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OrbiOS 2.1.1
The Orbi team at NETGEAR is aware that some users are experiencing higher than expected Orbi Router reboots, special characters in WiFi Passwords and WiFi / Internet disconnects. We believe these is...
Let me give you a quick update on where NETGEAR is with the OrbiOS.
Just before Christmas break, we paused the distribution of OrbiOS 2.1. Very soon, we're about to restart the distribution of a slightly updated version of the beta (2.1.2). In addition to the major new features introduced in 2.1 (e.g. Circle, Ethernet Backhaul), this firmware is expected to address the high CPU issue, as well as the special character in PSK issue as well as support for the Outdoor Orbi. Check Release Notes for complete list.
We are continuing to work on the issues with Google devices that have been documented in the press (several users have provided links here).
My recommendation is that you should either use the Orbi Mobile App (if you haven't seen it recently, check it out, we've made some major improvements) or the Web UI to check for new firmware or wait until your system gets auto-upgraded.
To answer your question, Stars_fan. When Orbi are connected over Ethernet backhaul, the 5GHz band becomes hot standby.
Orbi Product Management
As a relatively new Orbi owner running a stable installation of 2.1.1.16, but with the known faulty connection reporting issue, I find it disturbing that Netgear is struggling to provide a stable firmware environment for any networking gear, let alone a flagship product. And a year or so after product release too.
I'd love to have accurate client connection reporting, but hesitate to chance breaking an otherwise stable system with the beta firmware.
My satellites are wired, my PW is 10 characters with no special characters, UPnP is off, etc. There’s nothing unusual about my system that I can think of, and it’s been rock solid with no spontaneous reboots since I installed it a couple of weeks ago, even though I have an android phone running 8.0.
But it I find myself looking askance at it waiting for the axe to fall. And yet I have no reason to except for all the problem reports I find online. Maybe I just need to quit reading all these reports and just enjoy my system!
Am I lucky? Or am I the norm and all these issues are the outliers? I’m not sure what to think.
orbirick wrote:...
Am I lucky? Or am I the norm and all these issues are the outliers? I’m not sure what to think.
I do think this is the norm and the issues are the outliers. I have pretty much the same experience. It seems that for most people it just works and there is nothing we can do to get the reboot issues to happen. I have had some disconnect issues with the 2.1.1.16 firmware on some iOS devices, so moved to the 2.1.2.10 beta - not been running it long enough to see if that fixed the disconnect issue as it would only happen after a week. I do share the concern that Netgear has not been very good so far at dealing with the users that are having the reboot issues. I figure that at least the router should log a reason for a reboot even if it's a kernal panic to help them track down what is going on.
I know they are actually working on resolving the issues that they know of and know what to look for. I am sure the users with rebooting routers are just a tiny minority of Orbi users, and I am sure most of these are environmental issues - like the Android bug ID'd recently, but there seems to be other also.
If it was a more sizeable userbase affected these routers would have disappeared from store shelves a while ago. Let's hope they can ID these issues and eliminate them with the next firmware release. I really want to see some actual progress with these releases instead of bug bashing.