Your experience with Firmware 2.2.1.210 released as of 10/3/18

[nanohead]

Basically, my Orbi us unusable.  Tried EVERY one of the hairbrained setting changes suggested here over and over and over.  Completely useless.

The thing worked fine in my small cabin for the past year, now it is completely unreliable.  The router seems to be functioning most of the time, but the satellite is now FUBAR.  Wired, wireless, 2.4ghz, 5ghz, doesn't matter.   its on, off, up down, poor, disconnected, orange, blue, white, etc all by itself.

Its a shame, as the packaging of the Orbi is convenient, but the device is garbage now because of this fabulous "Update".......

I think I may upgrade to Ubiquiti.....

[FURRYe38]

You can down grade to v.16 and see if this might help:

Download version 2.1.1.16 for both the router and satellite.
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-RBK50-firmware-V2-2-1-210-update-slows-WAN-speed-with-30-...

You'll need to block the auto updater...

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@JeroenM wrote:

After again disappointed kids because the rented online movie keeped stopping (on a smart tv with a LAN cable connected), called our cable internet provider to switch the modem back to router modus (i was on bridge modus, as i hoped the orbi system could handle all the router "things").

So now back on the (ziggo) modem & router and switched Orbi to AP modus.

@FURRYe38 did all the things you suggested here (and also other tips on other topics).

My conclusion: The 210 firmware of Orbi can't handle big streams Lan or Wlan

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[FURRYe38]

Download version 2.1.1.16 for both the router and satellite.
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-RBK50-firmware-V2-2-1-210-update-slows-WAN-speed-with-30-...

You'll need to block the auto updater.

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@nanohead wrote:

Basically, my Orbi us unusable.  Tried EVERY one of the hairbrained setting changes suggested here over and over and over.  Completely useless.

The thing worked fine in my small cabin for the past year, now it is completely unreliable.  The router seems to be functioning most of the time, but the satellite is now FUBAR.  Wired, wireless, 2.4ghz, 5ghz, doesn't matter.   its on, off, up down, poor, disconnected, orange, blue, white, etc all by itself.

Its a shame, as the packaging of the Orbi is convenient, but the device is garbage now because of this fabulous "Update".......

I think I may upgrade to Ubiquiti.....

---

[UnhappyOrbiUser]

Quick update for anyone who might be interested.

My last attempt to get this firmware to work was to lower the RTS/CTS, first to 1500, then to 500. No luck. At this point I give up: .210 is junk and I've downgraded & disabled auto-updates.

To anyone frustrated with this firmware, I highly recommend you do the same.

Also:

• ignore suggestions around daisy chaining, it's irrelevant unless you have more than 1 satellite. Anyone suggesting this has no clue.
• RTS/CTS tweaking does not seem to help at all, YMMV but I spent a few weeks trying and monitoring the results, no luck. (See previous post for some of the data.)

[FURRYe38]

Is blocking Auto udpate not working for you?

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-RBK50-firmware-V2-2-1-210-update-slows-WAN-speed-with-30-...

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@MikeTheActuary wrote:

An update to my earlier update --

I had rolled back to .146 and thought I had blocked the auto-updates.

Just got home to a rebooting Orbi.  Apparently it auto-updated back to .210.

I'll re-downgrade.  This is extremely annoying.

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[JeroenM]

I did downgrade to 2.1.4.16 and telnetted to block auto update.

Fortunate the orbi's felt like updating and did??? (could it be because i logged in with the orbi app??)

I now downgraded to 2.1.1.16 and again blocked auto upgrade.

Wil post an update if i got news 🙂

[FURRYe38]

Ya, possible the app checks updates regardless of whats set on the Router itself.

Let us know...

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@JeroenM wrote:

I did downgrade to 2.1.4.16 and telnetted to block auto update.

Fortunate the orbi's felt like updating and did??? (could it be because i logged in with the orbi app??)

I now downgraded to 2.1.1.16 and again blocked auto upgrade.

Wil post an update if i got news 🙂

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[UnhappyOrbiUser]

You didn't forget the "nvram commit" or something?

It'll be frustrating if blocking auto-updates doesn't work. Next step will be to figure out what traffic to block.

[JeroenM]

Yes i did the commit 🙂

[FURRYe38]

Don't be surprised if NG is working to disable any kind of update blocking.

[UnhappyOrbiUser]

They shouldn't be surprised either if I never buy one of their products again.

[FURRYe38]

Not the first one and probably not the last.

[JeroenM]

should they be focussing on fixing the 210 ????? 

[nanohead]

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@UnhappyOrbiUser wrote:

They shouldn't be surprised either if I never buy one of their products again.

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Yep, too bad too, as I've had decent luck with their stuff over the years.  Most of the consumer network providers have gotten better since the early days.  But these messy firmware changes have become a horror for all of us that rely on their hardware to enable our networks.  You don't see these kind of really bad problems with the companies that sell enterprise/commercial products as often, which is why I've used mostly that stuff for years.   Figured I'd try some new consumer stuff this time around, and I now regret it.  The consumer network companies are completely non communicative with their customer bases, which is somewhat undstandable as they are enormous, but these are true Severity 1 problems, and Netgear is really failing us all.

[Azel80]

How exactly do you stop from auto update?

I did this:

1. Downgrade with router and satellite disconnected from Internet

2. Connect to Internet and start the telnet session + all the commands

But until I managed to commit the commands, the router was already able to download the updates and installed them the next day I started my PC.

