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Forum Discussion
Random ARP Problems w/WiFi nodes
Dear Netgear Community, I have noticed random and sporadic WiFi / ARP problems on my network, usually after something reboots. However, the problems seem to always clear up after a while, and I'...
What happens if you turn OFF both RBWs and just use the RBRs wifi.
10-20 feet is too close for the RBWs to the RBR. 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
Interesting ... so I may be over-saturating the mesh? The "second" RBW30 satellite is probably at least 30 feet away from the RBR40 "diagnionally" going through a wood frame floor. The first one is probably closer to about +/- 20 ft, so let me first try uplugging that one and see what happens.
If the RBWs are placed too close to the RBR, then the wifi over lap is too much and yet, over saturation could be a factor. You kind of have to find the sweet spot. 30 Feet seems to be a good starting point. Depending of course on building materials.
I would first test the RBR alone and see if you notice bad behavior, then graduate adding 1 RBW. Then check again.
What a fascinating situation. 50+ devices on an Orbi network should not be excessive. There are users on the forum reporting 100+ devices. The only thing that appears "unusual" in the setup is having computers connected to both routers simultaneously. I have no clue how a computer connected to two networks would perform arp requests. i.e. would it send them out both initerfaces, or be 'smart enough' to recognize that it has to be on one subnet? (Macs are smart, so that's probably not it?) As an experiment, the Mac that is displaying the problem would be disconnected from the ethernet router. Restart and see what happens.
In a brief internet search, this topic from Cisco showed up: https://networkengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/50843/what-are-the-reasons-for-seeing-an-incomplete-arp
Notice that "incomplete" appears to mean "not received", rather than what I assumed ("got part of it, but not all of it.")
At the very bottom of the thread, there was mention of having arp problems when some devices have a different subnet mask than others. If everybody gets IP's through DHCP, then they should all have the same subnet mask. Do they?
My "go to" tool for issues like this is Wireshark. The Orbi can be set up to capture all LAN traffic to a file, which can be downloaded to a computer and searched for arp requests.
