Re: Orbi firmware v2.1.1.16 discussion

wase4711 · ‎2018-01-01

its not even "over time"; its within a day or 2...

I made the mistake of reading the glowing Amazon reiviews, and jumped on the orbi 2 pack...within 2 days, I was returning it for the Amplifi HD, which has had ZERO issues the last few days, and is about 98% as fast as the Orbi was..

and, who cares about speed, if you cant stay connected?

Cotedan · ‎2018-01-01

I hear ya. I guess the reviews were based on prior firmware releases... but still, if you can't use it reliably, any other system might be better regardless of speeds.

Still like my 3 puck Google Wifi here. Never never disconnects my Nest cams or anything else. Very stable. Unlike the Orbi that has separate Router and Satellite units, Google units are identical, and install process assigns roles automatically. Any case, to each their own. I guess Netgear is hearing enough about instability of 2.1.1.16 that it's working hard on the next version.

orbirick · ‎2018-01-01

@RogerSC wrote:
@orbirick wrote:
@RogerSC wrote:
@orbirick wrote:
If my Orbi system becomes problematical down the road, I’m not sure what I’d replace it with. Perhaps reinstall my old router and put in 2 or 3 UAP-AC-Lite APs. But that is speculative since I’ve had excellent service from my Orbi in the time I’ve had the system setup.
If it were me, I'd go with the eero's. You can see head-to-head reviews of the various mesh options over at smallnetbuilder.com, and the eeros do very well. The Orbi is on the top of the ratings, of course.
Why? I would like to utilize my ethernet cabling which I don’t think I can with eero, can l?
Yes, you can use wired ethernet backhaul with the eeros:

https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/207548436-Can-I-connect-my-eeros-with-Ethernet-

But not the beacons. That kills it for me if I can’t wire the satellites where I already have wire run.

RogerSC · ‎2018-01-01

@orbirick wrote:
@RogerSC wrote:
@orbirick wrote:
@RogerSC wrote:
@orbirick wrote:
If my Orbi system becomes problematical down the road, I’m not sure what I’d replace it with. Perhaps reinstall my old router and put in 2 or 3 UAP-AC-Lite APs. But that is speculative since I’ve had excellent service from my Orbi in the time I’ve had the system setup.
If it were me, I'd go with the eero's. You can see head-to-head reviews of the various mesh options over at smallnetbuilder.com, and the eeros do very well. The Orbi is on the top of the ratings, of course.
Why? I would like to utilize my ethernet cabling which I don’t think I can with eero, can l?
Yes, you can use wired ethernet backhaul with the eeros:

https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/207548436-Can-I-connect-my-eeros-with-Ethernet-
But not the beacons. That kills it for me if I can’t wire the satellites where I already have wire run.

You don’t have to use the beacons as satellites. You can use the pro system, 2 or 3 Eros, no beacons.

orbirick · ‎2018-01-01

Ah, I see.

Shotround · ‎2018-01-01

About 11 hours ago, I reloaded 2.1.1.16. This time I used 'address reservation" for family sanity devices (tv, iPad, iPhone) and various iot devices and the satellites. The addresses used was below the unassigned DHCP range. since then, I haven't observed the satellites dropping off or doing the x.x.x.150 thing. Watched two Netflix movies and some YouTube videos with no issues. No disconnects with iPhone/iPad gaming. No kid telling me how the wifi is glitchy.

I didnt reserve addresses for the laptops and desktops. Those lost connection with a few saying IP address conflicts.

Its a roundabout way to say I suspect the dhcp server. I'll probably sing a different tune when the kid gets out of school in the afternoon.

Shotround · ‎2018-01-02

I take it back. I'm going back to 2.0.0.74

scyu6058 · ‎2018-01-02

Hi, I am from HK and brought the RBK53 0n 310/12/2017. It was on 2.0.0.74 out of the box and no auto-update was effected by the system.

Except for taking sometimes to set up wired backhaul, which was not supported in 2.0.0.74 but the salesman told me it was possible, the system has been working prefectly. I have been up for 2 days and 9 hours now. No reboot, no wifi dropping and with around 15 devices attached. I have DHCP enabled and 2 deviced with fixed ip (network printer and NAS for access by applications)

I have also downloaded the 2.1.1.16 but choose not to upgrade for the time being. Will see the development.

orbirick · ‎2018-01-02

Lol. Well the honeymoon appears to be over. I cannot log into the web interface this morning. Keeps asking for the UID and password and says the connection to the site is not private. It's still routing and functioning normally, but I cannot do anything on the router page. I can log into the debug.htm page for the router, but not the main interface.

Interesting. After so many attempts, I get the attached error page.

masonworld · ‎2018-01-02

@Shotround -- I also suspect the DHCP server. I was able to observe my AppleTV successfully connect to WiFi but then fail to obtain an IP address. The Apple device defaulted to the fake private IP they use after a timeout. So clearly, something prevented the DHCP server from issuing an address to the AppleTV.

I may try to reserve some addresses as well (although I am not touching anything for the moment as things seem to have calmed down). In response to the Orbi WiFi freaking out I immediately "wired" everything that was close to a hub. Now most of my high bandwidth stuff like media devices is off WiFI -- and that seems to be helping.

tagteam · ‎2018-01-02

orbirick wrote:
I can log into the debug.htm page for the router, but not the main interface.

That is strange. However, I have noticed that whenever I log in to the debug.htm page first and then delete just "debug.htm" in my browser's address bar, I get returned to the main interface without having to log in again.

orbirick · ‎2018-01-02

@tagteam wrote:
@orbirick wrote:
I can log into the debug.htm page for the router, but not the main interface.
That is strange. However, I have noticed that whenever I log in to the debug.htm page first and then delete just "debug.htm" in my browser's address bar, I get returned to the main interface without having to log in again.

