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Forum Discussion
Orbi Wired Speeds Unacceptably Slow - Wifi Not Impacted - QoS Issues?
Ever since I have received my Orbi, I have been plauged with wired speed connection issues. My wired connection speed continues to be throttled from 10-20Mbps no matter what steps I take. My wireless speeds across all devices are not impacted at all and get a steady 120-145mbps on every device I can run a speed test on. I run Fast.com, Ookla, and Google's speedtest. Ironically, the Orbi speedtest in the QoS section shows a steady 140-150mbps when running. I have done the following steps to troubleshoot this issue:
- Changed wired device I am testing. I have tested 2 laptops (one Toshiba, one Macbook Pro) and my desktop (specs below)
- Changed modems (Motorola SB6180 and another from when the Cox tech came out)
- Replaced all ethernet cords with new cords from a different source (running from the modem to the Orbi base station, then base station to wired device)
- Updated my ethernet drivers (tried various versions, old and new, on both the Toshiba laptop and my desktop)
- Factory reset my Orbi 6 times (using both software reset in UI and the paperclip method; twice on all three firmware Netgear has released since I received the Orbi)
- Turned off MU-MIMO, Beamforming, WMM QoS, all at different times and in different orders
- After running the first Orbi speedtest in the QoS section (after the 2nd firware update added it), I have applied AND not applied the Dynamic QoS prompt (Applying the setting gives me a slight boost in speed about 5mpbs)
This is not my first go around with any sort of home networking, but this is definitely the most frustrating. I have never seen a router throttle wired speeds like this and it makes no sense to me why. The QoS page is sorely lacking of any possible information. How do I know it is turned on? Why does the Dynamic QoS prompt only come up a single time and never again? Where are the options to apply QoS to certain IPs/devices?
At this point in time, I am 99.9% certain all my problems are stemming from the QoS settings of this router, which are apparently insanely aggressive for wired connections. I would love to hear from anyone that either has experienced these issues or has some sort of new idea to troublshoot. If any Netgear reps are reading, I would truly like to hear from you as what else I can provide in order to get this situated. I want to love the Orbi, but having slow wired speeds is absolutely unacceptable for my day to day experience. Please help me!
My desktop specs:
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 v3
Motherboard: ASUS H97I-PLUS (BIOS version 2704)
RAM: 16GB DD3
GPU: EVGA GTX 1070 SC ACX 3.0
OS: Windows 10 (1607 with latest updates)
65 Replies
- Sadly, I'm having similar experiences as many on this forum. My ESPN app buffers whether wired or wireless. The Router is next to the device and I've set it 75%, tried wired, moved the satellite further away, disabled many features some have suggested and it's a constant battle. For the price tag and claim to be user friendly and easy to use; I've been disappointed. I've tried to stay positive about my experience with Orbi but I'm starting to waver considering I've owned significantly cheaper devices and not had this many issues. As stated, when it works, there's nothing better but it's so unreliable at this point.
Unfortunately, I can't return it anymore so I'm stuck with trying to manipulate it to make it work for my house. The buffering during games is so frustrating considering the cost and what it's suppose to offer.
I'm always up for suggestions!! - Great!! Thank you. I'll definitely try what youre suggesting. Thanks for taking the time to reply back to me.
- st_shaw: thank you for the explanation. I've found that it buffers when it's directly plugged into the Router, which seems odd to me. In any case, that allows some flexibility in placement.
I'll continue to see if it performs better wirelessly.
As for placement, any thoughts on how far apart? I'm sure it depends on other factors in the house but in general? I suppose if the lights are blue, that's all that truly matters but I didn't want them to interfere.
Anyway, thanks again!
AMarket42 wrote:
st_shaw: thank you for the explanation. I've found that it buffers when it's directly plugged into the Router, which seems odd to me. In any case, that allows some flexibility in placement.
I'll continue to see if it performs better wirelessly.
As for placement, any thoughts on how far apart? I'm sure it depends on other factors in the house but in general? I suppose if the lights are blue, that's all that truly matters but I didn't want them to interfere.
Anyway, thanks again!Buffering when plugged into the router is odd. Could be a problem wih the Internet connection.
Placement/separation of the satellite/router depends upon the floorplan and construction materials of the house.
Two things you can do. 1) If you download iperf3 you can plug a PC or laptop into both the the router and satellite wired ports and measure throughput between the two machines. You should get around 575 Mbps. If much less than that, then you're too far apart. You can also look at received WiFi signal strength for 2.4 and 5 GHz bands on a laptop as you move around the house. Ideally, in every part of the house you would have the router or one of the satellites have a stronger signal than the others, wih no dead spots.
