PurpleHaze

Good idea thanks for that. Might be worth a shot.

Are you saying it's underperforming purely on the speeds you're getting through it? If so, what speeds are you getting via ethernet to speedtest.net? If not, what is your metric you're using to determine it's underperforming?
With some ISPs swapping out the main router completely can result in speeds being throttled for a week or so. You can either wait to see if they get better or if you copy the MAC address of the ISP router and set the XR to use that instead it gets around the throttle as it thinks the original router is still being used. Being biased I'd say yes but I'd need more information about what it is you're wanting exactly to give you a better answer. Short answer is the XR series won't get DumaOS 4 and updates will be limited/far between. So if you want more up to date software with newer features the R3 would be the better option.

Unfortunately can't provide that information even if I had it, NG sorted the hardware so we didn't have any input, like you said the R7800 is similar so perhaps that part which I'm sure can be found cheaper might be an option, no idea if it would work though honestly, no one has ever gone to that much trouble to repair one as far as I'm aware or if they have they've never mentioned it

That does sound in brick teritory, no the USB port has no functional benefit in this situation, TFTP will be your only hope here, don't give up with it, the timing for it is tricky and can take a few attempts

NG have marked it end of service, although their main list doesn't show it the actual page for it does: https://www.netgear.com/support/product/xr500/ so main updates have stopped including security updates, there may be some bug fix updates from us in future but nothing certain because of this. The security updates you mentioned are already within this update, I'm quite sure I checked that not too long ago. When a security vulnerability is spoken about is usually much later after it has been fixed. I totally understand your frustrations, especially if that's one of the main features you're using it for. Absolutely no SSH access at all. We can't provide any commands to use with telnet unfortunately. Not that I'm aware of, it would be purely a NG feature so I couldn't even tell you why that was removed. 

That's fair enough! Use a mac vendor lookup site to search for the MAC addresses of the devices you're unsure about, they'll give you the manufacturer and you may be able to work them out from there. It's very likely if you have a strong WiFi password that it is devices on your network, happens a lot with smart devices. It's not always a factory reset to fix but with some specific issues that is the only fix unfortunately for the moment. 
The comparison really is the XR1000 has better hardware overall and better WiFi but doesn't have as new firmware as you've seen it doesn't have HybridVPN. The 500 has the more up to date software and has been around for the longest so I would say is generally the most stable out of the XR range but the WiFi/hardware isn't as good as the 1000. Yes the XR500 does have similar architecture/specs to the R7800.

Not as far as I'm aware no. The backup isn't readable to anything other than the router so you will see nonsense essentially if you open it on your PC. Telnet isn't officially supported as a way to change router settings so I couldn't advise on that, I also believe it's only available on very old firmware versions which could be part of the problem. If you make a backup when you have an issue then restoring the backup after a factory reset can also restore the issue so in my opinion it's essential to make sure after a fresh reset and making your changes you then make a backup so it should be free from any issues should you need to use it in future. Depending on what you're doing though the DumaOS features don't take too long to setup again. If you do go to a different software just be warned that you're unlikely to be able to come back to DumaOS.

Yes that's correct. Don't reboot the router with the VPN enabled and it shouldn't happen again

factory settings, make sure that VPN is disabled before each reset. If you leave VPN enabled and do a reset, VPN will not work. 

Correct
This is the 3.3 firmware so if you're already on it you wouldn't need to do anything. Yes it would revert it - you can disable auto update in Settings > Administration > Firmware update
Are you referring to the official update? If so there is nothing blocking it on our side

Thanks that worked!

You'll need to follow this initially: https://support.netduma.com/en/support/solutions/articles/16000133055-using-adblocker-on-xr1000
You won't be able to block YouTube ads with it currently.

I bought a VPN subscription after seeing some Netgear Duma models were advertised with HybridVPN and was surprised the XR500 had it but the XR1000 didn't. Is the XR500 easier to develop for? Curious why the XR1000 is complicated - assuming it comes with extra levels of Netgear functionality that complicates things a bit or is it something else like the hardware configuration?

