Voxel Custom firmware build for Orbi RBK50/RBK53 (RBR50, RBS50) v. 9.2.5.1.13.1SF-HW

[CharlieTX]

I just flashed this firmware today. I didn't factory reset (I'd really rather not). Dropbear didn't start up. I enabled telnet as if the firmware were stock, and I'm trying to figure out what stopped it.

 

[fourty6and2]

So far I am having good luck with this firmware. Really like the ability to disable circle and armor!

thanks for the work on this

 

[Packet1]

This is working very well for me as well. Thanks for your work on this.

Quick question for anyone who’s using the orbi app as well. Do you also get the update firmware button in the upper right? I click on the button and for some reason the app thinks the version installed is in need of an update.

 

[fourty6and2]

This is working very well for me as well. Thanks for your work on this.

Quick question for anyone who’s using the orbi app as well. Do you also get the update firmware button in the upper right? I click on the button and for some reason the app thinks the version installed is in need of an update.

On one of the other threads, OP mentioned you may see stock updates available from the GUI. They will take you back to stock.

 

[CharlieTX]

This firmware is nice. Thank you

Ok, further reboots and dropbear is working for me. While the satellites work as expected, the RBR won't accept my admin password. I used the overlay to populate authorized keys, so I guess it doesn't matter. I did set the root password from telnet, and that also worked.

Now for the complicated part. My neighborhood has two broadband ISPs, one slow (VDSL2), one unreliable (cable). I have service from both. I will eventually use policy routing to send all my bulk traffic to the less reliable connection, while sending gaming traffic and such to the reliable one. I did this professionally between bonded T1 lines and a cable modem with a real Linux server many, many years ago, so I know it can be done. Now it was easier in a commercial setting with commercial service. Static IP addresses, larger budget, no need to run Disney circle to selectively enforce safe mode search and youtube restricted.

But I'm stuck on getting udhcpc to setup my second interface.

Using the GUI I configured VLANs for 501 as Internet and 502 as the alternate. The system comes up with brwan containing eth0.501 and br502 containing eth0.502. Now, the cable connection went down while I was doing this, so I swapped the interfaces under brwan and 502 for the moment.

I duplicated all of the iptables (filter and nat) for brwan with equivalent rules for br502. Running "udhcpc -f -i br502 -h /tmp/dhcp_name.conf" just leaves me with "Sending discover..." over and over. After a lot of frustration, I configured a mirror port on vlan 502 on the switch, and I never see the discovers. If I manually bring up br502 on 192.168.100.10 I'm able to ping the cable modem admin interface on 192.168.100.1, so I am reasonably confident my VLAN configuration is correct.

Thoughts? Should I try to load an alternate dhcp client? As a long term Java developer I don't have a lot of experience cross compiling to handle the arm platform. Maybe Entware is the answer, but I haven't used it.

Thanks.

 

[Packet1]

On one of the other threads, OP mentioned you may see stock updates available from the GUI. They will take you back to stock.

Thanks! I’ve taken a screenshot of what I see when I click update.

 

[CharlieTX]

Thanks! I’ve taken a screenshot of what I see when I click update.
View attachment 22615

I can reproduce this. I think it's best to ignore it. It seems that the app is having a hard time with the alpha suffix on this version, since neither of those versions are available from Netgear.

 

[CharlieTX]

My long post above about not getting udhcpc to work on a second vlan interface

Enabling the VLAN support using the GUI has given me horrible routing performance. I switched my primary connection back to cable this AM by rebooting the router to swap the VLANs back to their normal state. I ran a speedtest from my laptop (wired gigabit) and it came back at 100 x 22. Normally I'd get 600 x 10 (upstream performance has been very poor of late). In fact, running the speedtest on the router gave me 600 x 15

I mapped my OpenSpeedTest server to same VLAN as my cable modem and stood up a temporary IP address space on it but I'm only getting 330 x 550 mbps through it. Maybe my switches aren't performing correctly, both the server and my test laptop are in my home office, which has a 2 gigabit port-channel connection to my primary switch that has the router and cable modem. But I wanted to know if performance using VLANs was a known issue. I think I'm going to have to put the Orbi in AP mode and dust off an old server with 3 nics to get the performance and flexibility I need. And buy parental control software for the child's desktop instead of using Circle (Which I do have turned off right now. I'm testing and setting up incrementally).

Thanks,
Charlie

 

[Packet1]

I can reproduce this. I think it's best to ignore it. It seems that the app is having a hard time with the alpha suffix on this version, since neither of those versions are available from Netgear.

Thanks for verifying. No issues here with just ignoring the update button for now.

 

[CharlieTX]

Thanks for verifying. No issues here with just ignoring the update button for now.

Really forever. As far as I know you'll have to load updates the same way you switched to Voxel's firmware, and find out about new versions here.

 

[theoak]

Thanks for verifying. No issues here with just ignoring the update button for now.

Are you kidding me ... me ... ignore hitting a button ... man ... this will be a true test for me

 

[e38BimmerFN]

Come on, click on it. LOL. You know you want to.

Are you kidding me ... me ... ignore hitting a button ... man ... this will be a true test for me

 

[e38BimmerFN]

The 9.x value that Voxel added to the FW Version string is mean to stop NG auto update servers from pushing updated FW. I presume notifications of FW updates maybe seen however they should not come down to your systems automatically. I don't know if Voxel has his FW setup for updating thru the UI either. I presume that users have to manually download his FW files as they come out and manually install them yourself thru the RBS and RBS web page UI.
This is how I update my system.

This is working very well for me as well. Thanks for your work on this.

Quick question for anyone who’s using the orbi app as well. Do you also get the update firmware button in the upper right? I click on the button and for some reason the app thinks the version installed is in need of an update.

 

[spinkick]

Do you guys recommend fast roaming on or off? What about Mu-mimo and beam forming? I'm in ap mode with 3 devices on the network. Hub and spoke with the orbit router in the center of the house and the two sats on both ends. I feel like my phone holds onto the ap's for too long instead of switching to the closer one.

 

[L&LD]

@spinkick, can you turn down the power output on the routers? Can you move them further apart?

How many routers/AP's do you have? How big is your home?

 

[e38BimmerFN]

Fast Roaming can be tested to your liking. Beam-forming should be enabled. MIMO is only really needed if you have MIMO supporting devices.
Be aware that most wifi devices like phones, pads and cameras all pick and choose what frequency they connect to.

30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router

Do you guys recommend fast roaming on or off? What about Mu-mimo and beam forming? I'm in ap mode with 3 devices on the network. Hub and spoke with the orbit router in the center of the house and the two sats on both ends. I feel like my phone holds onto the ap's for too long instead of switching to the closer one.

 

[theoak]

There is an official Netgear 2.5.1.16 out.

Release notes state:
Fixes the attached device list incomplete issue

https://kb.netgear.com/000061838/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-2-5-1-16

FYI

 

[theoak]

Voxel must not sleep.

He has a new version out:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/c...50-rbk53-rbr50-rbs50-v-9-2-5-1-17sf-hw.63554/

 

[bakaneko59]

I assume that, for some reason, this will not work on the RBR20?

 

[e38BimmerFN]

Correct. Voxel only develops and build for the 50 series Orbi.