I have the Orbi router in the rear of my home and the satellite in the front. The satellite is hard wired to one of my computers and my tablet is using the satellite WiFi.. I placed the satellite in the front of the house so that I could get a good connection to my camera. However, my camera connects to the router in the back of the house and the signal is not great.How do I force my camera to select the satellite (or force the satellite to select the camera) ?Thanks for any help. Icer

You are exactly correct. There is no method to "force" a device to connect to a specific access point. All you can do is attempt to interest a device in one access point and hope that it "sticks". I sure if you polled the people who spend a lot of time on the community forum, that nearly everyone would say, "PLEASE make this a feature so that people can get on with life!"

What firmware are you on?Have you tried rebooting the orbi setup? I know it sounds stupid but it does sometimes cause a re-association. Have you tried enable/disable: mu-mimo, beamforming? How far from the router is the satellite? 30ft minimum is recommended or orbi struggles with the association from router-satellite.

icermize wrote:I've rebooted several times. Occasionally rebooting causes my camera to appear on a different port than it started with. This forces me to change the setup on my camera app so that I can access it which is why I want to be able to assign a port to the satellite in the first place.Assigning an IP address to a device is done on the Orbi web interface, Advanced Tab, Setup, LAN Setup. Click on "Add" at the bottom of the table. Fill in a name you want the device to appear as, the WiFi MAC address of the device, and the IP address you want it to have. (To avoid extra steps, I would assign it the IP address it has right now.) The "rebooting" part is for the camera, not the Orbi. This is a frustrating part of modern "mesh" WiFi systems. When a device is turned on, it looks for nearby WiFi networks, compares their signal strength, and then connects to one. Devices which are designed to "roam", such as phones, tablets, and laptops, are programmed to search periodically to see if they would benefit by switching to a different WiFi access point. Devices that are designed to "remain in one place" are typically programmed to quit searching once they connect. When the Orbi boots up, the router comes up before the satellites, and devices often "see" the router first, connect to it, and "stick." So, once the camera has an "assigned" IP address, tell the camera to reboot (or temporarily cut off the power). When it comes back up, it may connect to the satellite.

icermize wrote:I appreciate your explaination and advice but am still confused about forcing the camera to connect to the satellite. I don't see any option for that to happen. IcerA point to ponder....what difference does it make? Is the camera working? Unless it's in total bog down/buffering, I'd find something else to worry about.

icermize wrote:...How do I force my camera to select the satellite (or force the satellite to select the camera) ?...If you're comfortable with telnet cmd, turn on Orbi Guest Network (tick allow client to see each other on Guest Network) with a new SSID, then set a different Guest SSID for each/target Satellite via telnet cmd. Then you can force each camera to connect to each/target Router/Satellite with the respective SSID. Check out this How to enable separate SSID on Guest Network. Good luck!

Camera doesn't connect to satellite, other devices do. Orbi RBK22

19 Replies

plemans
Guru
Dec 12, 2019
What firmware are you on?
Have you tried rebooting the orbi setup? I know it sounds stupid but it does sometimes cause a re-association.
Have you tried enable/disable: mu-mimo, beamforming?
How far from the router is the satellite? 30ft minimum is recommended or orbi struggles with the association from router-satellite.
- icermize
  Tutor
  Dec 12, 2019
  Thank you for your response. The router and satellite are about 25 ft. apart. However, the satellite is only about 5 ft. from the camera (satellite upstairs, & the camera just below downstairs).
  
  Firmware V2.3.5.26
  
  I've rebooted several times. Occasionally rebooting causes my camera to appear on a different port than it started with. This forces me to change the setup on my camera app so that I can access it which is why I want to be able to assign a port to the satellite in the first place.
  
  I have no idea what Mu-mimo or beamforming are but I do see the option to enable them. At the moment, I can't reboot the system so that will have to wait.
  - CrimpOn
    Guru
    Dec 12, 2019
    icermize wrote:
    I've rebooted several times. Occasionally rebooting causes my camera to appear on a different port than it started with. This forces me to change the setup on my camera app so that I can access it which is why I want to be able to assign a port to the satellite in the first place.
    Assigning an IP address to a device is done on the Orbi web interface, Advanced Tab, Setup, LAN Setup. Click on "Add" at the bottom of the table. Fill in a name you want the device to appear as, the WiFi MAC address of the device, and the IP address you want it to have. (To avoid extra steps, I would assign it the IP address it has right now.)
    
    The "rebooting" part is for the camera, not the Orbi. This is a frustrating part of modern "mesh" WiFi systems. When a device is turned on, it looks for nearby WiFi networks, compares their signal strength, and then connects to one. Devices which are designed to "roam", such as phones, tablets, and laptops, are programmed to search periodically to see if they would benefit by switching to a different WiFi access point. Devices that are designed to "remain in one place" are typically programmed to quit searching once they connect. When the Orbi boots up, the router comes up before the satellites, and devices often "see" the router first, connect to it, and "stick."
    
    So, once the camera has an "assigned" IP address, tell the camera to reboot (or temporarily cut off the power). When it comes back up, it may connect to the satellite.
SW_
Prodigy
Dec 12, 2019
icermize wrote:
...
How do I force my camera to select the satellite (or force the satellite to select the camera) ?
...
If you're comfortable with telnet cmd, turn on Orbi Guest Network (tick allow client to see each other on Guest Network) with a new SSID, then set a different Guest SSID for each/target Satellite via telnet cmd. Then you can force each camera to connect to each/target Router/Satellite with the respective SSID. Check out this How to enable separate SSID on Guest Network.

Good luck!
- icermize
  Tutor
  Dec 12, 2019
  Thank you for the tip. I'll take a look at the process later on. Icer

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Camera doesn't connect to satellite, other devices do. Orbi RBK22