Now that my very limited support window has expired (considering how expensive this product is), I am still left with an issue that support were unable to resolve during that time, namely that the RBR850 router's web interface becomes inaccessible either locally or by Anywhere Access every couple of weeks. The router continues to function in other respects as far as I can tell. I assume that the built-in web server is failing. I have installed the LATEST firmware (4.6.3.16) from the Netgear site and the problem persists. Very poor Netgear!!. This causes great inconvenience when away from home. Would anyone from Netgear care to suggest or create a solution seeing as this problem was reported during my brief report window (Case #44663546).
Truly bizzare. What steps restore either (or both) forms of access?
p.s. As a community forum, none of us are employed by Netgear. The issue of an outstanding open case should be referred to a forum moderator to see if it can be resurrected. @Blanca_O
Many reports of this in other threads. Not confined to RBR850 either. Netgear’s advice was to update firmware by wire, factory reset and set up from scratch. Didn’t work. Netgear need to think of something else or no more of their products for me. These are expensive bits of kit.
Power cycle the router, and both management methods appear, but then (after how long?) they fail.
Is Anywhere Access being done locally from the LAN, or from a remote location?
For local web access, is it accessed (a) by URL (http://orbilogin.net), or (b) by IP address of router?
What is the specific error message the web browser displays?
(happens on more than one browser and more than one computer/laptop/tablet?
I am one of the folks who was annoyed when Netgear decided to remove Remote Access from the Orbi advanced settings. Yes, I understand that exposing port 443 to the internet is a potential vulnerability (especially if the Orbi password is not very complicated) and the web server bundled with OpenWRT may have unpatched vulnerabilities. But, that's sort of the user's option, isn't it?
I find the app to be almost useless, so I enabled OpenVPN on my router(s) and use it to management them remotely. Not trivial to set up, but it provides access to the full web interface and every device on the LAN.
Now that my very limited support window has expired (considering how expensive this product is), I am still left with an issue that support were unable to resolve during that time, namely that the RBR850 router's web interface becomes inaccessible either locally or by Anywhere Access every couple of weeks. The router continues to function in other respects as far as I can tell. I assume that the built-in web server is failing. I have installed the LATEST firmware (4.6.3.16) from the Netgear site and the problem persists. Very poor Netgear!!. This causes great inconvenience when away from home. Would anyone from Netgear care to suggest or create a solution seeing as this problem was reported during my brief report window (Case #44663546).
Thanks to the previous two posters. I will try to answer all questions in one post, including those answers mentioned in my previous posts:
- The length of time from a power cycle to repeat failure of the interface varies, from a few days to a few weeks.
- Anywhere Access fails both remotely and locally.
- Local access is via the routers LAN address 192.168.1.1
- The web browser eventually times out with a 'cannot reach web page' type message. Next time it happens I'll screenshot it if you think it's of any use.
- The failure occurs no matter what device/browser combination I try - Windows 10/Edge, Windows 11/Edge, Raspberry Pi/Chromium, OSX 10.14.6/Safari, iOS 15.2/Safari, iOS 15.2/Chrome.
- I don't need to set up a VPN to access the router remotely outside of Anywhere Access, the RBR850 allows remote access via a secure port (8443 by default) once enabled, i.e. via https://my.ip.add.ress:8443 (+ password obviously). This route fails also.
- As mentioned I performed a FW update and factory reset (by wire) followed by a setup from scratch with no success. Twice.
- The router WAN port is connected to an Openreach Nokia ONT. The failure also used to occur before I upgraded to fibre-to-the-premises when I was using an Openreach Huawei HG612 VDSL modem.
As I mentioned, when the web interface fails, the router seems to function normally in all other respects. Some posters in other threads have reported that their WAN speeds progressively decline after the interface failure but I haven't seen this (haven't particularly searched for it). My network setup is relatively complex for a domestic setting with around 40 devices on the LAN (main and guest networks enabled) with a LOT of TCP and/or UDP port forwarding. Maybe this is part of the reason for the failure, which appears to be, at least superficially, a simple failure of the built-in web server. A port scan of the LAN port, however, shows all ports that should be open are remaining open. I haven't scanned the WAN port during a failure yet.
I am at a loss and disappointed with Netgear's failure to address this issue. I do really WANT to love my Orbi.
- I don't need to set up a VPN to access the router remotely outside of Anywhere Access, the RBR850 allows remote access via a secure port (8443 by default) once enabled, i.e. via https://my.ip.add.ress:8443 (+ password obviously). This route fails also.
Well fudge. Netgear takes Remote Access away from the tired old Orbi RBR50, but includes it on the sparkling new Orbi RBR850?
Aside from reaching the LAN, the point of enabling OpenVPN was, "Does OpenVPN fail at the same time as Local and Remote web Access?" With VPN, the user is "inside the Orbi", so I do not know if that would affect access to the web administration capability.
I see your point about the VPN but haven't yet tried it. It is, at best, a workaround and I would really like the issue solved for the £800 the Orbi setup has cost me!