I have 250 up and down via fiber. Running speed tests on wifi on both phone, tablet, and laptop I will get anywhere from 50 - 125. Far cry from the 250 it "SHOULD" be getting. Not happy especially with all of the connection issues it has. For the money spent on this system, I should be able to plug it in and forget about it for awhile. Yes the occasional reboot is to be expected but spending hours troubleshooting is crazy.
I have AT&T Gigapower Fiber internet and I get about 400Mbps via Ethernet on both of my Orbi Satellites. The Satellite placements are key to getting decent Ethernet performance. I have moved mine all around trying to find the optimal placement for both Satellites. I get anywhere from 100Mbps to 300Mbps via WiFi no matter where I am in my house or my backyard. If I had the Ethernet Backhaul option, I think I can get my speeds to +250Mbps. But I am pretty happy with my setup so far.
- Random question: Can I plug directly into the Orbi Router for a wired connection? I know you cannot from
the satellite. I've been moving my Orbi around to find the best possible solution to some buffering issues but I didn't know if the ports in the router are active for a wired connection. I don't claim to be very proficient on setups but if someone can explain to me an ideal set up for a house that has approximately 4 Rokus, 2-3 phones, a tablet, laptop, and an Amazon Dot; that would be extremely helpful.
Currently I have my Modem and Orbi Router in the back of my house in bridge mode, with a Roku directly wired into a Port. The satellite is about 50 feet away near my living room. Should they be further away? Closer? I'm experiencing some drop off specially with my tablet and some buffering in my living room where to satellite is located.
Any thoughts? I'm sorry if this is the wrong thread for these questions but any help would be appreciated.Yes, you can plug wired devices directly into the Orbi router for a wired LAN/Internet connection.
You can plug wired devices into the satellite also. Wired devices connected to the satellite will even be able to communicate with each other at gigabit speeds.
What you cannot do is wire the satellite into the router. The satellite always connects to the router over the 5 GHz backhaul.
So I have had a very similar but slighty differn't problem to the OP I think.
My Orbi has been working fine for WIFI, well not actually I've been plagued with problems, once I had solved all of them though I was getting a good speed on my wireless devices. My Wired desktop however would be fine (214 down, 21 up) but after a random amount of time I would notice my connection had slowed and a speedtest would only show 5-7 down but still 21 up.
If I restarted my desktop the problem would go away, for a time. I presumed this was something to do with the DHCP lease from the router but I'm not an expert.
I was reading this post today because I am getting really fed up with it now and tried ThePenguin's suggestion to check the Speed & Duplex value for my connection in Windows. It was already set to Auto Negotiation for me so I changed it to 1Gps, because why not. The problem imidiatly went away, now maybe changing it restarted the connection and gave my desktop a new lease or just did the same as whatever restarting my computer was doing before but it doesn't seem to have come back for a while. I'll update if it does
I have to add, I paid a lot for this Orbi system and it really hasn't lived up to expectations so far. Every other router I have had has worked out the box perfectly and then I have tailoured to to my wants. This system which cost a lot more then them as not worked well at all out of the box and the options we are given on the configeration page are woefully inadequate. I was thinking about getting Google Wifi but thought it would be better to go with Netgear because they know networking and would give me lots of options to tailour my router how I want and need it.
Seems I was wrong on both counts!
Harware Version - RBR50
Firmware Version - V1.8.0.6
WIN10 64bit
Asus X99 A-2 Mobo
For me everything is running fine.
1000 Mbit connection and speed between connected devices and 400+ Mbit on WAN.I am having the exact same issue. I am very disappointed as I had high hopes from these. I had an Asus Rt-AC66U and run my desktop computer in my office which is hard wired to a gigabit switch with the feed coming directly from the router. I get speeds from Comcast around 235 Mbps. So yesterday I hooked up the orbi and tested all the wifi and was happy with the performance. However when I ran a speed test on my hard wired desktop, which I just got 235 Mbps when the Aus was hooked up, was now capping out at just under 100 Mbps. I checked my ethernet connection settings and all were still showing 1.0 Gigabit speed connections. I took my laptop and plugged into the router directly in my basement and was able to break 100 Mbps but the router is not playing nice with my gigabit switch and for some reason is capping speeds. As I paid $500 for this, it is clearly unacceptable for a piece of hardware to not work with a switch and only give us 4 LAN ports. When I found this thread I realized I was not alone and Netgear is having issues with this. I will be returning my Orbi today and get my Asus hooked back up. I would be curious if anyone else is using Modem > Orbi Router > switch and then having their speeds capped like it is a 10/100 connection?
