Re: NETGEAR R7800 FIRMWARE v1.0.2.80 issues

paillassou · ‎2021-01-19

Netgear R7800 Firmware v1.0.2.80 contains BUGS

EXACLTLY SAME PROBLEMS and random REBOOT !!!

with firmware v1.0.2.74 or v1.0.2.76 or v1.0.2.78

R7800 reboots randomly after boot up .... works 2 minutes and reboot...

WIFI drops in AP MODE / unable to use AP MODE

R7800 v1.0.2.80 firmware always contains BUGS ...

Even with fresh and clean install :
Reset the router = push reset button for 10s... Still the same problem.

DO NOT UPDATE FIRMWARE v1.0.2.80 R7800

Back to firmware v1.0.2.68 and everything is OK again...

KennethChile · ‎2021-01-26

Same problem here!! I moved to all my devices to 2.4Ghz.

kstotlani · ‎2021-02-02

Does support monitor these forums. It's really annoying. In AP mode the router is rebooting every few minutes. Absolutely ridiculous.

DarrenM · ‎2021-02-02

Are these issues happening just in AP mode or both in AP and router mode?

DarrenM

kstotlani · ‎2021-02-02

Thanks for your quick response Darren. My R7800 is in AP mode. I didn't have this issue when I was on 78 version of the firmware. I know I said it reboots but I cannot confirm that. All I can see is that the AP becomes unavailable every 30-45 minutes. The white light on the router becomes orange when there is outage. The outage lasts 3-5 minutes.

paillassou · ‎2021-02-03

this is exactly what is also happening for my router in AP MODE
with theses firmwares
1.0.2.72
1.0.2.74

1.0.2.76

1.0.2.78

1.0.2.80

😕

back to 1.0.2.68 works normally... 😕

kstotlani · ‎2021-02-03

How do I go back to the old firmware?

paillassou · ‎2021-02-03

you go here
Nighthawk X4S R7800 | AC2600 Smart WiFi Router | NETGEAR Support

you click View Previous Versions

and you download the firmware you want in order to flash the correct one...

shutternick · ‎2021-02-03

Same problem here with 1.0.9...very frustrating...

michaelkenward · ‎2021-02-03

Just to add to the fine advice from @paillassou:

How do I manually upgrade firmware to my NETGEAR router? | Answer | NETGEAR Support

It should be in the release notes, but Netgear has a habit of messing around with those.

kstotlani · ‎2021-02-05

This might become a long post but it is interesting what I found.

Ok so technical issues bother me when I cannot solve them or if not in my control, I should know the root cause. There are two changes that happened as I started to notice these issues

1. Got a Macbook Pro 16. Had a Dell Latitude before this.

2. Upgraded the firmware from 1.0.2.78 to 1.0.2.80 - I can say this is not the issue because the issue is #1 above and I have run a few experiments to prove this including downgrading the firmware.

Router and AP setup - I have a ISP provided main router and I use the R7800 as an access point (wired to the main router). Both SSIDs are same with the same password. Channels are different.

If my macbook pro is inside the bedroom where the main router is, the AP R7800 in the living room has no issues. The Netgear continues to work with superior performance and no issues with rebooting. When I bring my Macbook Pro to the living room and wake it up from sleep it tries to connect to the nearest AP which is R7800. This is something I cannot figure out as it is unable to connect to the Netgear AP (R7800) and switches back to the router in the bedroom. This although has some kind of an impact on the Netgear R7800 and it reboots. I think the Macbook pro continues to try to connect to the R7800 every few minutes and makes it reboot. I am not an expert in this area so I don't know how a client can make a router reboot like that. I thought I am crazy to make this claim so I have tried this 20 times or more before writing this post.

The other troubling fact is that this switches my iphone from the nearest AP to the router in the bedroom when I am in the living room. I even turned of handoff but it still does this to the iphone. This doesn't occur when I have my iphone in my living room and Macbook Pro in the bedroom with the main router. In fact if the Macbook Pro is in the bedroom there are no issues with the Netgear AP (R7800). I have also signed out of iCloud on my Macbook Pro so that there is no connection between by iphone and Macbook Pro.

So as long as my Macbook Pro tries to access the AP which is my Netgear R7800 it causes the R7800 to reboot. My question is that how can a client such as a Macbkook Pro do this to an AP. Macbook Pro is on latest version of Catalina 10.15.7.

