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Orbi vs Eero and other Mesh: Managed switches and network configurations
I recently purchased the new Orbi Wifi 6E system with 3 satellites. I've had Orbi's in the past, but I am in a house where I can use wired backhaul rather than wireless. When I initially moved in...
Orbi works with managed switches if you configure the switches correctly:
- The main issue with managed switches is that they discover and block loops! Orbi satellites when connected by ethernet cables and also wirelessly will cause loops, this is normal in mesh networks, but managed switches think it's an issue and block them which will cause the wired satellites to stop working. Usually managed switches have settings to just log loops and do not block them. I think if you get this setting right you will be ok. Unmanaged switches are not smart enough to detect loops that's why they are ok.
- Green features in few managed switches will cause the backhaul connections (connection between router and satellites and between satellites) to go down all time to save energy and that will cause issues with Orbi. So if you disable such features that will be ok.
- Orbi does not support VLAN tagging, so VLAN should be disabled on the ports where you connect Orbi nodes.
I wish someone would have told me to give this a try rather than just ditch the managed switches.
I'll play around with them.
I have an Araknis AN-30-SW-16. Replacing with a Netgear 10 port unmanaged immediately solved the issue.
User found a while back that for managed switches, disabling ALL IGMP protocols solved issues with RBS connected to these switches.