ORBI RBK 53 lost serial number

[VicentePrietoF]

Hello,

My Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System (RBK53)  suffered a power oscillation last month and the router (RBR50) came back with pulsing flash light, no web interface, no IP, no Wi-Fi.  Bricked, in other words...

After trying all the factory reset possibilities, I found some posts regarding firmware recovery using TFTP and an USB-serial interface connected to the internal serial port.  Through this scheme I found that my router had lost all its parameters.  (by all I really mean ALL: MAC addresses, SSID, backhauld SSID, serial, hw id, board id and so on)

After a few hours, and lots of research, I successfuly recovered most of the parameters manually, but 4 questions remained:

1) there were five configurable MAC-addresses, including LAN & WAN ports, primary and secondary Wi-Fi SSID and BT.  I used the MAC on the bottom label as the LAN MAC, and added 1 to the LSB for the other interfaces, in order to avoid MAC duplication.  QUESTION: is this the correct configuration?

2) I forgot to reconfigure serial number, so my RBR50 serial became "N/A" in the web interface and Orbi app.  QUESTION: is this a problem? Could I ignore this and go on?

3) I did not know how to reconfigure backhaul SSID, so I chose "ORBI_NETGEAR_hidden01" with no passphrase.  Since my system is wired, I didn't know whether or not a mistake could compromise its operation.  Later I got a "Good" indicator for the backhaul status, so I assumed the system somehow managed to configure itself.  QUESTION: can I ignore this and go on?

4) I can't check for firmware updates using web interface anymore, it always reports "service unreachable".  QUESTION: can I also ignore this and assume it won't happen for this product anymore?

My system seems to be operational, but I didn't test is extensively after the recovery.  I tried to repeat the USB-serial recovery to configure the serial number, but after the successful firmware update mentioned above the RBR50 did not stop for console operation like it did when the unit was "bricked".

This is, overall, a good product, but it has a serious Achilles heel if it can loose critical internal data anyway, and without any possibility for auto-recovery.

Thanks,

VP

[CrimpOn]

This situation is so far "out there" that I doubt any of the regular forum participants has ever attempted anything like this.  While I have mucked around a bit with the serial interface, this is WAY farther than anything I have ever done.

MAC address question.  As long as they are different, I don't think it matters what they are.

Serial Number question. The only uses I have ever found for the serial number are:

• Netgear product registration.  This would seem to be pointless now that the product is clearly "out of warranty".
• Password Recovery.  Since you can hack the serial interface, this would seem to be pointless as well.

Backhaul SSID question. I don't see this as important.  The point of basing the backhaul SSID on the numeric part of the WiFi SSID would appear to be to reduce the chances of two neighbors installing Orbi systems with identical backhaul channel SSIDs.  "anything" should be fine.

Firmware Update Question.  Yes, Although not officially tagged "End of Life", the last firmware update was in Feb 2023.  If new firmware does get released, you already have a mechanism to install it.

I'd say, "If it's working. Be happy."

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[VicentePrietoF]

Yes, totally agree. As long as it is delivering, why bother? 😉

VP