RBR50 Problems updating firmware

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jcmacdesigns2 wrote:

Thanks for your response. I am unsure where my friend got the Orbi but it could have been through Verizon. If I understand correctly, you are saying that if the Orbi router and satellite came from Verizon I can only update it with the Verizon version of the FW. If there are not Verizon Orbis I would be able to update the FW. Is that correct? I don't know what "TFTP" means.

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This is indeed a classic "Catch 22" (from the novel by Joseph Heller)

• When Netgear created this version for Verizon to sell, they put code into it that said, "accept only new firmware that has been issued directly by Verizon".  i.e. not by anyone else, including Netgear.
• Verizon has never issued updated firmware for the product.

So, trying to install firmware from Netgear results in that error message.  You are stuck in a "Catch 22".

Since the screen clearly says, "Verizon", that's where it came from.  No doubt about that.

When Netgear routers boot up, there is a brief window of time during which they will accept a connection (using the Trivial File Transfer Protocol) to load a firmware image.  Here is a Netgear description of using TFTP on MacOS:

https://kb.netgear.com/000064624/How-do-I-upload-firmware-to-my-NETGEAR-router-using-TFTP-on-Apple-macOS 

(I should note that my personal experience does not match that article.  What I observed that when the router is powered up, the power LED does not flash orange. Maybe my memory is incorrect?  Anyway, TFTP failed for me five times in a row and I was ready to take a hammer to the router. Then thought, "what else do I have to do this afternoon?"  Try six worked!  My conclusion: TFTP is really touchy.  Start too soon and it fails.  Start too late, and it fails.)

TFTP is not a trivial process.  One might ask, "Is this thing working to suit me as it is?"  If so, maybe leaving it as it is could be alright.  If it isn't working right, or you want to pay for things like Armor and Parental Controls, then.....