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Forum Discussion
Android devices keep getting thrown off the Orbi WiFi
(This was also an issue before the latest firmware)
Our Android devices (tablets and phones) keep experincing the same issue. They are all sporadically thrown off WiFi and re-connected again a few seconds later.
What could the reason for this, and any recommended way of fixing this issue? I've done no changes to the basic Orbi setup, other then enabling Ipv6 and changing the DNS (issue was also present before doing those two changes).
I previously had a Nightahwk X8 where this never was an issue, so I'm worried either a setting or the Orbi system itself is flawed. In general I feel like the X8 has been superior in terms of speed, range and stability. Is that supposed to be correct?
152 Replies
For the benefit of everyone who is facing major WIFI disconnect issues (Whether on iOS or Android Devices).
I've been facing this issue from the beginning with much frustrations.
Currently I'm on the new Beta FW test and it's been looking good the whole of last night.
Not a single WIFI drop. I even asked the missus to observe this WIFI disconnect/connect situation.
She affirmed that it hasn't occured since the latest Beta FW.
It's a good sign so far.
Glad you are having good results with the beta. Are you able to watch your backhaul and see if you are having signal drops coming from the router? I'm trying to figure out if this issue is hardware or software related. Here are my 2.4 (pink) and 5 GHz (red) backhaul signals on the latest beta firmware. Devices sensisitive to quick disconnects like Wi-Fi cameras drop with it.
@BobertSaget wrote:Glad you are having good results with the beta. Are you able to watch your backhaul and see if you are having signal drops coming from the router? I'm trying to figure out if this issue is hardware or software related. Here are my 2.4 (pink) and 5 GHz (red) backhaul signals on the latest beta firmware. Devices sensisitive to quick disconnects like Wi-Fi cameras drop with it.
I don't think my backhaul was dropping last night as the missus ws watching Youtube the whole night from the TV (Which is LAN connected to the Satellite Unit). If backhaul had dropped the Youtube would have stopped and the missus would have howled! But she didn't.
I have the same problem with my setup: Orbi with 1 satelite, FW 1.10.1.2. In AP mode with IpFire as firewall, DHCP etc.
My observations so far:
- LG G5 keeps disconnecting / reconnecting with some seconds interval. Seems more prone to do so in certain areas of the house.
- Disabling 5GHz and the problem is gone (or at least greatly reduced). But I want 5GHz enabled of course...
Will continue to research...
One question though: How to I get hold of the latest beta firmware? Apparently that has solved the problem for marshymallow (?)
- Some Updates on the new Beta.
Unfortunately I encountered the occasional wifi drops but it's not as frequent as before.
I was in the same room as the router and I observed that prior to wifi drop, my mobile device will show very erratic wifi signal strength. Upon wifi drop, it reconnects back almost immediately however.
Hence the new Beta is still not perfect yet.OK - thanks!
Could someone please update me on where I can get the beta? Would like to test it myself :)
Sorry if this is like "swearing in the church" - but do anyone of you know if there are similar issues with the Linksys Velop?
I still have the opportunity to send back my Orbi getting back my money, so I consider switching instead of going the debugging path with Orbi...
Anyone?
- If you can dump it! The Lynksys has none of these issues. Apparently everybody and thier brother is starting to makeing the mesh, this is expensive but not a lifetime purchase it certainly isnt the last router we will own- why deal with trying to get it to work if you can send it back? I waited too long and had to eat the cost, dont make the same mistake I did.
"why deal with trying to get it to work if you can send it back?" - I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, I threw away my boxes just last week so I am stuck and my conscience won't allow me to just sell it on craigslist. I have gone back to my old router and extender. If I could swear in church over this, I would!
- I really wonder about the legitimacy of the Amazon reviews for the Orbi. I am sure sure plenty of the positive reviews are genuine because it seems like an excellent product at first when most people,write their reviews. For what it's worth, Fakespot.com gives the review quality a D due to automated reviewer accounts and reviewers giving 5 star reviews to multiple Netgear products in the same category. It just seems like discussions on forums all over the internet have a very different tone than the amazon reviews and other sites that have reviewed the product. Unrelated to Orbi, I hate that fake reviews are becoming such a thing these days which only hurts the consumer.
Interesting Retired_Member
Does that mean that you can confirm that no Android phones in general, and no Android 7 specifically have dropouts with 89 of your 90 devices?
Are all these devices in different buildings in pairs? Or in a bigger building working together?
- I admit I initially gave it a rave review on amazon, then I went back and changed it when I realized what I got. Honestly I dont think that all of the people on this board are legit, why would they be here? If yours worked would you be here? Not me. Not in a million years. My environment? Really?
I've had the Orbi for quite a few months now and posted my suggestions for dealing with the drops early in this thread.
For me, none of my iOS or Microsoft OS devices have any issues with the Orbi. Only the Androids in my house seem to drop and they are newer model phones (Galaxy S6, LG 6) and an older tablet (Galaxy Tab3).
I can get stable connections on all three android devices when I go into settings and take off dhcp and select static. Then you select advanced options and choose an IP address that is:
A) Not higher than 100 in the last section (i.e. 192.168.1.98)
B) Not currently being used on your network. Log into the Orbi and in the administration panel look at the current connected devices.
Once I've done that the connect works pretty well. It seems to lose connection every 10-14 days and I need to go into the settings on the device and re-enter the same info. It probably has to do with the Orbi refreshing its queue and losing the static addresses and wanting to push a new address.
