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brad_c's avatar
brad_c
Aspirant
Jan 10, 2022

Dropouts & strange wifi icon after switch to orbi

Hi,

The other day I switched over to a new Netgear Orbi Mesh system with a RBR850 router and RBS850 Satellites running firmware V4.6.3.16_2.0.51

 

All seems ok for all my devices except for the work issued Lenovo Thinkpad L14. All drivers, firmware etc on the laptop appear to be up to date.

 

I get disconnected from the network every 5 minutes or so. Laptop is about 30cm away from the satellite. It asks for the WPA2 password on each reconnect. Interestingly it displays this cross on the wifi logo that I have no seen before https://imgur.com/a/27X1BTE (SSID BJC-Guest)

Does anyone have any idea what that icon means and what could be the issue with the dropouts??

 

Thanks

 

Brad

3 Replies

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  • FURRYe38's avatar
    FURRYe38
    Guru
    Jan 10, 2022

    Netgear has set up a community forum specifically for the Orbi AX (WiFi 6) products. Most of the people who watch that forum are more likely to have experience with Orbi AX and know how to work it better than those of us who follow this "general Orbi" forum. Might be more likely to find someone who has a solution if the question is posted there:
    https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-AX/bd-p/en-home-orbi-ax

     

    You may want to update FW as well:

    https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-WiFi-6-AX-and-WiFi-6E-AXE/New-RBR850-RBS850-Firmware-Version-v4-6-7-5-Released/m-p/2182138/highlight/true#M25415


    Please use this link to the main forum product list to review and choose where to make your posts. 
    https://community.netgear.com/t5/NETGEAR-Forum/ct-p/en-netgear


    Thank you

  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru
    Jan 10, 2022

    The WiFi symbol with a 'x' on it is not unique to Lenovo.  Apparently it indicates there has been "a change" since the last time the laptop connected to this particular WiFi system, probably a different password.

    https://www.windowsphoneinfo.com/threads/wifi-network-has-x-next-to-it.489938/ 

    This article recommends 'forgetting' this WiFi network and connecting to it again.

     

    There is no obvious reason why a device would lose WiFi after five minutes.

    I would attempt to replicate the experience with other WiFi networks. (friend? neighbor? work?. What about a smartphone Hot Spot?)

    Would also 'forget' both the primary and guest networks, select the primary network and mark it to 'connect automatically.'

     

    Geez. What a pain!

    • brad_c's avatar
      brad_c
      Aspirant
      Jan 10, 2022
      CrimpOn wrote:

      The WiFi symbol with a 'x' on it is not unique to Lenovo.  Apparently it indicates there has been "a change" since the last time the laptop connected to this particular WiFi system, probably a different password.

      https://www.windowsphoneinfo.com/threads/wifi-network-has-x-next-to-it.489938/ 

      This article recommends 'forgetting' this WiFi network and connecting to it again.

       

      I think this solves the issue. For what it's worth I previously had muliple SSID's on different VLANs (Meraki setup). The BJC_Guest SSID was an old SSID that the majority of my devices connnected to. I tried to be cleaver/lazy and resuse the same SSID/password in the hopes all my wifes devices and IoT stuff would just auto connect.

       

      After "forgetting" and reconnecting the drop-out issues appears to have resolved itself.

       

      I'll keep monitoring for a bit but appears to be all godo now :-)

       

      Thanks for your help