V2.1.1.12 is not ready for public release

[LB67]

After I Installed V2.1.1.12. I have only crashes and reboots. The router reboots spontaneously at least 5 times per day !!

It's a complete disaster. Flashed back my old firmware V2.0.0.74. No luck! The router keeps rebooting.

Contacted support. They offered me firmware V2.1.1.16. yesterday (a day before it was released on the Netgear website).

No luck. Still multiple reboots.

Netgear.....what are you doing!!??

[DarrellRiffe]

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@ThePathfinder wrote:

For those of you that have a stable working Orbi with V2.1.1.12 I say congratulations, last January I purchased my RBK53 Orbi from Costco and it has been a long winding road. I have always been a Netgear customer never owned anything but. Out of the box the Orbi provided a much better solution than my WNDR4500 but then came the first of many firmware updates that would bring with them nothing but problems albeit mostly minor to medium issues such as random disconnects. But with the help of DarrenM I was put in contact with tier 2 support and after a few different beta versions I finally landed on V2.0.1.2 which made the Orbi what it should be, a set it and forget it device. I was content to never upgrade the firmware again and just enjoy the working product for which I paid a considerable amount of money, but then came the KRACK vulnerability so when V2.1.1.12 was offered I figured it had to be built on the beta code that had proven itself so stable for me. But as I document above that is not the case, so I moved back to the known good firmware thinking I would wait for Netgear to acknowledge the issue and provide a fix. But while I see DarrenM acknowledging some of the issues I see nothing from Netgear in the way of a suggestion or a fix. But back to the issue at hand so having moved back to the previous firmware I was surprised to find I was now having random and frequent satellite disconnects I defaulted everything and reprogrammed but still the issues persisted. All I can assume is the newest firmware made changes to the hardware that are not reversed by moving back to an older firmware. So today I again defaulted everything and again loaded V2.1.1.12 and it went from bad to simply unusable I cannot use the OOMA to make calls as it cuts in and out (never an issue before) and the satellites drop offline even more frequently. Along with now the main router drops offline randomly as well.  I let it run all afternoon and evening hoping it might somehow stabilize but NO. So I again moved it back to the beta so I could at least have stable hardwired connections. I did send a PM to DarrenM earlier today and had hoped he might contact me with some options but as my wife pointed out I have spent enough time on this thing its time to move on. Luckily, I had purchased it from Costco and when I contacted them they said no problem bring it in for return. SO I guess today is the day that the Orbi put an end to me being a Netgear customer. The eero Pro WiFi System has been ordered and will be here on Monday. By the way I reached out to eero today with some questions and they were immediately accessible.  They also made it clear that if I had any problems now or down the road they were available to help. None of this 90-day support BS. Its sad I really feel Netgear has forgotten how important it is to take care of the customer. To everyone on this forum that offered help and advice to me THANK YOU. To Netgear I say get your house in order you just lost what had been and would have been a lifelong customer.

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Your experience with the Orbi is much the same as was mine; however, I got off the Orbi trainwreck about three months ago when I sidelined it and purchased the Eero Pro.  Knock on wood, but the Eero has been freakishly awsome. Not a single problem, and absolutely no regrets - period.

[LB67]

After struggling a long time I managed it to have a stable ORBI setup again! How ? Please read:

**bleep** (6 - 10 reboots per day) started after the V2.1.1.12 upgrade. Contacted Netgear. They offered me firmware V2.1.1.16 which was not solving my uncontroled reboot problem. 

I flashed back again V2.0.0.74 which was working flawlessly. After 20 minutes I notices an unexpected reboot again. Checked the debug.htm page and noticed that the system was rebooted again........but the latest V2.1.1.16 firmware was flashed again. Netgear what are you doing!!!!!! Please give us an option to opt-in for new updates. Do not force us to use new firmware that performs unreliable!

So how to force the ORBI to use older fimware? Check-out this link:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Firmware-V1-12-0-18-Discussion/td-p/1320421/page/5

The link above provide a simpel procedure for people that are not afraid of commandline configuration. I can also understand that there are Netgear customers that don't want to play for geek. Therefore NETGEAR....take care of your customers and build something userfriendly and reliable please!

Anyway, the result is that firmware V2.0.0.74 runs rock solid again (without automatically updating to the latest crappy V2.1.1.(12) 16).

7 day up and running without a reboot......HEAVEN!

[ThePathfinder]

Yep I agree the Eero has been rock solid, even at its best the Orbi needed to be monitored and futzed with frequently. The Eero Pro WiFi system is truly a set it and forget it system.

One other thing I really noticed is that the Orbi Community is a list of almost constant issues with almost zero assistance from Netgear employees. The Eero Community on the other hand is very quiet with only the occasional question that is quickly answered by Eero.

I used to spend my evenings reading the Orbi Community postings looking for answers, now I just use my WiFi the same as I would any appliance. 

[aaz]

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@ThePathfinder wrote:
...

I used to spend my evenings reading the Orbi Community postings looking for answers, now I just use my WiFi the same as I would any appliance. 

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Oh come on, admit it - you just like the Orbi community better. 

BTW: My Orbi on 2.1.1.16 has been solid now for 8 days after the update. Before anyone goes switching back to older firmware just try to get the latest firmware stable. It can be done and I am sure for most users it's not rebooting like some are seeing. Which is why I have been saying that the issue is environmental that interacts with something in the Orbi that is not up for prime time. But the enironment can be managed and changed to something stable.

[LB67]

V2.1.1.16 crashed even more!. Didn't solve my reboot problem.

[ThePathfinder]

The community is great, the orbi not so much.

Each new firmware issue just cements that fact that they rushed the product to market.

It simply amazes me that they have lost control of the firmware the way they have.

So yes as I have said before I appreciate the community, but with that I must also say I am happy to be off the crazy train.

I do hope they get this thing figured out for the sake of all the people that spend their hard earned money on it.