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Forum Discussion
iPhone 12 Pro loses WiFi connection with RBR850
I’ve had the exact same problem for the last 1.5 years and NOTHING has solved this. iPhone 12 Pro — I’ve done everything mentioned above — static IP address, factory reset Orbi, CTS changes, dropped ...
To confirm -- would you suggest I not restore from a backup config file? (I do have a number of static reservations that are needed and port forwards, but I suspect I could take screen-shots and manually add back all except for those that pertain to the iPhone after I test).
Also, what/where is SIP ALG?
if you captured the back up on this same version of FW, then it maybe ok to apply it. I would test the RBR out initially with out the back up first though just to see to be sure nothing else could cause any problems. Apply the backup if you don't see any issues later on.
Advanced Tab/Wan Setup:
NAT Filtering > SIP ALG
Just read up a bit on SIP:
https://getvoip.com/blog/2020/09/01/what-is-sip-alg/
I do use Verizon wireless Wi-Fi calling because it’s superior to the cellular reception — do I understand correctly that SIP ALG applies to Wi-Fi calling on the iPhone? If so, It would seem that there’s a higher likelihood of call drops and packet corrections garbling it enabling SIP ALG (unchecking the box that says disable SIP ALG).Please do a quick check on this if you can and see if you experience any bad issues. Disable it afterwards.
Implemented every single recommendation you made this afternoon manually setting all router settings back after factory reset on all units — no issues with just router before adding the satellites.
No sooner than a few hours after adding back the satellites and walking back and forth, the same exact behavior repeats again. This is at 25% power, 20/40 coexistence on, channel 11 / 40, threshold setting you recommended, automatic dhcp / no reservations / port forwards, etc. Nearing the upper limits of my patience with this unit.I believe there’s a contingent of folks with this problem that remains unresolved:
https://www.reddit.com/r/orbi/comments/nlhz96/frequent_disconnection_on_orbi_rbk852_only_on_ipad/
I still think there’s some sort of handoff issue when crossing over between a zone of the router and then to one managed by the satellite. I noticed this happens as well on my new MacBook Pro 14” actually — I thought it did not, but realized I didn’t try to immediately connect to Wi-Fi after walking back and forth until today (it had resolved the disconnect typically by the time I used it).
It baffles me why forgetting the network and reading it immediately resolves the issue when it’s in the stuck stage and won’t connect to Wi-Fi, but turning on and off airplane / Wi-Fi does not. Maybe there is some device token or remnant left on the Orbi system tied to the MAC that is not properly circulated to the satellite when I move back and forth and the act of forgetting and readding it on my phone initiates a truly new handshake that’s accepted right away to connect. There used to be beamforming, fast roaming, mu-mimo handshake settings on the rbr50 that could be disabled / enabled but none exist on the AX. I’m wondering if the implementation of this handshake on the AX unit between router and satellite has bugs for some mobile device handoffs. I really don’t think this is a problem of signal interference, power / proximity but the mere handoff happening between satellite to router being dropped and lost / having to be sorted out on the Orbi (not a client issue). If this was a client issue manual dhcp IP on the phone would fix it, but it does not — this tells me the issue is specifically the Orbi system.So with just the RBR, can you add just one RBR and not two?
Try setting CTS to 2307
Disable AX mode on both 2.4 and 5Ghz.
Rogelio1 wrote:
Implemented every single recommendation you made this afternoon manually setting all router settings back after factory reset on all units — no issues with just router before adding the satellites.
No sooner than a few hours after adding back the satellites and walking back and forth, the same exact behavior repeats again. This is at 25% power, 20/40 coexistence on, channel 11 / 40, threshold setting you recommended, automatic dhcp / no reservations / port forwards, etc. Nearing the upper limits of my patience with this unit.FURRYe38
Yes, did set CTS to 2307 after factory reset and manually adding settings back.
Sat 2 is 5ghz backhaul bonded to Sat1 (30-40 feet away between two walls and a backyard) which is in turn hardwired to the Router (30-40 feet away with a lot of walls and a hallway turn). They are in a line.
