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Forum Discussion
kevin009
Nov 09, 2021Star
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 o...
FURRYe38
Nov 09, 2021Guru - Experienced User
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?
- kevin009Nov 13, 2021Star
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.
- FURRYe38Nov 14, 2021Guru - Experienced User
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.
- kevin009Nov 16, 2021Star
Yeah, I would have been happy with 200Mbs on 2.4Ghz, but I was getting almost nothing, at the point where gifs wouldn't load, sometimes I was getting 20Mbs on a good day.
My problem is that it looks like the router just gets slower the longer it runs (at least on the 2.4Ghz band). I haven't rebooted it since testing and info collection I did the other day for my last post, and right now I just did another speed test on the 2.4Ghz band, I'm back down to 8.6Mbs. I still need my 2.4Ghz band as my phone doesn't seem to want to stay on the 5Ghz band.I just tested again today (one day after what I typed above) and now I'm getting 263Mbs on 2.4Ghz. It just seems so bizzare. I haven't rebooted yet, so it doesn't look like the fix is to reboot it when I need. This is an odd one.