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Forum Discussion
Orbi in AP mode with wired backhaul showing weird behavior
I recently set up an Orbi RBK53 system in AP mode (I don't need the orbi's router capabilities, as I'm using pfsense). The main orbi router is connected into a gigabit switch and one of the satellites is setup for wired backhaul into that switch. The second satellite is setup for wireless backhaul.
If I use the orbi app on my android device, it shows the wired satellite as offline. If I log directly into the orbi's admin UI via a browser, the attached devices show it attached and with a proper backhaul. Usually it appears as a Netgear device with the proper orbi image. Sometimes though it appears as a satellite but instead of the Netgear orbi image next to the device name I get that old mac mini-lookalike icon.
The router and satellite are all on the latest firmware 2.2.1.210.
Any idea why there's this discrepency between the app?
I have also noticed that the app behavior is somewhat inconsistent. If my device is connected to the main router or connected to the wireless backhaul satellite orbilogin.com resolves fine and works and the app works. But if my device connects to the wired backhaul satellite orbilogin.com resolution fails and the app can't find the device. I assume that the wired backhaul satellite simply doesn't have the capability of intercepting the orbilogin.com dns request but dunno if that's an accurate assumption.
28 Replies
Please check the discussion in this post:
So if you have an Android device then please first check that your SSID name has no spaces. Another thing (not confirmed) your Router and Satellite names should also not have spaces.
My SSID does not have spaces in it. I just left the orbi device names as the default (Orbi Router, Orbi Satellite-1, Orib Satellite-2). So having spaces in the device names is a problem? If so that seems like an issue if those are the default names :)
But that doesn't explain why it only doesn't work if I'm wirelessly connected to an ethernet backhaul satellite. In all other cases it works.
I also don't have the problem from the other thread. All of my connected devices show just fine.
dopey1620 wrote:
My SSID does not have spaces in it. I just left the orbi device names as the default (Orbi Router, Orbi Satellite-1, Orib Satellite-2). So having spaces in the device names is a problem? If so that seems like an issue if those are the default names :)
But that doesn't explain why it only doesn't work if I'm wirelessly connected to an ethernet backhaul satellite. In all other cases it works.
I also don't have the problem from the other thread. All of my connected devices show just fine.
As mentioned in that post this seems to be a bug in the android software, but it seems it's not the problem causing your issue.
One other thing to check is to make sure that Daisy Chain is disabled as you are using one satellite with wired backhaul. This is another bug in the software that might cause some inconsistency. Please check this.
I wasn't aware of problems with green and managed switches but now that I do some more digging with specific search terms yeah it seems like lots of people have been having the same problem.
I just switched to a zyxel gs1900-24 managed switch and am tinkering with the igmp snoopings settings but it hasn't made any difference.
Still good to know. Having the satellite wired directly into the router ethernet port is doable for now. I've followed up on my support case to see if they can tell us what protocol(s?) are used for the router/switch discovery and syncing.
Oh and one other good news. Now that the satellite is actually connected to the router directly and everything apperas to be working fine, daisychaining is doing what I want. Satellite-2 is connected to the wired satellite-1 instead of directly to the router. Signal strength to satellite-1 is much better and everything works great.
dopey1620 wrote:
Oh and one other good news. Now that the satellite is actually connected to the router directly and everything apperas to be working fine, daisychaining is doing what I want. Satellite-2 is connected to the wired satellite-1 instead of directly to the router. Signal strength to satellite-1 is much better and everything works great.
Great that things look good now.
One thing to be aware of is that wired backhaul together with Daisy Chain is not a good combination in the current software because of a software bug! Avoid having wired devices to the satellites for now until this is solved.
There is a beta software that is now being tested and it seems that this issue is addressed there :)
Yes, others have reported that disabling IGMP protocols on managed switches resolved problems with connected Orbi and Satellites. If this works then your managed switch will be fine to use. Just keep this in mind.
dopey1620 wrote:
I wasn't aware of problems with green and managed switches but now that I do some more digging with specific search terms yeah it seems like lots of people have been having the same problem.
I just switched to a zyxel gs1900-24 managed switch and am tinkering with the igmp snoopings settings but it hasn't made any difference.
Still good to know. Having the satellite wired directly into the router ethernet port is doable for now. I've followed up on my support case to see if they can tell us what protocol(s?) are used for the router/switch discovery and syncing.
To close the loop on this, interestingly enough 2.3.0.32 resolves the issue with the app showing the right status for the satellite when it and the hub are wired into a common switch (i'm still using the zyxel gs1900-24 managed switch and igmp snooping is currently set to disabled - default config for the zyxel).
If I'm connected to the wired satellite, it still doesn't resolve www.orbilogin.com properly. I still haven't had a time to hook up a hub to analyze the traffic to determine how that is detected though. But it's nice that basic functionality seems to be mostly working properly with 2.3.0.32 though.
What the? I just posted a response to this thread and was going to reference it on another thread and my response is gone. Did it get deleted somehow?
FURRYe38 wrote:
Not sure...
Didn't see any posts from you. Unless your link was bad or something. :smileyfrustrated:
I definitely posted something. I even edited it because I had typoes in it after it posted. Oh well.
To answer your question I have a Zyxel GS1900-24 switch. I actually did some more digging. I did some tcp packet captures and it does look like the hub is intercepting DNS requests and then sending back entries for www.orbilogin.com. If I connect the satellite directly into my switch and not into the hub, the DNS request makes it to my DNS server/router (pfsense) and it sends back the public DNS record for www.orbilogin.com. If I have the wired backhaul connected directly into the orbi hub (or use the wireless connected satellite) the request doesn't even make it to my pfsense router/dns server. So the orbi hub is definitely responsible for intercepting it.
I'm guessing when the satellite is configured in wired backhaul it's basically just acting as an access point and doesn't have the logic for intercepting the DNS request for www.orbilogin.com. That actually makes sense. In this mode, the satellite may not even definitively know the IP address of the hub.
It'd be nice if the orbi app just let you specify the IP address of the orbi hub. But the solution of wiring the satellite directly into the hub works fine for me for now.
Yes thats a manged switch:
https://www.zyxel.com/us/en/support/DownloadLandingSR.shtml?c=us&l=en&kbid=M-01606&md=GS1900-24
Can you see if it has IGMP protocols enabled, if so, might try disabling this to see if he helps any. Been others mentionging that disabling IGMP on there switches helps with there orbi systems.
Might contact the Mfr to see if there any kind of configuration setting that would make the switch not direct packets for the orbi to see if this helps any.
