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Forum Discussion
Orbi won't reach garden room
Hi,
I bought a RBK50 setup but putting the satelite in the garden room is just out of range. I have a wired connection to it, but was hoping the Orbi would reach so that I could have the simplicty of one wireless network name.
Are there any Orbi options I could have to help get the Wifi extended to the end of the garden? At the moment I have a dlink that is acting as a WIFI access point but it's an old modem and is really quite painful to manage. How about using another router? I tried plugging the satelite in but seems the ethernet ports weren't capable of turning it into an AP.
Thanks
16 Replies
What is the distance between the router and the satellite and this garden room?
FURRYe38 wrote:
What is the distance between the router and the satellite and this garden room?
30 metres. In between and by line of sight is an internal brick wall, external brick wall, external breeze block wall. There are openings in those walls, 2 of which are glass, the other internal is just open.
stoosh98 wrote:
I bought a RBK50 setup but putting the satelite in the garden room is just out of range. I have a wired connection to it, but was hoping the Orbi would reach so that I could have the simplicty of one wireless network name.
Are there any Orbi options I could have to help get the Wifi extended to the end of the garden? At the moment I have a dlink that is acting as a WIFI access point but it's an old modem and is really quite painful to manage. How about using another router? I tried plugging the satelite in but seems the ethernet ports weren't capable of turning it into an AP.
I'm having trouble understanding your problem. You have the ability to wire the garden room satellite to the Orbi router? Then your wireless reach problem is solved and the satellite will be an access point using the same SSID as the main Orbi.
The problem is the satelite cannot connect via a wire. I tried that and it didn't work, unless I was doing it incorrectly? It is also just a bit too far for the wifi connection, it goes between amber and magenta.
I currently have an old router connected by a wire at the end of the garden. I could update settings to mimic the Orbi network as I had done previously on my old network, but I like the Orbi seteup as a hassle free solution that I would like to use instead, if possible.
Is both router and satellite using same version of FW?
The satellite should connect via wired afters it's been connected wireless. You can try this, bring the satellite to the same room as the router. Add it via wireless. Wait for the top LED to turn BLUE. when this happens, connect a LAN cable between the satellite and router. Top LED may turn on WHITE and pulsate, then turn on PINK, then BLUE. Wait for 5 minutes for BLUE to appear.
Let us know if you can get to this point.
FURRYe38 wrote:
Is both router and satellite using same version of FW?
The satellite should connect via wired afters it's been connected wireless. You can try this, bring the satellite to the same room as the router. Add it via wireless. Wait for the top LED to turn BLUE. when this happens, connect a LAN cable between the satellite and router. Top LED may turn on WHITE and pulsate, then turn on PINK, then BLUE. Wait for 5 minutes for BLUE to appear.
Let us know if you can get to this point.
Thanks, I will give it a try this weekend. Internet has been playing up so maybe that was causing the issue instead.
FURRYe38 wrote:
Is both router and satellite using same version of FW?
The satellite should connect via wired afters it's been connected wireless. You can try this, bring the satellite to the same room as the router. Add it via wireless. Wait for the top LED to turn BLUE. when this happens, connect a LAN cable between the satellite and router. Top LED may turn on WHITE and pulsate, then turn on PINK, then BLUE. Wait for 5 minutes for BLUE to appear.
Let us know if you can get to this point.
Unfortunately it didn't work. The satelite would connect but would keep flipping from wired to wireless. Every restart it would start off promising with a pink then blue connection, but shortly after that it would go amber.
Is there a way to force the satelite to only connect via ethernet?
Also i'm plugging some additional devices into the satelite, is that likely to cause an issue?
unfortunately the current fimware has a bug that requires you to connect the satellite wirelessly, let it sync then plug in the ethernet cable for it to switch to wired backhaul. so in order for it to work you will need to get a small battery backup ups. plug the satellite into the ups in the same room as the router. let it sync. afterwords. walk the satellite and ups to the garden room, plug in the ups and ethernet cable. it should then switch to ethernet and work fine. its a stupid setup but its a work around until the firmware is corrected. if you do not have a solid connection wirelessly before you plug ethernet in it will not work.
:smileywink:
This weekend I put the orbi satelite back down there, wired. Yes it seems to be working but the app and the satelite LEDs would suggest it is not so great... The app sometimes shows no satelite, will show a green but mostly magenta connection. The Satelite had the magenta LED suggesting a weak connection. However, everything seems to be connected and working when I have tried, so i'm going to leave it as it is!
- Fingers crossed it stays that way. Thanks
