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Forum Discussion
iPhone loses WiFi connection with RBR850
I have had my Orbi RBR850 and 2 satellites up for almost a week. I formerly had a Google Wifi from its earliest days, it ran reliably but was slow. This Orbi is much faster in all areas of our house!
There is one problem however. Periodically, my wife's iPhone drops offline. It is when the phone sleeps, but not always. Like today, it has happened a number of times, yet yesterday, not at all. It is a 2020 iPhone SE, so it even supports WiFi6. I have used the app Fing on my iPad to validate it is in fact offline - the Orbi list of devices in their app showed it gone, I almost started not to believe it. When you press the Home button on her phone, it flips back on the WiFi.
I have Comcast 1GB service. I have strong signals and great speeds everywhere. I doubt it's the phone as this never happened on the Google WiFi, and it doesn't happen on any other devices in the house. I have:
- forgotten the SSID and relogged in
- done a hard reset
- updated to the latest iOS that came out this week (so it has happened with the two latest versions of iOS)
- done a Network Settings reset
- ensured none of her settings were different than on my iPhone 11, which does not show the problem (and is also a WiFi 6 phone)
- looked for offline problems with our other devices - 2 TVs, 2 remote Hubs, 1 iPad, 2 iPhones, 3 laptops (2 Mac one Windows 10), 3 printers, 2 Apple TVs
About 2 days ago I gave it a static IP address, that worked for about 2 days with no disconnects. But it's back again.
Does anyone have any ideas?
12 Replies
What value are you using for CTS?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)?
v32 FW loaded?
What channels are you using?
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?Thanks FURRYe38 for the reply! Here are the answers to questions you asked, plus a few other comments that may help:
1. CTS value - default I assume, I have never touched it - it's 64
2. Distances between router and satellites - I don't really know how to measure this, all 3 are in open space, one in the basement (router), one on the 1st floor, one on the second floor. They are in the same spots as with my Google WiFi, it seemed to have a little more process to picking a good spot for router and satellite, and both it and the Orbi seem happy with the spacing - Orbi says "Good" next to both satellites. If I had to guess by pacing things off, I would say they are roughly 40 feet apart from basement -> 1st floor -> 2nd floor.
3. Firmware is V3.2.16.6-1.4.4
4. Channels: Advanced/Wirelsss setup is set to 2.4 GHz: Auto, 5GHz: 48. On the Advanced Home page it says 2.4GHz Channel: Auto (9), 5GHz Channel: 36+40+44+48(P)
5. Neighbors don't seem to be an issue. Indoors I don't see their SSIDs, if I go outside I can see maybe 2 foreign SSIDs.
Some other notes:
- My wife has the habit of putting her phone on do not disturb (DND) at times. Last night I know, when her iPhone last dropped off line, she put it on DND, lets the screen timeout, and it was NOT plugged into power. This morning, I saw at 6:36 AM it got a DHCP request for its IP Address according to the log (note it is set up as a static IP, I thought that would help and it seemed to for awhile). As of now, 6:58, I know she has looked at it, but the web interface log does not show her phone as being attached. Then at 7:10, she came to the basement, I saw her device as attached - it's off DND now. She went back up to the first floor, and as I look now, it's not showing as attached. I am not 100% sure I believe that.
- this was a screwy thing. Last night, I took my phone off its wireless charger, walked from basement to 2nd floor, and put it on DND. I sat down, and brought up the iOS Orbi app. My wife's phone was unattached, and so was mine according to the app! I couldn't believe it was showing my iPhone as off WiFi! I could plainly see it was on WiFi. I put it on a charger, came back in about 2-3 minutes, checked again, and my phone showed as attached. I was not able to duplicate this behavior. I started to wonder if maybe the apps/interface are reporting attached devices incorrectly, and it's really attached? Is there a way to see if my wife's iPhone is on WiFi without touching it (which seems to bring it online)? The iPhones don't seem to respond to pings.
- I also noticed the selection of an access point by the system can be non-intuitive. Today, I noticed an Apple TV device on the 1st floor, which is right next to the satellite on that floor, is attached to the satellite on the second floor! It hasn't moved since the Orbi was set up. Also, a 1st floor TV-remote hub right next to the satellite on that floor is also attached to the 2nd floor satellite. And, the Apple TV in the basement, about 20 feet from the router, is attached to the satellite on the second floor! In fact, out of 14 devices, NOTHING is attached to the satellite on the 1st floor. Should I power it off and on or something, or is this indicative of another problem?
- Under Basic/Wireless Settings, it says at the top in bold, "Enable AX - This WiFi mode will enable AX features". I thought I remembered seeing a message a few days ago that said "AX enabled" - I may be wrong though. Is this correct?
That's all I could find right now. Sorry its long, thank you FURRYe38 for even just the time to read this!!!
You can try changing CTS to 2347 and see if this changes anything. Also uncheck the box next to 20/40Mhz and this will set 40Mhz only.
You can also disable AX mode as well on the Basic tab/Wireless settings and see if this helps any.
Possible odd problem with iOS and Orbi AX as well with this DND feature though I haven't seen anything like with with mine, iPhone 6sP and iOS 13.6 on v16 FW.
Any updates or progress on this?
Has changing CTS to anything from default helped at all?
donawalt wrote:
I have had my Orbi RBR850 and 2 satellites up for almost a week. I formerly had a Google Wifi from its earliest days, it ran reliably but was slow. This Orbi is much faster in all areas of our house!
There is one problem however. Periodically, my wife's iPhone drops offline. It is when the phone sleeps, but not always. Like today, it has happened a number of times, yet yesterday, not at all. It is a 2020 iPhone SE, so it even supports WiFi6. I have used the app Fing on my iPad to validate it is in fact offline - the Orbi list of devices in their app showed it gone, I almost started not to believe it. When you press the Home button on her phone, it flips back on the WiFi.
I have Comcast 1GB service. I have strong signals and great speeds everywhere. I doubt it's the phone as this never happened on the Google WiFi, and it doesn't happen on any other devices in the house. I have:
- forgotten the SSID and relogged in
- done a hard reset
- updated to the latest iOS that came out this week (so it has happened with the two latest versions of iOS)
- done a Network Settings reset
- ensured none of her settings were different than on my iPhone 11, which does not show the problem (and is also a WiFi 6 phone)
- looked for offline problems with our other devices - 2 TVs, 2 remote Hubs, 1 iPad, 2 iPhones, 3 laptops (2 Mac one Windows 10), 3 printers, 2 Apple TVs
About 2 days ago I gave it a static IP address, that worked for about 2 days with no disconnects. But it's back again.
Does anyone have any ideas?
