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Forum Discussion
Devices Won't Connect to Satellite
Hello - I am having an issue getting devices to connect to my Orbi Satellites despite the satellite being essentially next to the device. I have the latest firmware updated and I have read and ...
I have used this process to initially get it set up. However, despite not changing anything or the location of the orbi, it constantly tries to change between the router and satellite at which it ultimetaly won't make a connection.
While investigating this, I noticed nothing was connecting to the satellite despite the proximity of the satellite and the extra distance and walls between the router and the devices.
LouBasil wrote:
I have used this process to initially get it set up. However, despite not changing anything or the location of the orbi, it constantly tries to change between the router and satellite at which it ultimetaly won't make a connection.
While investigating this, I noticed nothing was connecting to the satellite despite the proximity of the satellite and the extra distance and walls between the router and the devices.
If you take a phone or pad near the RBS, disable the wifi radio on the phone or pad for 5 seconds then back ON, does the mobile device seem to connect to the RBS? You'll need to check the RBS web page for connected devices.
If nothing seems to connect to the RBS wirelessly, though a wired PC does, possible the wireless portion of the RBS could be faulty. A reset should be performed on the RBS and resync.
The power adjustment on the RBR is a troubleshooting step to see if wifi devices will pick the stronger singal from the RBS vs the RBR and see if they will connect to the RBS. You can of course set the power level back to 100% if you want to. 20 feet in between the RBR and RBS is too close. Theres too much wifi over lap at this distance. The RBRs signal alone and reach out to 30-40 feet and beyond depending upon building materials.
I have been mistaken so many times, that this power level issue seemed to be a good topic for an experiment.
My Orbi system has:
- RBR50 router
- RBS50 satellite
- RBS40V satellite
On the Advanced wireless setting screen, I changed Transmit Power from 100% to 25% and watched the graph on my WiFi Analyzer app.
Like far too many things, changing transmit power causes the entire radio system to shut down and restart, a process that takes what seems like forever. Because I am (literally) sitting right next to the router, the RSSI reported by WiFi Analyzer for the router barely changed at all, but the RSSI for both satellites dropped dramatically. When I changed the transmit power back to 100%, (and after a tremendous wait), the satellite RSSI levels came back to their original readings.
And the guest network mirrored the primary network. When primary transmit power is reduced, guest transmit power is reduced as well.
I am thus pretty confident that changing transmit power on the Advanced WiFi Settings menu applies to every Orbi device in the system.
This is yet another disappointing feature of the Orbi firmware. One would think Netgear would make it possible to control each Orbi radio separately, but it appears to me that they did not.
