i have a Readynas RN102 (10200) which has served me very well for the past 6 years, but yesterday i reluctantly took the option of upgrading from fimware 10.6.4 Hotfix 1 to 10.6.5. This update had the effect of not letting me sign into the Admin page for more than a few seconds before being repeatedly logged out before I could do anything. I have spent a whole day performing firmware resets, factory resets and even swapping the disk drives (fortunately i have backups) . Same effect every time with the inability to log in without doing anything, One caveat - once or twice i managed to log in (without being logged out) with default user admin and default password (password). But any password change or the addition of new users causes the corruption i have described,
Its not an exact guide but I managed to follow the steps and get through it, but having a windows PC looks to be a must to carry out the required step, My Nas is now useable again and i have turned off the annoying update notifications.
My advice for Readynas 102 users is NOT to update to this firmware release and save yourselves a lot of time and stress.
If this post helps anyone then It has been worth writing up my experience
There are a number of threads on this issue already, and it's not just on the 100 series. The majority of users are not having this problem, and Netgear thus far has not figured out what is different for those that do. But because there is this risk, I agree that not updating at this time is good advice for everyone. The main fix in it was supposed to be for AntiVirus updates not occurring, and it hasn't even fixed that.
I have just run into this myself, solved the problem by downgrading to 6.10.4, and then confirmed that the problem is the new firmware release by upgrading a second time to 6.10.5.
I have also discovered that the problem does not happen if the system still has the default password - you can do an OS reload from the boot menu, which will reset the password and network settings, you can then login with the default password and the system does not kick you out, but as soon as you change the admin password - BAM - the problem resurfaces. Leave the default admin password, you will stay logged in and can go to the settings menu and downgrade to 6.10.4.
If this, as has been said, is a known issue with this release affecting multiple product models, then it is sufficiently serious that Netgear should suspend the distribution of the 6.10.5 upgrade.
Hi Fordem, your findings are exactly the same as what i experienced so i agree that there is now enough evidence for Netgear to suspend this update. One other setting I have now made is to the update settings and selected "Long Term Support" which actually recognises 6.10.4 Hotfix1 as the latest update and gives me a bit more confidence for the next LTS update. It also stops the annoying update message every time i log in to the admin menu.
The current LTS version is actually 6.9.6. So your NAS is not exactly recognizing 6.10.4 as the latest, it is identifying 6.10.5 to not be an LTS update. The point here is that it will not currently let you know if a later 6.10.x comes out, if that matters to you.
FWIW, I currently do run 6.9.6 on all but systems expressly designated for testing. I have yet to see a stable 6.10.x to which I want to update, in spite of Netgear labeling them "stable" and I see nothing on the list of enhancements that I need. But downgrading to 6.9.x from 6.10.x can cause issues and is not recommended.
Well I made it to August before noticing that there was a newer 6.10.5 firmware release. Stupid me why didn't I read the forum before installing???
So in August the broken 6.10.5 release is STILL the official download. That sucks Netgear folks.
Additional Info - RN102 with no apps installed, no Apple file protocol enabled. Unit is isolated from internet by firewalling, so aint getting a hotfix that way, and that shouldn't be the only way. NTP is from local trusted server.
My fix was in an odd moment of stability as I repeatedly flicked between different browsers, I was able to upload 6.10.4 and "downgrade".
My revenge, I was in the market for more NAS, so I bought an Asustor one instead since I couldn't trust Netgear.
This is one of the problems caused when everyone opens up a new topic instead of first looking to see if one exists for an issue. The answer(s) get spread all over.
It was not necessary that Netgear release a full OS update to fix this problem. They released a hotfix, which would have been installed automatically in your NAS had you not taken steps to prevent that.
If you update back to 6.10.5 and don't want to connect the NAS such that it has Internet access to download the hotfix, see this thread:Admin-page-keeps-loading-in-a-loop-netgear-nas-104-after-update . The instructions there use wget, which won't work if you are firewalled from the Internet, but you can get the file using any browser.
Does 6.10.5 offer any significant improvement over 6.10.4? What are the "security issues" that 6.10.5 addresses? The link to firmware vulnerabilities in the firmware release notes takes you to a page that appears to list vulnerabilities about every Netgear product other than the ReadyNAS line.
At this point I see no "burning need" to move from 6.10.4 to a proven buggy release.
This is one of the problems caused when everyone opens up a new topic instead of first looking to see if one exists for an issue. The answer(s) get spread all over.
It was not necessary that Netgear release a full OS update to fix this problem. They released a hotfix, which would have been installed automatically in your NAS had you not taken steps to prevent that.
If you update back to 6.10.5 and don't want to connect the NAS such that it has Internet access to download the hotfix, see this thread:Admin-page-keeps-loading-in-a-loop-netgear-nas-104-after-update . The instructions there use wget, which won't work if you are firewalled from the Internet, but you can get the file using any browser.
The issues are:
- a good vendor does not leave an update with significant issues posted without even a warning it has issues at least for some
- a good vendor posts either a fixed version or instructions on how to get a hotfix on the update downloads page, not relying on a forum search by the customer
- a good vendor would never assume all its customers will run minimum security allowing their gear to update at will direct off the internet
