RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
I have the Netgear RBR760 Mesh WiFi 6 router and two satellites. Today, the Orbi app on my iPhone showed an alert saying that the Armor app had been protecting my network and devices, and urging me to view the 30-day activity report, so I tried to do so — only to find that the Armor report shows that it has been protecting ZERO devices, with NO threats detected, vulnerabilities found, or devices scanned. I "backed out" until I got to the Orbi app home screen, which shows there are 19 devices online, but when I clicked on the Device Manager icon, the app showed a spinning "Loading..." screen for about 30 seconds and then displayed a message saying "Sorry, your device list failed to load. Please try again later." I used the "force-quit" option to close the Orbi app on my iPhone, opened a different app, then went back and relaunched the Orbi app. Unfortunately, nothing had changed; I saw the same results in the Armor report and also when I clicked on the Device Manager icon.
Re: RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
Thanks for your reply (both of them actually).
(1) I do not have a MAC Address randomizer. I do not even know what one is, or why/when someone might want to use one.
(2) I already have tried checking the Orbi app on a different device. I get the same results (zero devices being protected) on both my iPhone and my iPad tablet.
(3) I will attempt to submit a bug report, including the same screen capture of the error message that I am attaching here.
Re: RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
I swear I've tried everything including resetting my Orbi 760, which is PITA (and no one should deal with this resetting the router route), and still nothing.
Re: RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
Indeed! I agree completely. Today I rebooted our Orbi router twice (once by unplugging it, and once by selecting the Reboot option in the app's settings), but the same problem persists without any change. In the past, I could see a list of the connected devices, yet now the app shows devices are connected, but then fails to list any of them.
Re: RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
Oops, sorry for the typo: Obviously I meant to type that the Orbi app shows DEVICES are connected, but then fails to list any of them. I just edited the text of that reply to correct the error.
(1) I do not have a MAC Address randomizer. I do not even know what one is, or why/when someone might want to use one.
Makers of mobile devices, such as Apple & Android phones and tablets, laptops, etc. have introduced a feature to make it more difficult for Big Brother to track users by their hardware MAC address. Apple describes the feature this way:
Even if the user has gone into Settings and disabled this feature, (my experience has been that) when the phone/tablet/laptop software is updated, the feature is often enabled again. The result is that when the user next attempts to connect to any WiFi system, including their home WiFi router, it presents a random MAC address that makes it appear to be a 'new' device. This is (yet another) example of companies forcing customers to "opt out" of new features rather than suggesting that they "opt in".
I have used the LAN Setup table to assign IP addresses to almost every device on my network. Being just a trifle OCD, all the security cameras have IP addresses in one group, speakers in another, smart plugs in another, etc. However, since the Wife's iPad and iPod get updated and she doesn't know to tell me, I just gave up on them. They get new IPs from the DHCP pool and ever so often I go into the LAN Setup page and delete the obsolete ones.
Re: RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
Thanks for your informative reply, CrimpOn. I was not aware of this "Private Wi-Fi Address" setting, but I just went into the Wi-Fi settings on both my iPhone and iPad and disabled that setting.
It made NO DIFFERENCE. I launched the Orbi app on my iPad, where the Device Manager section still showed 15 devices online. I then tapped on that section, and once again got the spinning graphic that indicates processing, and once again after a long wait, there was the apologetic message saying that my device list failed to load. I then force-quit the Orbi app, launched a couple of other apps on the iPad, and finally relaunched the Orbi app. The results were the same.
Meanwhile, on my iPhone, the Device Manager in the Orbi app now shows zero devices online, which at least matches the Devices screen in the background while the processing graphic spins until the same failed-to-load message appears.
Right now, I *know* for a fact that our wi-fi network has at least the following 11 devices online: two iPhones, two iPads, one MacBook Pro, one Windows PC, a printer, a refrigerator, a sprinkler controller, and two video-camera doorbells, and there are probably 2 or 3 others.
Given that turning off the Private Wi-Fi Address setting has not made any difference at all, I will now go back and enable that setting again on both the iPhone and iPad.
Re: RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
The privacy setting is user choice. Once I saw the term "free trial" on Armor, my Miser Switch kicked in and said, "do NOT sign up for this." Have no experience with Armor. Your experience does not make me more likely to even try it.
Re: RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
I can certainly understand your reaction. The sad thing is that the Armor app WAS working until recently, and seemed to be doing a good job. A couple of times each month, the app would present a notification identifying a potentially dangerous URL that it had blocked after either my wife or I had clicked a link on one of our devices.
I have no idea why it has apparently stopped working, but I suspect that it is due to something that must have been changed in a recent update to the Orbi apps for iPhone and iPad. I am now doubtful that I will pay to renew our Armor subscription.
Re: RBR760: Orbi app (and Armor) show ZERO connected devices
Thanks for your reply. Another Netgear Community user provided that link in a comment posted 3 days ago. I followed the instructions and submitted a bug report that same day. So now it is 3 days later, and as yet I have received no response.
As you can see in this screenshot that I captured in the Orbi app on my iPhone, the Armor app is protecting and scanning ZERO devices, finding ZERO vulnerabilities, and detecting and blocking ZERO threats. Gosh, how helpful. So glad that I paid to renew my subscription to this software that is apparently doing nothing except letting me see that my Netgear Orbi router and satellites are online.
