Orbi RBR20 Losing Configuration

[Steve_Hil]

Ok folks.. so-far, so-good with the V2.3.1.44

I'm happy to report, the manual upgrade actually went perfectly smooth, and the device retained all my prior settings. When I flashed the V2.3.0.28 code, it blew out the config, and I had a variety of other quirky issues.

I've been living the tech game for far too long to celebrate just yet, as the RBR20 has been up for about 90 minutes on the new code, but I can verify, that I have had no unplanned/unexpected WiFi dropouts or performance issues.

I also have web GUI access to Orbi that would be considered 'normal' performance.
It took multiple reboots under 2.3.0.28 before I could use the web interface with any reliability.

For now, I'm going to chalk the entire experience up to undefined code bugs under both 2.2.1.210 and 2.3.0.28.

I've also enforced the following config changes, in general:

1. Changed the default LAN subnet to a 172.16.x.x /12 block to avoid any remotely possible overlap with 192.168.x.x /16 RFC1918 space.

2. Disabled UPnP as precaution.

3. Isolated 2 untrusted streaming devices to a hidden Guest WiFI SSID to restrict any attempts at UPnP or direct router/network interaction.

4. Removed the RBW30 Satellite, until stability is confirmed - it's honestly not necessary in this installation. The best reason to use it, in it's installed location, is for WPS button convenience for adding new devices. IF I reinstall the Satellite, I may trim WiFi power to 50%.

5. Reduced WiFi power to 75% - still more than sufficient for coverage in this home.

In the span of the uptime under 1.44 code, the worst thing I've seen have been some random ICMP drops from a laptop. Those same ICMP from the Orbi CLI have been 100%

Speedtests from the Orbi have also been on-point with expected bandwidth from the ISP.

If all goes well, we can resume the "set it and forget it" phase of Home Internet use 😉

And Phardy, unfortunately I have no frame of reference to tie this whole situation to.. coincidence or not. I wasn't anywhere around when this happened, and naturally everyone wanted to ask me "what caused it".

I dunno.. I told the the Magic Smoke got out?
We all know.. when tech works great, it's fantastic!
When tech goes wrong? Technology Blows.

Silver lining? Finding out Orbi has a debug page and CLI access to the Linux shell! GEEK STATS!!

Thank you all.

[choloman]

i updated my rbr and rbs to v44 and amazingly it does not loose it's config on a reboot.

[FURRYe38]

Good to hear. Enjoy. 

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@Phardy wrote:
So far,it’s working as it should. If something changes, I will post.

Just one thing to add, this issue started the same day a Pacific Power worker, stopped by the house and advised to expect a short outage...coincidence, or was there enough of a surge to corrupt a part of the firmware? I can’t explain it exactly.... but the firmware upgrade has certainly fixed it.

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[FURRYe38]

Good to hear. Enjoy. 

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@Steve_Hil wrote:

PHardy and FURRYe38, Thanks for that info.

I'd pulled my updates directly from the separate RBR20 router/ RBW30 satellite pages, where .44 was not available.

I'm still having issues with the 2.3.0.28 code, with satellite removed from the system.
It hasn't lost config since the udpate yesterday, but I've had various WiFI drops and 3 random reboots today.

Curiously, it seems related to device connectivity TO the Orbi. I found there is an Orbi https://IP-add/debug.htm page, where you can pull debug logs, enable telnet access (But NO SSH!), and enable a Lan/Wan PCAP. Finally.. geek stats!

I've also changed the Lan subnet to a 172.x.x.x network and reduced wireless strength to 75%

I'll wipe it again and push the 2.3.1.44 code, sans satellite, and see how it progresses.

I really hope that resolves the stability, because the unit had worked fantastic for months, but totally jumped the shark within the last 2 weeks, and nothing but problems, since.

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[FURRYe38]

Has v44 solved this for you? 

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@sjayt wrote:

About once a month, for the last three months, including this morning, I lose my internet connection on all devices. It's working one day, and during the night, it goes out (I'm woken by the lights on the satellite in my bedroom. 

Each time I've gone through the same drill. First I check the ORBI app on my phone, and it asks me to login. It doesn't like my password, so I try the default password, and it logs me in.  The router acts as if it's never been set up - losing the admin password I had set, the wifi network name, names of the three satellites, passwords, everything.

If I bypass the ORBI router and connect a laptop directly to the cable modem I determine that my Internet connection is fine.

I'm forced to go through the setup procedure again. Then it works.

 I've tried just restarting the router, but that doesn't work - only going through the setup wizard, on a computer connected by ethernet, will let me get going again. Any idea why this is happening? Could I have a bad router? Firmware says it's on the latest version on all of the units.

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[sjayt]

OP here.

The pw is NOT the issue, it's long and secure and unique.

All of the consequent replies to my post ignore the fact that I'm dealing with the .44 firmware, and that's the version that loses all configuration settings once it's rebooted.

I'm growing more certain that this is a firmware bug, that is not yet resolved in the .44 version.

[sjayt]

NO. If you look back to early in this thread, I was using v44 from the start. See my screen cap from the ORBI app. Everyone's recommendation to upgrade to .44 seems to have ignored this fact.

