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Forum Discussion
Android 8 Crashes Orbi
I've been tracking down an issue where my Orbi just suddenly drops wifi and reboots. I've isolated it to be associated with an Android device running 8.0 or higher. And I've proven it turning off w...
Yea... I would've almost bet money on that happening unfortunately. Sorry man.
I'm literally standin in line with my Eero now. Looking forward to stability again.
I'm literally standin in line with my Eero now. Looking forward to stability again.
Got me Eero up and running with no issues. Super solid and super reliable. Yes, I gave up a little speed in the far corners of my house and yes, it's an overall more expensive solution BUT... it's super stable.
If I have to chose between stability and absolute speed then stability wins all day, every day. I've got gigabit service so the difference between 300mbs and 180mbs is insignificant. It's easy to get caught up in maximizing speeds but we have to remember that in 99% of cases, anything over 50mbs is overkill for almost any application.
I truly wanted Orbi to work but Netgear clearly has some big turds to work out. And when you consider the superio customer support of Eero it's a no brainer. In this case I'm going with the underdog. I wish I had stuck with them to begin with. I left them for the Orbi which was a huge mistake.
- Sorry to hear your experience was not good. I've been Rock solid with my Orbi, hosting a handful of Rokus, Android devices (including my Pixel 2 HD), security cameras, a pair of laptops, Nest, a bunch of additional peripherals, and my SmartThings. No drops at all. I wonder if maybe it is a quality control thing, and some folks simply got dud Orbis?
btonetbone I do not doubt that. I had an excellent experience for multiple months. Zero issues and rock solid performance. Then suddenly things went south. And unfortunately it only take a week of instable performance to bring a household of users to its knees. I'm tired of fighting with it. Eero is super solid, although a little slower. But stability is a huge premium - especially once you lived on the other side of the fence.
- Sounds similar to my setup...one Roku TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Smartthings, Hue, WeMo, multiple PCs, HDHomeRun Prime, PS3, etc. I usually have 28 or so devices connected at one time. I'm still in my 30 day return window and have requested an RMA from my vendor just in case. I literally can sit here and watch the router reboot when my Pixel phones (my wife and mine) wake up from a decent period of inactivity.
Only1Z Exactly! It took me a few days to narrow it down to my Pixel but once you realize what's going on it's super easy to prove it.
The most baffling part to me (and I've said this probably a billion times at this point) is that a client device is forcing a router to crash/reboot. That's just unheard of and completely ridiculous. We could wait another year or two for this one issue to be fixed but in that time another 5-6 would surface.
Most people want their routers to be set and forget. Orbi is NOT that sort of solution.
- Another case; can 100% confirm that my Pixel 2XL on 8.1 is causing my RBK50+2 satellites to go nuts almost every single morning. I suspected it was one of our Echo Dot devices, but a few days of disconnecting it didn't solve the problem. On a whim, I decided to turn off the WiFi on my Pixel 2XL overnight (because I would find it off WiFi almost every morning) and boom...no dropped WiFi today morning. I tried to get it to join the network and a few mins later, the entire network drops.
Pixel XL (8.0) and Pixel 2 (8.1)
I tested tonight a lot of setting suggestions out there and none have fixed the issue. I can say that it is during Satellite to Sattelite handoff that the reboot happens. I don't know what might help fix this that is phone related as I've turned off everything but wifi itself. I have a 2 unit system so unplgging the sattelite should stop the reboots.
I'm considering a Google Wifi with wired backhaul or Linksys Velop (Potentiall wired backhaul) as options. I figure at this point, if they work like **bleep** with my phone at least they don't kick the family off the internet.
Anyone tested running just the main base with a Pixel Phone?
- I haven't but I took my phone off wifi. No reboots!
I'm waiting for my vendor to approve the return so I at least have that option. Weird!
I updated to 2.1 for about an hour, fell back to the 2.0 KRACK beta, and still had intermittent restarts I couldn't understand.
Sure enough...I got a Pixel 2 XL last week, and it's running 8.1.
That explains it...sort of, but seriously, what the hell?
I am having the same issues on a brand new system. I replaced Google Wifi for other issues that I won't go into, but it wasn't rebooting when I wake a phone up.
What version did this start at? Is it stable in previous releases?
Right now I am leaning to returning the Orbi system and putting my Google Wifi back in.
- Not sure when this started as my Orbi system is brand new and it has worked this way for 4 weeks now. What was wrong with the Google WiFi?
After a power outage the Google Wifi Mesh would collapse and have to be rebuit. If I got lucky and everything synced up after power returned, the wireless speeds would be ~.5mb/s. Basically unuseable. I've had numerous troubleshooting calls with Google. One thing that bugs me is that the obfuscate the logs so you can't actually see what's going on with the system. There was no information of any use to me what was going on.
When I gave up on Orbi I was highly considering Google Wifi but I was reading JUST enough stuff like this to keep me from doing it.
I went with Eero and it's been just completely rock solid for me. However, I'm starting to be of the opinion that the whole mesh wifi thing is just rife with complications so what may work for one person may not work well for another.
It's fairly new technology on the consumer side so hopefully as it matures we will see a great improvement in the stability.
