Im planning a firmware upgrade on 2x of my Vigor 2860Ln routers. Im going from 3.8.2_VT1 to 3.9.0_BT
I had an awful experience last time going from 3.8.2_VT1 to 3.8.7_BT and had to rest the router using TFTP. I used the .all file because I wanted to preserve my config. It took me almost 2 hours to recover, and I want to avoid this again. I did the update in the browser last time. Should I use the Firmware Upgrade Utility this time to try the TFTP option instead?
I've not done much with the Draytecks in the past apart from just setting them up.
Any help will be very much appreciated!

Update the firmware in any way you feel comfortable.

I have a 2860 and a 2862 and there are firmware releases for both and i'm going to wait at least a couple of weeks before i do it just in case there are any issues.

I'd wait if i were you and pop in here now and then to see if several or more people are having problems with these firmware versions first....

You'll always get one that has an issue but it's not always the firmware that's the problem. It becomes a problem if you see several or more complaining about issues.

Truffle-Master wrote:
Im planning a firmware upgrade on 2x of my Vigor 2860Ln routers. Im going from 3.8.2_VT1 to 3.9.0_BT

You should upgrade to at least 3.8.8 at your earliest convenience (today ). The Release Notes flagged it as "Critical – Upgrade recommended immediately" almost 3 years ago :shock:

Why are you swapping from VT1 to BT as part of the upgrade? (That might be better done as a separate step, so you can gauge the effect better)

I don't know if there are less chances of problems, if you upgrade one version at a time - it's probably not something that's been tested.
Speaking of things that haven't been tested I've just uninstalled 3.9.0. See: https://forum.draytek.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=24124

Draytek wrote: These steps (upgrading to 3.9.0) need to be completed within 60 days or the WCF and DrayDDNS services may not work as expected after 2021-05-22.

Personally, since I no longer use DrayDDNS, I'll stick with 3.8.9.8 :wink:

What's the difference between VT and LT? Small oversight on my behalf. Could THIS be the issue all along?!
Also, what is the "vector" and "non-vector" in the firmware description?

Try using the BT rst firmware file. You will need to re-enter your ISP's login details and recreate any personalized configuration settings afterwards.

Truffle-Master wrote:
What's the difference between VT and LT? Small oversight on my behalf. Could THIS be the issue all along?!
Also, what is the "vector" and "non-vector" in the firmware description?

To cut a long story very short (and cover the gaps in my knowledge at the same time ), different 'flavours' of code exist for the modem section of the 2860 - these different flavours match different hardware at the 'Openreach' end. It may be, that specific flavours are sometimes required - I'm not sure. Theoretically, the modem code can be updated separately to the main Router firmware - but I've never seen it done that way.

My philosophy is: experiment :wink: I got a significant increase in performance by choosing a different version to default. You don't need to do this experiment as part of the overall upgrade though - these different 'modem flavours' exist for every 2860 Firmware version.

If your primary concern is the Router locking up again, I can only suggest you take it one step at a time or backup the Router's config. first, reset it to default, upgrade to the latest version and then restore your configuration. Note that as well as the main Router config. backup, many separate functions (eg Firewall Rules) have their own, individual backups as well. It is no bad thing to have these in your arsenal too ... in case the main Config backup cannot be re-applied. These individual backups are sometimes in plain text, so that at the very worst, you can see what you've lost.

Version 3.8.2 is > 5 years old - the 2860 functionality has changed significantly since then. You probably need to read the Release Notes, for every missed version (they are all contained in the latest Readme file).

Because your 2860(s) are so out of date, you also need to study Draytek's warning: https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/security-advisories/kb-advisory-csrf-and-dns-dhcp-web-attacks and https://www.draytek.co.uk/information/our-technology/wpa2-krack-vulnerability

You need to be aware, that 'Internet Inventories' exist, detailing such thing as out-of-date Draytek Routers. These inventories are freely accessible, to all and sundry
It is entirely possible that you have already come to the attention of the wrong sort of people!