New R7000 Firmware V1.0.4.18 adds new features and enhancements

[bobsilver]

Netgear released last week new firmware for the R7000 that will build on the Nighthawk performance and feature set. The Nighthawk product line is expected to be around for a while and Netgear plans to continue to enhance the products through new firmware that will add features, capabilities and performance enhancements. The R7000 was the first in line of these updates with the R8000 up next.

A big part of this firmware is a Genie that helps new users who have service provider combined modems and routers setup a new R7000 walking them though the configuration after the R7000 itself analyses the existing configuration. Many folks who have these setups run into big issues trying to configure the best setup. The new system handles all the heavy lifting. Rather cool actually. I have 2 friends buying R7000 for this very reason now.

For more detail here is a link to a Netgear internal presentation on the changes
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ppx8jqxqfvc5zb2/Nighthawk New features 022615.pdf?dl=0


New V1.0.4.18 Firmware Features and Enhancements

- Genie with remote access to provide you network management even when you are away from home

- Easy & automatic installation of the NETGEAR router with Internet provider gateway to upgrade your WiFi: New Installation wizard to make installation much easier


- Genie now supports:

o Chromecast as player in MyMedia

o Desktop genie now includes MyMedia and WiFi analytics

o Registration of router with Netgear


Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

 

[Hogan773]

Any chance this firmware has fixed the buggy R7000's predisposition to dropping internet connections? We're noticing times where the devices are still connected to the R7000 wifi yet they are getting a "network not available" or similar error.

Lots of complaints about this on the internet......

Does this firmware have any fixes for those issues?

 

[Hogan773]

Actually scratch that .... this is the firmware I already have on my unit for the past month and it has these problems of dropping connections, locking up temporarily, etc.

Maybe I should just go back to my Asus router and sell the Netgear

 

[RMerlin]

Actually scratch that .... this is the firmware I already have on my unit for the past month and it has these problems of dropping connections, locking up temporarily, etc.

Maybe I should just go back to my Asus router and sell the Netgear

Are you sure it's not an ISP/modem issue?

 

[microchip]

Actually scratch that .... this is the firmware I already have on my unit for the past month and it has these problems of dropping connections, locking up temporarily, etc.

Maybe I should just go back to my Asus router and sell the Netgear

Works like a charm here. Absolutely no issues

 

[Hogan773]

Are you sure it's not an ISP/modem issue?

@RMerlin and microchip

No I'm not sure. How would I check that? I've not had issues in the past and after power cycling the router it seemed "better" although I haven't lived with it for many days.

The router just seems to lock up connections when both my wife and I are accessing from two different devices. Both devices become slow or completely frozen re: internet service. Both still show connected to the SSID but the phone might say "network problems" or whatever the error says when it basically isn't getting any internet data.....

 

[bobsilver]

@RMerlin and microchip

No I'm not sure. How would I check that? I've not had issues in the past and after power cycling the router it seemed "better" although I haven't lived with it for many days.

The router just seems to lock up connections when both my wife and I are accessing from two different devices. Both devices become slow or completely frozen re: internet service. Both still show connected to the SSID but the phone might say "network problems" or whatever the error says when it basically isn't getting any internet data.....

You are going to need to isolate whats going on. When your phone or other device says it can't get internet check a device that is wired to the router to see if you have internet. Also log in to the R7000 and the dashboard will tell you if you are connected as well.

If you have internet (router says you are connected and you confirm this by testing a device hardwired to the router) then its not an isp issue.

So what I would do then is reset the R7000 back to factory defaults. The run the setup genie again. DO NOT restore a settings file you may have saved. Do this fresh setup. Also to be sure reboot your phones. Your phones may have an ip address conflict. And the router isn't seeing them properly. So you want to ensure each has its own unique ip address and a reset of the router and reboot of the phones should handle that.

If you still have issues Id say you have a defective router. Get it exchanged.

Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

 

[Hogan773]

You are going to need to isolate whats going on. When your phone or other device says it can't get internet check a device that is wired to the router to see if you have internet. Also log in to the R7000 and the dashboard will tell you if you are connected as well.

If you have internet (router says you are connected and you confirm this by testing a device hardwired to the router) then its not an isp issue.

So what I would do then is reset the R7000 back to factory defaults. The run the setup genie again. DO NOT restore a settings file you may have saved. Do this fresh setup. Also to be sure reboot your phones. Your phones may have an ip address conflict. And the router isn't seeing them properly. So you want to ensure each has its own unique ip address and a reset of the router and reboot of the phones should handle that.

If you still have issues Id say you have a defective router. Get it exchanged.

Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

Did a factory reset from within the GUI last night. Didn't roll back to 3.80 or reflash 4.18, just did a reset on the current install of 4.18.

Will see how that goes. iPad was still slow but I googled and found that doing a "reset network settings" might work. Did so and it appeared to speed up a lot.

Wifi is always a tough thing to troubleshoot since there are so many variables in play

I noticed that IPv6 is "disabled" by default in this firmware. Is that because the router doesn't do IPv6 properly? Honestly I need to research what IPv6 even gives you, so I'm not going to monkey around with that too at the moment.

 

[microchip]

Did a factory reset from within the GUI last night. Didn't roll back to 3.80 or reflash 4.18, just did a reset on the current install of 4.18.

Will see how that goes. iPad was still slow but I googled and found that doing a "reset network settings" might work. Did so and it appeared to speed up a lot.

Wifi is always a tough thing to troubleshoot since there are so many variables in play

I noticed that IPv6 is "disabled" by default in this firmware. Is that because the router doesn't do IPv6 properly? Honestly I need to research what IPv6 even gives you, so I'm not going to monkey around with that too at the moment.

Router does IPv6 but there are small issues with it. It filters ICMPv6 packets and I'm working with NETGEAR to resolve the issues (testing trial FW for them). Most routers by default have IPv6 disabled so it's up to the user to enable it

 

[Hogan773]

Router does IPv6 but there are small issues with it. It filters ICMPv6 packets and I'm working with NETGEAR to resolve the issues (testing trial FW for them). Most routers by default have IPv6 disabled so it's up to the user to enable it

Thanks

It seems that I have plenty of internet speed with IP4 so I'll just leave IP6 disabled and not waste brain cells and hours of my life wrestling with that demon just so I can theoretically improve my page loading performance by 10% or whatever and risk introducing a bunch of other BS that I then need to work through......

At some point in the future if IPv6 becomes "required" to function well then hopefully by then the R7000 and Comcast will work perfectly together. Until then I'll let others do the "beta testing" for me

 

[TANWare]

My ISP tried out IPv6 a while back. There were so many issues at the time they still have not even implemented it.