Orbi mesh network is making bad choices for device connections

---

sfsdfd wrote:

Any idea what's going on here? Is there any setting in the Orbi firmware that might be causing these poor connectivity choices? Do I need to assign static gateways?

---

You have encountered one of the most frustrating aspects of mesh WiFi systems, and a frequent topic of posts on this forum.

Here's a theory about that particular experiment: When the Pi discovered that the WiFi router access point on the channel disappeared, it looked and said, "Oh, here's another access point on the same channel.  I'll switch to it."  (the satellite). Shortly after that, this WiFi access point disappeared as well, and the Pi said, "Dang.  I need to search for access points on other channels."

As FURRYe38 mentioned, it is the device which decides which access point to use.  WiFi systems have ways to "encourage" devices to select different bands (Google WiFi Band Steering), but in the end the device makes a selection.

Devices which are designed to be portable (in motion, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops) often have networking software that constantly scans for a better WiFi connection and there are 802.11 standards for how they switch from one access point to another.  Devices that are expected to remain in one location often have less sophisticated software. Once they get attached to an access point, they tend to 'stick' until the access point disappears and they are forced to begin looking again.

A solution which appears to work for some devices (TV's, desktops, etc.) is to go into the network settings, 'forget' the Orbi WiFi, then search for WiFi, enter the password, and connect again.  The theory behind that method is that the router WiFi signal becomes available before the satellite, and the TV may have already connected to the router when the satellite signal shows up too late.

Others have reported success by reducing the Transmit Power on the WiFi system, which lowers the signal level of all access points, and then doing the reconnection on the device. (I have never done that. "More Power" is sort of a mantra with me.)

My 3B+ and 4B Pi's connect at 5G.  5G is much more sensitive to distance than 2.4G, so lowering the signal level may make the router less attractive.

My Pi's are "headless", so changing WiFi connections requires a wired connection.  I'm not entirely certain how one would do that with a headless WiFi Pi.