Before upgrading the firmware on your wireless controller please read these release notes carefully. The upgrade path to the latest firmware is dependent on the current active firmware running on your wireless controller, and the access point models it is managing.
NOTE:
CUSTOMERS UPGRADING CONTROLLER FROM 6.0.1.X FIRMWARE MUST UPGRADE TO THE MIGRATION FIRMWARE (6.0.1R.1) FIRST BEFORE UPGRADING TO 6.5.5.0 RELEASE
Customer having WAC720, WAC730, In the Controller network:
- Upgrade the controller to 6.0.1R.1 firmware which is bundled together with 6.5.5.0 release zip file.
- Once the upgrade is complete login to the controller, and make sure that all the APs have come to the connected state.
- Customer MUST wait for at least 15 minutes after all APs have come to connected state.
- After waiting for 15 minutes, upgrade the controller to 6.5.5.0 firmware.
- Once the upgrade is complete login to the controller and make sure all the APs have come to connected state, clients are able to connect to the network, and the controller network is up and running.
| Current Firmware Version | Upgrade Steps |
| WC7600v2-6.0.1.X | 6.0.1.X -> 6.0.1R.0 -> 6.5.5.0 |
Customer not having WAC720, WAC730 in the controller network:
- Customer not having 720, 730 in the controller network don’t need to go through the migration firmware release. They can directly upgrade the controller from 6.0.1.x to 6.5.5.0.
| Current Firmware Version | Upgrade Steps |
| WC7600v2-6.0.1.X | 6.0.1.X -> 6.5.5.0 |
Bug Fixes :
- Increased performance in high density & congested environments for WAC7X0 APs
- Increased performance when mixed mode (11g, 11ng, 11a, 11na, 11ac) clients are connected to the network for WAC7X0 APs
- Increased performance for multicast streaming for WAC7X0 APs
New features added:
- Auto Channel Enhancements.
- Added a preview pop to show the list of channels allocated to APs.
- Different color coding for DFS, non-DFS, supported and not supported channels for a country.
- Firmware upgrade page enhancements.
- Displaying the firmware version on both the boot partitions. In order to display the correct firmware version on both partitions, you must upgrade both partitions to firmware version 6.5.5.0 or above.
- Option to upgrade either of the boot partitions.
- Option to select the partition to boot from.
- Client rate limiting (WAC7XX)
- Admin can set the maximum bandwidth can be used by a client.
- Framed IP Attribute in RADIUS accounting packets for WAC7XX APs.
Upgrade Matrix:
Upgrade to 6.5.5.0 from recent releases
| Older Firmware Version | Upgrade Steps |
| WC7600v2-6.5.3.9 | 6.5.3.9 -> 6.5.5.0 |
| WC7600v2-6.5.3.7 | 6.5.3.7 -> 6.5.5.0 |
| WC7600v2-6.5.3.5 | 6.5.3.5-> 6.5.5.0 |
Upgrade to 6.5.5.0 from Standalone / Cloud AP Firmware
The following table lists the minimum Standalone AP firmware version required before they can be discovered and converted to the Controller firmware. Customer has to downgrade to the same standalone AP firmware version, if they have to manage the AP in standalone mode.
Note: Make sure SNMP is enabled on the following models before discovery process in controller
| Devices | Firmware Upgraded From below versions to 6.5.5.0 |
| WC7600v2 | 6.5.3.9 |
| 6.5.3.7 | |
| 6.5.3.5 |
| AP Model | Firmware Version |
| WNAP210 | 3.7.4.0 |
| WNAP320 | 3.7.4.0 |
| WNDAP350 | 3.7.4.0 |
| WNDAP360 | 3.7.4.0 |
| WNDAP660 | 3.7.4.0 |
| WAC720 | 3.7.11.0 |
| WAC730 | 3.7.11.0 |
| WAC740 | NOT APPLICABLE |
| WND930 | 2.1.2 |
Upgrade Instructions:
- Using the Download Link below, download and extract the new firmware to a convenient place such as your desktop.
Download Link: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/WC7600v2/WC7600V2_V6.5.5.0.zip - Log into the WC7600v2.
- Make a backup of the current running configuration from Maintenance > Backup/Restore and select BACKUP button.
**Read the Caveats below if the upgrade is from a lower major release - Select Maintenance > Upgrade from the main/submenu.
- In the Firmware Upgrade section, select Local File and click Browse.
- Locate the downloaded file and click Apply.This will start the software upgrade to your WC7600v2. This may take some time. Do not interrupt the upgrade process. At the conclusion of the upgrade, your WC7600v2 will reboot.
- In case of stacked and redundancy configurations, please follow the below steps:
- Upgrade the redundant controller first if available. Wait for the redundant controller to upgrade successfully and come back active.
- Then upgrade in the order Secondary 2, Secondary 1 and Primary controller.
Caveats:
When the upgrade is from 4.x.x.x to 5.x.x.x and Admin password has any special characters (example:"P !@#$%^" ),change the password to alphanumeric only before upgrade (example : "Password"). Make a configuration backup, and upgrade. After the upgrade you can configure your old password again in 5.x.x.x.
Discovering Standalone from controller
| AP Model | Minimum AP software version |
| WNAP210v2 | V2.1.6 or later |
| WNAP320 | V2.1.6 or later |
| WNDAP350 | V2.1.9 or later |
| WNDAP360 | V2.1.12 or later |
| WNDAP620 | V2.0.8 or later |
| WNDAP660 | V2.0.5 or later |
| WAC720 | V3.1.1.0 or later |
| WAC730 | V3.1.1.0 or later |
| WNDAP930 | V2.0.4 or later |
This product includes software code developed by third parties, including software code subject to the GNU General Public License ("GPL") or GNU Lesser General Public License ("LGPL"). As applicable, the terms of the GPL and LGPL, and information on obtaining access to the GPL Code and LGPL Code used in this product, are available to you at NETGEAR Open Source GPL. The GPL Code and LGPL Code used in this product is distributed WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY and is subject to the copyrights of one or more authors. For details, see the GPL Code and LGPL Code for this product and the terms of the GPL and LGPL.