Hi GE800 users,

Wanted to provide some updates for you guys regarding the R3 firmware for this router. As a lot of you know, I am currently beta testing, trying to work out the bugs with the engineering team. Although be a bit of a slow process, I was able to provide logs to them, which should help them take out and fix the bugs that have been plaguing this router. I was also told that they have stepped up the priority and for this to get handled right away.

++ More importantly, which please know that I am only the messenger, but possibly by the end of this week or maybe next week they will open up at least the first round for beta testing the R3 (from what I've been told) ++

As a beta tester, and not hearing back from anyone as far as why we have been delayed for this long, or anything posted anywhere regarding this, I went digging for answers:

*The primary reason the GE800 still hasn't received official Release 3 (R3) firmware—while cheaper routers like the BE550 Pro have it natively—comes down to a mix of hardware timing, driver fragmentation, and massive software regressions.

* The GE800 was designed, engineered, and certified very early in the Wi-Fi 7 lifecycle before the official Wi-Fi Alliance "Release 3" parameters were set in stone.

 - The Root Problem: Its core wireless drivers were explicitly written to handle early Wi-Fi 7 draft specifications. (Basically this was really rushed to be pushed out.)

- To implement R3 features (like multi-band MLO backhauls, network isolation for IoT, and cross-node EasyMesh synchronization), TP-Link can't just change some user interface settings. They are having to completely re-write the low-level wireless radio code to bridge that early hardware to the new R3 standard. From my understanding so far this is all I have been able to come up with.