Unforeseen issues with NG and the EU region, NG had to pull v7.x FW version from being pushed to 960 series users in the EU region. Manual updating is not supported as well. Seems there maybe some wifi policy that has to be figured out between NG and the EU region. We've asked about this and for now, it's a work in progress and NG is aware of it. So if your in the EU region, v6.x version of FW is all that is currently supported for the EU region users. We no further information on when this will be resolved.
NOTE: Update the RBS first, then the RBR lastly. I recommend doing a full on factory reset after the FW loads, system is back to ready and a power OFF for 1 minute then back ON has been performed. Use a wired PC and web browser for this. Load the FW on to each RBS web page using the RBS web page, not thru the RBRs web page. Then load the FW lastly on the RBRs web page. Walk thru the setup wizard. You can manually setup the system as well for those who are more experienced with this.
I HIGHLY recommend after the FW is loaded on the system and it's back to ready, power OFF all Orbi units and the ISP modem/ONT for 1 minute. Then back ON with the ISP modem/ONT first, then RBR then RBS.
A factory reset maybe needed if problems are encountered:
The best advise we can give people is to start a new config, power on one RBS and wait for some SOLID light or most often blue or magenta. And then add the RBS WIRELESSLY via the WebUI. Power off the RBS. Then rinse and repeat with any additional RBS(s). Pair RBS one at a time even if you have more than one. For ethernet connected RBS, after things come up wirelessly, you can move to wired backhaul but don't start with wired backhaul for those RBS that are ethernet connected. Wirelessly connect and sync RBS first before ethernet connecting RBS.
NOTE: Recommend setting the default DHCP IP address pool range to the following after applying and a factory reset: 192.168.#.100 to 192.168.#.200
NOTE: Orbi app or the routers web page may not report seeing new FW updates. NG may not push this to there auto update services immediately and may activate the newer FW update being seen on there auto update services at a later time. User will have the choice to manually update if you want too.
NOTE: The Disable Auto Update feature only prevents ANY new FW from being installed if available. This does NOT prevent the system from checking NG services to see if new FW is available. If new FW is available, this will be displayed as a notification to the user on the RBRs web page only. It will be up to the user to upgrade FW or not.
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
I have been doing some testing and analysis with the 7.2.6.31 FW update on a RBR/RBS 960 network. It's chronological update through the day.
Here is my update from today, some interesting data to share on my 7.2.6.31 testing. Note - IPv6 IS ENABLED (I have had trouble with that, Comcast ISP, in the past)
1) This morning, the 3rd floor RBS was showing HC of blank. It started last night late. By the time I went to bed, it had disconnected any devices connected to it.
2) At the time when hop count went from 1 to blank, meaning devices would no longer connect to it via WiFi - CPU shot up to 26%. By this morning CPU was 29%.
3) With IPv6 enabled, the Router memory climbed to 580MB. Without IPv6 it's normally 360-390MB. For the last 2+ hours it has stayed up/down in the 576-580MB range.
4) I power cycled the 3rd floor RBS two hours ago, everything looks stable now. Devices are connected to the 3rd floor RBS again.
5) Here's a snapshot of each at this time, you can see when the one RBS went from hop count 1 to blank - and its CPU shot up:
Router: Time: 03/24/2024, 08:29:30 CPU %: 11.81% Memory Usage: 580 MB/818 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:02:39 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:39:28 CPU %: 11.81% Memory Usage: 580 MB/818 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:12:37 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:49:27 CPU %: 11.80% Memory Usage: 576 MB/818 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:22:36 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:59:25 CPU %: 11.79% Memory Usage: 577 MB/818 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:32:34 Time: 03/24/2024, 09:09:23 CPU %: 11.78% Memory Usage: 577 MB/818 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:42:32 Time: 03/24/2024, 09:19:22 CPU %: 11.75% Memory Usage: 579 MB/818 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:52:31
RBS that just went to HC blank last night: Time: 03/24/2024, 06:48:09 CPU %: 29.46% Memory Usage: 394 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 12:8:40 HopCount: Time: 03/24/2024, 06:58:11 CPU %: 29.49% Memory Usage: 377 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 12:18:42 HopCount: Time: 03/24/2024, 07:08:13 CPU %: 29.51% Memory Usage: 377 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 12:28:44 HopCount: Time: 03/24/2024, 07:18:15 CPU %: 29.52% Memory Usage: 378 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 12:38:46 HopCount: Time: 03/24/2024, 07:28:17 CPU %: 29.54% Memory Usage: 378 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 12:48:48 HopCount: Time: 03/24/2024, 07:38:19 CPU %: 21.8% Memory Usage: 324 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 0:2:19 HopCount: Time: 03/24/2024, 07:48:21 CPU %: 14.4% Memory Usage: 343 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 0:12:21 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 07:58:23 CPU %: 11.32% Memory Usage: 342 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 0:22:23 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:08:25 CPU %: 10.15% Memory Usage: 343 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 0:32:25 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:18:27 CPU %: 9.46% Memory Usage: 344 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 0:42:27 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:28:29 CPU %: 9.05% Memory Usage: 344 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 0:52:29 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:38:31 CPU %: 8.8% Memory Usage: 344 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 1:2:31 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:48:33 CPU %: 8.63% Memory Usage: 344 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 1:12:33 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:58:35 CPU %: 8.49% Memory Usage: 345 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 1:22:35 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 09:08:37 CPU %: 8.4% Memory Usage: 345 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 1:32:37 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 09:18:39 CPU %: 8.31% Memory Usage: 345 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 1:42:39 HopCount: 1
The other RBS: Time: 03/24/2024, 08:23:59 CPU %: 9.76% Memory Usage: 369 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 13:51:4 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:34:01 CPU %: 9.75% Memory Usage: 369 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:1:6 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:44:03 CPU %: 9.74% Memory Usage: 369 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:11:8 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 08:54:05 CPU %: 9.72% Memory Usage: 370 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:21:10 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 09:04:07 CPU %: 9.71% Memory Usage: 370 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:31:12 HopCount: 1 Time: 03/24/2024, 09:14:09 CPU %: 9.7% Memory Usage: 370 MB/812 MB Uptime: 0 days 14:41:14 HopCount: 1
6) Funny how both the last two times after a power cycle of everything, within a day I had an RBS (different one) fail with hop count blank. I then went 9-10 days with no problems after that. Last time it was with IPv6 disabled, this time IPv6 is enabled.
