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Forum Discussion
Orbi MR 2.1 Update 3/23/18
Our teams are still working through the issues, but I wanted to provide a quick update on OrbiOS 2.1. We usually wait to release our software until it's available across all Orbi product lines, but ...
I haven’t tried that yet. That’s a good isolation troubleshooting step. I would like to know what iOS’s threshold is for engaging the WiFi assist so I could understand whether I’m running into that or not as well.
The experience we have is picking up our phone and opening Safari and immediately the WiFi icon disappears and we’re back on mobile data for about 15-20 seconds.
The other experience I have is that I get kicked off of Wi-Fi calls, which is a pain because I work from home and really appreciate Wi-Fi calling when it works, which again is most of the time. Still, when you come from 3 years of a rock-solid Netgear Nighthawk to random disconnects, patience dose wear a trifle thin. I also know this is a “first world problem”, I was a strawberry and turkey farmer as a kid before I got into IT administration and then software engineering, so am keeping things in perspective ;-)
How many satellites do you have. That issue sounds just like WiFi assist is kicking in. My issue before this firmware was that my WiFi icon never disappeared it’s just would stop going to internet.
When WiFi icon disappears Iphone assumes you have a very weak WiFi signal and it needs to enable lte.
Sounds exactly like your WiFi assist is kicking in for sure.
When WiFi icon disappears Iphone assumes you have a very weak WiFi signal and it needs to enable lte.
Sounds exactly like your WiFi assist is kicking in for sure.
I have one satellite.
I just remembered that WiFi assist tracks how much data it uses. I just checked it and it’s at 216KB, which is probably a few iMessages here and there.
It’s definitely not WiFi assist, 216KB isn’t a drop in the types of web pages I load while the WiFi icon is off and I’m having the issue even once.
- If you wanna keep the 2.4hgz at 25% it might be worth trying third satellite. When your iPhone is totally dropping WiFi it means either WiFi assist is knocking it off if you have it on or you are out of range where it can’t see your router. So in your case you may need to put one satellite in the other corner to get the nearby coverage. I have 2 satellites one in each corner and the router in the front room.
I replied before, WiFi Assist was a good hypothesis, but given that it’s only used 216KB of data, it’s not that.
Even if it were WiFi Assist, it wouldn’t be a signal issue. I’ve tested my 5Ghz signal thoroughly and it’s very strong. This is the thing I love about the Orbi. No signal issues.
The only thing it could be is iOS detecting a lack of internet access through the WiFi fabric. Which I know isn’t it either, as long as the 216KB is accurate, that’s vanishingly small for the amount of internet activity I’ve done after being disconnected from WiFi.
Wizecwrote:I replied before, WiFi Assist was a good hypothesis, but given that it’s only used 216KB of data, it’s not that.
Even if it were WiFi Assist, it wouldn’t be a signal issue. I’ve tested my 5Ghz signal thoroughly and it’s very strong. This is the thing I love about the Orbi. No signal issues.
The only thing it could be is iOS detecting a lack of internet access through the WiFi fabric. Which I know isn’t it either, as long as the 216KB is accurate, that’s vanishingly small for the amount of internet activity I’ve done after being disconnected from WiFi.
Out of curiosity... have you tried going into WiFi settings on your phone and "Forget This Network", power cycle phone and then connecting back to the network again?
- The reason I am saying you might want to try third satellite is because on phones the 5ghz signal is small terms sucks. You might be testing with devices that have more power where Iphone is failing to make up the difference. I honestly don’t have this issue and I have 3 iPhones and 2 iPads. My WiFi only drops when the router is shut off or not broadcasting. Other than that I haven’t had these issues since I added the 3rd satellite. I was fine with two but the way my house is it has to go through many walls to hit my back yard. Now I have coverage front yard and back yard and all over the house.
Update on the Rainmachine...I added it to a static IP and rebooted the router (remotely)..it is now assigned the static IP and I can only again connect via the Rainmachine app. We will see if the issue crops up in a day or two like it did before with a static IP.
Hopefully Netgear is reading this so they can fix these beta firmware issues. Other than that one device it seems to be working well for me.
