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Forum Discussion
Netgear RBR850 wireless speeds are dropping
I have an RBR850 with satellite and since I got it about a year ago, it has been working great. When I set it up and did wireless and wired speed tests, they were screaming fast and blew my socks off (WiFi 6 with a compatible laptop was real nice). Recently, I noticed that on mobile devices that some gifs and images wouldn't load, and when I did a speed test over WiFi, I was now getting 20mbs up and 3mps down. Wired seems to be absolutely fine, and when I do a speed test on the router, I get the usual 600Mbs I get from my ISP. So, the issue isn't with my wired setup or my ISP. I haven't changed anything in regards to the router (location, configuration) yet this started just happening on its own. The only thing that changes is the router updating its firmware automatically, so that is my current number one suspect, but I'm running the latest firmware and I'm unsure if I can even downgrade this thing or find the firmware that worked in the past.
I tried rebooting it and doing a speed test and I got 415.56Mbs right away via WiFi using Speedtest.net (I get 361.46 when I'm wired via ethernet?!), but then a few minutes later, I tried again and got 76Mbs, so I know the radio is still capable of reaching some pretty fast speeds, but something is slowing it down after some time. I thought it might be some device that's hogging the pipe, but it's unlikely that I'd have one device that would use most of a 650Mbs pipe, and unfortunately, this $500 router doesn't have any QoS options or individual device traffic monitoring, so I just tried disabling everything except my laptop, and that didn't appear to make a difference (except crash my router forcing me to power cycle it to get it back up and running).
Actually, now the router won't respond at all after I tried disabling some connected devices and enabled the traffic meter so I could see if something was really hogging the pipe. So even after powercycling it a few times, it wouldn't respond at all (couldn't access it through the moble app or though the web admin), so I did a hard reset with a pin and got it back up just like it was out of the box. I set it up again (completely basic settings, nothing custom) and did a speed test and now I'm getting 70Mbs, so it looks like even resetting the router didn't fix my issue, so I'm heavily leaning towards hardware failure or bad firmware (but I don't think many others are experiencing the same issue in having our of the box).
I read some articles and tried messing around with the wireless settings as I was originally using auto channels and didn't change any settings beyond the basic setup (WiFi name/password). I tried using a wifi analyzer and setting it to specific unused channels, rebooting and trying a speed test, but the best I could get on my laptop was just over 100Mbs, and 20Mbs on my phone (which is using 5Ghz). Still pretty pathetic, but slightly better than when I started out.
I've owned a Nighthawk before this that started acting flaky, so I purchased this Orbi thinking it would solve all my wireless issues, but I guess right after my warranty ended, I guess it was done its job and could die.
After my experience with my nighthawk dying, then this ORBI dying just after a year, I'm thinking that Netgear just makes low quality junk and I should probably look for a better quality whole home wireless solution for the same price, unless someone knows a fix for this issue?
I just tried something after I typed this out, but on my phone that I was only getting 20Mbps on, I "forgot" the wireless connection, then added it again and then I was getting around the same rates as my laptop (150Mps), but it only lasts for a few minutes then I'm back down to 20. I think it has something to do with bumping it down to 2.5Ghz, because when I first connect, it will put my phone on 5Ghz, then toss it down to 2.5, but the 2.5 band shouldn't be so slow that it's giving me 20Mbps. I just noticed that all of my wifi cameras (that use the 2.5 band) are all offline, so something is really wrong with this router.
What Firmware version is currently loaded?
V4.6.3.16_2.0.51
What wireless device are you using?
Brand new G7 Dell laptop.
What are your wired speed results with a wired PC or laptop?
361.46Mbs
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
Medium bungalow, about 800 Sq ft.
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)?
25 feet in a detached garage.
4 Replies
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
What is the brand and mfr of the wifi adapter in the laptop?
Be sure it's wifi drivers are up to date.
30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS📡 to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
What channels are you using?
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
Has a power off for 1 minute then back ON with the ISP modem and Orbi system been performed since last update?
