Xr500 firmware updates

[Guest Killhippie]

2 hours ago, Zippy said:

 Killhippie, If the R7800 was the test bed for DumaOS cant we just flash this XR500 with Voxels firmware? I do know there were people downloading DumaOS on the 7800 was wondering if that could work the other way around and just use Voxels. Granted we would lose DumaOS but we would get a router with support.. Have you asked Voxel this before? Curious to see what he would say on this matter. Ive talked to him a bit about the XR500.

Zippy.

In a word no, there are differences, and Voxels firmware is designed for a router with less Flash NAND for a start. The people downloading DumaOS on the R7800 were either beta testers, or people using xvortex's illegal and potential malware ridden firmware and that's not worth talking about as its a breech of T&C's and stealing off Netduma which is totally wrong.

 Alas reverting would not be that easy, if you want the XR500 to be a R7800 then it would take a lot of work and Voxel would need a XR500. Also the R7800 has its own issues, Qualcomm's Streamboost QoS has not been updated since 2017, in fact the URL for it is dead, Voxel tested this. I think the R7800 router is approaching EOL but that's a not based on anything apart from lack of updates and the fact its a very old router, and QoS updates don't look like they will happening any more. as Streamboost was the big selling point for that router and I think Qualcomm have moved on, as its old tech now. The RAX80 would be the logical replacement for it in Netgears line up although its a Broadcom based router. The XR500 is best being the XR500 tbh.

[Zippy]

6 hours ago, Killhippie said:

In a word no, there are differences, and Voxels firmware is designed for a router with less Flash NAND for a start. The people downloading DumaOS on the R7800 were either beta testers, or people using xvortex's illegal and potential malware ridden firmware and that's not worth talking about as its a breech of T&C's and stealing off Netduma which is totally wrong.

 Alas reverting would not be that easy, if you want the XR500 to be a R7800 then it would take a lot of work and Voxel would need a XR500. Also the R7800 has its own issues, Qualcomm's Streamboost QoS has not been updated since 2017, in fact the URL for it is dead, Voxel tested this. I think the R7800 router is approaching EOL but that's a not based on anything apart from lack of updates and the fact its a very old router, and QoS updates don't look like they will happening any more. as Streamboost was the big selling point for that router and I think Qualcomm have moved on, as its old tech now. The RAX80 would be the logical replacement for it in Netgears line up although its a Broadcom based router. The XR500 is best being the XR500 tbh.

 Thanks Killhippie. I think most that were using the DumaOS were beta testers. There was a thread about it on snb. That's where I learned about DumaOS then came here.  So right now it looks like dd wrt is the only option.  The thing is Killhippie even when we do get this update for the XR500 we know there are going to be issues even with the new firmware. That's just the nature of the beast. Some issue with milestone 1.3 will be fixed and im sure some wont. And who knows what other new bugs will present themselves in the next new milestone or firmware drop. This running DumaOS over the top of Netgears just doesn't sit well with me. I see way to many variables for issues to arise. This type of deal moving forward needs a clean one firmware does all.. Not what we have now.  I really wish from the start Netduma would have been more clear on who actually was supporting the XR series routers. 

Zippy.

[Mrbchambers]

7 minutes ago, Zippy said:

 Thanks Killhippie. I think most that were using the DumaOS were beta testers. There was a thread about it on snb. That's where I learned about DumaOS then came here.  So right now it looks like dd wrt is the only option.  The thing is Killhippie even when we do get this update for the XR500 we know there are going to be issues even with the new firmware. That's just the nature of the beast. Some issue with milestone 1.3 will be fixed and im sure some wont. And who knows what other new bugs will present themselves in the next new milestone or firmware drop. This running DumaOS over the top of Netgears just doesn't sit well with me. I see way to many variables for issues to arise. This type of deal moving forward needs a clean one firmware does all.. Not what we have now.  I really wish from the start Netduma would have been more clear on who actually was supporting the XR series routers. 

