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Forum Discussion

meganmorris's avatar
meganmorris
Aspirant
Mar 23, 2025

How to force local connection over Anywhere Access

I just upgraded to an Orbi 770 yesterday and noticed that the app is forcing “connected via anywhere access” instead of allowing me to connect locally. I’d like to turn off anywhere access, which I can’t do when connected to it. How can I force my phone to connect to the system locally? To clarify: I am at home and my phone (iPhone) is connected to the main wifi network.

6 Replies

  • I, also, find it annoying that the Orbi app (Android in my case) defaults to Anywhere Access when I am connected to the network locally.  If I tap the icon on the first page of Settings, it brings up a screen where I can change to a Local connection:

    At that point, I believe that Anywhere Access can be disabled on this phone.

     

    To be honest, I have never noticed the app behaving differently because of how it is connected.  It just offends my sense of "this HAS to be less efficient".

    • meganmorris's avatar
      meganmorris
      Aspirant

      Thanks! Unfortunately, while I could get to the "Disable Anywhere Access" option, it was grayed out and said I had to connect locally in order to disable it. I couldn't figure out a way to force myself onto the local network, but I connected to my guest network and then jumped back on my primary network and it showed I was connected locally. At that point, I was able to disable the Anywhere Access. Such a pain, but hopefully it sticks!