"Config sync" loop with firmware V2.3.1.44

So it's not often that I say "Boy was I wrong," but here it is . . .

I listed on the reasons on this thread that I couldn't go back to a single SSID (too many devices already configured with separate 2.4G or 5G SSIDs, difficulty reconfiguring "2.4G only" devices with a single SSID, etc.) -- but here's what finally put me over the edge and made me bite the bullet and do it. I spend most of the workday on conference calls (video and/or audio) over WebEx, and ever since switching to the Orbi about 6 weeks ago I have had constant issues with audio dropouts, robotic "Max Headroom" audio effects, etc., that never happened before Orbi.  It didn't make much sense to me because all my speedtests were fine but the WebEx software was always reporting "poor network quality."

Finally I stumbled on this: http://www.dslreports.com/tools/puma6 

This a tool originally designed to spot problems in Intel Puma6 chipsets in routers (not relevant here), but it's also a good way of testing jitter and latency of a connection. Well guess what? Instead of a nice green box, I got *mostly* red with my setup. Yes, my downstream was 238Mbps, but the variance in round-trip packet times was off the charts. Literally HALF or more of my times were > 500ms, while others were in the 50ms or below range. In other words, WAY too much variation for things like stable audio or video conferencing. (And yes, I tested direclty to my cable modem as well, bypassing the Orbi, and got great times and all green, so I knew it wasn't my modem or connection.)

So I thought, okay, I wonder if this separating the SSIDs is causing this jitter problem -- so I decided merely as a test to go back to a single SSID, not changing any other settings.  Well, wow. Suddenly everything was perfect -- all green on the test, perfect audio/video calls, no more Config Sync looping on the status page, correct firmware versions reporting from all the satellites. Basically eveyrthing I said was "broken" about the Orbi was magically fixed by switching to a single SSID. Oh, and that problem where I coudln't ping between devices a lot of the time? Turned out it wasn't that I couldn't ping between satellites -- is was that I coudln't ping from one BAND to another. Single SSID solved that, too.

Like a lot of people here, I moaned and whined that it was ridiculous and impossible to live with one SSID and bandwidth steering and it was ridiculous to force people to do that. Well, hand me my serving of crow and humble pie for dessert. Advice to anyone wanting to switch to a different 5G SSID: DO NOT DO IT.

And to anyone who has and has had no problems, I'd encourage you to run that Puma6 jitter test linked above. Maybe your setup isn't as great as you think it is.