware update

this firmware is unstable

I reverted back to V1.0.9.88_10.2.88

device lockout and connection drops have disappeared

Portwey84 · ‎2020-04-16

The more I keep reading this thread, the more I believe this is a hardware issue between the same model of router but built in different factories at different times. Clearly I cannot know whether this is the case, but I find it odd that my own router is behaving itself on the latest firmware with no issues whatsoever apart from the known GUI bugs which are an annoyance.

To recap about my own router:

Made in Vietnam, 1st March 2019, shipped with v.64 firmware

Upgraded firmware to v1.0.11.100 on 4th April 2019 - no problems to date

Less than 25 devices being used.

I think it's been said enough times too, if anyone is intent on upgrading the firmware, the advice is do so via hardwire ethernet only using admin browser page through a computer.

Disconnect all unecessary cables, turn off router Wifi prior to any update. Make sure all WiFi clients are running up to date firmwares/operating systems. I know people on iOs devices that are still running iOs10 for instance when their devices are capable of running the latest OS.

From reading, some users are apparently still carrying out multiple factory resets/reboots when Netgear state in the upgrade instruction just to carrry out a reboot prior to commencing the upgrade. Personally, I just did a single reboot prior to the upgrade, no further reboots and no resets.

There is a general reasoning for disabling auto update. I concur and I've disabled it. I've also disabled UPnP.

There seems to be much love for firmware v.42 with multiple users stating this is the most stable firmware release. This may be so depending on the age of your router and where it was manufactured. For routers like mine that never had v.42 and which operated absolutely fine on v.64 prior to the latest firmware update, there would be absolutely no point in me rolling back to a firmware my router never had in the first place. Also, these older firmwares may have security issues which Netgear might have addressed in later releases, so you roll back at your own risk. Believe it or not, there are some of us whose routers are working perfectly normally with zero Wifi drops on either 2.4 or 5g wireless.

Finally, I think it goes without saying, if you've attempted multiple rollbacks/upgrades and your router isn't operating properly, keeps crashing, keeps dropping WiFi etc, then maybe it's time to part company with it and stop flogging a dead horse.

jlambert2016 · ‎2020-04-16

@czonin wrote:
Updated to this yesterday day from V1.0.9.42_10.2.44 and all was running fine until I had a random reboot earlier today which is the same issue I had with all previous versions. I ended up rolling back to V1.0.9.42_10.2.44.

I just found this thread and saw that you were supposed to reboot before updating so I did that and now trying the new firmware again. Hopefully the issue will be resolved now.

Alright thanks for taking the plunge for me. Still on 1.0.9.42, won't upgrade I guess!!! Any other firmware would send my R7000 into a reboot loop.

Thornado · ‎2020-04-16

@shoman94 wrote:
@Thornado wrote:
Final words:
Dear R7000, it's been a journey in good and bad times. But like any relationships lasting seven years, it's time to look for new opportunities. I wish the faithfuls to R7000 best of luck and hopefully you will survive with a stable and seamless connection.
Signing out.

Disclaimer: This was written in pure boredom during corona time and have no meaning to offend or judge anyone in a healthy relationship

Netgear R7000 - FCC approval date August 7, 2013
source: http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Netgear_R7000
What did you end up getting?

I have received an ASUS RT-AX56U for about $140. Great buy so far. A lot of new features and no struggle. Smooth FW and possible to turn off WPS with no hassle

James721 · ‎2020-04-16

@Thornado wrote:
@shoman94 wrote:
@Thornado wrote:
Final words:
Dear R7000, it's been a journey in good and bad times. But like any relationships lasting seven years, it's time to look for new opportunities. I wish the faithfuls to R7000 best of luck and hopefully you will survive with a stable and seamless connection.
Signing out.

Disclaimer: This was written in pure boredom during corona time and have no meaning to offend or judge anyone in a healthy relationship

Netgear R7000 - FCC approval date August 7, 2013
source: http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Netgear_R7000
What did you end up getting?
I have received an ASUS RT-AX56U for about $140. Great buy so far. A lot of new features and no struggle. Smooth FW and possible to turn off WPS with no hassle

Yes and are you aware the AX56U along with the new AX58U are now fully supported by Merlin firmware. So you have options should you want to try them. Enjoy the new AX56U i love my new AX58U works excellent and Asus and Merlin are constantly updating and fixing any issues that should pop up. Unlike Netgear never again. Good Luck !!

ceo · ‎2020-04-16

As is to be expected by now, Netgear has released another crappy firmware update for the R7000.

I still have a few of these in service but for anything new I've moved over to Linksys EA-7300 and EA-7500. The Linksys models are fast and stable. No issues at all. It is so refreshing to not have to worry about the R7000's any more.

