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Forum Discussion
How i fixed my Orbi Wifi woes
I turned off my Hue lights (and bridge). My frequent disconnects between router and and satellite have ceased and my wifi conections from iOS devices have become rock solid. All i need to do now is...
I thought had resolved my issues by turning of Hue but alas not the case. My iOS devices sometimes have a terrible connection to wifi. Runnng a speed test takes me to less than 1Mb when I'm normally up around 60Mb, on all my wifi devices. Seems to just be iOS devices which have this problem. So I'm going to deprecate this entry or least change the heading.
seanrkelly71, I feel your pain! I've done what I consider an enormous amount of troubleshooting my ORBI system (router+1 satellite). Like you I discovered there are alot devices that generate interference but it is not a constant issue, hence the intermittent nature of the dropouts. I've folowed most of the recommendations of the community members and have gotten teh system somewhat stable. I did recently discover that enabling the guest network caused an enormous problem with signal strength and connectivity (dropouts) to the satellite.
After disabling the guest network, finding the least crowded 2.4 gHz channel (1) and rebooting, I've had stable connections to my iOS/Mac OS and other IOT devices for over 2 weeks. The plus side to the ORBI for me is areas in my house that were total deadzones are now covered with decent (-50dB to -60dB) signals. According to the MetaGeek website any wifi signal stronger than -65dBm is good enough to support basic mobile devices. For streaming video or VOIP, you'll want signals above -60 dBm.
Good luck with your system!
Thanks for sharing Tucsontico. DarrenM recommended I give V1.4.0.16 a try so i dowgraded and so far today its been better. Network on iOS devices much more stable, but ad this wierd network disconnect for multiple devices (not all) in different places in house which was resolved by turning off / on satellite. Prior to that there was no warning lights on any of the two orbi devices, they both stayed dark, which was just weierd. So, .16 seems better and will stick with this until the boffins at Netgear crush the bugs.
You're welcome. Hope v .16 will keep your system stable. I'm good now with v .34 and great signal strength inside and outside my house. BTW, my house is stucco over cinder block exterior walls that are firred out with 2 x 4's and drywall on the inside. It creates very strong barriers to most wifi signals. My previous router (NetGear R7000) couldn't get outside the house very far (<10') and never into my garage. Now I've got decent wifi signals up to 50' away from the exterior walls!
After all the troubleshoting, I'm reasonably content. However, I'd like to see a better GUI and a properly finctioning Guest Network.