The Orbi was released over a year ago, and its firmware has evidently proven to be a more difficult task than originally envisioned by its design/management team. Not only has promised functionality not yet been implemented, but basic operation has been spotty for many and downright atrocious for others. Today, it's even difficult to tell how a marginal system is performing because even fundamental diagnostic information is still not working properly and can't be relied upon.
Netgear's policy of limiting free technical support to only three months to its customers would have been reasonable if the hardware arrived working. Three months is proving to be inadequate and in the light of the last couple of software releases it's totally inadequate especially when insufficiently tested automatic updates are forced upon unsuspecting users.
I'm sure Netgear is working to fix the Orbi's firmware because dissatisfied customers do nothing for the company's reputation. I really think, though, they need to extend free technical support to at least a year for this particular product, given what has/is going on, and they need to give the users the option of turning on/off automatic updates of the firmware in the user interface.
