Authentication Error Occurred

Not sure if it's a Netgear or Samsung problem. I do think that has something, as others have suggested, that it is related to the last update on the Samsung. The problem may only show up on Orbi because it only broadcast one SSID or because it's considered mesh but it may be because Samsung isn't using the full wi-fi protocol. 

You're right of couse, it could be a Samsung problem. I first noticed the issue after my S6 phone was updated on 11/4 with S/W version G920VVRS4DQJ1.

I've unplugged my satelite and turned off all advanced services exceppt MU-MIMO. My connection has been better but still drops out maybe twice a day instead of every ten minutes.

At this point I'm using my Orbi strictly as an expensive access point. So why bother? Amazon just delivered a new Unibuity AP AC pro which is half the price. I'll try that out tomorrow and if it works I'll be putting my Orbi up on ebay or seeing if a coworker wants to buy a used one.

I saw that Orbi has a new firmware so I upgraded to see if this issue was resolved. Nope, still get authentication errors. I tried what a previous poster suggested and turned off my 5G radio. The connection has not dropped but my connection speed is pretty terrible considering I can get around 500Mbps on 5G. 

I've opened a ticket with support and hopefully they can work on a fix before my 3 month warranty runs out.

I'll be going back to my Unifi AC-AP-PRO for now.

I just bought Orbi system few weeks back. I did this even I have read quite bad feedback about it. Well I got the product and I fixed it to my house. It's been working perfectly ever since but the only problem has been my wifes Galaxy S6. It's been getting this authentication error all the time. All other products are working just fine like my own Galaxy S8+. I wasn't very hard to figure out that 5Ghz network is causing the problem. Mainly bacause earlier network was only 2.4Ghz and I had no problems with it. So now the case was that how I can get this one phone to use only 2.4Ghz network and still be able to use 5Ghz network with other products? I was disapointed to notice that you can't give separate SSID's from the system itself. But luckily there is a quide how to do this with Telnet. (remember to do the same with all satellites you might have). When I did this and connected Galaxy S6 to 2.4Ghz network and all other uses 5Ghz now everything works perfect at least for me. System is online all the time and well as all the products plus I can keep the 5Ghz speed with the products I need.

So from my point of view this Orbi system is quite perfect. Only down side is that you can't give separate SSID's for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks from the system itself.

Thanks for pointing out the Telnet solution. 

One of the main benefits of Mesh networking is not having  different bands and/or SSID's, however in this case it might be better to have an easy way to do it. Hopefully either Netgear will make a workaround, Samsung fixes the problem or it's only limited to older products and will phases itself out. It would also be nice to be able to limit a device by either name or MAC to only one band by the menu. If netgear wanted they could make it easy to select a device and limited it to certain satellites, bands, day/times, usage, etc but i wouldn't hold my breath. 

Spadde, thank you for your writeup. I've followed it and am hoping it'll keep my S6 connected to the 2.4Ghz SSID.

I noticed you suggested following the same Telnet steps on all satellites, but I'm struggling to Telnet into my satellite. When I attempt to Telnet to 192.168.1.3, I get an error message: Could not open connection to the host, on port 23 : Connect failed. I tried connecting from a computer that's wired to the satellite, but I get the same error. This is with the Enable Telnet box checked.

Am I overlooking a setting to enable access to my satellite through Telnet?

jhensley, I truly hope that this workaround works also for you. Our Galaxy S6 has not dropped from wifi ever since I turned this on.

About the satellite. Just to confirm that did you enable Telnet also from your satellite? If not, then you need to login to the satellite same way as you login to your router. Just using satellite's IP-address. Satellite approves same username and password as router.

So please do all the steps separately for router and satellite. First enable Telnet from router and satellite by logging in to both separately using their own IP-addresses -> use Telnet to change SSID for 2.4Ghz network from router and satellite -> disable Telnet from router and satellite by logging in to both separately using their own IP-addresses.

I hope you can get this working with these instructions.

I have been advised the following by the Netgear support:

"Based on the information you have provided and the troubleshooting steps performed, we would like to further isolate the case by replacing the unit."

...but I don't see how that would help. Did anyone go down that route?

Hi gang, just thought I'd share some info that might help save some head scratching, the problem is with your phones and not your Orbis. I can confirm this because I've got the same issues with my Samsung GS6 and that's how I found this thread at 4am, and because I don't have an Orbi. In fact, until I found this thread I'd never even heard of one. 

