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DarkTBSS's avatar
DarkTBSS
Aspirant
Apr 12, 2019

RBK50 Dropping Internet

Hi all.

 

I am new to this site and wanted to join as I have had my Orbi RBK50 (AC3000), and Orbi satelite, for roughly 6 months now. It has been great but I noticed our home computer will randomly drop internet connection (wifi) and I will have to choose disconnect and connect again and it works fine but it doesnt appear to do this on our cell phones, tablets, or tvs so this may be a computer based issue. Then yesterday I left for work and I got a call from my wife stating the internet completely stopped working. She is not tech savy by any means, and to be honest I can do the basics but I am not IT person. I tried the remote management from my phone and it just says disconnected and wont let me do anything. I ended up video chatting with her and walked her through rebooting everything. After she did that everything was up and running again.

 

Today I leave for work and AGAIN she has the exact same issue and the only way to get it to work was to reboot everything. The only thing that has changed was Wed night I activated the Armor option I saw on the app. Could this be causing the issue? Should I turn that off?

 

Again, I am not IT guy so I can do all the basics like go into the settings at home from my computer and turn things on and off within the router but if a reply is in regards to that, I may need more of a step by step instructions.

 

Thanks in adavace for any help.

21 Replies

  • What Firmware is currently loaded?
    What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
    Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode?

    What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
    What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.

     

    What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
    Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

    T

    ry enabling Beamforming and MIMO and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

     

    Try disabling the following and see:
    Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

    • DarkTBSS's avatar
      DarkTBSS
      Aspirant

      FURRYe38 wrote:

      What Firmware is currently loaded?
      What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
      Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode?

      What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
      What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.

       

      What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
      Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

      T

      ry enabling Beamforming and MIMO and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

       

      Try disabling the following and see:
      Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).


      I will have to give this a try when I get home since I have no access at work and my wife doesn't know how to access any of it.

    • DarkTBSS's avatar
      DarkTBSS
      Aspirant

      FURRYe38 wrote:

      What Firmware is currently loaded?
      What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
      Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode?

      What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
      What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.

       

      What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
      Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

      T

      ry enabling Beamforming and MIMO and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

       

      Try disabling the following and see:
      Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).


      Firmware: V2.3.1.44

       

      ISP Modem: Arris TM1602A

       

      Orbi is in Router Mode

       

      Home Sqft: ~2,000

       

      Distance between Orbi router and satellite is about 30ft but through walls. Both on the main floor.

       

      Channels are set to auto currently

       

      When I use my phone to search for available Wifi I show a rather long list of about 10 Wifi names so I would say it is safe to say everyone around me is using Wifi

       

      Beamforming, MIMO, WMM are all on

       

      Daisy Chain is surrently on. Fast Roaming is currently off. IPv6 is disabled.

       

      I can't make any adjustments currenlty as I am working on a project for work so I have to stay online. I can try turning Daisy Chain off and setting the Coexistence to 40Mhz only later today. I guess my confusion is that with all the settings as they currently are, they have been this way for months with no issues. Like I mentioned in another post, the ONLY thing that has changed is the Armor being activated. I havent turned it off yet but what is weird is we had these issues last week and no problems at all over the weekend or yesterday but today it happens again. There has to be something that is causing it but I can't determine what that thing is.

      • FURRYe38's avatar
        FURRYe38
        Guru

        How new is the Arris modem? 

        I've seen others with problems with this model modem. I have tested someones orbi connected to this very same model modem with a different modem and the Orbi system works. Seems that these touchstone modems maybe problematic. 

         

        Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.

        Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings set the power output from 100% to 75%, or 50%. 

         


  • DarkTBSS wrote:

    .................. the internet completely stopped working. .......


    When this happened did the Router's ring LED turn magenta?

    • DarkTBSS's avatar
      DarkTBSS
      Aspirant

      ekhalil wrote:

      DarkTBSS wrote:

      .................. the internet completely stopped working. .......


      When this happened did the Router's ring LED turn magenta?


      I just asked my wife to check the ring color the next time it goes out.