I believe the issue is between router and sat1 because that is the walking path that wherein the back-forth quick walk causes the iPhone 12 to lose its connection for 3-5 min.
Are you suggesting I unplug one of the satellites and just user RBR + Sat? Do you suggest testing with the hardwired sat1 first (unplug sat2)?Yes.
I honestly think that that the fast roaming implementation is broken / has bugs in the AX series. I get that the client chooses the AP if fast-roaming were able to be disabled (which it cannot in the AX series / there is no option, so we can't solely place the blame at the feet of the iPhone / client); however, when fast roaming is on (which I believe it is always in the Orbi AX series), my understanding is the Orbi sends some instructions to the client on which AP / channel the client should connect to since all SSID's are the same. This is my only explanation for why multiple users have reported this issue in the AX series when using a wireless mobile device and quickly walking between AP's that overlap... that the fast roaming instructions, code, etc. has issues so that some amount of time allows for the AP to reset/resend the instructions to the client (or that this is forcibly done when the client forgets and re-adds the device because it sees it as a new query/poll to the AP).
FURRYe38 -- Do you know how Fast Roaming is implemented in the AX series. You suggested I try disabling "AX"; however, I think fast-roaming is a feature that is defined by whether WPA2+ is enabled and if the router/client has it enabled.I believe so. Its automatic I believe. Orbi AC has or had a UI setting for this on that series, When AX cable out NG removed both Fast Roam and Daisy Chain. Set those to automatic handling with in the system.
Also have you tried CTS set to 500? Someone else reported this solved there iPhone connection problems with theres.
what iOS version is loaded on the iPhone. Possible handling or mis-handling of the connection by the iOS as well. The iPhone should reconnect to any signal if on same SSID name and PW.
- I can try Cts = 500
I’m on the latest iOS (15.5), but this behavior has happened on every prior iOS version since late 2020 (so presumably since iOS 13). I do also see it on my Mbp 14” / Monterey (m1pro chipset). - Changed to CTS=500. Worked for a day, but just now observed the same behavior (disconnected from Wi-Fi for 3 minutes walking between router and sat1). Also tried changing to channel 1 and still at 25% power.
Have not tried disabling AX yet — can you confirm what the implication of this is beyond dropping down to 802.11ac speeds? (I.e. what feature subsets are present in AX that this potentially eliminates to resolve the connection issues) - … and now I go into the router to see it shows Sat2, which I had reserved its MAC address to x.99 now showing x.250, and a poor connection not to sat1 (which is 30 feet away), but to the router which is 70 feet away. Rebooted sat2 and it picked up x.99 reservation but still poor connection illogically bound to router and not hardwired Sat 1 which it has to go through to get to the router (at another 40 feet).
Edit: now Sat 2 says “out of sync” 10 minutes after rebooting. Then cycles back to “poor” connection to router a moment later.
I’ve run out of ideas for this unit other than throwing away my satellites (why then did I buy a mesh system?). This is without a doubt the worst router I’ve ever owned, and I’m not a novice when it comes to networking and having owned a couple dozen units over the last 15 years (dd-wrt setups back in the day). Maybe I always purchased reliable routers (and fewer mesh systems), but this is definitely not one. I'm also having this problem (have posted in at least one of the multiple threads describing this issue) though it's very occasional for me. Maybe once a week, that I actually notice, although I assume there are other instances where perhaps I haven't realised the phone has disconnected for a period. But it's certainly not the constant problem for me that others have described.
For what it's worth, I'm running CTS 500, and have the Orbi in Access Point mode.
I completely agree that it appears to be linked to the hand-off between the router and the satellites. Maybe one of the reasons I don't have this issue as often as others is that, because of the layout of my home, I mostly connect to one or other of the satellites. Only rarely to the router.
I don't understand why this issue appears specific to Apple products though. I've disabled Wifi Private Address and the other settings that FURRYe38 recommended and it made no difference.
Does everyone here have at least one wired satellite? I'm wondering if that's part of the issue. In general I have found wired satellite support slightly more flakey with the Orbi than wireless, I'd be interested to try and eliminate that as the cause.
