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Forum Discussion
Orbi RBR & RBS Ethernet Backhaul Help
I have Centurylink Fiber 1Gig up and 1 Gig down. In order to get rid of Centurylink's Modem/Router combo I had to utilize PPPOE and VLAN Tagging. I setup the VLAN Tagging on my TP Link Smart Switch (...
t_k A update on last night. I was able to get your switch suggestion working properly. I did some test though... When setting the Orbi to do the PPPOE and the Switch to handle the VLAN tagging I notice the speed seems to be some what inconsistent. Before I set this all up I tested the Orbi to run in AP Mode just for the heck of it and used the Centurylink c3000z Modem/Router as the router (wireless turned off). I got much better and more consistant speeds (wireless and wired). I have read that PPPOE and VLAN tagging can somewhat cause some stress on the router and thus bottlenecking the speed.
I have also read about your pfsense idea and I actually would possibly prefer that... But until then I think I might just do the AP Mode with the centurylink router. I appreciate the time you are taking to help me out. Could you give me the best senario to do for AP Mode with Ethernet Backhaul?
DScone I'm glad you got the setup working, at least!
Regarding your inconsistent speeds on PPPoE, I can't be of too much help there because I haven't had to use that feature of the Orbi. But, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Orbi's PPPoE implementation was poorly tested and poor performing.
I should try to steer you away from trying to troubleshoot VLANs as a source of the slow down though. VLANs and VLAN tagging is has near-0 overhead. In a small nome network, it would be astonishing if it was even detectable. 802.11q is designed to be super lightweight. I mainly bring this up so you don't try to chase that as a problem.
As for pfSense, it's great - though it may provide more features than you need. For us, we use the VPN client/server features, traffic shaping, and VLAN support of pfSense (in additional to the regular stuff). If you don't have any of those needs, it may be a little bit of overkill. Though, once you own a pfSense box, you probabaly won't go back :-).
Anyway, adding a pfSense box into the mix and putting it all together, here's what I would say your cleanest option is:
1. CenturyLink Modem -> WAN port of pfSense box (typically called em0)
2. LAN port of pfSense box (typically called em1) -> Basement switch, untagged for default VLAN
3. WAN port of Orbi router -> Basement switch, untagged for default VLAN (basically, the wall jack)
4. Any port of Orbi sattelite -> Basement switch, untagged for default VLAN (again, just the wall jac)
In this scenario you don't need VLANs setup on your switch in the basement and you don't need a second switch.
However, I really should bring up an important alternative. If you're going to go through the effort and cost of setting up a pfSense box and using a wired backhaul, then you'll probably be much happier with a Ubuqity Unifi setup. The Orbi's wired backhaul is so unreliable right now that it's maddening. Maybe they'll fix it later, but netgear fixed significant stability issues for over 8 months, so I wouldn't hold my breath. I would just see it being really frustarting to get the rest of your network setup and well designed only to still deal with unstable connectivity.