My problem started off with a recent software update sometime in the past few weeks, and I discovered the problem when I noticed my suddenly abyssmal battery life. What happens is that I have terrible LTE reception at work, and my GS6 will drop itself from wifi, then constantly try to connect over wifi or LTE, until the battery is dead. If I turn wifi of and back on it will reconnect, but not permanently. It seems like if I'm actually using the phone it will stay connected, but if I leave it in my pocket it will eventually happen. I'd imagine it's got something to do with Samsung playing with battery management, trying some kind of wifi radio sleeping, but that's just a hunch. 

Anyway, the problem's with our phones. 

Bin_jammin, Agreed. This issue ONLY started when Samsung pushed through this update in November. Up until then, I never had a connection drop issue between my phone and my ORBI. Nothing else drops in the house because of ORBI. The latest update that they just pushed through did NOT solve the issue. Our iPhone users don't have this problem. Our tablets, computers etc don't have this problem. It's only the S6. So Samsung needs to fix whatever they altered so the phone is again compatible.

As I stated in an earlier post the problem seems to be tied to the S6 phone update on 11/4 with S/W version G920VVRS4DQJ1. Since we  have Samsung as the S6 owner, Google for Android and Verizon (in my case) as the service provider, how do we determine who owns the problem? For the short term I've moved to the guest network and it seems to be solid but that's obviously not the desired solution. I have all my other devices on the primary system and everything is solid.

And of course I should have included Netgear as a candidate but from what I've seen in this thread Samsung seems to be the leading possibility.

I think it's a Samsung issue unless of course there is something that Netgear isn't handling in the protocal correctly. I have seen cases where within a standard some parts are rarely used so most OEM's never checks or them, but if one does, they don't handshake correctly. 

I think this is not likely but I'd rather Netgear at least make sure it's not the case instead of just saying "well s6's will soon be gone anyway", because it could show up again if it's a protocal issue. 

Like I said, I have a GS6 and have this issue, but I don't have any Netgear equipment. Not sure how this could be anything but a Samsung issue or anything to do with Netgear.

*** Also, I got pushed an OTA update yesterday, fingers crossed it solved the issue.

Just an update on this problem. 

Recap: Samsung Edge s6 would lose connection with the orbi saying "Authentication Error Occurred". Suggested work around was turning off 5g.  While this worked for the phone, in my case it seemed to cause connection problems with the satellites. 

I turned the 5g back on, and created a test network.  Issues with the satellites and authentication seems to have went away.

While I was almost sure this was a Samsung problem the fact that the phone works fine on the guest network points somewhat to the Netgear Orbi (because if it was just a samsung problem it would have the same issue on the  guest network, something is different on the guest network that allows it to work). 

I have a Samsung S5... funny thing is since installing the Orbi about 3 weeks ago, I hadn't had any auth errors on the phone - til today.  Happened twice this morning.   Only diff was reloading the .16 firmware on the Orbis to try to fix the attached devices issue.  Not sure why this suddenly started again.

I have not tried to switch back from the Guest network since my last post, but I can say that my device has remained very stable since then and since I updated the Orbi to allow access to the main network from the guest network, I seem to have full functionality to control my various home automation systems from my smartphone as well.  

While some are calling this clearly a Samsung issue, I disagree.  This is an incompatibility between this particular Samsung device with this particular update and the Orbi device.  I don't have any issues with my smartphone connecting to wifi reliably on any other wifi network.  I don't have any trouble with my Orbi using any other device.  Yes, this started occuring with the Nov 4 Android Update and no, the more recent update to the GS6 has fixed the issue.  I actually have two GS6 smart phones and they both experience the same issue and both work just fine on the guest network.

I really have no idea why the guest network works and the primary network does not.  I should add that I did enable security on the guest network as well, so it's not really a "guest" network any longer.  All I can say is that this workaround works and I've seen no downside to using it.  Now, if you do have guests and make a habit out of giving them the guest network wifi but don't want them on your primary network, this would not be a good workaround for you.  

I believe this issue is resolved. I recieved a software update on Thursday (S6 Active, on AT&T network). Since then my phone is connected to the main Orbi network and stable. I have not had to use the guest network. 

It is a Christmas miracle.

I received Android update G920VVR44DQL1 dated 12/28/17 for my S6 today (Verizon carrier). I'm still using the ORBI Guest network function since there was no solution regarding the authentication issue in the update.