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Forum Discussion
"Connected without internet" when moving from WiFI backhaul to wired backhaul
I recently upgraded from an Orbi Wifi5 system to the Orbi Wifi 6 and am having major delays when switching between devices . My setup is this:
Orbi RBR760 in the main house. 2 satellites also in the main house (the house was built in 1905 with solid brick walls so the extra satellite was necessary). The two house satellites use WiFi backhaul. There is a detached garage with basically zero signal so there is a third satellite with a network backhaul using a buried cat5-e and an Enterprise Cisco Switch. DHCP is provided by a Windows Server and the Firewall is a pfSense VM connected to DSL.The Orbis are set to AP mode and the network cable plugged into port 1, not the Internet port.
All of this worked just fine with the WiFi 5 but with the WiFi 6 the connection goes haywire after moving from the house to the garage or vice versa. The client device does appear to have an IP but the message will be, "Connected without Internet". Then it will disconnect from the WiFi, connect again, disconnect, Connecting, Connected, disconnected, etc. etc. for several minutes before settling down. Once settled it works beautifully. Devices are a multitude of Android phones and tablets, ranging from Galaxy S8 to Galaxy S24 Ultra. There is no issue with the satellites disconnecting from the RBR760 and all devices, including the switches, are on battery backups. When walking between the two buildings both signals are probably at about 40% in the middle when switching between the house and the wired backhaul.I have tried reducing the signal strength to 50% but there is no change. There is one other WiFi close by, a much older Cisco AP.
RBR760 Firmware: V6.3.8.5_1.4.80
RBS760 Firmware: V6.3.8.5 (all 3)
All devices report being up to date on firmware
I have recently factory reset all Satellites and reconnected to the RBR. No effect. Disabling and reenabling the WiFi on the client device has no effect.
12 Replies
It would be really helpful to see a diagram of how this is all connected.
Does the Windows PC have two network adapters? (one for the DSL connection to the pfSense VM, and one for the Orbi router connection?)
Even in Access Point (AP) mode, the Orbi expects "the internet" to appear on the WAN port, not one of the LAN ports.
And, it expects ALL of the Orbi satellites to connect either (a) over the built in WiFi link, or (b) through one of the LAN ports.
- I can make up a diagram tomorrow.
The pfsense VM runs on Vmware. There are two NICs trunked to several vlans and the DSL modem is connected to a Cisco switch port on one of the vlans. The pfsense has a virtual nic on the LAN and a virtual nic on the WAN. Technically it also has another DSL and another LAN but that shouldn't be in play here.
A single network cable runs to the RBR from the switch, I believe on port 1, the wired satellite is plugged into the Cisco Switch so it would be communicating through that same connection on port 1 on the RBR through the switch. The RBR and all satellites have reserved IPs on the Windows DHCP Server.
A few things to note:
1. It does not happen every time. I can sometimes walk between buildings and not have the issue.
2. It equally affects Windows devices.I tested with an Android phone and Surface tablet and they both lost connectivity at the same time, which is typically about 20 seconds after walking into the house or out building respectively.
3. Any device connected in either building that isn't moving is just fine, both wired and wireless, it's definitely an issue with switching between APs.Ok, quick update that saves a few troubleshooting steps.
1. I double-checked and the one connection to the Orbi RBR is to the Internet port and it is reachable on its LAN IP so AP mode does reassign the Internet port to LAN and I do remember at the time of switching to AP mode that it required the internet connection on the Internet port even in AP mode. So that simplified that one piece of the puzzle.
2. I removed the Netgear switch between the RBR and the Cisco and it did not solve the issue so that's a bust.
3. I will likely have to run a new network cable from a LAN port on the RBR, bypass the switches altogether and connect it directly to the RBS LAN port.
