NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Limited Channel selection on Orbi RBR50 in AP mode?
I have an Orbi RBR50 wired to my Fios Router with the Gigabit Fios plan. The Orbi is in AP mode with two RBS50 satelites. The Orbi RBR50 offers the standard 1-11 channels for 2.4 GHz. BUT it only ...
Do you actually experience wifi problems? Or is this a theoretical exercise?
The short range of 5 GHz wifi is such that reports of interference are rare.
I experience problems and these are what made me pursue the channel issue to begin with. Zoom goes in and out of having a fine and stable connection. It suddenly freezes, voices break up and I receive a notice that the connection is unstable. This happens on an average of twice per hour. My smartphone suddenly starts breaking up and people conplain. The hardware I'm using is more than adequate to the tasks.
When using Zoom in my home office I'm getting a signal from one of the satellites and I have to work in that part of the house.
What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-routerTry setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz. Higher 5Ghz channels are used by the Orbi WiFi Backhaul radios between the RBR and RBS when they are wireless connected. These are not user configurable.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or may not be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Set Short preamble instead of Long preamble modes. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).One User Experience/Configuration:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Most-Stable-Orbi-Configuration/m-p/1941087/highlight/true#M97026
mlg250 wrote:I experience problems and these are what made me pursue the channel issue to begin with. Zoom goes in and out of having a fine and stable connection. It suddenly freezes, voices break up and I receive a notice that the connection is unstable. This happens on an average of twice per hour. My smartphone suddenly starts breaking up and people conplain. The hardware I'm using is more than adequate to the tasks.
When using Zoom in my home office I'm getting a signal from one of the satellites and I have to work in that part of the house.
Hi,
Firmware V2.5.1.16 - it says there's no newer firmware
The distance between the router and the satellite is 27 ft. This is a very old apartment building (1903) and the walls are unbelievably thick. When the satellite is further away I can't find the router and turns magenta.
Channels were set to 4 and 36. Now set to 11 and 36 since very few 5 GHz channels are available.
There are 90 apartments in the building and each apartment has at least one router. When I scan for wifi signals I usually pick up at least 15 with decent signal strength.
I already had MMO, Beamforming and WMM selected.
I don't have any mention of Armor.
I just now disabled daisy chain and fast roaming. Also just changed preamble from Auto to Short.
I was unable set Coexistence to 40 because it's only listed as a checkbox which offers 20/40. Also IPV6 has always been greyed out and as a result I couldn't adjust that setting.
I'll be using it for work tomorrow and will check in to update any differences.
Thanks very much for your suggestions.
mlg250 wrote:Hi,
Firmware V2.5.1.16 - it says there's no newer firmware
The distance between the router and the satellite is 27 ft. This is a very old apartment building (1903) and the walls are unbelievably thick. When the satellite is further away I can't find the router and turns magenta.
Channels were set to 4 and 36. Now set to 11 and 36 since very few 5 GHz channels are available.
There are 90 apartments in the building and each apartment has at least one router. When I scan for wifi signals I usually pick up at least 15 with decent signal strength.
I already had MMO, Beamforming and WMM selected.
I don't have any mention of Armor.
I just now disabled daisy chain and fast roaming. Also just changed preamble from Auto to Short.
I was unable set Coexistence to 40 because it's only listed as a checkbox which offers 20/40. Also IPV6 has always been greyed out and as a result I couldn't adjust that setting.
I'll be using it for work tomorrow and will check in to update any differences.
Thanks very much for your suggestions.
90 possible routers in 1 building can be a challenge. However once you find the proper WIFI channels you chould be ok.
For 2.4Ghz I would stick with 1, 6, or 11 because they are the only non-overlapping channels. The reason why you only have channels 36, 40, 44, 48 for 5Ghz is because the higher channels are being used for backhaul. Also since 5Ghz has a smaller broadcast area, most of the time there are little to no issues with channel interference.
I have an issue where the owners on my Cul De Sac all have powerful mesh systems I installed. So I get 4 households' strong WIFI signal. I found channel 1/48 to be my best choice, after running NetSpot analyzer.
