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Forum Discussion
Orbi satellite dropping connection
Right to the point: my Orbi system has 2 satellites and 1 main tower. The internet drops/slows down (to the point where internet browsing is not possible) 2-3 times per day randomly without warning on the satellites (both at same time), but the main tower would be fine. Also netgear please DO NOT mark this as solved with firmware update 1.12.0.18, because all of my towers are on that version and still disconnecting. ISP is Comcast. We are using the Arris Surfboard SB6190 modem. I have tried using ethernet on the satellites, but ethernet is also effected by this issue. It cannot be interference because the connection works fine most of the day, and the issue seems to be at random without a trigger.
I suspect there's a problem with the connection between the satellites and main tower, but would still like some advice. I think we upgraded to the orbi around 6 months ago.
570 Replies
I'll add my voice to the list of people having issues. I've had the ORBI set up for 6 weeks and it has been nothing but problems and constant troubleshooting. I have 2 satellites and they constantly drop connection, I have streaming drops constantly on iPads and Apple TV, VOIP drops, and some devices I have that require 2.4GHz won't connect at all (even after separating the 2.4 and 5G ssid's.)
If I could return the ORBI and get my money back I would, but I'm past return period and could only return it for a repair or replacement. I've sunk $800 into this product that's not ready for prime time and just don't want to waste anymore of my time with the thing. This product is so faulty that Netgear should really just accept returns and give people their money back.
Hi,
Don't know if this solves the issue for most or if the cause of the problem, but after noticing that the password was being displayed truncated due to special characters, decided just to use an plain alphanumeric code. Since then my satellite stopped loosing connection with the host, and that has been for the past 30 days. This worked on the previous version of firmware and currently I've upgraded to 2.1.2.18 without problems.
Just so everyone knows....this is not just a USA problem....I bought mine in Australia and the exact same issues have been occurring. Anyone staying with us needs their device to be manually setup to connect to the internet via the Orbi network. After setting up over ten devices now, I have this down pat. It helps that they have all been Apple devices...I think I might struggle with Windows as I haven’t used it for many years. I have until April to return them...so I might wait until NBN is connected (National Broadband Network) to make a final judgement. But as I have said before...learning and implementing manual setup on various devices SHOULDNT BE NECESSARY.
As an update, it's interesting to see that Netgear now shows firmware V2.0.1.4 as the current firmware and all of V2.1.* is flagged as previous. So, I just downgraded for my RBR50 and RBS50 and it did solve the problem of the disconnecting satellite for me.
Have a look .. You don't need to throw your Orbi away ..
Michael
mich1973wrote:As an update, it's interesting to see that Netgear now shows firmware V2.0.1.4 as the current firmware and all of V2.1.* is flagged as previous. So, I just downgraded for my RBR50 and RBS50 and it did solve the problem of the disconnecting satellite for me.
Have a look .. You don't need to throw your Orbi away ..
Michael
Yeah, that is pretty interesting. An article on their page claims that it fixes a memory leak. Article here. There's nothing there that says it was a rollback or any other details at all.
I've been having some issues lately. The previous (2.1.2.18) worked fine for me for about a week or so. No issues at all. Then I started getting drops on my Android phone. Then my laptop would start having drops. Also, general slowness across the network. I did a reboot on the router, but that didn't seem to fix anything. If the memory leak thing is true, it definitely makes sense. Hope they get it resolved in a new firmware update.
I hate that they push things to market and test on consumers. They do the same thing with games and a multitude of other things. It's easy these days because they can always push out an update. The speed to market has to be quick or else you'll be last to market.
Things are getting really bad on my end with regard to drops and network speeds of somewhere around crawling. Last night I tested at less than 1mbps. Tonight while running a speedtest, the network dropped. Laptop, phone, all devices. It's like the Orbi had some sort of failure...which seems to be consistent with the memory leaks thing they posted the article about. I haven't had a chance to update (downgrade) the firmware. I'm still on 2.1.2.18. Maybe tonight. I'm well beyond the return period, so I just kind of have to suck it up until they fix this thing. Which is pretty sad. I do still have my old router, but I'd really like internet out in the shop, which is the entire reason I purchased the Orbi to begin with.
Thank you for responding to the thread with this! I just downgraded the firmware to the new old V2.0.0.53 firmware for the RBR40 and RBS40 units.