7) I noticed one other version change on the routers debug page, from the FW upgrade to 7.2.6.31. “Seal“, whatever that is, went from 2.15.49–0 to 2.15.50–0. I wonder what that is?
😎 OK, I just noticed that IPv6 has failed. I am going to disable it and power cycle everything again. Things seem to get really unstable with IPv6 enabled here.
9) There is always so much drama on power cycles. It's like it can't handle 2 RBSs coming up near the same time. I always bring one up, wait for the blue LED, then power up the other. This time the 1st floor RBS came up Blue, as did the other; but 20 minutes in the stats showed the 1st floor RBS had hop count blank (it never did show hop count of 1), and the router did a big hop in memory from 353 to 403. The other RBS was HC 1 in 7 minutes. So I power cycled the 1st floor RBS again, the first report at 6 minutes showed all good and HC 1.
10) Ugh - 1st Floor RBS just went Hop count blank at 16 minutes powered on.
11) This time I powered off the RBS and RBR, waited 2 minutes, brought up the RBR, then waited TEN minutes for things to settle down. I just powered up the RBS. IPv6 has now been disabled. But Hop count is STILL blank - and nothing connecting to the satellite.
12) I tried power cycling again, and it never got out of hop count blank. So this time I powered off the other RBS, took the offending RBS down next to the router, let it sync wirelessly, then brought it up and powered it on. Hop count is 1 so far!
My suspicions: there are bugs with: - Ethernet backhaul. I have had similar issues to this with the Orbi 850 series too, as well as with 7.2.6.21 and 7.2.6.31 Firmware. Another user has had them on his network. WiFi seems more stable. - Power cycling the network seems very hit or miss. I frequently have to power cycle on of the RBS AGAIN. - Hop Count turns off for no apparent reason - then nothing connects via WiFi. Note, anything connected direct continues to work, so the backhaul is fine (and it is reported as fine on the router admin web page) - Last night router was in a steady memory creep - like there is a memory leak.
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
Thank you @donawalt Great information. Seems like IPv6 is being problematic, again. 🙄
Ya, we need to get some info on Hop Count behaviors. Seems like when RBS are ethernet connected, something stops working after period of time and seems to stop the RBS from working properly.
I recommend that you open up a NG support ticket with your 960 series and put all this in a support ticket to help with letting NG know about this. Seems like this should not be happening and something in FW needs to be checked into.
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
Updated my two satellites and then the router. No problems. Found that it changed my IPv6 DNS settings to get from the ISP rather than the ones I manually entered previously. Changed those back to the manual settings (to what the ISP uses!) , and discovered IPv6 DNS doesn’t work with Armor Web Protection turned on. Turned it off and no problems.
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
Thanks for the update @owlyn !! So you are back to using Manual IPv6 settings again? If I could ask, if you go to 192.168.1.1/debug.htm (or whatever your router IP address is), how much memory is it using, probably out of 818MB available? And who is your ISP?
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
394MB is good. Mine gets into the low 600's with IPv6 enabled on Comcast. I wonder if I should try manually adding the settings...you just typed in exactly what Comcast set up for you?
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
@owlyn so you selected "Use these DNS servers" and filled in Comcast's IPv6 DNS server addresses, got it. Was the Router's IP address on the WAN assigned I assume? And did you do "Auto config" for LAN Setup? And in the top right, did you select Auto Config, or DHCP?
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
@owlyn thanks for the reply....so originally you selected "Static" and added everything in - LAN IP, WAN IP, DNS servers, based on what Comcast set it as when prior you selected "Auto detect" or "DHCP". If I have that correct, thanks for the info!
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
I have not had time to do this update yet and am slightly hesitant as it took forever to get stable here with all the Xfinity upgrades/disruptions last year and the funky previous version of firmware that hated my Comcast modem (or the modem hated it!).
But I will give a go as soon as I can - especially given the other Xfinity comments. I have had no issues with IPV6 with the current release V7.2.6.21_5.0.20 with the xFi gateway, so will be curious to see how it goes with this update.
Re: New - RBRE960 / RBSE960 Firmware Version 7.2.6.31 Released
Here's my latest status since my post (above), on 3-24.
I am 3 hours shy of 11 days up now. Things have gone fine since that last post on 3-24. I still have IPv6, and I have not rebooted or power cycled the modem, router, or 2 satellites during this time. I have not had any of the hop count going blank issue when devices can no longer connect to a satellite via wifi, or restart issues, or memory creep issues.
Router - 10.15% CPU, 392MB memory.
Satellite 3rd floor: 7.21%, 362MB, Hop Count 1
Satellite 1st floor: 6.3%, 358MB, Hop Count 1
I am not sure how long I will let this run to see if the stability continues. I know if I turn IPv6 on, I will have trouble in 1-3 days - I have in the past. I'll try it again at some point...
PS - I have a support ticket in on the problems I experienced in the 3-24 post above. No news yet, although they have referred it to Engineering with the LAN captures I passed on from the router and satellites.
