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Forum Discussion
Solved
Orbi Satellite not syncing with Router
Hi all,
i was hoping someone was able to give me some assistance, i've been plugging away for a couple of days with no luck.
My Setup
RBK50 Orbi (firmware version was 2.5.1.8 but downgraded to 2.3.5.30)
1 Orbi RBS50 Satellite (firmware version 2.2.1.210)
- Macbook Pro with MacOS Catalina
Story
Both the Orbi Router and Satellite was working fine 100% and i've had the setup for over 2 years, but i need to test some stuff out, so i unplugged the router and moved it from downstairs to upstairs, but then brought it back to the original stop.
When i powered up the router, i noticed in the attached devices page that the Satellite was in a "Disconnected" mode even though it was fully powered up and was not moved, powered off or touched (it was more than 30mins since restoring the router to its original spot in the house). At this point, i thought "its all good, i'll just remove it and resync it". Yeh no, it can't sync with the satellite anymore eventhough it can detect it as hardwrired device (its paired as a wired backhaul and was working beatifully for a few months).
Issue
- The satellite is not syncing
- The router finds the Satellite, but it doens't recognise it.. says:
"INVALID HW ID, USE DEFAULT ORBI". What in the world does that mean?? Image attached
Steps i've done to troubleshoot
- I've looked on this forum and nothing that is exactly what my issue is
- I've tried to change up the steps in the syncing process, no go either
- I've done a factory reset on both the Orbi Satellite and Router, setup the wifi, SSID, user/pass again, no luck
- Moved the satellite right next to the router and do the syncing process, no luck
- I've tried to manually update the Orbi Satellite to the intermediate firmware (or any firmware for that matter), but when i click on the "Upload" button, the page goes to a 404 error page... like wth?!
- I've gone through the Router syncing process on a Macbook pro using firefox, googl chrome
- I've gone through the Router syncing process on a Windows 10 machine using chrome
Help would be super super appreciated if anyone else has run into the same issue and gone through the steps.. have i missed something?
21 Replies
When i did the factory reset, admittedly, they were in their original positions, 10meters away and i think it was wireless.
Furthermore, when both the router and satellite were fully booted, i plugged the ethernet cable in and i did the sync..
I am no expert. However, I recall reading that many people recommend doing a WiFi sync of the satellite and router first, then connecting them with an ethernet cable, and then finally moving the satellite to its remote location.
I also agree that this is a crazy situation. I am a bit puzzed about what happened to the router when it was moved away temporarily.
You need to bet the RBS updated to the same version of FW thats on the RBR...
EdZz wrote:Hi all,
i was hoping someone was able to give me some assistance, i've been plugging away for a couple of days with no luck.
My Setup
RBK50 Orbi (firmware version was 2.5.1.8 but downgraded to 2.3.5.30)
1 Orbi RBS50 Satellite (firmware version 2.2.1.210Thats weird.. my posts keep getting deleted. Is there a minimum time frame where i can't post and have to wait that time out?
The post that was deleted is:
Hi FURRYe38
i've now downgraded the router version to 2.2.1.210 and i can confirm that the satellite also has the same version of 2.2.1.210.
Once i downgraded the router to the same version as the satellite, i factory reset the satellite and sync the satellite with the router. The syncing process was actually quite quick and it actually say "sync was succesful" but when i goto the Attached Devices page, it does not show the Satllite in the appropriate section instead it says "Invalid HW ID, use default Orbi" in the "Device Name"
argh.. what am i missing or doing wrong
i have an image attached showing how close the satellite is to the router and for some reason the satellite is lit up as Magenta.. when they are abou 20cm from each other..??
Ok I replied to your other post here:
I didn't see this thread as it was near the bottom of the page.
Can you update the RBS and RBR to v2.5.1.16 then factory reset the RBS and RBR and see if the HW ID name goes away? Update the RBS first then RBR lastly.
IF not, this will be something that NG support will need to take a closer look at. The RBS may need to be replaced.
Hi FURRYe38, thanks for the response.
I can confirm i have previously updated my RBR to v2.5.1.16, that's when it finally detected the satellite, but it coudn't sync with it properly, but to match my Satellite (always running 2.2.1.210) I've downgraded to 2.2.1.210
The issue still lies with the Satellite, in that i can't update it, in that the RBR cannot see it properly and in the "Firmware" section of the WEB UI, it doesn't allow me to update it. I've even logged into the Satellite directly (logged in ok) and try to update it manually that way, but when i click on "Upload", the page times out with a 404 error page..
I can confirm that I've tried to update the RBS using MacOS using Google chrome, Safari and firefox but errored out each time.
i can confirm thati've tried to update the RBS using Windows 10 using Firefox and Internet Explorer 11 and again erorred out.
The error, Invalid HW ID suggests that something related to hardware isn't working or responding properly, in that perhaps an IC chip that controls the MAC address, I'm thinking this because its giving me a MAC address of 60:00:00:00:00
Is there a Netgear number i can contact get further assistance because to be honest, the replacement cost of the RBS is so expensive and this whole firmware experience is very off-putting and i thinking that if i have to get a replacement unit at RRP, I'm going to get a ubiquiti mesh router instead... :(
You needed to update the RBS first then update the RBR lastly when you updated to v16.
You can try this:
Factory reset the RBS. Wire connect a PC to the back of the RBS. The PC will get a IP address from the satellite. The IP address of the satellite will be 192.168.1.250. Use this IP address in a web browser to log in to the satellites web page. Log in as admin and password. Use the satellites web page FW update feature to select the FW update file from the RBS v16 that was unpacked from the .zip file. Then factory reset and then re-sync the satellites to the RBR.
If this still fails to correct the HW ID issue or sync the RBS to the RBR, you'll need to open up a support ticket here:
