So you can read through all my anger and rant on 2.1.2.18. I have started several threads on how horrible this has been. But someone wrote something that made me think why I may be having issues with this firmware and others are not. First, when I install this firmware, it completely breaks all my wired connections. I have a netgear switch and everything behind that switch including 2 hubs will not get an ip. My main computer the same, I can't even log into the router to downgrade it. This all works perfectly fine with 2.1.2.16. But since Netgear has forced the update on me 3 times, I have confirmed everytime it is complete chaos when it updates, without fail.
But one thing I didn't mention was that one of my orbi satellites is hardwired through the switch and hub that goes all the way out to the garage. I believe I read someone said their backhaul that was wired was giving them fits on 2.1.2.18, but when they disconnected it, everything was ok.
So if anyone from Netgear is listening, maybe test that out. The weird thing is that 2.1.2.16 is just fine with the same configuration. But 2.1.2.18 just cripples my network. The symptoms are similar to that endless network loop if you plug a device into itself on the network. So I suspect something between the new firmware and hardwiring the satellite my be the issue. I cannot confirm as I am UNWILLING to go through the hell of 2.1.2.18 again, until the router forces it upon me again. I did change the NVRAM to tell it not to update, but it seems like it still did anyway the last time. The other funny thing I noticed on this new firmware is that I have a wired HP printer an x576. I gave it a DHCP address to make it static since I scan to it over the network. When I did it the Orbi firmware recognizes it as a sattelite. It lists under the attached devices sattelite. I don't think that is supposed to happen, once again Netgear, if you are monitoring this stuff (which I sincerely hope that you are, because you provide crap for customer service, so at least pay your people to read through all of us going through hell to troubleshoot for you), maybe you can test and check out those 2 issues. Anything behind my switch is completely dead everytime I upgrade to 2.1.2.18. I just also have that satellite plugged in and just thought of that when someone else posted about it.
I didn't even get into my anger about Orbi and Google with all the stuff going on, I am just trying to solve one crazy issue at a time. It is very annoying to pay 1000.00 for a mesh system that I have to spend this much time diagnosing for a company who will not provide me any customer support.. very annoying. Get your stuff together Netgear... stop releasing half a$$ed firmware updates that are ridden full of bugs, and give customers the option to opt out of auto updates without having to telnet into NVram settings on the router. That is ridiculous.