Any tricks how to be faster?

[UnhappyOrbiUser]

Change the settings before downgrading, downgrade, and check the settings again.

[UnhappyOrbiUser]

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@nanohead wrote:

Yep, too bad too, as I've had decent luck with their stuff over the years.  Most of the consumer network providers have gotten better since the early days.  But these messy firmware changes have become a horror for all of us that rely on their hardware to enable our networks.  You don't see these kind of really bad problems with the companies that sell enterprise/commercial products as often, which is why I've used mostly that stuff for years.   Figured I'd try some new consumer stuff this time around, and I now regret it.  The consumer network companies are completely non communicative with their customer bases, which is somewhat undstandable as they are enormous, but these are true Severity 1 problems, and Netgear is really failing us all.

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No kidding.. after years of getting by with cheap routers and messing around with OpenWRT, I finally bit the bullet and decided to spend the money for one of these supposedly better systems, especially as I needed something to extend the range. I tried the Orbi and another one (I forget which), and stuck with Orbi for some reason.

Like you, I regret the purchase, it isn't worth the money I shelled out for it.

[MikeTheActuary]

Regarding my report of auto-update-blocking not taking:

When I originally attempted to block the auto-update, it looks like I didn't change the orbi_auto_upg setting - the 4th one that was added after the common instructions were written.

Aggravating matters this weekend was that I think I went through three rounds of downgrade-then-immediately-auto-update.  In one of the more memorable iterations, it auto-updated while I was working on the nvram settings.

My threat to shop for Ubiquity gear seems to have done the trick, as my Orbi became stable (on .146, without auto-updates) shortly thereafter. 

[JeroenM]

<<still on 2.1.1.16 ... so  blocking still is working; also set orbi_auto_upg to 0>>

send a facebook message to netgear if they knew the problems with 210? They responded this morning with the message that they where unaware of the problems. Linked me to this topic and suggested to call support.

So i called support (in the netherlands) and they said they are aware of the problems and technicians are working on a firmware upgrade.

They couldn't tell me when, but he suggested to keep an eye on the support forum, for a possible beta firmware release.

let's hope for a quick update.

[FURRYe38]

Glad the block is working. Hopefully NG will come out with a new FW update soon. Keep an eye on the forum and download web site page is all you can do for now. 

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@JeroenM wrote:

<<still on 2.1.1.16 ... so  blocking still is working; also set orbi_auto_upg to 0>>

send a facebook message to netgear if they knew the problems with 210? They responded this morning with the message that they where unaware of the problems. Linked me to this topic and suggested to call support.

So i called support (in the netherlands) and they said they are aware of the problems and technicians are working on a firmware upgrade.

They couldn't tell me when, but he suggested to keep an eye on the support forum, for a possible beta firmware release.

let's hope for a quick update.

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[mastervisa30]

I told netgear that there is problems on latest firmware and remote didnt work on latest firmware but its working on 2.1.4.16,i dont like auto uppgrade when it uppgraded its self it stop workin and many problems,so i asked netgear please let us decide if we want to uppdate,if there is firmware bugs we can use older.Netgear answer whas this 

Hi . Unfortunately the feature is not available on any current firmware version but we have requested the feature to be implemented already so look for it in the next update. As we can't help you any further in this case i will unfortunately have to close it. have a good day.  Netgear Support

[OzzzieMike]

OK....I'm unsubscribing from this topic.  WAY too many posts, for WAY too long...with no comment or resolution from Netgear.

[FURRYe38]

Try and downgrade back to v.16 to see if that helps any. You'll need to block auto update. 

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@OzzzieMike wrote:

OK....I'm unsubscribing from this topic.  WAY too many posts, for WAY too long...with no comment or resolution from Netgear.

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[Flash008]

I think its clear now that Netgear doesn’t care, and believes providing the same responses will somehow change the outcome.

I too have given up on Netgear.

I tried Orbi when it first launched and witnessed the disaster it was and how NG did not care then. Luckily I was able to get a late return so I did not get financially burned. But I will never get back the countless hours, days and weeks, spent trying to make that product work.

Call me stupid, ignorant, etc, etc....I thought I would try one more time with NG using this Orbi Pro....

Guess what...

NOTHING HAS CHANGED!

And my final lesson learned.

We now live in a world where “If you want quality” and a company “who cares”...YOU MUST BUY TRUE COMMERCIAL GEAR. And stop living the illusion that companies such as Netgear will give you that quality.

Netgear is a consumer product company who clearly makes products as cheap as possible and outsources everything they can overseas. When they make mistakes, they will not own it. Nor will they show an ounce of concern. They will use the typical support robots who will give the same scripted responses they were trained to provide.

I too will be unlisting from this thread. Luckily I was smart this time and purchased an extended third-party warranty which I will most likely be using soon.

And never again will I look back to NG for ANYTHING.

Funny, I was looking at Netgear for a 10Gbe switch....But looking at the reviews, “its the same thing”. Bad products and constant complaints about how horrible Netgear support is.

[Azel80]

The blocking seems to work - that's good news.

But for some reason the .16 is also not working correctly for me now. Although I get  great w-fi coverage, I'm still having problems connecting to the satellite - starts fine with 5ghz, after few minutes I get reconnected to 2.4ghz and after another few minutes to 2.4ghz but to the router. Tried connecting/disconnecting the satelliter, also factory reset of the satellite.

Maybe I need to go further down with the firmwares?