@paillassou do you have a Mac or a similar setup?

kstotlani · ‎2021-02-10

@DarrenM can anything be done here. See my latest post for more details.

paillassou · ‎2021-02-10

Hello,

i have NO apple product...

i think all the problems of reboot is that the firmware contains many bugs and

a functionnality like "watchdog" automatically performs a RESET into some chips
inside the electronic board

MrMercury · ‎2021-02-21

I have exactly the same problem. Took me a whole day to figure out the problem. I use the R7800 as Access Point. The firmware R7800-V1.0.2.80 is just broken and those after R7800-V1.0.2.68(this one works just fine) probably too. I haven't tried them all out.

michaelkenward · ‎2021-02-21

@MrMercury wrote:

I have exactly the same problem. Took me a whole day to figure out the problem. I use the R7800 as Access Point.

Yup, look around and you'll find too many reports of these devices bust in AP mode, and not just in this discussion.

My guess is that Netgear doesn't expect people to use the R7800 in AP mode and therefore don't test new firmware properly. But that's no excuse for not fixing it.

Has anyone ever heard back from Netgear about this? Do the tech people know there is a problem?

Everything has gone quiet since @DarrenM popped up and then went away.

Morg111 · ‎2021-02-23

You the man @paillassou!

It is 100% the firmware. I’m in AP mode behind a fios router. Upgraded my R7800 to v1.0.2.80 cause I was getting very occasional dropped wireless. BAD idea.... nothing but problems after updating. Constant (every 5min dropped wireless, speciality devices like my hue light hub wouldn’t connect, after 2 days, even the LAN ports started dropping.

I spent hours trying to figure it out. I even ordered a new router, (returning it today), thinking this one was failing, and the problems were just accelerating as it was failing. Then, I found this thread, I went back to v .68.....everything works perfectly again.

Seriously, the .80 update is so bad, it has to be designed to get people to buy new routers. It’s just sad 90% of people out there won’t find that it is just that the firmware is garbage and end up spending money they don’t need to.

kstotlani · ‎2021-02-23

I gave up and downgraded to .68 version but now I am not sure what security patches am I missing. I have two R7800. One that I already owned and one that was given to me as a gift this new year. I have raised a ticket and the response has been workarounds like change the SSID to be different or use the R7800 as a router rather than AP. Both options are obviously no go but I was surprised with this response since I would expect the engineers to look at their code and not tell the buyer to have a workaround. This is how you lose faith in a brand.

I read the release notes for the .74 release which was the next version after .68 and it had some AP related changes which probably messed this up. After that the firmware releases are only security patches.

MrMercury · ‎2021-02-24

HELLO NETGEAR!!!!! DO YOU CARE??? Anyone?

UniverseNet · ‎2021-03-02

Go to https://www.netgear.com/support/product/R7800.aspx#download and click the "+ View Previous Versions" link to see downloads for previous firmware verions. Apply the version before you started having issues/trouble. Good luck!

UniverseNet · ‎2021-03-02

It's usually helpful to reboot the router immediately after the firmware version you applied shows up in the home sreen of your router homescreen. That makes the firmware update really apply.

michaelkenward · ‎2021-03-03

@UniverseNet wrote:

It's usually helpful to reboot the router immediately after the firmware version you applied shows up in the home sreen of your router homescreen. That makes the firmware update really apply.

The router usually reboots itself as a part of the update process.

paillassou · ‎2021-03-03

so, after update to v1.0.2.80...
(fresh and clean update / the rooter was RESET BEFORE UPGRADE / no backup config restore)

after the 1st reboot :
when you wait 1H to see if it works normally... and you have one REBOOT each 5 minutes ...

so 12 x REBOOT for one hour .... + WIFI DROPS + lost connection

it's a normal part of the update process ???

MrMercury · ‎2021-03-05

I think they are working on it because the l2 support contacted me on this issue.

JabroniSmacker · ‎2021-03-10

Thank you all for posting this! My wifi has been dying every 5-10 minutes for 10-30 seconds for the past few days. I use the R7800 in router mode and I rolled back to 1.0.2.68 from .80. So far it's been better but it did drop connection for a few seconds at one point.

I've been having separate issues with my CM1000 as well. Both are less than a year old !! Netgear equipment is so unreliable and when they go I'm buying a new brand.

UniverseNet · ‎2021-03-10

@UniverseNet wrote:
It's usually helpful to reboot the router immediately after the firmware version you applied shows up in the home sreen of your router homescreen. That makes the firmware update really apply.

> The router usually reboots itself as a part of the update process.

I find that a second reboot makes is so the update doesn't take 2 to 3 hours to work well. Typically in the 2-3 hours after my last 3 firmware updates I had no Internet access. The second reboot dispenses with the delay.

Re: NETGEAR R7800 FIRMWARE v1.0.2.80 issues

NETGEAR R7800 FIRMWARE v1.0.2.80 issues