Since my wife doesn't use home wifi on her phone, I'm the only one affected by this and I've chosen to not change any of the settings on the Orbi since it might affect the wifi for my other users.
I bought the base and one extender kit and am loathe to give up on this since it was so expensive compared to my older wifi configuration. I'm sure they'll figure it out eventually. It's got to be the software between the base and the extender since Netgear is known for solid hardware :)
"I'm sure they'll figure it out eventually. " I see you are a man of faith. Good for you.
Same issue with ORBI and my local 1Gbps internet...
very strange.... affecting my S8 plus and S6 and S7 (belongs to my family)...
both my lenovo laptops have no issue.
Best performer was on iphone 7 with wireless consistenly hitting 450mbps+++
- I'm seeing a similar issue except its only on the main router and not the satellite. My S8 has zero issues upstairs on the satellite but when it hands off or tries to connect to the primary I get ip issues or I no internet warnings... I've also tried setting a static IP on the phone but no difference
OK - so I did some more research on this last night. Not sure if that helps anybody, but maybe someone can confirm or debunk my preliminary conclusions.
As mentioned earlier, the problem was greatly reduced if disabling the 5GHz. That lead me to check more thoroughly what AP the phone connected to and what frequency was used when the disconnects occured. I used the open source Wifi Analyzer for the purpose, and also tried another app with the same name for a "second opinion" with the same results.
With my router and sattelite I essentially have 4 accesspoints; Sattelite 2.4GHz and 5GHz (hereafter called S2 and S5), and R2 / R5 for the routers accesspoints respectively.
During some hours I worked through several areas of my 3-storage house with my old Galaxy Note 3 (with Android 6 if memory serves me right), and my LG G5 with Android 7.
My observations:
When walking around, the old Note 3 seems to handle the switching between accesspoints more smoothly, that is; without really loosing the connection. The LG tends to stick to an accesspoint longer, and then drops the connection for up to a few seconds when switching. This seems to be the case both when switching between router and sattelite, and switching frequency.When it comes to certain areas, like my bedroom, it gets interesting. The LG on Android 7 seems more eager to connect to the 5GHz than the Note. With the current placement of router and sattelite, the sattelite is the one to cover the bedroom. Hovever, the sattelite is one store down, and some meters aside, so the direct line from my bed to the sattelite goes through one floor and one wall (both wooden). The Sattelite 5GHz (S5) signal is therefore quite some weaker than the S2 signal, but still strong enough to support Youtube streaming in high quality. When connected to S2, the speed is also good.
What happens is that the LG now normally connects to S2 for a few seconds, then drops the connection and reconnects to S2. It may do that for minutes until it connects to S5, then the looping stops for a while. If it then switches to S2 for some reason the process starts again.
The Note 3 behaves differently. When it connects to S2 or S5, it seems more prone to stick to that choice.
So, the obvious solution for this is to move the sattelite. Which I did, only to find that this behaviour now moves to another location in the house...
My natural response to these observations is that the root cause of this behaviour more likely lies in my LG or Android 7 than in the Orbi. And maybe the causes for all the reports of drops in this thread cannot be blamed on the Orbi. But it is suspicious that so many people report this with the Orbi and I have not been able to find similar reports on e.g. the Velop.
So in the end I guess I won't take the chance that the root cause is in the Orbi, and will probably return it while I still can get back my money.
It is also worth to mention that i performed factory reset on the Orbi twice - trying both Router mode (with the Orbi as DHCP server) and Accesspoint mode with my ipFire firewall as the DHCP server. No difference in behaviour there. Also tested different channels to no avail. Will also try a network reset on my LG, and maybe also a full reset if I find the time, in addition to testing fixed ip-adress.
Any views on these observations, especially the difference in behaviour between the phones and/or Android versions are highly appreciated before my deadline for return on Friday :-)- Oddly enough, turning off MU MIMO and BeamForming seems to have resolved the issue but now my speeds are all much slower on all devices... so I have to cripple the best features of the orbi to get connections?
This product needs serious work. I wish I wasn't past my return date - That's more than irony then. My phone is an S8+ as well. I thought I resolved the problem but it's only working when I'm on the satellite. Sitting 5ft away from the main node and I can't get connected or if I do it warns of no internet and won't connect. Seems like some issue with the WiFi chipset on the Snapdragon 835 or some issue with Netgears newest firmware. Where can I download a beta of the newest or roll back?
Firmware is available here
http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/other/product/RBK50#searchResults
I have installed RBK40 and RBK50 both at my home and at another location with 100% success will all versions of the firmware.
I run an S7 Edge running and and S2 Tab both running Android 7. We also have Iphones and many other wifi devices connected.
Both locations had AT&T NVG599 gateways that the Orbi attached to. Orbi detected this and changed the IP range to 10.0.x.x for all devices connecting to it.
I have 5 android devices (4 phones and 1 tablet). The device that seems to be the one that drops all the time is the Moto g4 phone. It's the only on that has been updated to Android 7.0. All the other devices are running 4.x to 6.x. I do agree that there is something in this version of Android. For me I keep phone on a stand next to my computer and I can look at the wifi signal and it's peek. The minute I pick the phone off the stand wake the screen the Wifi drops and takes about 30 to 45 seconds to recoonnect. I have written a tasker task the montors the number of disconnects and I find over 30 per hour with this phone.
