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Forum Discussion
Wifi dropping out - Do I need to update the software - How?
Dear All, I bought an Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Add-on Satellite(RBS50) in July '17, so it must by now be an old model. It has a network extender and one satellite. The extender is connected via wi...
Hi Furry38,
Thanks very much for your suggestions. I will print them out and show them to the Virgin engineer coming on Monday. I hessitate to do anything myself (not being very techie!) in case I mess things up.
To update you on my situation - This is part of what I wrote in reply to CrimpOn, who also kindly offered support.
"I have now paid for a service contract with Netgear, and someone remote-accessed my system this morning. They went into the Orbi web interface for me and established everything had been fully updated, and said the Firmware problem from the security upgrade earlier this year has been corrected (I have Router Firmware Version V2.7.3.22).
The agent did something to the Router (I didn't understand the explanation - maybe that is what you suggested about setting it to modem? I wouldn't know how to check that. She specifically said the Virgin box was a modem, though, when I mistakenly called it a router.). She said that if I still have problems, I should ring back and they will do a factory restore on both the router and the satellite and get the whole system up to date again.
She suggested getting a second satellite RBS50 to get rid of the black spot in one of the lodgers' rooms.
I was very impressed with the service they gave, and am hopeful things will get sorted. The Virgin engineer is due on Monday late afternoon, so by then I should know if the problem is resolved and can cancel them if it is. If not, they can eliminate any problem on the Virgin side. I have printed out your answer so I can show the Virgin guy, in case it helps them."
So that tells you where I'm at with it all. Thanks very much for your support. CrimpOn also mentioned the 'double NAT' issue!
I've been trying to find for sale an additional Orbi satellite RBS50, but they seem to be unavailable. Amazon says they're out of stock, the Netgear website won't allow me to put one in my shopping cart, and googling I don't seem to be coming up with any! I am too worried about buying second hand on Ebay, in case something dicey might have been installed (or crept in) that could infect my system. :-)
Many thanks again for your support. It's great to know you guys are out there!
With all my best, Jeannet :-)
Jeannet wrote:
I am too worried about buying second hand on Ebay, in case something dicey might have been installed (or crept in) that could infect my system. :-)
In addition to the RBS50, any of the original Orbi satellites will work with the RBR50 router, including:
- RBS50
- RBS40
- RBS20
- RBW30
- RBS40V
Satellites from the other Orbi product lines are not compatible ('Pro', 'AX', the "10" series Orbi).
When purchasing from eBay, a Factory Reset on the satellite will clear out all configurations. There will be nothing "dicey" on the product. The chief worries with buying used from eBay are (a) will it actually be in working condition, and (b) if not, how to get your money back. When my RBR50 went out of warranty, I bought a used RBR50 from eBay as a spare and use it frequently for experiments. Wish I had bought a spare RBS50 at the same time.
Brilliant, thanks! I'll go ahead and buy it.
A factory reset is by pushing in the little hole at the back with a pin. Is that right?
Thanks again, Jeannet
I found instructions online about how to do a factory reset. Thanks again for all your support, everyone!
Jeannet :-)
Dear All,
I am just posting an update in case that helps.
Virgin came two days ago. They found their hub / router was 'out of spec' and reset it. I didn't understand what they said about that, but it was something to do with the distance from my house to their box in the street. They also reset the hub to 'modem only' so it's router function would not fight the Orbi router.
You will remember there were two issues to solve - the wifi dropping away / becoming unstable and a wifi black spot in one of my lodger's rooms.
With respect to the first problem - the Virgin guys explained that the Orbi is not really meant to 'go outside' (as it needs to do for me as I live in a studio in the garden, about 25/30m from the house). Is that true? They explained that due to the distance the satellite was just on the cusp of being able to pick up the signal from the router. When it could, it could amplify it okay, but it only needed a slight fluctuation or increase in traffic for it to lose the signal. They suggested a second satellite might help, but they thought to get a reliable signal I probably needed an electrician to install an ethernet connection to run outside he house and round to the studio.
With respect to the second problem - they thought a second satellite would help.
The second satellite (bought reconditioned with 28 day return and 1 year warrantee from a business through Ebay - thanks for the caution, CrimpOn, but I chanced it and think I've lucked out - though at a cost - £176!) arrived yesterday and seems to have resolved the black spot. While the wifi is accessible the speed in my studio is great (as it was before - maybe marginally improved now - upload 37Mbps, download 549Mbps).but it's still dropping away - the last two nights I've not been able to watch iPlayer or Netflix in the evenings due to constant buffering and cutting out. Curious thing is that this is much worse than it's ever been (with the Orbi) - maybe overall the wifi traffic has increased?
So it looks like getting an ethernet cable will be the next step.
Thank you all for walking through this with me.
Best, Jeannet :-)