Orbi RBK40 AC2200 Portable Device WiFi Speeds dropped 80% with no deliberate change to system setup!

Question

Wireless speeds of several portable (Android) devices recently dropped ~80% from previous speeds while WiFi speeds of a desktop and laptop have not.

ISP service speed is 200 Mbps and this is measured on both a wired Ethernet connection and on a WiFi desktop connection. The latter was confirmed using Ookla Speedtest and Netflix fast.com. WiFi speeds on several Android devices are about 10% of that realizing only ~20 Mbps with varying signal strength across the house, as expected.

There was no known upgrade or configuration change of either the Android devices or the Orbi system. As part of troubleshooting, I ensured the latest firmware versions were applied to the Orbi router and satellites. The upgrade made no difference. I tried power cycling each device, again, with no improvement.

I'm at a loss as to what is happening and what to try next.

Equipment:

Broadband Internet with 200Mbps download - verified via Ethernet connection to PC

orbi RBR40 AC2200 Tri-band router with firmware version 2.6.2.104

orbi RBS20 satellite and RBS40 satellite, each with firmware version 2.6.2.104

plemans · Answer

No, with orbi there's no way to disable bandsteering.&nbsp;its one of the challenges with mesh systems&nbsp;

plemans · Answer

Have you checked to see what band your devices are connecting to?

2.4ghz is slow (very slow) and in areas with a lot of wireless signals, its even worse.

5ghz is going to be much faster.

napochan · Answer

Hi plemans,&nbsp;Yes, all the devices affected operate on 5GHz.&nbsp; 2.4GHz is being used only by a couple of smart speakers and security devices.&nbsp;It seems the low performance only affects the handheld (i.e., Android) devices as I just ran Speedtest again from a Win10 desktop connected by WiFi and it reported ~200Mbps.&nbsp;

plemans · Answer

I understand that they operate on 5ghz. But the orbi bandsteers.&nbsp;It moves devices from 2.4ghz to 5ghz as needed.&nbsp;So you'd actually have to log into the orbi to see what band its on

napochan · Answer

Agreed; that's what I did. I logged into the router to view the mapping of devices across the router, satellites and their assigned frequency band.&nbsp; I also read the assignments, signal strengths, and channel load in the Orbi app on a tablet and phone.&nbsp;&nbsp;I will monitor the band assignments over time as I move through the house.&nbsp;Is there a way to disable the bandsteering and lockdown a device to a band?&nbsp;

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Orbi RBK40 AC2200 Portable Device WiFi Speeds dropped 80% with no deliberate change to system setup!

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