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Forum Discussion
RBR and Ethernet backhaul issues
Wondering if anyone has any advice on this situation. See the image attached. I have 6 satellites all except one (media room) connected via the ethernet backhaul. Despite this, I get significant signal drop off with download rates of 5-10 mbs/sec in some parts of the house. I called Orbi support and they claim that these are setup correctly. I just can't believe it. Any thoughts on how you would troubleshoot and fix this issue?
4 Replies
Thoughts:
- This is a LOT of satellites. How large is the house?
All Orbi devices broadcast on the same identical 2.4G and 5G frequencies, and all on the same 5G backhaul frequency.
Connecting ethernet backhaul does not disable the 5G backhaul frequency (which it looks like the outdoor unit needs anyway).
I'm no radio engineer, but I have a suspicion that if 3-4 Orbi devices are covering the same area, it might harm performance. - Another fascinating example of Orbi's firmware foibles. All but one are connected via ethernet, and all but one claim to be connected at 5G.
- It would be useful to see a diagram of how this is all connected. An Orbi RBR50 has only three ethernet LAN jacks. Is there a switch in the mix somewhere?
- What is the yellow (WAN) port of the Orbi RBR50 connected to (specifically)? Is it a "router" or "only a modem"?
- What is the contracted internet service level?
Hello,
Thanks for the reply. Here's more information:
The house is old - 1930 approx 3500 sqft, construction with solid walls, plaster on metal mesh so the signal transmission is poor. When we did a whole house reno recently, I put in Cat 5 cable in the house. The contracted service was for a gig but everyone i talk to only gets around 300-400 mbs/sec (gig apparently is a gross overstatement for a residential community).
The initial modem connected to the Orbi RBR50 in the basement and then that goes out to the switch (D-link GO-SW-8G). Those switches are then dividing into the following:
1,2,3, Sonos Amps
4 - Kitchen RBS50 - 1st floor front of house
5 - Outdoor Orbi - 1st floor outside
6- Upstairs bedroom closet (in the middle of the entire house) - RBS20 - 2nd floor
7 - Master bedroom orbi sat (RBS20) - 2nd floor
8 - Sunroom - 1st floor back of house
You pose an interesting question - the D-link is rated for the following:
- Ethernet:
- 10 Mbps (half duplex), 20 Mbps (full duplex)
- Fast Ethernet:
- 100 Mbps (half duplex), 200 Mbps (full duplex
- Gigabit Ethernet:
- 2000 Mbps (full duplex)
Yes, plaster on metal mesh is like a "Faraday Cage" for every room. These locations that get poor service, are they in the same room as one of the Orbi units, or in a different room? Even a single wall might nearly kill a WiFi signal. At those locations, what does a WiFi analyzer program say is the signal level?
I remain puzzled about the network report. My experience has been that any device which "enters the Orbi router" through a LAN port is reported as "wired". Could you (temporarily) move one of the Orbi satellites down to the basement and connect it to the switch with an ethernet patch cord and see if the status changes? (Takes some time to update status.)
Another tool is to activate telnet on the router (by checking the "Enable telnet" box on the web page: http://orbilogin.net/debug)
Log into the router and type the command:
satelliteinfo wifi
You can also verify the "link rate" on the switch from the Orbi web interface, Advanced Tab Home Page, click on "Show Statistics".
- Ethernet:
- This is a LOT of satellites. How large is the house?