Can you connect both your RBS wirelessly and see if thing change? Or connect them both via ethernet?
Had one user claim similar problems on there iPhone however turns out there VLAN configuration was the problem:
Seems fixed now. However I believe both there RBS are ethernet connected.
Garwoofoo wrote:
I'm also having this problem (have posted in at least one of the multiple threads describing this issue) though it's very occasional for me. Maybe once a week, that I actually notice, although I assume there are other instances where perhaps I haven't realised the phone has disconnected for a period. But it's certainly not the constant problem for me that others have described.
For what it's worth, I'm running CTS 500, and have the Orbi in Access Point mode.
I completely agree that it appears to be linked to the hand-off between the router and the satellites. Maybe one of the reasons I don't have this issue as often as others is that, because of the layout of my home, I mostly connect to one or other of the satellites. Only rarely to the router.
I don't understand why this issue appears specific to Apple products though. I've disabled Wifi Private Address and the other settings that FURRYe38 recommended and it made no difference.
Does everyone here have at least one wired satellite? I'm wondering if that's part of the issue. In general I have found wired satellite support slightly more flakey with the Orbi than wireless, I'd be interested to try and eliminate that as the cause.
- I do have one satellite Ethernet back hauled to router. My setup is 40ft from router to sat1 (Ethernet) and then sat2 to sat1 5ghz backhaul 40ft feet away. (So router and sat2 are basically 80ft away in a line).
After screwing around with power up to 50%, disabling MAC address reservation on my satellites, and rebooting each device in order, it now properly has sat2 bonded to sat1 again (as opposed to router).
I can try removing the Ethernet backhaul on router->sat1, but I specifically had the line run under my house because I was getting only 250 mbps (on my gigabit internet) there before the wireless backhaul (lots of wall turns), and even worse speed at sat2 (around 125). When I am connected properly now, I get 700mbps near sat1 and 500 near sat2. - Is there any advantage to running my satellites in AP mode as opposed to router to possibly eliminate the disconnection issues?
I do have guest network enabled, and I did read:
https://kb.netgear.com/000061927/What-is-the-difference-between-router-mode-and-AP-mode
However, some popular features are disabled in AP mode, including the following:
Guest network
The ability to block specific websites
VPN Service
Remote Management
Rogelio1 wrote:
Is there any advantage to running my satellites in AP mode as opposed to router to possibly eliminate the disconnection issues?I'm running in AP mode, and I still get the disconnections, so I would say no, there is no advantage.
However I do note that you have the same configuration as me (one hardwired satellite, one wireless). I'm going to take FURRYe38 on his suggestion and switch both of mine to wireless, to eliminate a couple of possibilities. I'll let you know how it goes.
- Great — let me know what you see. My wife uses sat1 hardwired for work so it’s harder to go with testing wireless only until the weekend. Since I factory reset my orbis and moved around channels, dropped to 25% power and now am on 50% I’ve been noticing weird behavior or the sat2 that should be bonded to sat1 (hardwired). I walked closer to sat1 today from being at the router for a while and saw my phone cycle on and off Wi-Fi but then also logged into the orbi app and saw it said sat2 was connected. Then disconnected. Then it showed it was Ethernet bound to the router (makes no sense) then it changed to wireless 2.4ghz to the router.
The logic on how the sat2 is connecting makes zero sense to me. Sat1 is the closest in proximity by a factor of 2 and its wired backhaul. It should be connecting at 5ghz to sat1 (which it was yesterday night before I went to bed and reset them all).
I have a signal scanner and maybe there’s 5ghz congestion, but 2.4 looks even worse and it has a longer flight path by far to the router.
I’m getting fairly close to ordering something else from Costco (I made the mistake of buying this unit from Netgear direct — I wish I had waited to buy at Costco because of their return policy, but I had almost no issues like this with the rbr50 which I wish I kept. Looking more like $1000 sunk into good hardware with garbage firmware) - I currently have 20/40 coexistence turned on. Previously it was off and I was seeing less instability on sat2 (though I believe that setting only is for 2.4ghz whereas I was bonding to 5ghz). May be unrelated.
