CAT 6 shielded cable leads to RBR50 connectivity issues

The firmware was 2.3.5.30 when problems occurred. The topology was two rbs50’s and one rbr50 in AP mode, all directly wired to the rbr50 in router mode, using long runs of shielded cat6 cable with no intervening switch. The shielded cable is stiff enough to lift the rbr50 off the table (it is also rated for direct burial since two of the satellites are in different buildings (garage and guest house). The current setup has all three satellites connected to a NETGEAR gs108 switch with cat5e flexible cables from orbi to switch and modem. Firmware has been upgraded on all orbis to 2.5.1.6. The modem is a NETGEAR CM1150V, which also had a problem with connectivity (bandwidth was being throttled to 100mbits). Firmware on the modem is under the control of Comcast, and they had done some remote management (rebooting and resetting) when we first saw the bandwidth throttling. A modem reboot cleared the issue, whatever it was, but that is when I found the connectivity issues. Changing the system topology so that the cables terminate at the switch has fixed that problem. Daisy chaining is not in use.