iPhones drop connection to RB850

Hi rl72 ..... mine has been running fine, but the tuning of parameters in the thread you referenced was not the reason, even though I think per FURRYe38's suggestions in that thread, the parameter changes are good ones to do anyway and I have kept them for the most part. Current:

5 GHz: 48

2.4 GHz - Auto

Enable AX - yes on 2.4 and 5

Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence - yes

Enable WMM (Wi-Fi multimedia) settings (2.4 GHz b/g/n/ax) - yes on 2.4 and 5GHz

CTS - 2347 (no collisions ever)

The only problem I have now is one others have reported many places (here, reddit, DSL Reports, Comcast forums), that there is some issue between Comcast (my ISP) and Orbi routers with IPv6. It does not see a valid IP address, even though the router web page shows it has one - my theory is there is some issue on lease expiration, so the RBR850 has an IPv6 IP address that is no longer valid. Hopefully Netgear will at least be a little transparent about this to set some expectations, it's like they don't care what decisions customers make about this in a vacuum. So I have just disabled IPv6 .

Anyway - what made the drop offs go away? I think this mesh system (maybe all of them ) are very sensitive to where signals come from. I have lived in this house only 18 months, and it's old with a lot of solid walls and doors. In August 20 when that thread you referenced was created, I had a RBR in the basement where the comcast line came in, and RBSs on floor 1, 2 and 3. My theory was that was too many; even though they were further apart than Netgear's 30' minimum, it doesn't mean that a device didn't see signals that were acceptable from multiple RBR/RBS devices; and I think this probably confused some devices like iPhones (and maybe others). Saturating the space with WiFi signals from multiple RBR/RBS devices is not good imho.

So I did this (pretty sure I reported this on a thread somewhere) - I took the 3 RBSs offline, just leaving the RBR. Now this will be different whether you have wired or wireless backhaul, but I took my Mac and a signal strength app (free - I have both iAnalyze WiFi and WiFi Explorer Lite), and for placement of a WIRELESS backhaul RBS, I want to put the first one somewhere on the first floor where there is a STRONG signal. If you have WIRED backhaul capability, pick an outlet where the WiFi signal is the weakest (hopefully this makes sense - the theory is, you can't put a wireless backhaul-RBS where there is a very weak signal, and you can help your network a lot if you are able to put a wired backhaul-RBS where WiFi signal is bad). After one RBS is placed, move up to other floors and find the right place to place the next RBS. 

So really all I did was check signal strength and make sure I put only the minimum RBSs in the optimal locations in house. I was surprised how good their signals became! I went from 1 RBR850 and 3 RBS850s in a house with a full basement and 3 floors above it, to 1 RBR in the basement, 1 one the 1st floor, and 1 on the 3rd floor. One of the RBSs is in a different location. I reduced the number of RBSs by 1 and I have better coverage and operation!

So my advice would be to see if your RBSs are in the best spot, they may be too close even if > 30' from another device, you may have saturated WiFi signals from multiple RBR/RBS devices in parts of the house. See if you really need all the RBSs you have. My house is almost 5000 square feet with floor floors and heavy walls/doors, and I only have 2 RBSs - you have a lot of devices with 1 router and FOUR satellites!