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Forum Discussion
Orbi randomly dropping internet connection despite V2.0.0.74 update
Hi all,
I recently purchased an RBK50 Orbi + satellite router but it is dropping internet connection randomly despite updating firmware to the latest V2.0.0.74. This is more often the case upon waking up in the morning.
Any suggestions?
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I have this problem as well and learned I was not alone when a caller on Leo LaPorte's Tech Guy podcast complained about the same thing! http://techguylabs.com/episodes/1447/why-my-internet-dropping-out#disqus_thread
A few days ago, my satellite really started disconneting from the internet. I applied the 2.1.1.16 update, and it isn't helping. I can see everything on my internal network, but the satellite can't route the the internet. This is getting annoying, as I have to rest the satellite every 1-2 hours.
I either need this fixed, or need a way to lock wifi clients to the router, and just use the satellite box for the ethernet. Can someone help here? I don't want to have to go with another solution, as I like not having to have a persistent connection to a backend like mesh systems have.
- Having the same problem here. Bought this system as a Christmas present for the home installed it over the holiday and it was working great but suddenly yesterday it started dropping internet connections all the time. It's so frequent now I can't keep track. Never had this problem with prior routers. Have the latest firmware. Need a solution pronto or will have no choice but to return within next 10 days, before my 30 days are up.
Sigh.....return it, unfortunately I have left it to late.
I can only mirror the same thing. Netgear even had me install a not-yet-released to the public firmware on it to fix the issue, and it didn't. So don't expect even the next firmware release to fix these problems.
- Thanks, wish it would be worthwhile to hold-my-breath for the fix. Reverting to my aged Apple base station confirms problem is due to the Orbi.
Not sure if of interest but the devices in our house are: variety of Apple devices (iPhones (3), iPads (3), iMacs (2), Apple TV (3), and Roku (2), Samsung smart TV (1). It's odd how the problem seems to start suddenly after some period of working normally.
For the last 2 weeks my Orbi has been dropping internet. I've noticed it only seems to happen in the evening, but since I'm not home all day every day, it's possible it drops other times as well. I should note, I do have a Google Pixel 2. How a single mass produced device could bring an entire network down is both confusing and extremely concerning if it is the cause. The lack of response so far from Netgear is of concern as well. Unfortunately I only have "hardware" support at this point. I did disable Daisy-Chain Topology a few minutes ago, so we'll see if that happens to work for me. Unfortuantely I've defended netgear's products in the past to people who said they were crap, but it appears this is an expensive lesson if I cannot get it figured out. Is there a place to download an old firmware version to see which version broke it?
For reference, I'm on 2.1.1.16. The ONLY configuration change I've made is my SSID/Password and selecting a different channel for both 2.4 and 5 ghz.
I bought the RBK44 from bestbuy on Nov 24th. Have had trouble since the install. Devices get disconnected, streaming video stalls for minutes at a time. A Samsung S6 kept on getting kicked off. I know some think that this is a Samung issue but it worked before the Orbi. Also, since I'm having issues with Fire TVs, other phones, and laptops I suspect it's an Orbi issue. I've read all the forums and tried the various 'solutions' that have worked for other people. None of them worked for me.
My solution was to buy a Google Wifi system. Night and day experience. Google Wifi hasn't dropped a client for days when I was getting drops many times/day with Orbi. Since I bought the Orbi at Besbuy during the holidays I think they'll take it back. Trying to return it today.
Good luck all!
- Other threads seem to be implying thus as well but for the last 2 days I've not let my pixel 2 to connect to the wireless and haven't had a single drop. This leads to this possibly being an indicator. Whether it's the pixel or oreo I don't know, but seeing as I need wifi calling on this causes a bit of a problem . This is way too expensive to dump for something else. Still need to research further, but if someone has found a workaround I'd appreciate it.
Since I can't use my Pixel 2 XL or my Nexus 6P on wifi with the Orbi(obviously with current issue) I started using my old Note 3 to play games on. Well it also makes the Orbi system REBOOT every time it wakes up! I wish Netgear would just refund me for this junk system because it doesn't seem like they will ever fix it?
Any suggestions anybody?
- Just out of interest, could you enable a guest network and try connecting to that? I'm wondering if the issue is the smart connect that puts devices into the best signal and speed, since you can't do it manually, but you can with the guest WiFi.
at a loss. I rolled my firmware back to 1.12 and the problem still persists. The instant I connect my Pixel 2 XL phone to the wireless I start dropping the network completely. If it's not connected, no problems. Has Netgear even acknowledged this is a known issue? This is an entirely too expensive of an option to dump.
I finally found time to call support. Even though I'm past the 90 days of support, they spoke to me, so I guess they get kudos for that. That said, they 'documented' my concern and told me to reset my orbi and then not change a thing. Not even the SSID. So I'm testing it now without a single change to it other than setting the password. If this is the problem (Which we all know it isn't), then that's a really big problem to have.
Yeah. I had that conversation with them as well.
"But I KNOW that is not the issue as I've reset it 3 times this week and am restarting it several times a week"
It's like I'm chatting with an IVR at this point.
They told me if the problem comes back to call back in and I could talk to L2 engineers. Yea, I'm sure Bob with the thick Indian accent is going to help me out.
- It should be noted with android 8.1 Google has completely removed the option to keep wifi on/off while sleeping. Initially this was only on the pixel 2 but now it's showing on any device running that os. If that is the problem, Google or netgear will have to blink and change something. More than likely Google since I don't see how netgear can fix it from their side without some kind of gate keeper which would end up just pissing people off.
- I've just seen this article and can't help thinking that this could be the problem.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2018/01/15/router_vendors_update_firmware_to_protect_against_google_chromecast_traffic_floods/
Sounds familiar eh?- Yup. Another article about it. Google says they are working with vendors to get a fix out.
https://9to5google.com/2018/01/15/google-chromecast-home-wifi-outage/amp/
Simply amazing.
So it appears that Netgear (and Google) knew about this and thought it best not to let their customers know about it?
We have all spent MANY hours trying to fix our networks, returning equipment, and replacing equipment when all we would have had to do is temporarily unplug our cast and home devices? Of course unplugging cast devices wouldn't be a soultion for people that rely on them but for me it would have been a simple temp fix.
Replacing my Orbi system with Google Wifi fixed the problem for me so either Google Wifi was able to deal with this poor behavior all along or they released a recent fix to deal with it.
How does this relate to the Samsung phone/Orbi issue? Does Samsung have a seperate problem?
There's a beta firmware which supposedly fixes the problem. It's located here: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/OrbiOS-2-1-1/td-p/1476960
Be sure you download both the base station and satellite firmware as they don't run off the same firmware versions.Curious if it specifically fixes the Chromecast/wake issues? I didn't see any indication that it did, and the responses on that thread isn't very good.