New RBR750 / RBS750 Firmware Version 4.6.3.16 Released

[FURRYe38]

So disabling AX mode on the RBR helps get the laptop re-connected and enabling AX mode the latop wont connect any more?

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@Nopeynope wrote:
Yes, the adapters are up to date. Again, no issues with this laptop connecting to this mesh Network until this last firmware update. AX already enabled for both bands.

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[TimCakir]

Really??? Im throwing 500 euros to the bin and switching to Linksys and never coming back, thanks guys!!! I cant do anything anymore since your firmware update! Ridiculous!!! 

[Kevin923846]

I feel exactly the same except I spent 1100! Check out Ubiquity access points instead. That's the route I'm going.

[TimCakir]

Sorry to hear that Kevin 😞 

It was great for 9 months! I cant believe this. In Ubiquiti for a medium size home/villa would you go with just the Access Point U6 Lite ??

Thanks

[Kevin923846]

Mine has been going for 6 months. When you depend on your home network for your livelyhood this kind of fiasco is just unacceptable!

Yes, I'm looking at the U6 Lite's. I've been extremely happy with the UAP-AC-M access point which I use in the rear yard. It's been a really great (non-Netgear) experience.

[Nopeynope]

Correct. When AX is enabled on 5ghz, laptop can't see network at all.   When AX is disabled on 5ghz, it can see the network.

Leaving AX disabled on 5ghz is not an option.   But again- prior to this HW update- this laptop had no issues seeing/connecting to the network whatsoever. 

[FURRYe38]

Can try going back to v7 and see if it resolves. Something you'll need to contact NG support and let them know whaty your seeing between the two versions of FW. At some point you may want to review some wifi adapter upgrades for this laptop.

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@Nopeynope wrote:

Correct. When AX is enabled on 5ghz, laptop can't see network at all.   When AX is disabled on 5ghz, it can see the network.

Leaving AX disabled on 5ghz is not an option.   But again- prior to this HW update- this laptop had no issues seeing/connecting to the network whatsoever. 

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[TSpoonEars]

Same problem here with 4.6.3.16_2_0_51. The whole system is borked right now. Random disconnects and reconnects. Resetting the DHCP table by giving it a different range worked after last week’s unexpected forced update, but not this. It’s completely messed up! Really disappointed in Netgear pushing these untested updates.

[FURRYe38]

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last update?

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@TSpoonEars wrote:
Same problem here with 4.6.3.16_2_0_51. The whole system is borked right now. Random disconnects and reconnects. Resetting the DHCP table by giving it a different range worked after last week’s unexpected forced update, but not this. It’s completely messed up! Really disappointed in Netgear pushing these untested updates.

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[TSpoonEars]

I’m currently working away from home so I can’t perform a full factory reset, I just have to suffer the wrath of my wife and my daughter not being able to do her homework until I get back. Expecting a customer to have to do a full factory reset every random update is pretty unacceptable. I’m a firmware engineer myself and not having to do a full reinstall/reset is a pretty basic requirement for a major update even though sometimes it can be a lot of work to achieve.

[FURRYe38]

Where I work resets are a requirement at any level to ensure good code placement and operation and in troubleshooting and bug reproduction. Some major updates have newer features or less and some may not be compatbile with prior code. Sometimes the newer code doesn't fully clear out older code so a reset maybe needed. Valid troubleshooting test, especially in the home router domain. 

[Nopeynope]

To be clear- getting any support from Netgear Support requires a paid subscription, correct?   

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Can try going back to v7 and see if it resolves. Something you'll need to contact NG support and let them know whaty your seeing between the two versions of FW. At some point you may want to review some wifi adapter upgrades for this laptop.

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@Nopeynope wrote:

Correct. When AX is enabled on 5ghz, laptop can't see network at all.   When AX is disabled on 5ghz, it can see the network.

Leaving AX disabled on 5ghz is not an option.   But again- prior to this HW update- this laptop had no issues seeing/connecting to the network whatsoever. 

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[TSpoonEars]

You’re lucky. Anywhere I’ve worked in the past, and also my current position, has required an upgrade to be seamless, to the point of going out of our way to save and restore settings into the new memory format. We couldn’t expect our customers to have to perform full resets, especially as sometimes they were inaccessible on a roof (the product, not the customer!)

[FURRYe38]

If your out of warrenty yes. Or contact a forum Moderator. 

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@Nopeynope wrote:

To be clear- getting any support from Netgear Support requires a paid subscription, correct?   

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[FURRYe38]

Yes, we also do seamless upgrade testing as well. 

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@TSpoonEars wrote:
You’re lucky. Anywhere I’ve worked in the past, and also my current position, has required an upgrade to be seamless, to the point of going out of our way to save and restore settings into the new memory format. We couldn’t expect our customers to have to perform full resets, especially as sometimes they were inaccessible on a roof (the product, not the customer!)

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[TimCakir]

It is still unacceptable that we the customers who paid from 500 to over thousands of dollars/euros have to fight to make our Orbi’s work! Not having customer support after 90 days having to pay for customer support in this day and age is an example of a dinosaur terrible company that doesnt care about giving value but just money centric company. I am done with Netgear and will make sure anyone around me never buys a product! Shame on Netgear and the whole team who cant make a firmware work on a product that costs premium!

[Nopeynope]

Not happening. I REFUSE to pay a penny for a company to help me make their product work like it should. ESPECIALLY after they are responsible for it not working.

Unacceptable.

[FURRYe38]

Or contact a forum Moderator. 

Good Luck

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@Nopeynope wrote:
Not happening. I REFUSE to pay a penny for a company to help me make their product work like it should. ESPECIALLY after they are responsible for it not working.