Any factory resets since last update?
Is Armor or SPC enabled?
I'm not sure what the make/model is on the ISP modem as it doesn't have any markings on it, and the sticker on the bottom doesn't say anything about the manufacturer, but I did some speed tests using my laptop while connected to the modem and router (after powering then down for a bit and powering them back up):
Wired connection to the modem: 602Mbs down / 108Mbs Up / 9ms ping
Orbi speed test (only device connected): 596Mbs down / 113Mbs up / 8ms ping
Wired connection to the router: 627Mbs down / 109Mbs up / 9ms pingThis is right after power cycling the router so this is the best I'm going to get, but as you can see, I can rule out the ISP and all of the wired connections out of the picture as they are more than healthy (I am paying for 600Mbs and getting that right at the modem).
I have the router about 30 feet from the satellite, and I know placement hasn't been an issue as I have had no problems for the last year and I didn't really change anything with my network hardware (except for the automatic firmware updates that the Orbi does) so I don't think placement has anything to do with my issue. I did have to do one factory reset (before I posted my original post) because the router became unresponsive when I started changing some settings (power cycling couldn't bring it back up, the web UI just wasn't loading) and the only way I could get it back up was doing a factory reset and starting from scratch. Even after doing a factory reset, I was still getting slow speeds.
Since I rebooted the router today, the speeds have been alright (although, this is part of my problem, I seem to have to reboot the router to get back to decent speeds. It was getting so bad that if I can't find a solution, I was just going to put a timer on the power supply for the router so that it could just power cycle the router a couple times a day to keep my speeds up).
But currently, these are the speeds I am getting wirelessly on my laptop and they seem pretty good right now, but I'm pretty sure I'll be waking up to 20Mbp on the 2.4Ghz band in the morning:
Wireless (5Ghz laptop) after Orbi reboot: 576Mbs down / 110Mbs up / 11ms ping
Wireless (2.4Ghz laptop) after Orbi reboot: 238Mbs down / 109Mbs up / 10ms pin
Wireless (2.4Ghz laptop, furthest point in house) after Orbi reboot: 100Mbs down / 20Mbs up / 10ms pinI did some reading on the best way to set up an Orbi and they say to use 1, 6, or 11 for 2.4Ghz (whichever one has less neighbours using that band) and whichever channel is the least busy for 5Ghz, so I settled on 1 and 36:
https://imgur.com/BEskM9vAs for neighbouring networks, this is what I have for 2.4Ghz:
https://imgur.com/WgxoPpX
(the summer networks are my baby cameras and FBI VAN is my network)And here is what's around me on 5Ghz:
https://imgur.com/QU7GOwoHere is also what my laptop is picking up for 2.4Ghz:
https://imgur.com/9YFnBkgand for 5Ghz:
https://imgur.com/B52shY3For Armor and SPC, my subscription expired so I'm assuming that it's "off". I'm running the latest firmware and I don't see any option to disable it (from what I've read, you can only do that in older firmware versions as they removed a lot of configurable options with every release).
As I was typing up this response, my connection went down and when I looked into it, the Orbi was reporting that the internet connection was down. I connected my laptop directly to the modem and it seems perfectly fine. I try to reconnect the Orbi and nothing. Try a different cable and nothing. I powercycled it again and now it's back up. I think the Orbi is just one of those devices that needs a powercycle every four hours.
I hope this information is more useful than my Orbi.
So looks like wired AND 5Ghz is getting to spec speeds and are all in the ball park of the 600Mbs you pay for.
2.4Ghz, this maynot see anything near 600Mbs. Depending upon your wireless devices support and design, most 2.4Ghz devices are 2x2 MIMO and may top out at around 200-300Mpbs or less on 2.4Ghz. Also Channel width is limited by 20 or 40Mhz while 5Ghz has 80 and 160Mhz for higher connection rates.
I see your laptop is reporting 20Mhz channel width as well. This would be one reason why you'll not see faster speeds.
