Attached Device List

[GWild]

I turned off the CBR40 to isolate the RBS20 from any odd influence.  Then I did a full "hold reset button until read power led started blinking" and let it whirl until the top lights stopped doing whatever they do. I got my notebook out, direct connected from it to the RBS20.  Poked around trying to find any connection... ipconfig finally reported it had received an address.  Tried orbilogin.com and the 192.168.1.2 the RBS had been reporting in the network. No response. 

Reviewed gateway info, and tried pinging it: 192.168.1.250. Got a response.

Restarted the browser, and entered the 192.168.1.250 address and got a router login page. Entered the default usr/pswd and it took it. It was complaining loudly about not finding a master device. But it allowed me to navigate to a spot where it allowed a firmware update. Entered the filename and pressed go. The page indicated the update had completed, and was waiting for the RBS20 to restart. Finally timed out, but no RBS.  Broken link.

About 20 different reboot/reset/reconnect attempts and the RBS20 was looking bricked.  What had just worked to connect to it failed.

So out of desperation I powered up the master CBR40 and when it was up and running powered on the RBS20.  I pressed the SYNC on the CBR40 and then the SYNC on the RBS20.  Minutes later I had a connection, and the RBS was again functioning, sort of.  Via the CBR40 webpage it reported the RBS had an updated firmware version. 

Then the connection dropped...

Well, multiple on-off-on events at power-on is a common theme with this system; so I waited another few minutes.  It reconnected.  The system is working, but how reliably is unknown. Only time will tell.

Oh - one thing Netgear should really fix is the two minute timeout on the admin webpage ... I blink and have to resubmit credentials.  And this reconnect to the admin pages seems to interrupt normal network traffic.  But this is yet another bug to worry about.

Still have my original issue; and pretty sure I can no longer update the RBS firmware if and when Netgear has a new version.  Via the "last ditch" method I just used, it (the latest patch) is now fully mimicking a bricked device. So whatever they changed, they also turned off the only way I had to do a manual update.  I hope it was intentional, but somehow I suspect it wasn't.  Anyway - with V2.2.1.210 the RBS20 offered DHCP, but not ARP.  With V2.3.0.28 it doesn't even have DHCP.

Has anyone actually seen more than 7 devices reported under Attached Devices?

[GWild]

Furry - have you ever had more than 7 devices connected concurrently to your CBR40 router and tried to view the Attached Device list?  I'm thinking this feature has never worked and would like to see an example of what the UI looks like when more than seven devices are showing.  On my system, there isn't room for more than 7 devices, and there also is no scroll bar in that portion of the UI. 

Pretty sure it is a product defect.

[FURRYe38]

I have had over 30 devices and they all show up. 

I believe you may have a defective system that needs to be replaced. 

[GWild]

Since my trick to log in to the RBS20 succeeded, I hadn't gone back to the web based Manual Upgrade tool.  But I worried I had exhausted ways to do another FW upgrade, so to verify I should replace the system, I retried the web tool last night.  I am surprised and relieved to report that I can now log into the RBS20 ... the FW upgrade fixed the issue I was having with not being able to log into the RBS20 to do upgrades.   

I still have the "half of my devices aren't showing up on the Attached Device list" issue.  6 recently connected devices in the DHCP log, 3 showing.  Also - one device is having issues renewing IP; but I'm not ready to blame the router, but it's a device I use a lot, so it's annoying. 

[FURRYe38]

Got it working huh? What trick did you use? 

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@GWild wrote:

Since my trick to log in to the RBS20 succeeded, I hadn't gone back to the web based Manual Upgrade tool.  But I worried I had exhausted ways to do another FW upgrade, so to verify I should replace the system, I retried the web tool last night.  I am surprised and relieved to report that I can now log into the RBS20 ... the FW upgrade fixed the issue I was having with not being able to log into the RBS20 to do upgrades.   

I still have the "half of my devices aren't showing up on the Attached Device list" issue.  6 recently connected devices in the DHCP log, 3 showing.  Also - one device is having issues renewing IP; but I'm not ready to blame the router, but it's a device I use a lot, so it's annoying. 

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[GWild]

A lot of tinkering and accidentally stumbling a cross a combination of IP addresses you wouldn't expect to find or use.  The RBS20 had allocated itself to .250 ... not .1, not .2 ... took a while to discover it.  And the only way I found it was to leave the CBR40 router off, if the two devices even had a second of communication the RBS20 was locked with some secret password.  I tried about 20 different configurations and processes (reset this, power that, power then reset, ...); each taking an hour or so.  Eventually, resetting and waiting 20 minutes, and then then powering down the RBS, then, letting it power up and begin searching for a master to sync with... at that point I connected an ethernet cable and powered on my Win7 notebook -- during that poweron Windows found the RBS20 and got an IP address from it.  The PC was given the address 192.128.1.2.  But the gateway wasn't .1.  I think it was more chance and luck than anything else.  But after I found the weird gateway IP, I tried logging in with a browser and factory credentials. It worked.

After flashing the new firmware, that same sequence no longer worked and had me concerned.  And leads me to believe it was just chance it worked at all.  So I am relieved I can now log in using the normal browser method.

[FURRYe38]

Intereseting. Thanks for letting us know. 

I presume if the RBS is now working, the use of normal methods of accessing the RBS should work now using the IP address it gets from the CBR40. Hope all this won't happen again. Just remember, any future updates, update the RBS first, then the CBR.