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Forum Discussion
Stable firmware versions for RBR40 / RBS20?
Hi All, I couldn't find this option listed in the Model dropdown, but I've got an Orbi RBR40 with three RBS20 satellites. The RBR40 is on V2.3.5.34 and the RBS20s are all on V2.3.5.36. I purc...
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
I've got a Motorola MB7420 (which I see you've recommended)
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
About 3000 per floor, with 4 floors (10,000) total. The main orbi router is in the center of the house on the lowest floor. There's a satellite in the back of the house on the second floor, one on the far right side of the house on the third floor, and one in the center of the house on the fourth floor.
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router
I've been experimenting with this, but nothing really makes a difference. I'm also not sure if I follow the logic in that article - it's easy for me to get all the satellites to show the blue ring, but things work best when they're showing yellow ,i.e they're very far from the main router, which prevents them from interfering with each other. That seems to be the goal here - preventing the satellites and router from competing with one another.
This seems to be the real problem; for example, one of my satellites helps me get wifi in my backyard. If I go far back, even into the forest, I get a strong and consistent connection. But in the center of my house, where all the Orbis / 2.4/5Ghz signals fight, I get consistent drops and slow speeds.
What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
The 2.4Ghz is set to 1 (though I've tried 6 and 11) and the 5Ghz is set to 48.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
No, we're pretty much alone, though we do have some Chromecasts...
Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or maynot be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
I've been through all combinations of these, with no luck. By default Beamforming and MIMO are disabled but WMM is enabled.
Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Circle,
Both off.
Daisy Chain
I'm not sure why but the connection becomes very unstable with Daisy Chain off. I can see that with Daisy Chain on that two of my satellites are connecting through the third one that I use for the backyard, even though that's the one most frequently displaying a poor connection... but I've given up trying to understand this.
Fast Roaming,
It's never been on. I'll try it and report back, though I'm doubtful.
IPv6
It says Disabled in the menu tab. Should I try turning it on?
Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).
I only see the option to disable coexistence - presumably if disabled it's 40Mhz only, but I've tried disabling it with no success.
The article I've linked goes through many of these options - I've tried them all without any luck. Like I said everything was working fine, until one day it wasn't. I'm definitely not the only one seeing this issue - you can find horror stories all over the internet that are exactly like mine.
The only thing I haven't tried is separating the 2.4 and 5Ghz SSIDs, which seems to have helped a lot of people. However I'm not sure if that will cause problems if say my phone is on the 5GHz signal while my Chromecast is on the 2.4Ghz.
mynameisjohnj wrote:What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
I've got a Motorola MB7420 (which I see you've recommended)
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
About 3000 per floor, with 4 floors (10,000) total. The main orbi router is in the center of the house on the lowest floor. There's a satellite in the back of the house on the second floor, one on the far right side of the house on the third floor, and one in the center of the house on the fourth floor.
Kinda of large size home for this kind of system. Hmmm.
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router
I've been experimenting with this, but nothing really makes a difference. I'm also not sure if I follow the logic in that article - it's easy for me to get all the satellites to show the blue ring, but things work best when they're showing yellow ,i.e they're very far from the main router, which prevents them from interfering with each other. That seems to be the goal here - preventing the satellites and router from competing with one another.
This seems to be the real problem; for example, one of my satellites helps me get wifi in my backyard. If I go far back, even into the forest, I get a strong and consistent connection. But in the center of my house, where all the Orbis / 2.4/5Ghz signals fight, I get consistent drops and slow speeds.
Need to know approximate distances if possible.
What is this home building materials made up of?
What devices do you have all connected?
Any other wifi devices recently added that broadcast there own wifi signals by chance?
What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
The 2.4Ghz is set to 1 (though I've tried 6 and 11) and the 5Ghz is set to 48.
Try 36?
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
No, we're pretty much alone, though we do have some Chromecasts...
Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or maynot be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
I've been through all combinations of these, with no luck. By default Beamforming and MIMO are disabled but WMM is enabled.
You can leave Beamforming and MIMO enabled.
Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Circle,
Both off.
Daisy Chain
I'm not sure why but the connection becomes very unstable with Daisy Chain off. I can see that with Daisy Chain on that two of my satellites are connecting through the third one that I use for the backyard, even though that's the one most frequently displaying a poor connection... but I've given up trying to understand this.
Fast Roaming,
It's never been on. I'll try it and report back, though I'm doubtful.
IPv6
It says Disabled in the menu tab. Should I try turning it on?
Only if your ISP supports native IPv6 from there services.
Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).
I only see the option to disable coexistence - presumably if disabled it's 40Mhz only, but I've tried disabling it with no success.
Yes you can set this to disabled which means 40Mhz only is being used. Unless you have some older legacy wifi devices that don't support 40Mhz.
The article I've linked goes through many of these options - I've tried them all without any luck. Like I said everything was working fine, until one day it wasn't. I'm definitely not the only one seeing this issue - you can find horror stories all over the internet that are exactly like mine.
The only thing I haven't tried is separating the 2.4 and 5Ghz SSIDs, which seems to have helped a lot of people. However I'm not sure if that will cause problems if say my phone is on the 5GHz signal while my Chromecast is on the 2.4Ghz.
Well I haven't had any issues with my 1 RBR50 and 1 RBS in a 5000sq ft home. However I did have a similar 40 series CBK40 with 1 RBS20 used in the same home while back. Saw no issues here. Wired or wireless. Never have attempted any separation of SSIDs which from what I see already, brings other problems.
I'm wondering if the size of your home could be a factor or whats in the home could be causing problems. Seems like your seeng problems centrally in the home rather then in remote locations.
Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed as last resort?
Yes, I've tried a factory reset / setup from scratch. I've even used telnet to reset each satellite individually.
I don't think the home is too large - I get a strong signal in most parts of the house. It's just that even with full WiFi "bars" the connect drops / needs to be reset. In fact if this kind of home isn't what the Orbi was designed for then I don't know what is.
I'll try channel 36.
I've enabled beamforming again as a test and the stability is still very poor, so I'm turning it back off.
The coexistence setting has no effect on or off - still a very bad connection.
I'm not really sure what the materials of the house are... though again, this has been working fine for months. I bought the Orbi RBR40 with 3 RBS20 satellites in July, and until November everything was perfect. Then one day I noticed the connection drops and did some Googling, which is when I realized this is a common Orbi problem.
If the channel change doesn't fix it, I'll try rolling back the firmware once - I'm convinced Netgear forced an firmware update on me that caused these issues, though I have no proof as there's no firmware log on the device (as far as I can tell.)
Barring that... I'll probably just get a new router. When I bought the Orbi I didn't realize it would be a full time job to maintain it and make it work properly - it's a very expensive system, and the fact that it's this bad and that the RMA / Warranty policy is so flaky tell me the truth about Netgear as a company.
You might try this, turn OFF all RBS and just run the RBR alone and see if the RBR still experiences problems. If it does, possible that the RBR is doing bad prematurly.
Do you remember the last working FW version?Downgrade the FW version on the RBR to something prior. Download maybe last version manually with a web browser and apply it with a wired PC. Factory reset and setup from scratch. Test the RBR alone again. Then maybe start adding 1 RBS.
Something to make contact with NG support about.
With no satellites (just the RBR40), things are pretty stable. Adding the backyard satellite causes occasional dropouts, but adding the satellites back that are closer to the center of the house re-introduces the stability issues I've come to know.