And now it’s letting me log into the web interface. Go figure.

I think it’s toying with me. Tempting me to return it. It better not push very hard. With all the problem reports, I feel like I’m just waiting for the ax to fall.

tagteam · ‎2018-01-02

I completely understand. In fact, I read this board, as well as myriad reviews, many times before I bought my Orbi system and I bought it from Costco (as did you, IIRC) specifically because of Costco's unlimited return policy.

Having written that, I have had virtually no issues (other than the current display issue) with my system; firmware version 2.1.1.16 shows 13 days of uptime for me and I had 48 days of uptime on version 2.0.0.74 prior thereto.

Further, I have found that my Orbi, in my personal application, has better range and reliability than any router I have previously owned. I sincerely hope it continues in that regard and ALSO that the more severe issues some are experiencing get resolved soon.

orbirick wrote:

I think it’s toying with me. Tempting me to return it. It better not push very hard. With all the problem reports, I feel like I’m just waiting for the ax to fall.

ratickle · ‎2018-01-02

I finally found a solution to my Orbi problems. First, I turned off the satellite. Next, I turned off the router. Then I put both of them in the box they came in and shipped them back to Amazon. That was six days ago. Since then I have been running an Asus RT-AC3100. I just connected it up, did some configuration, and it has been running every since. No self-reboots every few hours. No dissappearing connected devices. It just runs and does its job. It turns out I didn't need a mesh system for my 2800 sq.ft. house. All I needed was a new wireless router with modern features like MU-MIMO and Beamforming. My old router was an AC class router, but it did not have the range of this Asus. Best of luck to those still having Orbi issues. That is one problem I no longer have.

sleepr88 · ‎2018-01-02

the problem apears to be coming from Android Oreo devices... I verified by turning off wifi on my phone(Oreo 8.1) last night, haven't had any issues with Orbi... Netgear still has to come up with a fix for their end, because no way should a client be able to disrupt and REBOOT a router!

orbirick · ‎2018-01-02

@tagteam wrote:
I completely understand. In fact, I read this board, as well as myriad reviews, many times before I bought my Orbi system and I bought it from Costco (as did you, IIRC) specifically because of Costco's unlimited return policy.

Having written that, I have had virtually no issues (other than the current display issue) with my system; firmware version 2.1.1.16 shows 13 days of uptime for me and I had 48 days of uptime on version 2.0.0.74 prior thereto.

Further, I have found that my Orbi, in my personal application, has better range and reliability than any router I have previously owned. I sincerely hope it continues in that regard and ALSO that the more severe issues some are experiencing get resolved soon.

@orbirick wrote:
I think it’s toying with me. Tempting me to return it. It better not push very hard. With all the problem reports, I feel like I’m just waiting for the ax to fall.

I never had any service interruptions today, just that weird period of time where I could not get into the web interface of the router. That issue has not come back, so I guess that was simply an anomaly. I hope.

orbirick · ‎2018-01-02

@sleepr88 wrote:
the problem apears to be coming from Android Oreo devices... I verified by turning off wifi on my phone(Oreo 8.1) last night, haven't had any issues with Orbi... Netgear still has to come up with a fix for their end, because no way should a client be able to disrupt and REBOOT a router!

I’ve been running Oreo (8.0) long before I installed the Orbi system. Is than an issue involving 8.1 only? Other than a minor glitch where I couldn’t get into the web interface for a little while today, I’ve had no service interruptions and the Orbi has appeared to be rock solid for the 8 or 9 days since I installed it early Christmas Eve morning.

orbirick · ‎2018-01-02

Has anyone explored the power settings for each band? Or are you guys leaving it at 100% all the time? If you changed it, why did you do so?

sleepr88 · ‎2018-01-02

I noticed it shortly after updating to 8.1... but I wasn't paying attention to my Orbi system (to know firmware version) because I haven't had any problems since buying it a little over a year ago (until now) ... it is currently on 2.1.1.16

JMU1998 · ‎2018-01-02

@orbirick I have 5GHz at 100% and 2.4GHz at 25% since none of my devices use 2.4GHz I wish I could totally turn it off.

scyu6058 · ‎2018-01-02

How to use useage for diffetent band?

JMU1998 · ‎2018-01-03

Just curious if a new Beta Firmware has been made available to anyone yet?

Shotround · ‎2018-01-03

yesterday morning, 18 hours after I did the address reservation, communication between one of the satellites and router was out. I had a tv wired to the satellite. The kid's iPad was probably connected same satellite. I reset both as family wanted their morning internet fix.

Its about 27 hours since. Family hasn't complained. I did notice some lag time spikes up to 500ms with iPhone gaming (world of tanks), but no disconnect.

The other satellite is going strong. I haven't touched it since the other day, after flash to 2.1.1.16. It has nas and my computer wired to it.

I have 5ghz at 50% and 2.4ghz at 25%.

masonworld · ‎2018-01-03

Why 50%? I think you said 25% was because you have no 2.4GHz devices, right? But why turn down the 5GHz?

orbirick · ‎2018-01-03

Nearly 3 days since I manually rebooted the system. I've not seen any spurious reboots or loss of connectivity since I installed the Orbi system about 10 days ago.

The minor nits have so far been limited to the bad data reporting as regards connected devices and the odd, one-off (hopefully) issue logging into the web interface yesterday. I've not had any more trouble with that.

Surely I can do something to make this thing go crazy! When I get a few minutes to spare, I'm gonna start playing with static IP assignments and unplugging the ethernet cables to the satellites so I can try out the wireless backhaul.

But what I probably really need to do is learn how to telnet into the router and disable the auto-update process before a new update is force fed to us (since I haven't had that experience yet). I assume that needs to be done to the router and both satellites?