Unacceptable.

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[TSpoonEars]

Ok, update as I’m home now. I performed a full factory reset and still the same problems. The unit simply isn’t giving out proper IP addresses and the device list is changing almost as I watch it. I tried to give static IP addresses but even then it’s only handing out 169.254 addresses even to some the ones I force static. The DHCP server is completely screwed up. Is there some limitation on the number of devices on the network now that wasn’t there before? I have about 45 devices on my network. Could the table only manage 32 now or something?! This is completely unacceptable. I can’t even stop upgrades it seems as this was pushed onto my device.

[raven_au]

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@TSpoonEars wrote:
Ok, update as I’m home now. I performed a full factory reset and still the same problems. The unit simply isn’t giving out proper IP addresses and the device list is changing almost as I watch it. I tried to give static IP addresses but even then it’s only handing out 169.254 addresses even to some the ones I force static. The DHCP server is completely screwed up. Is there some limitation on the number of devices on the network now that wasn’t there before? I have about 45 devices on my network. Could the table only manage 32 now or something?! This is completely unacceptable. I can’t even stop upgrades it seems as this was pushed onto my device.

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The 169.254 addresses are not issued by the DHCP server plain and simple.

They are used when the client can't get an address and are nothing to do with the DHCP server.

You need to work out if the router DHCP server is not giving an IP address to the problem client by observing the client interfaces page when it's trying to connect.

If you can confirm it isn't getting an address then you need to try re-connecting (or refreshing the DHCP lease of) some other clients to work out if the DHCP server is not giving out IP addresses for other requests.

If it isn't giving out IP addresses you have three choices:

1) Reboot the router and hope it doesn't stop giving out addresses due to the flood of requests it will get when it boots, keep rebooting until the number of requests slows and the DHCP server is still giving out addresses.

2) Use some other device as the DHCP server.

3) Reduce the router DHCP address range and set the IP address on devices in your network that are outside the DHCP server address range.

[TSpoonEars]

Rebooting the router has no effect. I get the same situation. I can give fixed IP addresses to some devices on the network but not most of the IOT devices, there’s simply not that option. I can literally watch the attached devices page update as certain devices get a 192.168 IP and then go to no IP address assigned with the 169.254 address. Even those I told the Orbi to give a fixed address to. It sees them, but with a 169.254 address. Why wouldn’t it assign them a proper address if it can see them?! It’s quite strange. I spent hours on this tonight. I went back to my old Gryphon which I used to have problems with and that just worked. I simply don’t have time to troubleshoot for hours like this - this needs to work as I work from home most days and it was working for a year until the FW that added parental controls got pushed. I guess I know now not to recommend the Orbi to all my tech friends since Netgear screwed it up with this forced update. (Note, I don’t recommend Gryphon either for several reasons - I suspect I’ll end up going to Ubiquity as at least they sell commercial WiFi)

[vadimdr123]

I have switched to using PiHole as both DNS and DHCP server and turned off the Orbi faulty DHCP server. The only static allocation I have on my router is the IP address of PiHole. This way I have a complete control over DHCP settings being provided to the clients, lease time, DNS server, etc.

[FURRYe38]

So lets be clear if your seeing 169 on your devices, these are NOT coming from the RBR. These ARE device SELF assigned IP address. This means that the devices failed to conenct TO the system due to either not connecting to wireless or wired correctly or there is a problem with the service on your Orbi. 169 IP address NEVER come from ANY Router whatsoever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apipa

Only thing I would do is manually re-download the RBR and RBS v16 FW files and manually apply them to the RBS first then RBR lastly. Factory reset and setup from scratch. Id leave OFF the RBS for now. After the RBR is setup. Set up a new IP address block range of 192.168.1.100 to .200 on the RBR.

GIve a SSID name and for a quick test, don't set WPA2. Disable WPA for meantime. See if any if your wifi devices connect that are seeing this 169 IP address. Do any of them connection while in the OPEN? Check for 192 or 169 IPs. 

Then re-eanble WPA2 and AES. Check again for wifi devices and IP addressing. 

IF any of this fails seems like your system needs to be returned to place of purchace and find something else. 

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@TSpoonEars wrote:
Rebooting the router has no effect. I get the same situation. I can give fixed IP addresses to some devices on the network but not most of the IOT devices, there’s simply not that option. I can literally watch the attached devices page update as certain devices get a 192.168 IP and then go to no IP address assigned with the 169.254 address. Even those I told the Orbi to give a fixed address to. It sees them, but with a 169.254 address. Why wouldn’t it assign them a proper address if it can see them?! It’s quite strange. I spent hours on this tonight. I went back to my old Gryphon which I used to have problems with and that just worked. I simply don’t have time to troubleshoot for hours like this - this needs to work as I work from home most days and it was working for a year until the FW that added parental controls got pushed. I guess I know now not to recommend the Orbi to all my tech friends since Netgear screwed it up with this forced update. (Note, I don’t recommend Gryphon either for several reasons - I suspect I’ll end up going to Ubiquity as at least they sell commercial WiFi)

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[TSpoonEars]

The Orbi was showing the devices in the attached devices list with an IP address of 169.254.xxx.xxx I understand they are self assigned addresses but if the Orbi can see them and show them in it’s list of devices it should assign them a proper IP address! The list then morphs randomly as devices attach and disconnect. The DHCP server is simply broken in this firmware, certainly with 50 devices like I have on my network.

I did run the setup from scratch and it did exactly the same thing. I simply don’t have time to do any more troubleshooting. I’ve spent hours on this already and it’s eating into my real job time. I should be sending Netgear an invoice for my time!

[FURRYe38]

FInd something else. 

Good Luck.