[FURRYe38]

I don't believe it's a FW bug as others have had good experiences with v44. 

One mentioned doing the 30-30-30 reset method, then doing a full re-load of the v44 FW using a wired PC and IE11 or FF browser, factory reset once more then setup from scratch and after it's all setup, do a Back up of the router configuration. IF this still fails and the Orbi looses configuration, then it's time to get an RMA from NG. 

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@sjayt wrote:

OP here.

The pw is NOT the issue, it's long and secure and unique.

All of the consequent replies to my post ignore the fact that I'm dealing with the .44 firmware, and that's the version that loses all configuration settings once it's rebooted.

I'm growing more certain that this is a firmware bug, that is not yet resolved in the .44 version.

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[aaronka]

I started having the exact same issue with my RBR20 on v2.2.1.210 around Mid-March as well.  I had been running that version since close to its release date and never had any issues with it.  Upgrading to v2.3.0.28 did not resolve the issue.  I'm waiting on a RMA replacement router and then when update it to v44 to see if it is more stable.

I find it very interesting though that this issue cropped up for several of us around the same time.  Could it be a exploit was discovered in the 2.2.1.210 firmware and someone finally figured out how to use it to affect our systems????

[FURRYe38]

It is interesting that some users with the 20 series are experiencing this issue all of a sudden. Some have got it working with v44, if not, hopefully the RMA will be the end of it. 

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@aaronka wrote:

I started having the exact same issue with my RBR20 on v2.2.1.210 around Mid-March as well.  I had been running that version since close to its release date and never had any issues with it.  Upgrading to v2.3.0.28 did not resolve the issue.  I'm waiting on a RMA replacement router and then when update it to v44 to see if it is more stable.

I find it very interesting though that this issue cropped up for several of us around the same time.  Could it be a exploit was discovered in the 2.2.1.210 firmware and someone finally figured out how to use it to affect our systems????

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[drummerbran]

My RBR20 and RBS20 have been doing the same. I manually updated to V2.3.1.44 and having the same issues, Both devices reset to factory settings upon reboot. I did a config backup before upgrading. After FW update to.44 i tried to restore from config backup. File uploaded, settigns went to be applied, device restarted, when it booted up it had restarted back in factory settings.

Very frusterating. I'm about to pack these up and return to Costco.

[FURRYe38]

If you still have a return policy, then return it to the place of purchase, if no, the you'll need to contact NG support and ask about an RMA.

Good Luck. 

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@drummerbran wrote:

My RBR20 and RBS20 have been doing the same. I manually updated to V2.3.1.44 and having the same issues, Both devices reset to factory settings upon reboot. I did a config backup before upgrading. After FW update to.44 i tried to restore from config backup. File uploaded, settigns went to be applied, device restarted, when it booted up it had restarted back in factory settings.

Very frusterating. I'm about to pack these up and return to Costco.

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[choloman]

Not that it will help resolve your issue, but after upgrading to the lastest firmware, I realized that I had upgraded the router first, then the satellite, which is not recommended. 

I was in a similar boat as you, where my orbi would reboot sometimes on its own or lose it's config after a reboot.  I felt like I wanted to throw this thing out the window and buy a linksys.  The next day i searched online and found the .44 version after upgrading the night before to an earlier version of the firmware.  After reviewing the instructions for install, I realized I might have upgraded the firmware incorrectly the first time.  I did not restore the settings when i was done since I was afraid it might restore the problem I was having previously. 

I would try to downgrade your firmware to the previous version if you can.   I see this post talks about trying that out https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Can-we-downgrade-the-Orbi-2-1-1-12-firmware/td-p/1455179.  Then I would make sure to following the instructions posted here to reinstall firmware .v44. https://kb.netgear.com/31573/How-do-I-manually-upgrade-firmware-on-my-Orbi-Satellite.    At this point if you haven't already tried this already, I would suggest it.

p.s.  I also think it's retarded that Netgear didn't program their orbi updates to check that the satelite(s) are updated first before updating the main router if it's that important! 

[aaronka]

Keep in mind that my RBR20 started doing this months after its last firmware update, not right after a firmware update.  Interestingly enough it appears that firmware now gets auto-updated??!!!  I woke up this morning to find my router had reset back to default and once I got connected and set up again I see that my router and satellites are on the latest firmware (44).  Really hoping this is a hardware issue with my router and the RMA takes care of it.

[FURRYe38]

Let now it goes with the RMA...

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@aaronka wrote:

Keep in mind that my RBR20 started doing this months after its last firmware update, not right after a firmware update.  Interestingly enough it appears that firmware now gets auto-updated??!!!  I woke up this morning to find my router had reset back to default and once I got connected and set up again I see that my router and satellites are on the latest firmware (44).  Really hoping this is a hardware issue with my router and the RMA takes care of it.

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[drummerbran]

Returned them to Costco, picked up a new set, set them up, they upgraded to the new 2.3.1.44 firmware...everything seems to be working *finger crossed*

[FURRYe38]

Let us know how the new set works out. You can run a quick check by pulling the power from the RBR for say 1 minute then plug it back in. See if the config remains. Do a backup of the config before doing this to safe keeping. 