Zippy.

I agree Zippy, and at least if they had been clear on who was going to support the XR500, it would have made them think how that support was going to be achieved because, at the moment there doesn't seem to be any!

[Mrbchambers]

I would just like to say that I am feeling very let down. It's like being sold a dog that walks backwards wagging its head. It's cute and cuddly but it isn't right. 

What could be so difficult in fixing the issues?

[Zippy]

2 hours ago, Mrbchambers said:

I agree Zippy, and at least if they had been clear on who was going to support the XR500, it would have made them think how that support was going to be achieved because, at the moment there doesn't seem to be any!

Exactly! Well said!  Don't get me wrong the support Netduma has given is only for the basic set up and trouble shooting. Any issues that arise are past onto Netgear and that is where it ends.. Nothing more nothing less. What bogles my mind to no end is how did they think this method and arrangement with Netgear was going to work?? Simple answer is it was not. And we can clearly see that now.  When I found out that this NetdumaOS was laid on top of Netgears stock firmware my heart sank.. I knew this was going to be a rough ride. I just didn't expect this to get strung out with no real fixes. It really comes to show us here how things these days have really changed. And the sad part is this all falls back on the consumer that is buying these and other routers alike. We are caught holding the bag. And we pay the consequences because at the end of the day they got there money and we are stuck with a product that really is not usable in my eyes.. Im sure the XR500 is on a priority list with Netgear. But its clearly not that high of a priority..

Zippy.

[ngearftard]

On 8/1/2019 at 5:21 PM, peanut183 said:

This. I broke my own vow to not buy another Netgear product when I saw this router come out. I thought, "Hey, someone else doing the software!!! Cool, maybe I can rely upon this 3rd party to keep the system up to date." The jury is in. Nope. Another abandoned Netgear product. Shame on me.

Same, hence the moniker. The reviews were full of (well-deserved by most accounts) praise for NetDuma.

What landed me here are connectivity, especially packet loss, issues that disappear when switching PC WAN connection from Netgear XR500 router (Ethernet) to Netgear CM600 modem (Ethernet), so it's nothing downstream or upstream far as I can tell. PC <-> XR500 <-> CM600 <-> Cloud is giving me all kinds of connection headaches on default settings with the very latest firmware (the very-latest, dropping-out-fix one, because my wife was getting random drop-outs) installed. Using default settings with plenty of bandwidth and hardly any other device traffic, I'm getting anywhere from 0-30% packet loss. The amount at any given moment is unpredictable. For the most part it's 0%, but there are these rashes of several minutes to an hour or more where ping -n 30 8.8.8.8 from a command prompt yields 5-30% packet loss. I thought it may be an upstream issue, but switching to the CM600 where there are no issues proves it's not.

Now, there is this rumor from today of an imminent firmware release:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Pro-Gaming-Routers/XR500-New-Firmware-V2-3-2-56/m-p/1783316#M12438

Worth holding out hope?

[Fuzy]

Je pense une version bêta pour quelqu'un qui a encore le support ! juste pour fixer un bug sans réel incidence pour le moment !

[ngearftard]

Just tested for packet loss again as follows (results are similar no matter the QOS settings) from a command prompt using:

ping -n 10000 8.8.8.8

(10000 so it runs forever, and packet loss stands out like a sore thumb with "Request timed out" line-items.)

And let it run in a portrait-length sidebar on 2nd monitor while I worked.

Scenario 1: PC (Ethernet) <-> XR500 <-> CM600 <-> WAN

Result: lots of intermittent packet loss

Scenario 2: PC (Ethernet) <-> CM600 (rebooted) <-> WAN

Result: zero packet loss

Returned to Scenario 1 (after rebooting CM600 with XR500 connected to it):

Result: lots of intermittent packet loss

Firmware is V2.3.2.40-C424a (unofficial hotfix for connectivity issues)

Conclusion: XR500 is causing packet loss, at least with this particular firmware. Will try to go back to the latest official firmware and compare results.