I can understand your frustrations here. The XR1000 doesn't yet have Hybrid VPN primarily because of the hardware, it's very complicated to get a feature like HybridVPN working on this hardware. I believe we are still working on getting it supported in future, but unfortunately I don't have an ETA as to when this might be. Hybrid VPN is also still being developed, so it will be improving over time for the XR500 as well.

Hi, I've been reading these topic's posts trying to find a solution to my problem, but everything is related to Australia issues. I live in Southamerica (Ecuador) and I've been trying to setup my vpn account (hidemyass) to different locations (Mexico,Brazil, USA) but still haven't been able to connect my xr700's hybrid vpn. I'm willing to make this work for videogaming purposes (I own an Xbox one). Is it possible to make it work? 

that is unlucky, thanks anyway hopefully it gets fixed next time.

Did you factory reset after installing the upgrade? Could you confirm that you're now upgraded to version 2.3.2.130?

Received a email after signing up for the R1 beta but not for the Xr500
Meanwhile:

It's been a long while coming. Bounds of joy hearing such news.  So many of the futures that's been handled with dedication and care. I am looking forward to 3.0. Thank you to everyone on the Netduma Team, DumaOS Insiders, and Netduma users, for believing such an amazing product and community.

No they won't, we're giving everyone a chance to sign up.

Testers haven't yet been selected, if you've signed up and haven't a reply don't worry. 
 

Hi Everyone,
Today we are delighted to announce that signups for the DumaOS 3.0 beta are now open - this will be gradually rolled out to everyone who signs up, over time.
This is a big step. It means that after many months of hard work, we are now ready for you guys to begin testing 3.0 on your DumaOS powered routers.
What is in DumaOS 3.0?
It’s named 3.0 for a reason. It marks the next generation of DumaOS, our router operating system. Not only will 3.0 come with a whole bunch of new features for your router, we have also overhauled a tonne of things under the hood which will make it far easier for us to get new features to you in the future.
So far, we have announced four of the eight major features coming in 3.0. You can read more about each of them here:
Geo-Fencing: draw multiple Geo-Filters of any shape around your favourite server banks Application QoS: prioritize the traffic that matters the most to you by allocating bandwidth by application type e.g. gaming, streaming etc. Connection Benchmark: run a pure test of your Internet line to find out how stable your ping is and if you are getting your full bandwidth speeds Traffic Controller: block any applications, ports or devices from accessing the Internet. Feature 5: Announcing Soon Feature 6: Announcing Soon Feature 7: Announcing Soon Feature 8: Announcing Soon Further feature reveals will be posted on our blog here: https://netduma.com/blog/


How do I Signup?
Netduma R1 owners - go here: https://netduma.com/dumaos-3-0-signup-for-netduma-r1/
Nighthawk Pro Gaming users (XR300, XR450, XR500, XR700) - go here: http://www.netgearinnovation.com/dumaos-beta/index.html
When will I get the beta?
When making a major software update like 3.0, it's normal for things to not be perfect at the start. So as much as we would love each and every one of you to get your hands on 3.0 right now, it would be risky for us to do it in one go.
Instead we will be phasing the roll-out, starting off with a small number of testers. Once things are looking good, we will add some more, then more, gradually increasing until everyone who has signed up has received the upgrade.
When we are ready for you to join the beta you will get an email into your inbox with instructions on how to join. Please be patient - we will email you when we are ready.
Finally...
We want to thank you for your support and patience during the development of 3.0. We are very aware that it has taken time. But it really has been worth it. It has allowed us to take DumaOS to the next level. Work is already underway on 3.1 and we're working on some seriously big features that will give you even more control over your lag and your network.
We hope you have fun testing 3.0.
The ND Team

Sweet as, on it!!

We'll make an official signup closer to the time but people are using this topic as an informal signup thread for now: https://forum.netduma.com/topic/29487-announcement-the-future-of-dumaos-version-30
 

There will likely not be a fix until our next firmware version DumaOS 3.0 is released but I couldn't say when that would be, we want to do a beta soon. Meanwhile you can change the DNS on the router to the VPN DNS or use a VPN Client if using for the PC.