orbi router can't find sattelites.

The key to this situation is the physical path between the router and satellite.  Please explain how they are connected:

• Is there an Ethernet pathway from one of the LAN ports in the router to this switch and then an Ethernet pathway from the switch to the satellite. ("pathway" being a single cable, or some  combination of patch cables and in-wall wiring)?
• Is the switch also connected to the WAN port of the router?
• Or, perhaps, is there one cable pathway from the switch to the WAN port of the router and the satellite is also connected to this switch?

This situation has been described several times recently on the forum, and appears to stem from a combination of factors:

• The customer has an existing router and wishes to run the Orbi system in Access Point (AP) mode so as to avoid a "Double NAT" situation which can interfere with several applications.
• The customer also has in-house wiring which terminates at a patch panel and has placed a switch there so that devices around the house can be connected using Ethernet.
• This location is not particularly suited as a location for the Orbi router, so the customer wants to locate the Orbi router somewhere else in the house.
• With only a single Ethernet cable to that location, the Orbi WAN port is connected.  There is not another Ethernet cable to that location for the satellite connection.

The result is that "everything works fine" except the Orbi router does not seem able to locate the satellite or display a list of devices connected to the satellite.

The solution is either:

• Move the Orbi router to the patch panel location, or
• Install a second Ethernet cable from the patch panel to the Orbi router location and connect it to one of the router LAN ports, or
• "live with it".

Some explanation:

• The Orbi router is engineered to "know" that Orbi satellites can be connected to the router in one of two ways:
  • Over a WiFi "backhaul" link, or
  • Over an Ethernet connection to one of the router LAN ports.
  • Satellites cannot be found over the WAN link.
• This is patently obvious when the router is in the default "router mode".  The router creates a separate IP LAN subnet for all devices connected to the router and Network Address Translation hides these IP addresses from the WAN side of the router.  (One of the consequences of that "Double NAT situation."
• Things get a bit murky when the router is in AP mode.  It does not create a new IP subnet and all devices use DHCP to get their IP address from the primary router.
• If the only pathway from the router to a satellite is through the WAN port, the router will not connect to it and cannot report any information about it.

But, wait.  How can the whole network be "working"???  This is because the Orbi router, Orbi satellites, that switch, and the primary router all have Ethernet switch modules which contain MAC address tables.  Every time any switch module receives an Ethernet packet from anywhere, the MAC address goes into the table tagged with which port on the switch it came from.  The actual device could be several buildings away, passing through  dozens of Ethernet switches.  Each switch remembers, "this MAC is out that port."  If they need to send an Ethernet packet to that MAC address, it goes out that port and the next Ethernet switch module deals with it.  On and on until it eventually arrives at the actual device.

Could Netgear have programmed the router differently?  I don't know.  It doesn't matter because they did what they did.