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Forum Discussion
Losing satellites repeatedly
I have an Orbi AC3000 with 2 satellites (RBR50 + 2 x RBS50) for about a month. I'm running in AP mode.
I have had one or both of my satellites go away completely over time.
They would not come back online even after reboots.
The router's admin page shows either 0 or 1 satellite online.
Each of the satellite's admin page can still be accessed via Wifi, but they no longer broadcast a Wifi signal and AP is disabled on them.
The first time this happened about 10 days ago, the only fix was to do a full reset to factory settings, and then reset the SSID and password - leaving everything else as default.
Within 2 days, the satellites had been lost again.
I opened a case with Netgear support #28693064 . I was told to enable "implicit beamforming" and "enable MU-MIMO" in the advanced wireless settings.
Indeed, that fixed it at the time - both satellites came back online after doing this.
I requested the case remain open in case the dropout happened again.
The case autoclosed 2 days ago.
What do you know, one satellite has now dropped again.
I have attached screenshots of the admin pages for the router (192.168.0.30), and each satellite (192.168.0.31, 192.168.0.32) . As you can see, the first satellite at 192.168.0.31 is reported is online on the router's admin page. And its own status page shows it online.
However, for the second satellite at 192.168.0.32, you can see that Wifi broadcast is disabled, and AP is disabled. And despite that, there is text that claims "Your orbi satellite connection is up and running" . That is most definitely not the case ! And I have some very weak/dead signal in my 4600sq ft home built with very heavy materials.
I think at this point, it is likely a regression in the firmware. I don't recall having these issues back in June. Please assist !
21 Replies
Looks like making any changes to Wireless advanced settings resets the satellites and brings them back up. I first disabled MU-MIMO, and then enabled it back on, and now my 2 satellites are back up . Until the next drop off .
FYI I'm using a Netgear R7000 as router (wired only, Wifi disabled) with static DHCP IP reservations for each of the Orbi devices.
Well, the second satellite (in the master bedroom) started lighting in the middle of the night, and woke us up. And it is offline again, just like in the screenshot.
And no amount of changing the Wireless settings on the router will bring it back at this point. Or pressing sync on router & satellite. Or using "Add a satellite" in the router's admin.
Basically, the Orbi is completely useless at this point.
I also have a two satellite setup with same issues. Both satellites completely nonfunctional.
I see by the photos you have up now that you have the latest firmware on both satellites so it's not the same problem that I had. It's definitely not an isolated problem though as many others are reporting issues with their satellites.
FYI, I was having the same issues after the firmware upgrade. Solved mine by moving the satellite closer to the base unit, doing a factory reset on the satellite only, and then letting it sit for a while. The satellite would come up as a regular attached device (not an attached satellite) but then after about 20 minutes would shift to an attached satellite. Then I moved it back to the original location and powered it on (but did not do a factory reset), again it came up as an attached device but then moved to an attached satellite. It has been stable ever since.
What "fixed" it for me with the previous firmware (1.12.0.18) was to change the main SSID and passwords to dummy ones, and set my regular SSID and password in the "guest" network. Apparently there was an issue for passwords containing spaces.
I'm running the latest firmware now (2.0.0.72) and have just reverted that workaround and disabled the guest network. I hope it will be stable. No issues so far.
My issue turned out to be the same thing. I had spaces in my passphrase. Removing the spaces worked.
Update on this: I am still on the same firmware. Had a power outage yesterday and when everything came back up, the satellite was not connected as a satellite but instead as a regular WiFi attached device. All I did was was put a pin in the small hole in the back of the satellite (to do a factory reset), and after about ten minutes it came back up and connected as a satellite. My assumption is I will have to do this each and every time the power is interrupted to the base router or a satellite.