Have Wifi Explorer running and will be monitoring the connections. Fingers crossed this resolves the issue.
Thank you, again!
- Hi, how are you ‘downgrading’ the firmware. I can’t see an option to do this.
Thanks
Dan
mich1973wrote:As an update, it's interesting to see that Netgear now shows firmware V2.0.1.4 as the current firmware and all of V2.1.* is flagged as previous. So, I just downgraded for my RBR50 and RBS50 and it did solve the problem of the disconnecting satellite for me.
Have a look .. You don't need to throw your Orbi away ..
Michael
Update - One week after downgrading to firmware v2.0.1.4, I did not encounter a single issue. So, from my side, this is now SOLVED.
What remains is a very disappointing experience with how Netgear handles firmward upgrades. It's hard to believe that testing is done so poorly that such major bugs are not detected before releasing the firmware to the customer.
Michael
mich1973wrote:
Update - One week after downgrading to firmware v2.0.1.4, I did not encounter a single issue. So, from my side, this is now SOLVED.What remains is a very disappointing experience with how Netgear handles firmward upgrades. It's hard to believe that testing is done so poorly that such major bugs are not detected before releasing the firmware to the customer.
Michael
Glad it worked for you. It was more of the same from my end. Downgrading did nothing to help things out once the system had been up and running for some time.
Just a news flash, IPv6 has been added to the eero in router mode with the latest firmware release. Previously you could only use IPv6 in AP (bridge) mode. Now it's available in router mode as well. And it works for me on Comcast. Still have the Orbi, though, not quite sure what I'll do with it yet. At some point, I'll most likely need to settle on either the Orbi or eero, since there's only room around here for one mesh system *smile*. Storage space is at a premium.
This problem was reported in August 2017 and still in February 2018 I'm having the problem daily on my fully updated system. I read this whole thread and still find no specific actions other than "update firmware" (DONE 2.1.2.18 right now) and move satelites closer to base (DONE - closest one is 30 feet away with one drywall wall between), and nothing seems to improve the situation. My connection drops at All satelites and main router on Wifi, even 15 feet from the Router through one non-insulated wall on a Xbox and Iphone 8. Hard wired connections to router works fine the whole time. All Wi-fi drops for about 5 minutes and then comes back several times a day. 250 MBPS pre-drop and 250 Mbps post drop at all satelites and I think main router..
Has anyone figured this out? I bought mine at Costco, so even though I've had this for 6+ months, it is going back soon if it can't be solved.
Community,
Like others on this thread, I have spent my time reading and replying to the comments and potential fixes to the problems, yet there is no final fix or even a path to resolution.
WHERE IS NETGEAR SUPPORT, Where is the official Netgear team looking through these posts and responding. Anything would be good, "we are working on it" "we acknowledge the problems and have a team addressing the issue". Has the support team reached out direclty to anyone in these posts/thread?
Problem is this will not be resolved on this community forum, it MUST be addressed by Netgear.
dechant11,
Netgear L2 support did reach out to me (via a moderator on the forum) but their response time was, unfortunately, pretty slow, and with my return window closing the following week I finally decided to pull the plug. Even when I spoke with people in India, they were easy to understand and extremely knowledgeable. I have no complaints about support outside of the delay in getting back with me. I assume its because there are plenty of other ORBI customers that they were dealing with.
Happy to hear that some folk are having better luck with the rollback of the firmware. It seems that this has resolved a lot of people's issues - so you may want to try that if you have not.
I made the decision to install an eero Pro system, after I returned the ORBI. Yes I have seen a slight performance hit. When the ORBI was working I was getting about 270mbps in all but one area of the house; on eero Pro I am seeing just under 260mbps. Outside of this minor slow down, the eero system is working fine with no dropouts or hiccups.
When I am in the market for a new system, in a few years (because that is how these things end up playing out) I will certainly look at the ORBI system again, as long as they have all of these bugs worked out.
So the accepted solution here according to the link is to give up and switch to google? Or install an old version of firmware and hope for the best?
I'm having all the same issues. During the day when we're using pcs one satelitte seems to reset every few hours meaning I go offline or very very slow. In the evening once a vpn and chromecast come into play, we're having dropped connections every forty minutes or so. I've had the RBR40 and 2 satelittes for just 6 days and am wishing I'd stuck to my ten times cheaper router and booster :-/ Anyone got a proven fix before I send it back whilst I'm within guarantee?