James721 · ‎2020-04-16

@ceo wrote:
As is to be expected by now, Netgear has released another crappy firmware update for the R7000.

I still have a few of these in service but for anything new I've moved over to Linksys EA-7300 and EA-7500. The Linksys models are fast and stable. No issues at all. It is so refreshing to not have to worry about the R7000's any more.

Yes now if just everyone else would figure this out.

Thornado · ‎2020-04-16

@James721 wrote:
@Thornado wrote:
@shoman94 wrote:
@Thornado wrote:
Final words:
Dear R7000, it's been a journey in good and bad times. But like any relationships lasting seven years, it's time to look for new opportunities. I wish the faithfuls to R7000 best of luck and hopefully you will survive with a stable and seamless connection.
Signing out.

Disclaimer: This was written in pure boredom during corona time and have no meaning to offend or judge anyone in a healthy relationship

Netgear R7000 - FCC approval date August 7, 2013
source: http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Netgear_R7000
What did you end up getting?
I have received an ASUS RT-AX56U for about $140. Great buy so far. A lot of new features and no struggle. Smooth FW and possible to turn off WPS with no hassle
Yes and are you aware the AX56U along with the new AX58U are now fully supported by Merlin firmware. So you have options should you want to try them. Enjoy the new AX56U i love my new AX58U works excellent and Asus and Merlin are constantly updating and fixing any issues that should pop up. Unlike Netgear never again. Good Luck !!

Thanks for information about Merlin firmware, it looks interesting. One thing I have noticed about ASUS, they don't have any communities for their routers (except ROG routers). But maybe they don't need

Also, one feature I really liked about the RT-AX56U; you can re-program the WPS-button to work as LED on/off button!

microchip8 · ‎2020-04-16

They don't have official communities, but over at SNBForums there's a big, biased one for ASUS routers. You can get lots of support over there, and RMerlin develops his firmware there too

shoman94 · ‎2020-04-16

Theres a big Netgear one as well. I'm not sure that there is "big bias" though.

microchip8 · ‎2020-04-16

The ASUS community at SNBForums is bigger than that of the NETGEAR one. I follow it daily and the most I see is about ASUS routers and here and there about NETGEAR ones. TP-Link, D-Link and Linksys are virtually missing, with the occasional post about either of them

At Linksysinfo.org it's the reverse. NETGEAR is #1 followed by Linksys and ASUS

dshamim · ‎2020-04-16

now downgrading from Firmware Version 1.0.9.88

to Firmware Version 1.0.9.42

.88 was unstable as well for me - router kept getting stuck - same as with 1.0.11.100

quality control is really starting to hurt - last 4 years I have had no issues with the router (I think I updated firmware last like 2 years ago) and now with this firmware update - so unreliable -

honestly would think of moving to open source firmware - possibly linksys designed for open source routers in the future

microchip8 · ‎2020-04-16

You can load FreshTomato on the R7000 and have hardware acceleration too (CTF). Works great last time I tried it

iFrog · ‎2020-04-17

@microchip8 wrote:
You can load FreshTomato on the R7000 and have hardware acceleration too (CTF). Works great last time I tried it

Thanks for that tip, i'll give it a try. I've always had good success with the open firmwares when I've tried them. I started with DD-WRT, now i'll test out Frest Tomato. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

iFrog · ‎2020-04-17

hey guys,

Happy to report I've gotten my R7000 Stable, I put DD-WRT on it again, and after tweaking settings. I am getting speeds over wireless that are equal to, or better than stock firmware, on both the R7000, and the Apple AirPort Extreme (2013 model)

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/179165668 Here is a speedtest done from my MBP over wifi. I pay for 400 down and 20 up so anything over is great. There are times i will get closer to 500 down but that's mostly on wired.

NomadPgmr · ‎2020-04-17

I was having to reboot at least once a day, amost so regularily that I could have set my sundial to it. Sometimes I had to reboot twise a day.
I was extremely excited to see this update and Netgear having fixed memory leaks which could cause a hang.

I followed the install instructions, rebooting before I updated and then just had it download and update the firmware late yesterday.

Well lo and behold, we have already had to reboot it once today. Not the same time as usual, so probably a different mechanism, or they changed something to move the time.

If only there were a way to provide debugging/logging feedback to Netgear.

Being a firmware developer myself, I understand how hard it can be to fix problems like this.

I'll monitor for changes and look for yet another update. Perhaps the next one will be golden.

JWS9518 · ‎2020-04-17

Back on .42 and the issues I was having have been resolved... no reboots, no disconnects and inability to reconnect to the network has disappeared.