(Edit: the packet loss seems to show up in waves that subside only to return; they've yet to show up while using only the CM600 though.)

 

[Zippy]

2 hours ago, ngearftard said:

Same, hence the moniker. The reviews were full of (well-deserved by most accounts) praise for NetDuma.

What landed me here are connectivity, especially packet loss, issues that disappear when switching PC WAN connection from Netgear XR500 router (Ethernet) to Netgear CM600 modem (Ethernet), so it's nothing downstream or upstream far as I can tell. PC <-> XR500 <-> CM600 <-> Cloud is giving me all kinds of connection headaches on default settings with the very latest firmware (the very-latest, dropping-out-fix one, because my wife was getting random drop-outs) installed. Using default settings with plenty of bandwidth and hardly any other device traffic, I'm getting anywhere from 0-30% packet loss. The amount at any given moment is unpredictable. For the most part it's 0%, but there are these rashes of several minutes to an hour or more where ping -n 30 8.8.8.8 from a command prompt yields 5-30% packet loss. I thought it may be an upstream issue, but switching to the CM600 where there are no issues proves it's not.

Now, there is this rumor from today of an imminent firmware release:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-Pro-Gaming-Routers/XR500-New-Firmware-V2-3-2-56/m-p/1783316#M12438

Worth holding out hope?

Ive had those packet losses also pop up from time to time. Its the router. Ive chased down a lot of rabbit holes when the whole time it was the router. I haven't had my XR500 hooked up for months because of issues like yours and other odd issues. Its just very buggy and unpredictable. Something I don't have the time to waste on when there is no real support in a timely manner. 

 On a good note though maybe there is a firmware update coming soon. Even though I found it strange reading what Netduma said on the Netgear forum. Strange they wouldn't know when this is taking place. Just another sign that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.. Still my fingers are crossed. We needed a update months ago! I still cant help myself though thinking this Netduma/Netgear relationship seems like the circus came to town.

Zippy.

[ngearftard]

^ After rolling back to V2.3.2.40

ping -n 10000 8.8.8.8

(Been running it for an hour.)

Result: first hour or so yielded not packet loss; now I'm starting to get it again though (big wave, as I would get with Intel Puma 6 chipset-based modems), bunch of jitter too.

[ngearftard]

@Zippy This arrogant disregard of people's time is pandemic among the larger tech companies. I didn't spend a bunch of money on a router only to have to spend 40+ hours of time screwing around with it trying to get it to work; but the bottom line is king, and actually testing products before releasing them on the public affects the bottom line. I wish reviewers focused more on performance and reliability rather than features, but then that might affect their bottom lines.

[Zippy]

10 minutes ago, ngearftard said:

^ After rolling back to V2.3.2.40

ping -n 10000 8.8.8.8

(Been running it for an hour.)

Result: first hour or so yielded not packet loss; now I'm starting to get it again though (big wave, as I would get with Intel Puma 6 chipset-based modems), bunch of jitter too.

When I had my xr500 each time I would do a hard reset start to the router it would work for awhile as well.. But something breaks down and then it starts to get packet loss.. That's just one example. Ive down graded and upgraded doing this several times and it always worked for awhile then it would start again. Just another example.. During each time I did anything I always cleared my browsers cache.

Zippy.

[ngearftard]

2 minutes ago, Zippy said:

When I had my xr500 each time I would do a hard reset start to the router it would work for awhile as well.. But something breaks down and then it starts to get packet loss.. That's just one example. Ive down graded and upgraded doing this several times and it always worked for awhile then it would start again. Just another example.. During each time I did anything I always cleared my browsers cache.

Zippy.

Done all that too to no avail.

[Zippy]

7 minutes ago, ngearftard said:

@Zippy This arrogant disregard of people's time is pandemic among the larger tech companies. I didn't spend a bunch of money on a router only to have to spend 40+ hours of time screwing around with it trying to get it to work; but the bottom line is king, and actually testing products before releasing them on the public affects the bottom line. I wish reviewers focused more on performance and reliability rather than features, but then that might affect their bottom lines.