When I look at the spectrum analyzer, with 20/40 coexistence on, I can see my set channel 1 frequency range expanding/contracting between channels 1-3 (20mhz) and 1-7 (40Mhz) versus solely seeing it across 1-7 (40Mhz) as when good-neighbor coexistence turned off.
What effect does this have on my own signal connection and stability re: interference. - Also I’m now at CTS=500 and am noticing issues with streaming media (multi gig movies from my NAS hardwired and watching on iPad Pro) — stutters with loading buffers which never happened before. I may try setting CTS/RTS back to 64 because I read neighborhood congestion and issues with intermittent packet transmission issues should dial it down to 64.
I’m more or less going back to setting all my settings back to what they originally were — so intermittent drops of Wi-Fi connections walking between satellite and router overlap, but at least then I wasn’t getting issues with the wireless backhaul satellite flipping out and packet hangs when stationary. Just an update on this (I know there are multiple threads detailing this issue, this seems like the most active).
Since I switched both of my satellites to wireless about 6 days ago, I haven't seen this disconnection issue at all with my iPhone. That's not conclusive, because the issue is intermittent for me, but I thought it was worth sharing as that's a very good run. Usually I'd see it at least every few days.
I've long suspected that the Orbi has issues with wired satellites so I'm not really that surprised.
I'd be very interested to know if everyone experiencing this issue has at least one satellite connected via ethernet. I'm wondering if could even be caused by a mixture of wired and wireless satellites.
I will continue to monitor.
Thanks for the update.
Very well could be a mixture of wireless and ethernet RBS. Both of mine are ethernet connected and working well. I haven't tried a mixed. I tend to keep with one connection method or the other. 50% power I believe.
Would be a good test for you and see if both your RBS work on ethernet connection and see if the problem reappears.
Garwoofoo wrote:
Just an update on this (I know there are multiple threads detailing this issue, this seems like the most active).
Since I switched both of my satellites to wireless about 6 days ago, I haven't seen this disconnection issue at all with my iPhone. That's not conclusive, because the issue is intermittent for me, but I thought it was worth sharing as that's a very good run. Usually I'd see it at least every few days.
I've long suspected that the Orbi has issues with wired satellites so I'm not really that surprised.
I'd be very interested to know if everyone experiencing this issue has at least one satellite connected via ethernet. I'm wondering if could even be caused by a mixture of wired and wireless satellites.
I will continue to monitor.
Any progress on this?
Rogelio1 wrote:
Also I’m now at CTS=500 and am noticing issues with streaming media (multi gig movies from my NAS hardwired and watching on iPad Pro) — stutters with loading buffers which never happened before. I may try setting CTS/RTS back to 64 because I read neighborhood congestion and issues with intermittent packet transmission issues should dial it down to 64.
I’m more or less going back to setting all my settings back to what they originally were — so intermittent drops of Wi-Fi connections walking between satellite and router overlap, but at least then I wasn’t getting issues with the wireless backhaul satellite flipping out and packet hangs when stationary.- I disconnected the Ethernet backhaul running from router to sat1 and haven’t noticed the issue so far walking back and forth. Will test more tomorrow. I have a bunch of devices near sat1 so I used a 5 port gigabit switch and have nothing plugged into the satellite. sat2 is bonded to Sat 1 (5ghz) and Sat 1 is bonded to router (5ghz).
I am now unfortunately getting less than half the speed throughput sitting near sat1 now on my iPhone. I was getting close to 600mbps before with the Ethernet backhaul (I get about 750 at the router) and now I’m only getting close to 250-275. This was at 100% power on 5ghz and 2.4. I also have just tried dropping the power to 50% and am seeing devices connect more logically (ones closer to sat1 bonded instead of connecting to further hop sat2) with speed mostly the same or maybe only 5-10% less.
Will report back tomorrow or the day after that to see if the disconnects walking around go away. If it does, I’m a bit more perplexed and concerned about how these units are tested — I can’t see how they couldn’t foresee people will mix Ethernet and Wi-Fi backhauls. There could be a possible problem with using mixed backhaul methods.
Keep us posted.