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WIFI on Orbi RBR50/RBS50 network sporadic/slow/dead intermittently after >2y of good performance
Hello,
I'm looking for any suggestions on things I might be missing.
My problem is as in the title. I've had my RBR50 and 3 satellites RBS50 working wonderfully for just over 2 years. Over the past 1-2 weeks I've struggled with some intermittent failures in the wireless transmission speed, ranging from excellent performance to almost no data transmitted at all. It seems to be a bit more common on one side of my house than another, but any zone of the house can do this. It can work for hours wonderfully and then rapidly fail for hours or longer. It can be more common on some devices than others, but any wireless device can struggle (while others sometimes work better).
During this time, everything works normally on LAN (even struggling devices work immediately when plugged into ethernet cable).
Things are failing whether on 5g or 2.4g.
I can't think of any changes at all that I've made to the network that associate with the time it started failing.
My setup is as follows:
--4500sqft house, one floor
--rural area, minimal signal interference from neighbors
--one RBR50 and 3 x RBS50 devices (all of which have wired backhaul for the past 2y)
--current firmware 2.5.2.4 (everything is updated)
--I have about 60 devices connected, pretty equally distrubuted across 2.4, 5.0, and wired
Things I have already tried are as follows... while some thigns "change" the status of the wifi network performance for a bit, none have proven durable
--updated the firmware (main and satellites were all a bit older firmware when it started to fail, but newest made no difference)
--toggled daisy chain on/off (currently off)
--multiple reboots of everything (devices, switches, satellites, main router)
--toggled WMM on/off (currently on)
--toggled mu-mimo on/off (currently on)
--beam-forming has been left on
--toggled fast roaming on/off (currently on)
--changed 5g channel (though not much interference that I see from things)
--2.4g remains auto channel
--tried changing devices to guest network on occasion (no major difference)
--total factory reset and then manually redid the system
--powering off all the satellites and running only the router
--powering off newer devices in my home that haven't been on the network before
This is driving me nuts! Kids have to do constant zoom for school stuff and they have moments where it works on wireless but then drop the class and have to get onto LAN (wife and kids struggle with this when I'm at work).
Is anyone able to provide guidance or suggest something I'm missing? Thanks for any suggestions!
25 Replies
Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satelliteOne User Experience/Configuration:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Most-Stable-Orbi-Configuration/m-p/1941087/highlight/true#M97026
You can find other speed diagnosis steps in the community faq: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-AX/Community-FAQ-My-Orbi-speeds-are-slow-inconsistent-and-don-t-my/m-p/1982974/highlight/true#M7849You might update to more recent FW version thats available;
v102 is available if your in the US Region:
leave channel selection to AUTO
your neighbors are reading this
Thanks very much to the replies above. After a lot of time last night working on things, I still can't get reliable connections.
Furry, I looked at all the links you posted and changed to all the recommended/stable settings in one of those links... it made no difference or durable improvement.
I have toggled the 2.4 channel from auto to other channels and back, still no difference, also tried different 5.0 channels, no progress. I updated firmware to 2.7.2.102 on router and 3 satellites, no progress.
I have toggled daisy chain setting, but given a wired backhaul I don't know why this might make a difference (it didn't help regardless).
My place is approx 4500sqft, my router ranges maybe 30-50 feet from the satellites.
Recall that my setup was working very well for 2+ years, and I can think of no meaningful change in my devices or router or network that associates with the failure. Some of the details in my first post relate to this as well.
If anyone has any other ideas I'd welcome the suggestions? I have a few hundred bucks in these 4 devices and I'm a little worried I'm not going to salvage this anymore.
Thank you.
For 4500sq ft, maybe you have too much wifi going on thus too many RBS. Try the RBR and 1 or 2 RBS online only and see. I have a 5000sq ft home and the 1 RBR on 2nd level and 1 RBS in the basement covers the home nicely.
