Carrier Touch thermostat "A" will not connect to Orbi RBR850

Disabling IPv6 didn't help.

There are three devices which should be on the Guest network. The Carrier Infinity Touch "A" thermostat which won't work, a Carrier Infinity Touch "B" thermostat, which works, and a Ting sensor, which works. The "A" thermostat has a Redpine Signals WiFi card, and the "B" thermostat has a Texas Instruments WiFi card, per what the RBR850 sees.

The later "B" thermostat asked for a firmware update when I got into all of this. At the time, it had gone fully off-line (as in shut down, which it shouldn't do). I've had regular trouble with the "B" thermostat losing its WiFi connection and requiring a reboot. But I've never had it not connect when rebooted.

The "A" thermostat has not had a firmware update. Until last week, the "A" thermostat's WiFi connection has been much more dependable than the "B" thermostat. It has also occasionally required a reboot, but on intervals of a year or more. When power goes out it has come back up.

One problem with the "A" thermostat is that there is no direct way to get it to forget a WiFi network. Entering a new network name and password is supposed to overwrite the old one. I've done that using the same Orbi Guest network credentials now dozens of times, and also used a different network name and password to connect to my phone's hotspot several times. And, of course, the thermostat has connected to the laptop and the Time Capsule using the same network name and password as the Orbi Guest network. So that doesn't seem the likely culprit.

The "A" thermostat could be fully reset, but it's got a complicated setup (5 zones, variable speed A/C and fan, humidifier control) which as far as I know can't be backed up, at least by me, or set up again by me.

Given how much time I've spent on this (more than 40 hours), I probably should buy another "B" thermostat on eBay and get my HVAC company to install it. But then I may find that I have a less-stable WiFi connection than I had with the "A". I'm away a lot, and really want dependable remote access.

[It's possible that the "B" thermostat I have now has had flaky WiFi as it's closest to the RBS850 which has given me problems. Dealing with the RBS850 is another topic.]

Thanks for all the suggestons.

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FURRYe38 wrote:

Has a full on factory reset and setup from scratch been performed on the Orbi system after v.15 was updated? 

 

Also if you have a ATT gateway in front of the RBR, are you using it's DMZ or pass thru for the RBR? This is a double NAT condition that can cause problems on the router side of the RBR since you have two routers in line. If this router is in router mode, you might try the RBR in AP mode with the ATT router in router mode with its wifi disabled and test the device again to see if they connect. 

 

By the looks of some other users, they made contact with NG support and worked with them to get a beta build that fixed it for the Orbi BE series: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-WiFi-7-BE-Mesh-Systems/Carrier-Infinity-Touch-wall-controls-will-not-connect/td-p/2365421

Not sure if same would apply to AX system though someone at NG could take a look if you can make contact with the right person there and reference this thread and yours and have them help you get debug logs...Lets make sure the connection path is clear between the ATT router and RBR first. If device still fail after all is checked and cleared here, then you might make contact with NG support about this. 

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 Setting up the AX6000/RBR850/RBS850 is a pain. As I mentioned in my first post, I ultimately did a from-scratch reset on the RBR850, reseting it from both the web interface and using the reset button. I first restored settings from a backup, then did the whole thing over again from scratch, using screen shots I'd taken of the web interface pages to put back the same settings. And as I mentioned, I also re-installed the current firmware. Other than the advice on IPv6, I've done everything I could find anywhere on the internet.

You sound more up on the AT&T gateway than I am. As I understand it, the gateway does not allow a full disabling of its router function, but does allow a DMZ, which is what the RBR850 uses. So I think the gateway is effectively bridging rather than routing.

I could try the RBR850 in access point mode, but if that works it means I'd have to depend on the gateway as a router, which I don't want to do.

I note that the problem is with the thermostat getting a WiFi connection to the Orbi system. If it has that, it does not have trouble connecting to Carrier's server. So I don't think how the RBR850 interacts with the AT&T gateway is the problem. And nothing else we have has trouble with internet connections.

OurAX6000/RBR850/RBS850 system is several years old. We got it when they were new on the market. Netgear support is unlikely to talk to me, especially about connecting to a thermostat which is several years older than that.

I'm also loathe to get on the phone with an entry-level tech who will not listen and will go through a script of things I've already told him or her, asking me to do things I've already done dozens of times, wasting an hour or more, then refuse to transfer me to a manager because the manager "will tell me the same thing" (which is almost never true), then maybe having a support ticket opened, which may or may not be followed up on.