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Forum Discussion
Orbi in Malaysia
We've just swapped our crappy ISP provided router for an Orbi system, but cannot get it to broadcast internet. It runs and we can connect to its wifi, but I think the ISP's here use a particular conf...
I think it's time to throw this thing in the bin!
If I reboot my laptop and hard reset the Orbi, it will allow me to access the basic and advanced settings, so on first start up I configure it as an AP. As soon as the new settings take effect, the connection between my laptop and the Orbi gets reset and I cannot, in any way, access the settings again. I get the error message 'unable to establish a connection to the server at xxx.xxx.x.x', regardless of whether I use orbilogin.com, orbilogin.net, 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1. This is with an ethernet to LAN connection
The only thing that I think I've tried both ways, but am uncertain of the correct requirements, is that it asks if my ISP needs login details in the basic internet settings. I've been advised that Malaysian providers use PPPoE so I enter username and password in the two available boxes, change it to an AP, but it still won't connect to the internet.
You mentioned "So, repeat everything, except first connect the Yellow Internet port on Orbi to a LAN port on your existing router. Everything will be the same, except the Orbi will get an IP address from your router and will be able to do the firmware update, and hopefully will not error out.", but without an internet connection, it stays in the same endless loop....
I'm no expert here, but I've seemingly tried all possible configurations and have probably hard reset the thing 50 times, but nothing seems to work.
SDJ wrote:I think it's time to throw this thing in the bin!
If I reboot my laptop and hard reset the Orbi, it will allow me to access the basic and advanced settings, so on first start up I configure it as an AP. As soon as the new settings take effect, the connection between my laptop and the Orbi gets reset and I cannot, in any way, access the settings again. I get the error message 'unable to establish a connection to the server at xxx.xxx.x.x', regardless of whether I use orbilogin.com, orbilogin.net, 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1. This is with an ethernet to LAN connection
The only thing that I think I've tried both ways, but am uncertain of the correct requirements, is that it asks if my ISP needs login details in the basic internet settings. I've been advised that Malaysian providers use PPPoE so I enter username and password in the two available boxes, change it to an AP, but it still won't connect to the internet.
You mentioned "So, repeat everything, except first connect the Yellow Internet port on Orbi to a LAN port on your existing router. Everything will be the same, except the Orbi will get an IP address from your router and will be able to do the firmware update, and hopefully will not error out.", but without an internet connection, it stays in the same endless loop....
I'm no expert here, but I've seemingly tried all possible configurations and have probably hard reset the thing 50 times, but nothing seems to work.
I'm sorry, but by your description it sounds like the problem might be user error. The behavior you describe is expected.
Focus on getting AP mode to work for now. You indicated you could get to the advanced settings screen and set the device into AP mode. That's major progress.
Now, the key thing to understand is this... Once you set Orbi into AP mode Orbi will change IP address and you will no longer be able to access Orbi at 192.168.1.1!! This is expected behavior. This is beause as soon as you set AP mode, Orbi will obtain a new IP address from your router. You need to log into your existing router and look at the list of attached devices and see what IP address Orbi obtained. You can then log into Orbi at that address using http://x.y.z.w where x.y.z.w is the new address of Orbi. You also need to make sure your existing router is still set to give out IP addresses via DHCP.
Note that once you set Orbi into AP mode, you don't need to log into it for it to work. You should be able to access your LAN using Orbi as soon as you set it into AP mode. Make sure the Yellow Internet port is connected to your existing router's LAN port. Disconnect your laptop's wired connection from Orbi (Orbi's IP address changed so your laptop might have an invalid IP address on the wired connection until you reboot it.) Connect your laptop to Orbi WiFi and see if you can ping your existing router, get to the Internet, etc.
Thanks so much for your continued responses st_shaw! It's getting late here so this will be a job for Thursday. What you have said makes sense so hopefully I'm heading in the right direction. User error was always a strong possibilty here. So my only remaining question is whether I need to tell Orbi the username and password for my ISP, if it's required to access internet.
Thanks again.
No problem. I'd like to see you succeed. I would recommend you focus on getting AP mode working first and leave router mode for later. In AP mode you do not need to give Orbi the ISP username and password. Orbi simply connects to your ISP's router, on your LAN, just like any other device would, and provides WiFi access to your network. You should turn off the WiFi on your ISP router when using Orbi in AP mode. If you must leave your ISP router's WiFi on while setitng up Orbi, then make sure you place Orbi a couple meters away from the ISP router or they may interfere.
It sounds so simple!
We're actually running things this way at the moment, but with an Apple Time Capsule sitting where the Orbi will sit. So in theory it should be as simple as getting the Orbi in AP mode, unplugging the cable from the Apple TC and plugging it into the Orbi. But it isn't working, hence the week long trouble-shooting exercise. Wifi is disabled on the ISP WiFi unit.
The only thing which I may retry is to switch off the Apple TC whilst trying to set this unit up, in case it's interfering in some way.