NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Firmware 2.3.1.100
I am not sure what to say about this new firmware.
My parents alway taught me, “If you don’t have something nice to say, then say nothing at all”.
Yet, I was also taught, “if you have a problem and you don’t tell anyone about it, then its your fault if it doesn’t get fixed”.
So, what should I do when Netgear sold me $1000 worth of tech products, it is plagued with problems, I (and many others) have told Netgear about it, Netgear replies with template copy/paste answers which resolve nothing, and months (almost one year later) many of the problems are not resolved?
As I look at this firmware 2.3.1.100 and review the release notes, I cannot help myself when I smile, laugh sarcastically, and realize there is no hope that Netgear will ever “make good” with Orbi Pro.
- “Allows separate SSID on the 2.4Ghz and 5GHz bands on the Wireless 2 profile.” Question; What value does this bring? It was a requested feature to allow separate BSSIDs for 2.4 and 5 gigahertz. But Netgear is allowing this ONLY on the second profile. Does it not occur to Netgear that the PRIMARY profile is the main target, and furthermore using the second profile would prevent access to any devices connected to profile 1. My use case would be, and I assume most others;
A. All thick clients and trusted clients using Profile 1. I have some devices I would like limit to 2.4Ghz and other devices would use 5Ghz. All Business-Class WIFI products allow this.
B. All IOT devices and non-trusted devices would go to Profile 2. Again, separate band SSIDs to allow efficiency of bands, and some devices are poorly made and need to be FORCED to specific bands. Again, ALL BUSINESS-CLASS WIFI PRODUCTS OFFER THIS!
C. Guest network enabled for visitors. Common sense....
A, B and C all separated via VLANs....Firewall rules control access between networks...Router Mode and AP Mode.
- “Debug log download for Insight. DNS lookup support from Insight.Security Fixes:PSV-2018-0147, PSV-2018-0296, Bug Fixes:Cannot use double-byte characters to block sites by keyword. Enable Traffic Meter on IE 11 browser.”
You focused TWO fixes for Insight Manager!!! TWO fixes for security. TWO fixes for Web Browsers
REALLY!!!???
Do you not see a HUGE problem with your list of priorities? The security fixes I can understand. But Insight Manager!?!?! If my car has a busted engine, and you are OVERDUE with those promised features, do you think it is wise to focus on things that are not part of the base product functionality and prior commitments made? Is it your HOPE that we will get distracted with these other work-efforts and somehow forget about our prior problems and expectations?
I also own a Netgear Orbi RBS50Y. Question; How do I apply this new firmware code when the Outdoor Orbi (you claimed was compatible with Orbi Pro) clearly does not have the same software code lifecycle? How can my wireless network utilize any new features when I have a rogue AP not running the same code?
You have a product that you marketed as BUSINESS-CLASS. Yet when you compare Orbi Pro to other business class products. I, and MANY OTHERS, ask you...”What makes Orbi Pro a business product?
You started a thread LAST YEAR (2018) asking Orbi Pro customers “what features they wanted and needed”. You received a thorough response. You responded SEVERAL TIMES that you understood the requests and “THE FEATURES WOULD BE ADDED TO A LATER FIRMWARE”.
Where is it!?!?!?!?!?!
VLAN Support per SSID (Router and AP mode)
SYSLOG
SEPARATE 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz SSIDs on all profiles
True monitoring of clients (what node they are connected, technical details of that client, etc, etc...and accurately displayed)
WHY DOES THE MAGENTA LIGHT STAY ON USING AP MODE AND ETHERNET BACKHAUL?????? You force us to use the LAN ports (not the WAN port) otherwise Ethernet BACKHAUL doesn’t function properly PER NETGEAR. Still not fixed....
SNMP
These are very BASIC business features that ALL BUSINESS-CLASS WIFI PRODUCTS SUPPORT!!!
If you aren’t going to support these business features, then why do you insist to categorize Orbi Pro in “Business Solutions”?
