NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
Note: this is NOT a question about the lights in the Orbi satellites themselves.
I have the AC3000 system, RBR50 router and two satellites. Setup went pretty much as expected, with not problems...
I think that green means good backhaul staus, yellow poor and red I guess means none!
This is based on comparing the App map with the information you get when you login into the router directly.
That's a logical guess, but I'm hoping someone, somewhere at NetGear or in the community knows for sure. More importanty, what steps can one take to fix whatever issues cause yellow and red lights? I've tried moving the Satellites around, re-syncing them, re-setting the Router...all the usual suspects.
For a little more info, my geometry corresponds closely to the geometry suggested by NetGear for a three-floor arrangement. The Router is at the cable entry point in the basement, mounted about six feet off the floor. It's near the center of the house. The first floor Satellite is about thirty feet horizontally away from the Router in one direction, and the second floor Satellite is about twenty feet horizontally away in the opposite directon.
Every time I sync I get the steady blue light in the Satellites, but then have yellow lights for them in the Network Map in the Orbi app.
- I don't see the lights changing so I can't help I'm afraid. My upstairs satellite is always green and the one in the garage is always yellow. They are both about the same distance from the router so I have no idea why this the case.
Well, I finally achieved green status on both my satellites...we'll see how long it lasts. Before I explain what I did, however, I have to acknowledge that rivets was almost certainly correct in his assessment that the color of the indicator lights in the App reflects the backhaul status. I had the same experience that he had: the color of the lights in the app exactly matches the backhaul status that shows up when you connect to the router via a browser.
Now then, here's what I did: following suggestions in this thread I turned off the Daisy Chain mode, then tried sixteen combinations of channel settings. For each of the four 5gz channels I tried four 2.4gz settings: channel 1, channel 6, channel 11, and Auto. I got one of the satellites to occasionally go green using channel 6, so I did a scan of the neighborhood wifi's and, sure enough, one neighbor is on channel 1 and the other is on channel 11. I locked in channel 6, and left 5gz on 48.
I still had solid yellow on one satellite and occasional yellow on the other, so I started changing the locations of the satellites. What I discovered was that Netgear's recommendations for the distance between router and satellite seem to be wildly optimistic, at least in my house. I finally achieved green in both satellites by moving them to within about 12 feet horizontally of the router. Since they're on different floors, the vertical distance is only about 9 feet for satellite 1 and 18 feet for satellite two.
Now, here's one more thing to consider, and I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else: my router is oriented east-west (i.e. it's long axis runs east and west, while it's broad sides face north and south.) Many of the unsatisfactory positions I tried for the satellites had them east and west of the router, but the positions where I finally achieved green status have them placed north and south of the router. I'm wondering if the router's antennas are oriented such that better signal coverage occurs in an axis that runs through it's broad faces.
Anyway, that's been my experiencse. I hope my green status lasts more than a day.
Whats your house materials made up off? This can be a factor as well. Thats pretty close for satellites to be since the router can cover up to 30 feet, depending upon building materials. Concrete and steel will impact the range and single penetration for sure.
BulletBoy wrote:
Well, I finally achieved green status on both my satellites...we'll see how long it lasts. Before I explain what I did, however, I have to acknowledge that rivets was almost certainly correct in his assessment that the color of the indicator lights in the App reflects the backhaul status. I had the same experience that he had: the color of the lights in the app exactly matches the backhaul status that shows up when you connect to the router via a browser.
Now then, here's what I did: following suggestions in this thread I turned off the Daisy Chain mode, then tried sixteen combinations of channel settings. For each of the four 5gz channels I tried four 2.4gz settings: channel 1, channel 6, channel 11, and Auto. I got one of the satellites to occasionally go green using channel 6, so I did a scan of the neighborhood wifi's and, sure enough, one neighbor is on channel 1 and the other is on channel 11. I locked in channel 6, and left 5gz on 48.
I still had solid yellow on one satellite and occasional yellow on the other, so I started changing the locations of the satellites. What I discovered was that Netgear's recommendations for the distance between router and satellite seem to be wildly optimistic, at least in my house. I finally achieved green in both satellites by moving them to within about 12 feet horizontally of the router. Since they're on different floors, the vertical distance is only about 9 feet for satellite 1 and 18 feet for satellite two.
Now, here's one more thing to consider, and I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else: my router is oriented east-west (i.e. it's long axis runs east and west, while it's broad sides face north and south.) Many of the unsatisfactory positions I tried for the satellites had them east and west of the router, but the positions where I finally achieved green status have them placed north and south of the router. I'm wondering if the router's antennas are oriented such that better signal coverage occurs in an axis that runs through it's broad faces.
Anyway, that's been my experiencse. I hope my green status lasts more than a day.
