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Forum Discussion
RBR40 slow wifi
Hello, I have the RBR40 and the two wall plug satellites that came with it. System has work great for over a year. In the past few weeks, the wifi speeed slowed to a crawl. I was about 300mbps down, ...
I also installed WifiInfoView to set the best channels. 2.4Ghz the RSSI is -40, -59, -64. 5Ghz is -58, -69, -77. I'm using channel 6 and 44. They seemed to be the best. Wifi is still slow on some devices. How can this just fall apart on me with no changes? If I have to buy new equipment, what model do recommed?
Turn OFF the RBWs. Just speed test with a wired and wirless device with the RBR only.
Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or may not be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Set Short preamble instead of Long preamble modes. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).
What are your results with just the RBR and a wired PC and your wireless device?
What is the mfr and model# of the wireless device?
cmaustin wrote:I also installed WifiInfoView to set the best channels. 2.4Ghz the RSSI is -40, -59, -64. 5Ghz is -58, -69, -77. I'm using channel 6 and 44. They seemed to be the best. Wifi is still slow on some devices. How can this just fall apart on me with no changes? If I have to buy new equipment, what model do recommed?
Hello,
I unplugged the RBWs and connect my laptop and iphone to the RBR. I confirmed via the Orbi interface that both are connected via 5g.
PC time: 239mb down, 22mb up. Excellant
iPhone time: 4.45mb down, .25 up (point 25). WTH!!!
Connected my pc via wire to the Orbi.477mb down, 24mb up. Nice!
So now I'll focus and config changes you suggest to get the iPhone speed up. Question? Why is the iPhone slow and the PC fast? Before this issue, the iPhone always had better wifi speed than my five year old computer. Something is really messed up.
Enabled Beamforming
iPhone speed: 211 down, 21 up. Much better!
Computer speed: 260 down, 22up. Odd, speed is better for iPhone, but should be better.
Enabled MIMO (note WMM was already enabled)
iPhone speed: 9 down, .39 up. Yikes!
Computer speed: 267 down, 23 up
Turning off MIMO to see of iPhone speed resolves.
iPhone speed: 164 down, .21 up. No bad but I was getting in the 300's down before.
Computer speed: 304 down, 24 up
Now going to do all of this: Disable Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Set Short preamble instead of Long preamble modes
Armor and Circle was already off.
Disable Daisy Chain
iPhone Speed: 5.2 down and .11 up! That made it very slow.
Computer: 312 down, 22 up
Turning Daisy Chain back on
iPhone Speed: 3.2 down, .35 up. Darn. Maybe changing MIMO did nothing. This problem seems to come and go.
iPhone Second Run: 38 down, 4.5 up. WTH
Computer: 287 down, 22 up. Always fast.
Turning Off Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence. No place to 40MHz only
iPhone 246 down, 20 up. Seems to help.
Setting 5g and 2.4 to Long Preamble
iPhone 5 down, .29 up
Setting 5g and 2.4 back to Auto Preamble
iPhone 180 down, 18 up.
Second iPhone run 133 down, 21 up. Not great.
Plugging back in the sats and see how the speed looks. Now connected 5g to a sat.
iPhone 155 down and 20 up. Good but it used to be 250 min.
Computer: 405 down, 23 up. Wow. Never seen those numbers
Bottom line, my Orbi no longer likes Apple products. Any clues?
Nice testing steps. Thank you for being detailed.
Has iOS been updated? Apple hasn't been the greatest when it comes to some wifi performances on there phones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unc36O66Ef0&feature=youtu.be&t=1062
Load up WiFi SweetSpots on the phone and check the connection rate while near the RBR.
https://kb.netgear.com/19668/Link-Rate-and-Transfer-Speed
I would configure the Orbi for best speed seen with the iphone. Beamforming and MIMO would be recommended. Ensure 40Mhz channel width only and WMM are enabled.
It's probably going to be a rollar coaster ride with apple wifi devices. Many variables that can cause bad performances.
iPhone has the latest OS.
I set the router to your suggested settings.
Connected phone to router 5g, wife sweetspot speed is 650 mbps. Speedtest is 261 down. Something good is going on.
Roamed to a sat.
iPhone is 230 down. Good.
Computer is 194 down. Not bad but it was 400+ 5 minutes ago. What happened?
Could be test site speed results are busy. Try a different test site server when wire speed testing. Speed site server performance can vary some.
Where do I set 40Mhz channel width only? Do you have a general recommendation for all wireless setting?
Browser orbi web page Advanced, Advance settings, Wireless settings
That's not an option on that page for me. I only have the option to Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence. Thoughts?
System seems to be working good. Let's see if it stays this way.
To summarized:
1) I used WifiInfoView to determine the 2.4 and 5Ghz channels based on the best RSSI scores rather than use Auto. The channels are set on the basic wireless page.
2) On the Advanced/Advanced Setup/Wireless Settings page I turned on BEAMFORMING and MU-MIMO. No idea what they do, but they seem to help.Still doesn't explain why I was minding my own business and BAM, wifi now sucks.
Check the check box for 20/40Mhz and this sets 40Mhz only.
One User Experience/Configuration:
Oops, meant to say UNcheck the check box.
:smileywink:
Hello, an update.
Its seems to be better but yesterday my phone was getting 5 up and .2 down. I rebooted the Orbi and normal connection speeds returned. I have been thinking and it did seem to start happening around the time the salellites updated to firmware V2.5.0.4. I think maybe I should try rolling the version back. Agree? If so, can I get older versions of the firmware? The system was fine for a long time.
cmaustin wrote:Hello, an update.
Its seems to be better but yesterday my phone was getting 5 up and .2 down. I rebooted the Orbi and normal connection speeds returned. I have been thinking and it did seem to start happening around the time the salellites updated to firmware V2.5.0.4. I think maybe I should try rolling the version back. Agree? If so, can I get older versions of the firmware? The system was fine for a long time.
Maybe you need to upgrade the firmware. The latest showing for RBR40 and RBS40 are:
Download Link:
RBR40 - http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBK40/RBR40-V2.5.1.16.zip
RBS40 - http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBK40/RBS40-V2.5.1.16.zip
I already have 2.5.16 on my RBR40. My sats are RBW30, not RBS40. Im theorizing that firmware V2.5.0.4 on my RBW30s started all my problems.
Sorry. I should have been clearer.
I'm not sure. I didnt write down the version. I just updated when the UI say a new firmware is available.
You might try to roll them back to last version posted on NGs web site and see if anything changes. I would push the udpate thru the RBWs web page and then factory reset them and then re-add them.
cmaustin wrote:I'm not sure. I didnt write down the version. I just updated when the UI say a new firmware is available.
How do you access the RBWs web page?
They should have an associated IP address listed on the RBRs web page. Use this IP address in a web browser to access the RBWs web page.
This didnt work. The Sats just say the firmware failed to upload. Any other ideas?
I would make contact with NG support on this...
Thanks for all your help. I just think I have an outdated system and Netgear hasnt fully tested their firmware updates with my system. Its odd, my iphone will get 10 down, .4 up, I wont move, reboot the Orbi via the app, once the phone reconnects, super fast. Wait a while, slow again. I disappointed in Netgear for pushing an update (only thing that changed), that I cant roll back and makes my wifi unstable.
I would call support, but looks like I have to pay. Hmmm