And why do you comment in this forum that “We will do this in a later firmware”...Clearly you will not. Or, your dev team is so incompetent that it takes them a year TO NOT DELIVER IT. You are already advertising your next Orbi WIFI 6 product line. Do you think we are stupid enough to invest more cash into more Netgear products after seeing the quality of support you currently offer???? Visit ANY internet web forum (Reddit, SmallBizBulder, etc, etc, etc...Amazon too) and you will find a very consistent opinion that Netgear makes good hardware tech products, but your Software, Customer Service, Support and Dev teams are USELESS! Does Netgear care about this opinion that is all over the WWW? Do you realize your poor support and software, etc, etc is preventing me (and many other) purchasing other Netgear products. I have spent the last 2-3 months investigating 10 Gibabit switches. Unfortunately, there is ZERO chance of purchasing anything with Netgear’s name on it. $5000 that will not go to you. Now multiply my choice by the 100s or 1000s of other customers who feel the same way. I guess repeat business is not something Netgear is concerned with.
If you wish to respond to me via private message, then please response with an offer to buy-back all of my Netgear Orbi Pro products, including the cost of warranties I purchased. At this time I see no reasons to believe Netgear has ANY intentions to “make good” on Orbi Pro. Clearly the focus is on Insight Manager and future Orbi WIFI 6 products...so you can make more money on the next SUCKER.
If I am wrong about my comments above, then please correct them. I believe ALL ORBI PRO CUSTOMERS deserve a very detailed explanation of Orbi Pro’s future, what features we can expect added, and an estimate timeline.
Thank You
P.S. I am sending this post directly to your CEO and executive office.
All,
We have received a list of comments from Flash008 and are reviewing them. Please note that there is nothing in the world that makes us happier than seeing happy and satisfied customers and users of our products. At NTGR, we take pride in our products and seek to please our customers.
In regards to the response that MrJosh provided, his point is that Orbi Pro was designed to be a DIY product for business owners that are not network engineers. I has the features to meet the needs of that group of users. But it looks like the success of the product, has resulted in unforseen expectations for features such as SNMP or Syslog which is not something that a small business owner would require.
in other words, Orbi Pro was not meant to replace a product like our WAC540 that has all kinds of bells and whistles.
Please bear with us as we are going through all the comments received which is a summary of all of your points and we'll have a dialogue and work through them.
Finally, we are doing our best to wow our customers, but please don't interpret this as commitment to implement features.
Orbi Pro Product Management
45 Replies
FYI...
Email sent to Netgear’s executive staff.
Patrick, or whom at Netgear this would concern,
First, my name is ########. You can reach me at this email or via telephone at ########.
I am writing you concerning a Netgear product problem you have and I believe will require higher-level intervention.
Please allow me to direct your attention to the Netgear Support forum. You can find it via these links.
I am a Netgear customer and I believe the Netgear Orbi Pro product team is unable to handle the proper management of his product. This mis-management is leading myself and others to believe Netgear is engaging in false advertising, bait-and-switch tactics, and other non-ethical practices. I am not sure if the root of this problem stems via leadership or via the overseas technical staff you may be using for this product. It may be caused by a lack of ability or other area of deficiency. But clearly, something is broken.
I am requesting someone within the Netgear executive office review this situation and provide any guidance and/or resolution possible.
Thank You,
#########
I made a post yesterday about many of these issues yesterday in the regular Orbi forum because this one was down for the past few days.
They supposedly moved it to this forum, but I can't find it, and when I click on it in my profile it just brings me to the main forum.
I agree w/ everything you're saying esp related to the SSID issues. Auto updating seems to be another common complaint that Netgear shruggs off and says we've installed the firmware incorrectly. Sorry. No. In the GUI when it's selected it's still in place according to the command line, so it's a Netgear problem not a user issue (at least in my case).
I have spent at least 3-4 hours fixing broken IoT and smart devices devices because of this SSID garbage. I still can't get my Fujitsu scanner back up and working correctly, and I spent an hour with it alone this morning.
They clearly don't care what customers for these products on their "higher" end want/need. People have complained about this SSID stuff for as long as I've owned the product. I should've sent this stuff back as soon as I realized a work around was needed to create separate SSIDs for 2.4GHz and 5GHz. THEN they take away the work around, but add the feature to WiFi 2??? Why not add it everywhere. Not everyone wants all these SSIDs floating around. Now I have to have one that is Admin for the main channel and then my 2 network names on the secondary.
The whole thing is just ridiculous. If they can't get simple stuff like this right then I'm left to wonder the security of this thing.
At this point, after the time I've wasted over the last week or so, I want them to buy this setup back from me. I don't want their product anymore.
Maybe we need to see if there are any class action lawyers willing to take this up?
I propose we start and over/under pool on how long before anyone from Netgear responds, and even gives lip service to our concerns...