  • Also, I keep getting the NETGEAR Armor notifications on my phone, anytime another device connects, but when I click a notification it takes me to the app and a window pops up saying:

     

    Orbi

    Current device does not support Armor, Press Ok to go to Notification Center

    So is it possible me activating Armor is what is causing all of this?

    • FURRYe38's avatar
      FURRYe38
      Guru

      Possibly. You might want to disable Armour and see what happens. 

  • Ok, so it did it again just a few mintues ago and I am working from home today. Everything was working and it showed everything was connected but not able to access the internet. I went up and looked at the Orbi and no light ring was showing on the top. I turned the Orbi off and back on then it allowed the internet to work again. The past few times we have been resetting the modem and router but this time I just did the router and everything started to work.

     

    I will take a look into the settings, like mentioned above, sometime today. Im just at a loss on what could randomly be causing this now.

    • ekhalil's avatar
      ekhalil
      Master

      DarkTBSS wrote:

      ........ Everything was working and it showed everything was connected but not able to access the internet. .......


      Based on this I don't think you need to play around with the radio settings. This has to be something with the interface towards the ISP.

      Internet freezing is an issue that was reported earlier on this software (starting from 2.3.0.32). I had -and still see- the same issue. Two things that I did so far:

      1. Reduce the WAN lease time. This effectively reduced the occurance of the issue. I used to get this issue every 2-3 days. By reducing the WAN lease time the issue did not dissappear but I currently see the issue evey month or so.
      2. Around 4 days ago, I disabled Armor, which I strongly think is somehow causing this. So far I did not see the issue. I will keep monitoring to confirm.
      • mgdurand1's avatar
        mgdurand1
        Luminary

        Exact same issue.  Tried all the repairs.  Reset to default many times.  Even bought a new RBR50 and still no joy.  With Armor off, the system works fine - no loss of internet.  With Armor active, at least once a day on average.  Sometimes more.  I have asked for a refund (I purchased it quickly) as it is clear that some people just cannot use it.  I am ocnvinced that it is Armor by the process of elimination.

  • I don’t know if you’ve found a solution to your problem but I had the same issue a few months ago and found out that my ISP provided modem/router was not bridged to the orbi, essentially I had two routers running at the same time which interrupted my own service and cause the orbi to continuously disconnect.

    I have Comcast and had to get a new modem but disconnected the router feature. You can speak with your ISP technician on the phone to properly bridge your modem if you don’t already know your home MAC address. If you haven’t done this before I highly suggest contacting them.

    After you bridge your modem you can call Netgear to reset up your orbi. Note: you will need to reconnect all your devices again which is annoying but worth it.

    Ever since I did this my speed and connection has been all green bars and have yet run into any disconnects.

    Hope this helps.

    • mgdurand1's avatar
      mgdurand1
      Luminary

      Thanks so much for the quick reply.  I am with a company that provides fiber optic service and there is no separate router.  The signal comes directly from the wall into the router.  Not completely up on the tech side of that, but in short no modem.  There is what they call an ONT (Optical Network Terminal) box connected to the house and the signal comes into the home ready to connect to a cmputer or a router.  Again, I used the Orbi for years with no issues and it started when I turned Armor on.  Fiber is fantastic as I get gigabyte speeds for less cost as my previous cable internet provider (Cox).  Again, thanks for the reply!

      • ekhalil's avatar
        ekhalil
        Master
        When internet disconnects, does the Router’s top LED ring turn magenta?
  • Yes, our internet started dropping out almost daily when we activated Netgear Armor. We disabled Armor and our internet has not dropped out since.  We are not happy we paid for a year of Armor and it will not stop dropping the internet

    • Jowie's avatar
      Jowie
      Tutor

      RBK50, firmware 2.3.1.60, same problems, loss of internet, NOT connected to a problem with my modem which is in bridge mode.

      Armour off and no disconnects. Please help

      • mgdurand1's avatar
        mgdurand1
        Luminary

        The only solution I found was turning off Armor and not activating it.  I think that is the only solution.  Since doing so my disconnects have completely stopped.  And Bitdefender was nice enough to refund my subscription payment.  Good luck!