Also what is up with Netgear support when they have known the Orbi QoS settings page is not working and they STILL have not fixed this? It shows as solved to make the user change the URL? wow.
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/QOS-on-Orbi-is-it-enabled-or-disabled/td-p/1192025
Computer: Windows 10
Orbi firmware: V1.8.0.6
Yes, that was my experience too. I tried using the satellite to connect via Ethernet (effectively using it as a wireless bridge) but speeds were around 2.5 Mbps. Connection via Wi Fi 6 inches from the satellite was 350 Mbps.
I just tried taking the feed directly out of the switch, bypass the switch, and hooking into my desktop and it would still only give 95 Mbps. So I disconnected and hooked back up my Asus router and ran a test and it is immediately back to 232 Mbps. For some reason it was throttling my desktop computer and I do not know why. It is obviously nothing with my computer if just reattaching the old router fixes it. Well that bums me out...back to the drawing board for a mesh system....
- As far as I can tell this is still an issue. I am having the same issue as the rest. I have a cat 6 running straight to my orbi from a pic with a gigabit Ethernet adaport and I can't get any speed above 500 me down and terrible upload speeds.
They released 1.5.x firmware and I've updated to that. Does anyone know if I still need to role the firmware back to fix this issue?Did you try what "ThePenguin" said above. Basically he pointed me in the right direction. Mine was set to auto negotiate but I manually set it to 1.0 Gbps Full Duplex and that fixed it for me.
Was getting 10Mbps and now am getting my full internet bandwidth. Like others in the post, was getting very slow wired speed and full wireless speed (100Mbps internet cap.)
I have to say I am usually a Netgear fan, but they sorely disappointed me here. they were ZERO help, up to and including denying this thread even existed.
After going through some HORRIBLE attempted support from Netgear, this turned out to be a relatively simple fix for me. It had to do with the router connection speed and duplex in Windows.
Open your Network and sharing center
click on your connection (i.e. ethernet, local, etc), usually some color like blue on the right side of the window
Choose properties
Choose Configure
Click on the advanced tab
In the "Property" list choose Speed and Duplex
In the "Value" drop down choose Auto Negotiation
Click OK
In my case the router\Windows had set the speed to 100Mbs which is what was slowing down the connection speed. After having it auto negotiate, it set itself to 1.0 Gbps and viola! I have the correct connection speed on my wired desktop.
Hope this helps a few people here.
ThePenguin Thanks for the tip. Worked great for me although I manually set to 1.0Gbps Full Duplex.
I swithed to AP mode and have had no issues since. There is a serious problem with these Orbi routers and ethernet cable. The support has been horrible. This will be my last netgear purchase. Again in AP mode I have no issues, so I am somewhat happy now after months of troubleshooting on and off.
Thank you for the information. This will definitely go in the wired speed troubleshooting file. I did not have this issue, and frankly didn't know you could even set a ethernet port to throttle down like this.
I checked my ethernet adapter setting on 1 desktop and 4 laptops, and all of them were set for Auto Negotiation, which is I'm assuming the default. Also I rarely use the ethernet ports, except on the desktop.
I wonder how exactly it got changed, that is super strange. I'm glad you figured it out. Sounds like a hair pulling experience for sure.
The predominate theory on how it got changed is that when the router initially talks to Windows, if it has trouble negotiating, it will default to the lowest acceptable setting. The interesting thing is that I removed the Orbi and put my Lynksys router back on before I figured this out and the Lynksys worked perfectly even though the setting had been changed (in other words the Lynksys software told Windows to change this apparently). Once I came across this as a possible solution, I reattached the Orbi and it defaulted back to 100Mbps. I then changed the setting to Auto Negoiate and it found 1.0 Gbps. Not sure why that would happen unless the firmware is some how set to accept the change in Windows settings.
My major frustration though, was in the fact that Netgear not only didn't help, but even went so far as deny the issue existed even when I provided a link to this thread. By the way, I was talking to their second level support at this time. Anyway, as with others, I only had the slow connection issue on the desktop I have hardwired. Wireless through put has been consistent at each attempt. My only issue was with the wired connection.
- Any update on this from Orbi support team?
I've got a gigabit connection at home, and am not getting WIRED speeds anywhere near that. In fact, my wifi speeds match my current wired speeds.
Why the slower wired connection with the Orbi? Did we ever figure out a real solution?Hello mm22
What are the speeds you are getting wired vs wireless?
DarrenM
