Orbi firmware v2.1.1.16 discussion

[ratickle]

---

@joelinho wrote:

I dont know if I should be happy or sad. I have had so much trouble with this system since I got it 6 months ago, and I had just given up getting it to work. I have even initiated the return process to the place where I bought it.

From day one the satellite has been unstable loosing connectivity to the router. I have had to reboot it constantly to get it working again.

The last few days I have been going between V2.0.0.74 to V2.1.1.12 down to V1.11.0.20. Then system auto upgrade to V2.0.0.74 again (this was before V2.1.1.16 was released). Tested the V2.1.1.16, it seemed to be worse than ever. Downgraded back down to V1.11.0.20 again which has been pretty stable before but was now also acting up.

Disabled all the advanced features such as Daisy-Chain Topology, Implicit BEAMFORMING, MU-MIMO, etc. Nothing made any difference. I did a factory reset and set up everything again. Still unstable as hell.

Finally I just said "**bleep** it!", called Netgear support and they agreed I should get the system replaced. I contacted the dealer to initiate this. Then I upgraded to V2.1.1.16, did a hardware reset on the satellite (pushed the button in that tiny little hole on the back), and enabled all those advanced features except for Daisy-Chain Topology which I dont need. And annoyingly enough the system has been stable for 2 days now. So now I dont know if I want it to fail so I can send it back or if I want it to work so that I can keep it. For now I am just enjoying the stability of the network. But I dont trust it to last, yet...

---

You said you did a factory reset (i.e. via paper clip) on the satellite before manually installing 2.1.1.16.  Did you also do a factory reset on the router before manually installing 2.1.1.16?

[njweb]

My RBK 50 (3 unit system - router and 2 satellites) was upgradeded to 2.1.1.16 a few days ago (automatically). No issues so far. Have not tested all my devices yet but the ones we use are working fine.

Since that upgrade, I have used at least 3 laptops, 1 tablet, Android, iPhone and TiVO MoCA setup and Roku with it and things are working well.

I work remotely and not one disconnect yet from my home connection to my company virtual desktop (which requires a constant connection - if my router connection drops, my virtual desktop connection would get dropped too).

So far so good.

Settings (mostly default, using WPA2-AES security):

Daisy chaining is disabled.

I do have all of the following enabled:

BEAMFORMING

MU-MIMO

Enable Fast Roaming

[kcasante]

Same here! 

Router was atleast stable until this update now it's crashing while I'm VPN'd into my work. 

Bought this thing to stop network issues not cause them... 

There better be a fix soon or I'm looking into eero. 

Because of this router I can't stream my xbox to my PC anymore because it just doesn't play nice.

https://gtrusted.com/can-netgears-orbi-be-used-to-stream-games-from-the-xbox-one-s-to-razer-blade-st...

I accepted that because I do other more important thing on the internet that needs a stable connection. Now even that is gone. 

Netgear PLEASE address this ASAP.

[joelinho]

No I did factory reset via the gui when I downgraded to an earlier version. Will that also reset the satellite or is there a difference to reset using paper clip method?

[jcalex22]

Just wanted to be a part of this thread and mention since the 2.1.1.6 update my satellite has no connections, where I previously had 14 devices on it.?!

I'll follow along and see what other issues users are having.

[jmschnur923]

Showing no connections on the web page and having no connections are two different things. Most of us are not seeing connections on web pages but are finding that the Sats are actually handling the devices.

functionally , how is your WiFi as you move around your home.

[ratickle]

---

@joelinho wrote:
No I did factory reset via the gui when I downgraded to an earlier version. Will that also reset the satellite or is there a difference to reset using paper clip method?

---

Ok, I think I understand.  Let me say it back to confirm:

You did a factory reset via the gui on the router and a factory reset on the satellite via the paper clip.

Then you did a manual load of the 2.1.1.16 firmware on both the router and the satellite?

I think the gui button factory reset and the paper clip factory reset do the same things.  I do not think the gui reset on the router also resets the satellite.

[BarryTreg]

So, up time 1.5 days. Thought all was well. Foxtel Now (wired) started to buffer up, thought it might be Foxtel. But then watched Arsenal Liverpool on Optus Fetch (wired) and that started giving bandwidth warnings to me when the score was 3-3. Never before had that happen with Fetch watching the EPL. So rebooted Orbi router and now buffering gone.

Sigh. Really needs to be more reliable.

[diesunddas]

the two new firmwares (v2.1.1.12 + v2.1.1.16)  are very buggy !

it is a shame what for poor quality netgear delivers with such an expensive product.

the version 2.0.0.0.74, this is the only stable firmware version, downgrade router and satellit to this version (but this version has the security-leak KRACK)

[jcalex22]

I do have wi-fi connections throught the house, just not consistantly. I have around 80 devices connected (several ip cameras that are dropping connections regularly, then reconnecting). Maybe I am not the norm, but the Orbi system I have have for coming up on a year now and it still feels like a beta release. I've played around with differnet settings ( I am on AP mode now because I have too many devices to update their IP addresses to put the router in "router mode". I'm way past my return window, not having bought this at Costco, so I am stuck with it. Just hoping they will finally get this thing working correctly.

If I had it to do over again, I would not be going down this road. Life is too short, at least from my experiences with Orbi.

[southflguy]

I gave up and bought an eero pro system yesterday.  Talk about night and day difference.  Yes, the Orbi was a bit faster at closer range, but the eero seems incredibly stable and fills in wireless gaps nicely.  Have only had it up for about a day, but at this time yesterday my Orbi had already disconnected me and brought down my network 6 times. 

[kmichalec]

Mother F’er!! My RBK50 system, which was came with and was running 1.12.0.18 for the last week (and I wanted to keep it that way until this FW issue sorted itself out) autoupdated to 2.1.1.16 last night at 2:30am. WTF, Netgear?!? Once I own a piece of equipment, how dare you reach in and make changes to it without my consent (especially when your latest FW is a verified pile of garbage with stability and reboot issues). Guess I get to start experiencing all the crappy reliability that associated with this FW. Time to turn on the logs...

This thing better not start crapping out every day or it’s going back to the store ASAP...

[sandsstl]

Fingers crossed.  

Yesterday I updated to 2.1.1.16 and started having issues -  lost the satellite, yada, yada, yada. Switched back to 2.0.0.74 and everything settled down.

This morning (≈ 14 hours ago), the system had auto-updated back to 2.1.1.16 and seemed to be reasonably stable...all devices were showing connected to the router, nothing to the satellite, and the Attached Devices page kept reloading every five seconds on Safari, but wifi speed was excellent and nothing appeared to be getting dropped. 

Had some issues streaming with Sonos, so rebooted the system a couple of times through the day (still not sure that's resolved), but everthing seemed to continue to work.

So, this afternoon I decided to factory reset the satellite (saw someone had done that somewhere in this rather long topic) to see if the satellite would show up.  Had a devil of a time getting the satellite to reconnect, but when it did the devices started showing up connected to the satellite. I had to forget the network on iPhones and iPad and reconnect, but it worked.  That's been about five hours ago and, as far as I can tell, everthing seems to be stable and correct.

Attached Devices page reloading seems to be an issue with Safari, Chrome works fine.

Enable Daisy-Chain Topology is off

Beamforming, MU MIMO and Fast Roaming are on

[oldcake]

when i up to 2.1.1.16, my homekit 2.4g device was lost connection, when the  5G SSID was heidden and singal set to 25%, some device will back. if any setting change will make conection lost again.

i give up and back to 2.0.0.74

[Mayhugh1]

According to my uptime status indicators, I've had no stability problems with .16, and my speeds on all my wired and wireless devices look great, and so my complaint is relatively minor. I have two satellites with multiple devices wired to them, as well as seven wireless devices distributed among the router and satellites. Neither the Orbi app nor logging into the router shows either of the two devices that are wired to one of my satellites. The physical placement of my router and satellites is such that a star connection makes much more sense than a daisy chain connection, and so I don't have the 'use daisy chain option' checked. The backhaul status shows 'good' on both satellites. And so, I'm guessing this is a display bug in the firmware. I have mu-mimo and beamforming enabled, but otherwise am using default settings for the rest. One other detail that might help the developers is that the two satellite-wired computers that are not showing up happened to be sleeping when I decided to disable the daisy chaining (days after updating to .16) which rebooted the system. When the computers were awakened, they received IP addresses and had access to the internet, but neither showed up as connected to the internet.

[cyberprashant]

no problems here either with 2.1.1.6 wth the following settings:

CHECKED Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices

CHECKED Enable MU-MIMO

NOT CHECKED Enable Fast Roaming

[orbirick]

With the knowledge that Orbi recently supported wired backhaul, I was in Costco about a week ago and saw the RBK53 system on sale for $70 off and impulsively decided to splurge on it.