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@drummerbran wrote:

Returned them to Costco, picked up a new set, set them up, they upgraded to the new 2.3.1.44 firmware...everything seems to be working *finger crossed*

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[Mortyst]

Same problem for me as the others on this forum have highlighted. Twice in the last month I have woken up to the systems on my network not having internet. Then when I check on the Orbi's they are set to the default configuration and it is asking to be setup again. I am already running .44, which I applied manually after the first time. Doesn't seem like anyone is highlighting a fix beyond applying .44, which I have already done. How do I RMA if I am outside the 90 day support warranty but still have hardware warranty?

This is getting annoying and am unimpressed it is doing this. 😕

[Sunilnagaraj]

Same issue. Fresh installation of RBK20 purchased off Amazon. 1 base and 2 satellites. 2 weeks ago it didn’t show any updates but today it does for the first time. About 2 days after first installation it lost all its settings. Has repeated every day or two. Today I thought the .44 update would fix it since it finally showed up in the IOS app. It did not. Still reset again tonight. Very disappointing and eager to hear of a fix.

[michaelkenward]

Earlier on in this conversation, @FURRYe38 mentioned the 30:30:30 reset. This "recovery reset" has been known to fix the "reboot wiped my settings" issue.

• Press reset for 30 seconds
• Keep pressing reset while removing power
• Keep pressing reset for another 30 seconds while apply power

Has everyone here tried it and found that it did not work?

In other circumstances, the official support people have told users to do a normal reset, but hiding the button for much longer, 30 seconds. Maybe that also induces a recovery reset.

As the symptom here is a spontaneous reset, there is nothing to lose by trying this one.

[FURRYe38]

I would download the FW files. Install using IE11 or Firefox browser. 

Factory reset then setup from scratch. 

Once setup fully. Do a back up of the configration to file. 

Pull the power cable on the RBR for 15 seconds then plug back in. Check to see if the config has persisted or not thru the power cycle. 

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@Sunilnagaraj wrote:
Same issue. Fresh installation of RBK20 purchased off Amazon. 1 base and 2 satellites. 2 weeks ago it didn’t show any updates but today it does for the first time. About 2 days after first installation it lost all its settings. Has repeated every day or two. Today I thought the .44 update would fix it since it finally showed up in the IOS app. It did not. Still reset again tonight. Very disappointing and eager to hear of a fix.

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[FURRYe38]

You can open a support ticket here:

https://www.netgear.com/mynetgear/registration/login.aspx

@Blanca_O 

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@Mortyst wrote:

Same problem for me as the others on this forum have highlighted. Twice in the last month I have woken up to the systems on my network not having internet. Then when I check on the Orbi's they are set to the default configuration and it is asking to be setup again. I am already running .44, which I applied manually after the first time. Doesn't seem like anyone is highlighting a fix beyond applying .44, which I have already done. How do I RMA if I am outside the 90 day support warranty but still have hardware warranty?

This is getting annoying and am unimpressed it is doing this. 😕

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[aaronka]

The day prior to my RMA arriving my original router went into its reset but what was odd was the primary wireless went back to the default OrbiNN network and my guest network remained active with my custom SSID??!  I got everything set back up but it would not hold its internet connection so I decided I had nothing to lose doing a 30-30-30 reset.  I turned off both of my satellites and did the reset.  I added my custom configs back and did several reboots of the router and they all held.  Internet connection was stable.  I added the satellites back in one at a time and things remained stable.  Several more reboots and no lose of configs.

I got the RMA router yesterday and it was on a very old firmware version.  I hooked it up to my laptop via wired connection and loaded the latest firmware.  Then I did a 30-30-30 reset.  Then I configured it for my preferred settings.  Swapped it in place of the old router (with satellites off).  Everything was stable after reboots so I added the satellites back in.  All has been well since then with a few reboots to test.

[FURRYe38]

Thank you for letting us know. Sounds like the 30-30-30 reset helps with this. 

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@aaronka wrote:

The day prior to my RMA arriving my original router went into its reset but what was odd was the primary wireless went back to the default OrbiNN network and my guest network remained active with my custom SSID??!  I got everything set back up but it would not hold its internet connection so I decided I had nothing to lose doing a 30-30-30 reset.  I turned off both of my satellites and did the reset.  I added my custom configs back and did several reboots of the router and they all held.  Internet connection was stable.  I added the satellites back in one at a time and things remained stable.  Several more reboots and no lose of configs.

I got the RMA router yesterday and it was on a very old firmware version.  I hooked it up to my laptop via wired connection and loaded the latest firmware.  Then I did a 30-30-30 reset.  Then I configured it for my preferred settings.  Swapped it in place of the old router (with satellites off).  Everything was stable after reboots so I added the satellites back in.  All has been well since then with a few reboots to test.

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[michaelkenward]

Yes, excellent feedback. It does look like the recovery reset weaves some magic. But is there any pattern to what people see. It would be nice if Netgear could comment.