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Wi-Fi signal disappears, probably due to too many competing devices – or could there be another expl
I am afraid I already know the answer to the following question (and that it cannot be mended), but thought I would check this with someone more knowledgeable than me anyway.
I live in a 96-squ...
NikolajLunoe wrote:
Recently, the signal to the radio streamer has begun disappearing (so that the radio becomes silent) very frequently, for seconds or even minutes – this typically happens six or seven times per hour.
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After a while the Satellite ring LED turns on its magenta – and after another 5 or 10 seconds the signal reappears (i.e., the radio starts playing again), and the LED then turns blue.
The Router ring LED remains without light during the whole “event.”
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Perhaps I should add that when I open the “Devices connected” at http://www.routerlogin.net/index.htm, the little images of different devices (including the RBS50 Satellite) keep disappearing and re-appearing – at a frequency of about six or seven times per minute.
From the description, it appears that the "backhaul" connection between router and satellite is failing and then reconnecting. One solution is to connect the router and satellite with ethernet cable (i.e. "wired" backhaul). Alas, in many situations stringing cables around an apartment is difficult. (Although, if installing another modem is possible, then the modem has to be cabled up as well.)
The WiFi backhaul is in the 5G band, typically on channel
ekhalil has written up an excellent description of the Orbi radio channels: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Understanding-Orbi-Radio-Fronthaul-Backhaul/m-p/1671092
And, there is a long thread about which 5G channels are used for backhaul (especially in Europe!) https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/5Ghz-channels/td-p/1538610
Here are some suggestions:
- Turn off "Daisy Chain". As there is only one Satellite, Daisy Chain is not needed, and (it appears) that turning it on causes the Satellite to broadcast an extra 5G channel.
- Use a WiFi scanner to detect which 5G channels your Orbi is using for backhaul. They will not have an SSID, but they will have the MAC addresses identified in the first thread above. See how many other WiFi Access Points are using the same channels.
- Consider Weather Radar. Six times a minute seems like how frequently a radar antenna would rotate.
If you can run an ethernet cable, that's your best bet.
Dear FURRYe38 and CrimpOn,
Thank you so much for your many suggestions. I have spent some three days testing them, separately and in various combinations (and having my internet radio receiver play for at least an hour after each reset in order to count the number of times per hour it lost connection) – rather a time-consuming procedure, I say – but none of these seems to be able to amend the problem I described.
The only correlation (with the number of times per hour my radio receiver loses connection) of which I am absolutely certain is with the total amount of Wi-Fi appliances currently active in the immediate vicinity of my apartment – according to the “AirPort” app in my old iPhone.
The latter can only register appliances using the 2.4 GHz. The number of these, however, fluctuates quite dramatically, from about 21 to 43. Whenever that total amount is close to the first value, my internet radio receiver appears to be able to still get a stable signal via my Orbi RBR50 Router + single RBS50 Satellite – but above a threshold of some 23 Wi-Fi 2.3 GHz appliances, the connection gets lost most of the time.
According to the “Airport” app on my iPhone the number of devices communicating in the vicinity of my apartment has clearly grown dramatically during the past four or five months – and many of those that appear, disappear, and re-appear on the list seems to be printers and similar office machines located in my neighborhood.
My router and satellite are, by the way, only separated by some 12 meters, with no brick or concrete walls between them – but it would be a bit inconvenient with a cable (which would make it difficult to close the doors to single rooms).
I am indeed an amateur in this area, but I guess the conclusion is that there just is a limit to how many devices that can communicate via Wi-Fi in the same small area – and that, when there are too many, radio-streaming will be worse off than, say, signals from a computer to a printer?
So I guess the short sweet time when I could feed my internet radio receiver with a signal from my Netgear Orbi set is over for good – and that I will have to by an extra modem instead, so that I can feed my internet radio receiver via cable. (Luckily, my apartment has phone jacks in all its three rooms, so modems could fit in in all rooms.)
But thanks for your help – it was much appreciated!
Kind regards, Nikolaj
Probably hitting the connection limit with Orbi. Especially on 2.4ghz. You may need to spread out where the devices get connecte or add another 2.4Ghz AP to help off load some of these devices from the Orbi system. Adding more APs can help however can also cause problems with noise and interferences.
Thanks, but just to be clear: The only appliances that connect to MY own (Orbi router + satellite) SSDI are: (1) My iPhone, (2) two internet radio receivers (or streamers), that never are turned on simultaneously, and sometimes, but rarely (3) one MacBook Air laptop. My desktop PC is connected via cable.
So most of the time, MY Orbi SSDI only feeds an iPhone and an internet radio streamer.
The many other Wi-Fi routers and other connections that the “Airport” app on my iPhone registers are all located in other apartments and offices in my neighborhood.