I haven't had time to install it yet, but have already downloaded 2.1.1.12 and 2.1.1.16 for a manual upgrade when I do get around to cracking open the box.

However, reading the posts here, I find myself wondering if Orbi is worth the effort, but then I also realize that only the posters with problems tend to create posts. But man, the Orbi system certainly sounds like a problematic system with as many posting issues as there are.

Regardless, I intend to give it a try and plan to replace my existing RT-AC56U router and RT-N66U configured as an AP. I have ethernet run from my office to the den and living room where I plan to place the router and satellites and know to update the satellites before the router.

Other than that, is there anything special I should do to prep the Orbi system for installation? Are you guys separating the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands using separate SSIDs? It's been my experience with iPads, iPhones, Android phones, etc. that they tend to grab the first signal they get (typically the 2.4 band) and hang onto it for dear life. 

I presently have separate SSIDs for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands so the 5 GHz devices can roam and stay with 5 GHz leaving the 2.4 GHz devices to do their own thing on the 2.4 GHz bands.

I have a couple of 8 port Gb switches, but am considering using my old primary router (RT-AC56U as a switch in the office (configured with wifi and DHCP disabled):

Internet/modem->RBR50 WAN port->RT-AC56U (now a switch)

AC56U->RBS50->4k TV

AC56U->printer

AC56U->PC

AC56U->8 port Gb switch on the other side of the house->RBS50, PS3, PS4, Fire TV, TV, etc.

I don't see a need right now for that 2nd 8 port Gb switch.

Once I have the new firmware upgraded, I should have wired backhaul and I expect the upstairs to get excellent wifi coverage with the 3 units positioned pretty much at either end of the house and a satellite near the center.

Any comments/suggestions?

[joelinho]

---

@ratickle wrote:

---

@joelinho wrote:
No I did factory reset via the gui when I downgraded to an earlier version. Will that also reset the satellite or is there a difference to reset using paper clip method?

---

Ok, I think I understand.  Let me say it back to confirm:

You did a factory reset via the gui on the router and a factory reset on the satellite via the paper clip.

Then you did a manual load of the 2.1.1.16 firmware on both the router and the satellite?

I think the gui button factory reset and the paper clip factory reset do the same things.  I do not think the gui reset on the router also resets the satellite.

---

Yes that is what I did. Router factory reset via web browser gui and satellite reset via the hardware button on the physical device. Paper clip method  :-). I haven't noticed any internet connectivity issues so far, and I am usually experiencing a few per day.

[angr]

Does anyone else have issues with devices not showing up in device list? 

I have +20 attached devices but only ~12-15 shows up in the device list, some of which I know are continuosly connected (such as an Amazon Echo, continously streaming Spotify). I've manually refreshed, restarted etc. but this seems to persist. 

Ideas? 

[JMU1998]

@angr yes you are not the only one who is having similar issues, I think this is a bug introduced by latest firmware my devices are missing on the list and nothing showing connected to satellite, have factory reset many times reinstalled Firmware,  even tried nvram clean process issue comes back.

[ratickle]

---

@angr wrote:

Does anyone else have issues with devices not showing up in device list? 

I have +20 attached devices but only ~12-15 shows up in the device list, some of which I know are continuosly connected (such as an Amazon Echo, continously streaming Spotify). I've manually refreshed, restarted etc. but this seems to persist. 

Ideas? 

---

Many people have that problem.  You are not alone.  If all your devices are working and your Orbi router is not self-rebooting three times a day, then you are one of the lucky ones.

[jmschnur923]

3 days 15 hours on.

31 devices

no device  listing on Sats.

improper listing on router.

good connections to internet.

AP using fios.

WIFI seed 85 throughout the house 1 ms jitter.

daisy chained. Load on last Sat 35%, Transfer sat 17%. Router 8%.

[mossywell]

I rolled back to 2.0.0.74 in the end. Had to do a nvram clear and factory reset and set everything up again, but at least everything now works again.
Note to self: don't update until Netgear have actually tested their firmware (or left it to their customers to do for free).

[ratickle]

---

@mossywell wrote:
I rolled back to 2.0.0.74 in the end. Had to do a nvram clear and factory reset and set everything up again, but at least everything now works again.
Note to self: don't update until Netgear have actually tested their firmware (or left it to their customers to do for free).

---

Unfortunately, unless you have used Telnet to turn off auto-updates, within 24 hours your system will probably be pushed back to 2.1.1.16.  Let us know if that happens.

[jmschnur923]

How do you do a nvram clear?

does that happen automatically with a reset?