 Well said my friend. I always laugh at some of those reviewers on youtube. Saying how great a router is when they only had it hooked up for about two hours! lol. Im like how can you give a honest review when you haven't even fully tested it for weeks or months! 

Zippy.

[Zippy]

3 minutes ago, ngearftard said:

Done all that too to no avail.

Were in the same boat then. Its a shame really because there are some awesome features in the XR500. 

Zippy.

[ngearftard]

1 minute ago, Zippy said:

 Well said my friend. I always laugh at some of those reviewers on youtube. Saying how great a router is when they only had it hooked up for about two hours! lol. Im like how can you give a honest review when you haven't even fully tested it for weeks or months! 

Zippy.

Still holding out hope it gets fixed (assuming it's not unfixable like Intel Puma 6 chipsets) before it's obsolete maybe?

[Zippy]

1 minute ago, ngearftard said:

Still holding out hope it gets fixed (assuming it's not unfixable like Intel Puma 6 chipsets) before it's obsolete maybe?

Im with yah! Im still holding onto a glimmer of hope! Id much rather be on here giving positive feedback then being on here looking for fixes and such. If you hear anything more please share here. I will do the same. 👍

Zippy.

[ngearftard]

🤞

[ngearftard]

Edit: update below.

[Mrbchambers]

I think I have missed something: Is the new firmware ending in 56 real, imagined, or do you have to be a special person to get it?

[Netduma Alex]

I think it's real, but it's not released. I know that firmware has been being tested recently.

This guy called xr500 on the NETGEAR forums said that the firmware was released and that was the start of the rumour, but he seems like a pretty unreliable source...

So was it a fluke? Was he lying? Was he a tester that just forgot he was testing? I don't know.

But what I do know is that the update is real and is being tested.

[Fuzy]

...

La seule chose qui est fiable pour le moment c'est que DumaOS sur XR500 fonctionne très mal !

la question est là...

Pour le moment rien d'autre malheureusement... pourquoi avoir ban le post https://community.netgear.com/t5/Removed-Posts/XR500-New-Firmware-V2-3-2-56/m-p/1783316#M12438

Come on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mrbchambers]

1 hour ago, Netduma Alex said:

I think it's real, but it's not released. I know that firmware has been being tested recently.

This guy called xr500 on the NETGEAR forums said that the firmware was released and that was the start of the rumour, but he seems like a pretty unreliable source...

So was it a fluke? Was he lying? Was he a tester that just forgot he was testing? I don't know.

But what I do know is that the update is real and is being tested.

Alex,

Thank you. Just hope we can see the new firmware soon.

[e38BimmerFN]

4 hours ago, Netduma Alex said:

I think it's real, but it's not released. I know that firmware has been being tested recently.

This guy called xr500 on the NETGEAR forums said that the firmware was released and that was the start of the rumour, but he seems like a pretty unreliable source...

So was it a fluke? Was he lying? Was he a tester that just forgot he was testing? I don't know.

But what I do know is that the update is real and is being tested.

Looks like his post and the entire thread was removed over there. 😏

[Guest Killhippie]

2 hours ago, e38BimmerFN said:

Looks like his post and the entire thread was removed over there. 😏

 When a very unsettling person started started accusing me of being a killer and killing hippies because of my Internet handle after going on google and saying they would  contact the FBI,  maybe one of mods thought it a good idea to delete the whole thread. 

 Also that post contained information that was not meant to be in the public domain at the present time, another good reason to get rid of that thread. As Alex said the firmware does exist and it is being tested.This is why trust and in some cases a NDA are so important.

 Now I think everything has been said that can be said about this new firmware subject and can I ask for one of the mods here to  separate the firmware rumour update from the main thread thread and then lock it please. It’s probably best all round