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Orbi dropping internet connection... STILL
I had a thread on this previously but now it will no longer let me reply on it..
Quick recap:
I bought an Orbi. Worked great for a couple days and then started dropping internet connection. I decided to live with it because it only happened around once a week. I kept the orbi past the return period for best buy (14 days) and was stuck with it. Then I started having daily disconnects and even had trouble getting it back online sometimes.
I was told by a netgear support agent that I got a defective unit and to return it to best buy. I returned it to best buy in hopes that a new router would solve the problem. No. Yet again daily disconnects. Netgear customer support said that it was a firmware issue and they had a fix. I downloaded the beta firmware that they wanted me to try and that seemed to make it better but still had disconnects. Lately on the new firmware I only have disconnects every 3 or 4 days instead of daily.
I have a netgear modem and spectrum internet. The problem seems to be that the modem does not assign the router a mac address or something like that. When my internet drops I have perfect signal to the router but no internet. If I unplug the Orbi and plug in my old router I have internet again. Or if I unplug the router and plug the modem straight into my laptop I have internet.
I called back tech support and now they want to do an RMA... what that means is they want to replace my unit from the warehouse. I thought that I already did this process one time...
I hope this new unit fixes my issues, but I do not have high hopes. I have never had so much trouble with a router before and should not have to deal with all of this with the price of this unit. I have wasted over 8 hours of my life talking to tech support trying to get this router to work the way it was supposed to function when I purchased it. If you have this router and are having problems (and can still return it) I would get your money back before you have to go through all of the head aches that I have been through.
If this new replacement does not work I guess I will cut my losses and just buy a router that actually works.
After 3 months of struggling with daily power resets, exchanging my router twice for 2 new Orbi Routers, and testing multiple beta firmwares I think I have finally solved the internet dropping problems (with no help from the level 2 netgear "experts").
I was about to give up on the router when I noticed looking through the log reports that the time/date was wrong on my router. It seems silly, but after correcting the date/time on the router (which I never set in the first place) my internet has been rock solid! I have gone 3 days without having to power cycle my router (a big improvement over power cycling multiple times per day. It is too soon to say it is a fix but it is worth a try if you are still having problems with yours.
Here is how to fix:
1) go to orbilogin.net
2) punch in your username (typically "admin") and the password (it will be "password" if you have not changed it)
3) Click the Advanced Tab
4) Click Administration
5) Click Logs (Check at the top to make sure the current time that is listed is correct.. for me it was incorrect initially and needed to be fixed)
If you need to change the time go to:
1) Click on "security" under the advanced tab
2) go to "schedule"
3) at the bottom use the drop down menu to select the correct time zone (note you may have to check the box that says adjust for daylight savings time)
4) verify the correct time is listed then click the apply button
I hope this will help with the problem. Like I said to early to say it is a fix but it has worked for me thus far. I wish the netgear technical support could have been more helpful. I have tried every solution under the sun the last 3 months but this seems like a relatively simple thing that has fixed the problem for me (thus far).
22 Replies
Any luck finding a solution? I have a RBR50 with two satellites and I am having dropped or dead connections several times a day. Basically, my devices connect to the Orbi WIF just fine, but no internet connection. Thinking it was my modem I replaced a 6141 to a 6181. I also had Comcast send a tech out and he did a few small fixed like replace some wire ends, but otherwise said things were good. Everything was great until about a month or so ago.
DAVE
- Still no solution. I had a beta firmware that ended in .12 and it was the most stable firmware. I only had to power cycle every 4-5 days. They released a new software and I downloaded that and back to daily power cycles. Never ending cycle. Still unrealiable internet.
I too have been having problems with the Orbi dropping the internet connection. The only fix I found was to power cycle the Orbi base unit. I don't understand it. Netgear has been in the router business for a long time. How can the unit not be able to deliver a basic internet connection? They must be paying off the reviewers to keep getting such high reviews. I have powered down my Orbi and am waiting for a confirmation of a fix. It is not worth the hassles of daily power cycling. I am prepared to take a loss on it and tell everyone not to buy Netgear equipment since they are unable to provide reliable basic functionality.
If you are having these issues you can try to factory reset Orbi and resync the units also you may want to make sure beamforming and mumimo is enabled again. If you need to back up your settings you will want to check out the link below.
DarrenM
- Hello, thank you for the advice. One of the first things that I did was factory reset everything but sadly that did not help. The set up was working great until maybe a month and a half to two months ago… I'm guessing somewhere in the firmware something that changed and now it is not playing as good as it used to
I did the same where I returned my orbi for a brand new orbi in the hopes that replacing the unit and updating to the newest firmware would help solve the issue. However I am still facing disconnect issues.
What strikes me is that NETGEAR has you returning your 'new' unit for a unit in their warehouse? Have they made hardware changes? If so, why aren't they replacing all units sold? They seem to be acknowledging that there are defective units. My original orbi was purchased in January, the replacement unit was purchased in July.
I am almost done with NETGEAR and about to return for full refund.
Hi - I am having issues with dropping too -having read the other forums the suggestgion is beta firmware (??) is this something that I can request please ???
Thanks
Hello Dipsy700
Send me a Pm I can get you to support to work with you.
DarrenM
Hopefully that helps you. I had to return my unit as we just could not get it to work consistently enough. Perhaps they have issues with some of the Comcast cable modems?
I purchased my own modem, don't believe it can be Comcast (as much as I hate to say that)
- I have been on the phone with level 2 support multiple times and they can not fix my issues with the internet dropping connection. I am curious about other people who are having trouble. What is your set up like? We have a lot of apple devices so I wonder if that is the problem. Also, our router is in the back part of the house so when we leave we disconnect from the satellite orbi and reconnect to the satellite orbi when we get home. I wonder if this has anything to do with it because the internet always drops when I leave and arrive back home. I also have some smart home devices on my system (nest, Phillips hue, lutron, Alexa). Not sure if these devices are causing problems.
After 3 months of struggling with daily power resets, exchanging my router twice for 2 new Orbi Routers, and testing multiple beta firmwares I think I have finally solved the internet dropping problems (with no help from the level 2 netgear "experts").
I was about to give up on the router when I noticed looking through the log reports that the time/date was wrong on my router. It seems silly, but after correcting the date/time on the router (which I never set in the first place) my internet has been rock solid! I have gone 3 days without having to power cycle my router (a big improvement over power cycling multiple times per day. It is too soon to say it is a fix but it is worth a try if you are still having problems with yours.
Here is how to fix:
1) go to orbilogin.net
2) punch in your username (typically "admin") and the password (it will be "password" if you have not changed it)
3) Click the Advanced Tab
4) Click Administration
5) Click Logs (Check at the top to make sure the current time that is listed is correct.. for me it was incorrect initially and needed to be fixed)
If you need to change the time go to:
1) Click on "security" under the advanced tab
2) go to "schedule"
3) at the bottom use the drop down menu to select the correct time zone (note you may have to check the box that says adjust for daylight savings time)
4) verify the correct time is listed then click the apply button
I hope this will help with the problem. Like I said to early to say it is a fix but it has worked for me thus far. I wish the netgear technical support could have been more helpful. I have tried every solution under the sun the last 3 months but this seems like a relatively simple thing that has fixed the problem for me (thus far).
my time was also incorrect (1h behind). Unfortunately I only have 3 days to return the orbi so won't be able to confirm if this worked or not
My time was off as well and just corrected. Will let you know if it works.
this has not fixed my issue unfortunately. Last day to return this tomorrow. Got Linksys Velop already set up. Hopefully it'll work better.