Add me to the list who is seeing the reboots as a result of my S7's since the December Samsung security update. I had a reboot in the morning before I left for work and it was stable until my first kid got home from school and connected to the WiFi with their S7.....bam...reboot. In the mean time I have around 40 other devices on my WiFi network and none of those are causing issues.
Jeff
Thanks for this input! That could help us see that it is likely connected to the December security update, not necessarily Android 8.1.
I too have had VERY frequent reboots since the beginning of this month with 4 different Orbi firmwares. The one consistent factor is that the wifi stays up when me and my wife leave our phones off of wifi entirely. The reboots happen very often when one or both phones connect or disconnect to wifi. For example, wifi reboots every morning when I wake up, pick up my phone, and turn the screen on for the first time. It reboots when I leave for work and my wife is still at home. It reboots within minutes of me getting home from work.Google Pixel 2 Android 8.1
RBK50 on 2.1.12 and then 2.1.16
Just wanted to share an experience I have had recently. I had the reboot issues on the router and after some googling found it to be this issue as well. Waking up the phone would cause it as well as moving about the house where the phone would switch from satellite to router. So recently when I saw that 2.1.12 implemented wired backhaul I thoiught I would try it out. Some people with 2 satellites and others with switches were having network storm issue but I don't have either of these challengesso I gave it a shot. Since making that change I have not had the reboot that I can recall. I have updated to 2.1.16 that just came out and still no issue while being wired backhaul configiured. I'm sure this isn't an option for many of you but if it is it might be worth proving my scenario as a fluke or a solution.
I have a feeling that it might not just be an issue with Android 8 Devices. I have a Galaxy Note 8 runing android 7.1.1. I have noticed that my router reboots fairly consistantly at 7AM when my alarm goes off. It has also rebooted several other times throughout the day but i think almost always while I am using my phone.
I have 3 people in this house that have Pixel XL phones. I've had the same issue for I don't know how long where I would wake up the phone and it would cause the satellite and router to crash/reboot. I've been doing some research.. seems that the Pixel doesn't like Mesh networks. I took someone's advice.. I enable bluetooth on my phone... the 2 other folks already had it on.. I'm shocked to say this has not rebooted since yesterday morning. What is weird is that my phone will connect to router or satellite.. but if I move to the other it disconnects.. goes to LTE then connects to the Orbi.. I also want to mention I enabled Mu-Mimo.. what I understand is the Pixel phones have the Mu-Mimo capability. I've been having this issue for quite some time.. I had the 8.1 beta.. the other 2 folks did not. Looking back it seems that my pixel 8.1 OS could have been causing the problems all along.
This router does not like changing the DNS server... I left that alone but due to the 52+ devices on my network I told it to use channel 11 for 2.4ghz and primary channel 48 for 5ghz.
I hope what I've shared will help others.. I agree with what has been said so far.. The moderators or Netgear staff does not put out too much helpful information in here. I pre-ordered this hardware so it's way too late to get my money back. One more thing.. I also hardwired the 4 4K FireTV sticks.. not sure if this helped but it obviously took 4 devices of the 5ghz.. I'm very confident this is the issue. The orbi wants to stay on 5ghz even though the signal is poor.
Posted this on /r/android for visibility:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/7lkf54/latest_android_security_updates_are_crashing/
Maybe if it gets enough, Netgear will address it.
Tpars I'd almost bet money that your Orbi will reboot again in the morning. None of the settings you've messed with will solve it.
Netgear needs to aknowledge the issue, put on their big boy undies and fix it. Currently they are burying their heads in the sand. Meanwhile users flock to safer grounds.
- I can confirm it happens in Android 7 too. My Samsung Galaxy 8 crashes the Orbi like clockwork when I wake up, and sometimes throughout the day. At least reboots 4 times per day. It's got to a point where I am afraid to touch my phone, and I cannot use 4G where I am because of the poor connection. I'm not going to spend another $350 on another mesh system because of the size of my house. I'm stuck with this until they fix it, if they fix it. But I am warning my neighbors and Friends, whoever would listen to me about these disconnect problems. It's a 50-50 chance they may or may not have the problem, but still I would hate for anyone to go through this. For such an expensive system.
It's not just Android 8 . My Orbi router crashes randomly. We don't have any Android 8 devices.
Only wireless devices we have are Wemo, Juicebox, Android 6 phone, 3 laptops (PCs).
- I'm sure there are multiple issues besides Android 8. However, the issue in this thread is repeatable. I could crash my router on demand using my Pixel phone.
- Yep. I can crash my Orbi every time my phone sits idle for 10 or 15 minutes. When the phone is not on wifi, all is well.
From another forum thread:
Vphan13 wrote:
https://www.myce.com/news/confirmed-issue-google-cast-causes-temporarily-wifi-drops-around-world-83428/
http://www.tp-link.com/us/faq-2050.htmlSounds like they're honing in on the root cause.
I wonder if blocking MDNS (UDP port 5353) in the Orbi security rules would have any effect on these kernel panics / reboots. Unfortunately, I'm not able to test it myself because I don't have one of the affected Android devices.