I went with the Eero Pro and couldn't be happier. No more disconnects or having to reboot satellites every day.
For what it's worth to everyone, ever since I put the RBS50 on a timer to force a power cycle, everything has been fine. It's a stupid workaround, but at least it's a temp fix (so far). We'll see what happens going into the weekend as I have fewer forced power cycles during the weekend time.
It went back. Tried the TP link deco instead - which worked great straight out of the box.
Yep, I just switched to Google WiFi. Works like an absolute dream right out of the box.
Well mines been online for 3 days + with out any reboots since last update and re-config. May also depend on ISP modem and services as well and other environmental conditions could impact as well. Just saying.
Hope the new FW will exhibit something different.
I'm glad that it's working well for you. The jury is still out for me until I have the time in my hectic schedule to do the reconfig. I own my modem and it's a DOCSIS 3. My previous 2 routers have been just fine and I never had to worry about drops or slow speeds. There's many documented cases of other users swapping out the Orbi for something else and all was well.
We'll see what this new FW brings, but for now, it's beta. So I still say it's garbage until they are creating features and not just scrambling to fix memory leaks and the like.
FURRYe38wrote:
Well mines been online for 3 days + with out any reboots since last update and re-config. May also depend on ISP modem and services as well and other environmental conditions could impact as well. Just saying.
Hope the new FW will exhibit something different.
Let us know how it goes.
Good Luck.
myriad_rockerwrote:I'm glad that it's working well for you. The jury is still out for me until I have the time in my hectic schedule to do the reconfig. I own my modem and it's a DOCSIS 3. My previous 2 routers have been just fine and I never had to worry about drops or slow speeds. There's many documented cases of other users swapping out the Orbi for something else and all was well.
We'll see what this new FW brings, but for now, it's beta. So I still say it's garbage until they are creating features and not just scrambling to fix memory leaks and the like.
FURRYe38wrote:
Well mines been online for 3 days + with out any reboots since last update and re-config. May also depend on ISP modem and services as well and other environmental conditions could impact as well. Just saying.
Hope the new FW will exhibit something different.
Sounds like there is a problem between the Orbi wifi and this Harmony Hub device. I presume this is something NG support should have a look at.
I finally gave up. The Orbi is out there for as a generic access point for guests; if they can connect, great, if not - too bad.
I put in hardwire connections from my Linksys switch across the house -- all the bedrooms (6) have that now, along with some other areas, That was cheaper than the Orbi and the satellites.After much testing and swapping equipment, it was proven that Comcast's Arris modem is not compatible with Orbi on AP mode. Testing in pass-through was not done. Switching to a Netgear owner supplied cable/phone modem resolved the issue. You likely will need a capable Comcast tech to help make the switch.
DESIi1 wrote:
After much testing and swapping equipment, it was proven that Comcast's Arris modem is not compatible with Orbi on AP mode. Testing in pass-through was not done. Switching to a Netgear owner supplied cable/phone modem resolved the issue. You likely will need a capable Comcast tech to help make the switch.
Glad that you found your problem, the Orbi is great when it works as it should *smile*. Wondering which specific model Arris modem it was? I used the Arris TM822g modem with the Orbi for quite a while, in both router or AP mode and no problems. Maybe it was that specific modem, that it wasn't working right? Don't know if you tried multiple units of that cable modem? Anyways, glad to hear your problems are fixed!
Also, Comcast now has a process called auto-activation where you disconnect the old modem and connect the new one. Then attach a computer to it, and bring up a browser, and if it's a supported modem it should start to auto-activate. The first part of the process is identifying yourself/account, and there are several ways to do that. That worked for me recently with both the Netgear CM500V and the Netgear C7100V (that I beta tested). The cable modem auto-activation process is described on the Comcast site, where it talks about your devices, and how to replace your modem. Very simple and quick these days.
I have the same problem with the 3 pack i bought from costco today, running firmware 2.1.4.16; main tower is fine but satellites are up and down, mostly down. Its basically unusable. This POS is going back to costco tomorrow.
- Hi,
I have the same issue with latest FW. Satelliter drops connection on a daily basis. Paid almost 500€ for this product and it doesnt work.I updated all the devices a while back and that fixed the problem. Now solid as a rock on current firmware.
M