Well, I am hoping within 2-3 days. But I would accept a week (especially if executive staff gets involved). I have decided to approach this from the bottom and the top. We must assume the Netgear staff that monitors this forum are lower level managers and technical staff. I have moved this concern to the office of CEO at Netgear. I intend to be persistent concerning this and will reach out continuously to the CEO, Marketing, PR and other Netgear BUs. I would assume, at some point, a top ranking official will finish their golf game and begin sending some emails, and making some calls.....
Then we wait, watch, and see what happens.
If nothing happens, then we all must accept this problem is company wide! And that observation should cement any opinions you have about doing any future business with Netgear.
I am hoping this is an isolated issue and limited to the BU handling this product.
I have worked in IT for 2+ decades. Most companies have a product manager that handles specific products (conception-to-market). This person should be able to engage very high-level Netgear people and "splash the water" to get something done.
So, let the games begin. Everyone can post their “bet” about “how long for response”. My bet will be 1 week to get something meaningful from Netgear. And not one of thier passive, copy/paste, useless, responses.
If any of you receive private messages from Netgear offering buy-back options. I would suggest you contact the CEO office and inform them. I support any resolution you choose as a free market consumer, but it would be shameful to accept a buy-back as this would only reflect Netgear’s position that “they have no intention of honoring the Orbi Pro product”.
- I think the comments being made by all of you are great. I think we are making our opinions, facts and expectations very clear! At this time I have decided to “be quiet” for a few days. I am going to demonstrate patients now that we have a response from someone who is truly “influential”. If Nadar can’t resolve our problems, then no one can.
Having worked in the tech world for 2 decades I, and all of us, need to be realistic. It will take a few days for Nadar, and Netgear, to discuss things internally and prepare their response to this. I would expect to hear “something” that is “meaningful” by next week. This does not mean we should expect a new firmware with all our desires and problems fixed next week (LOL!!!). But we should get a SOLID response with a very clear list of Netgear commitments and estimate delivery dates.
So, let us continue to share our SPECIFIC concerns with Orbi Pro, and “try” to be clear, concise, offer recommendations, and be constructive.
The idea of this thread is to engage with Netgear with a common goal of resolution, but not to create “b!1$h” session. LOL!
Thank you all for joining me and sharing your thoughts and let’s continue to work together and make Orbi Pro something that matches expectations. Any update on this? I don't want this thread to die.
Ibmman69,
Have no fear. This thread is far from dead.
NaderA is currently on vacation and should return within the next week.
NadarA has the Orbi Pro team reviewing the entire forum, evaluating our requests (expectations), and determining thier response. We should expect this response within the next week shortly after NadarA’s return. This does not mean NEW FIRMWARE. It means Netgear will communicate to us thier commitments and set our expectations honestly and concisely. Some of us may not like the responses to some items, but I am confident they will hande most of our concerns.
So, let us keep this thread “on-topic”. Share your concerns, expectations, and remember....any complaint from you will require your recommendation(s). Don’t just complain.....We have the ear of some very high ranking Netgear staff and we need to establish a professional relationship with them, that involves working together to fix Orbi Pro and make it the product we expect and deserve.
Let us all enjoy a Happy Father’s Day. And for those without kids...a great weekend. Let us wait for Netgear’s response in the coming days.
Big thank you to flash008 for all the time and effort he is putting into this, we are lucky to have you on our side.
Since I upgraded to 2.3.1.100 Orbi sends out 2x the same SSID of network 2.
SSID seperation for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz is turned off.
Downgrading to the previous firmware fixes this problem, a reinstall with the new firmware does not help.
Also the Guest network just goes back to the login page when clients try to connect. Also a bug present since last firmware.
I wonder how well these "new features" are being tested by Netgear as this is unacceptable for a business device!
Please fix this ASAP as we need clients to be able to connect to our guest network and I want to get rid of the double SSID as devices are constantly switching between them!
Hello,
In regards to the SSID issue displaying multiples of the same SSID. Is it displaying duplicates of both the 2.5 and 5ghz frequencies? Does it remain or does the duplicate SSIDs disappear after some time?
Hi,
It's displaying duplicates and they do not disappear. It only affects Wifi 2 on firmware 2.3.1.100.
Downgrading to the previous firmware fixes this issue.
I am starting a new thread to get re-focused on our issues with Netgear Orbi Pro.
Please go to the new forum thread and let us share our comments about Orbi Pro issues and feature requests.
We still have the ear of high ranking Netgear staff. So let’s keep this discussion alive and FOCUSED.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
