NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Problems switching in Mesh
Since two years I have a setup with one router (RBR850) and three satellites (RBS850). All satellites are wired to the router. This should be set up as a mesh network, so that my devices automatical...
This happens when I move from ground floor to 1st or the other way around.
Only floor where I have two is ground floor. Where I have my router wired to my internet provider router (in a closet near frontdoor), and a satellite in the area we live.
One thing that might be worth mentioning, is that when I move between these floors I will pass the router. So maybe it’s causing issues that it goes from satellite, to router and to the other satellite within 15 seconds.
Only floor where I have two is ground floor. Where I have my router wired to my internet provider router (in a closet near frontdoor), and a satellite in the area we live.
One thing that might be worth mentioning, is that when I move between these floors I will pass the router. So maybe it’s causing issues that it goes from satellite, to router and to the other satellite within 15 seconds.
Please give feedback to the question presented so we can better help you and get a better idea of what you have setup.
Gotrah wrote:
This happens when I move from ground floor to 1st or the other way around.
Only floor where I have two is ground floor. Where I have my router wired to my internet provider router (in a closet near frontdoor), and a satellite in the area we live.
One thing that might be worth mentioning, is that when I move between these floors I will pass the router. So maybe it’s causing issues that it goes from satellite, to router and to the other satellite within 15 seconds.
(In Nerd Heaven, thanks!)
Setting up to test Orbi roaming on RBR50. (Sorry, it's the only Orbi I have with both router and satellite.)
Had forgotten how busy WiFi is. Geez. When a WiFi device broadcasts a Probe Request on a 5G channel, every WiFi access point on the same channel responds from both the primary and the guest WiFi SSIDs, including an RBR750 that is used to "test things" and all the neighbor WiFi's that are also set to channel 48.
Anyway, after powering off the RBR750 and disabling Guest WiFi, experiment 1 was (almost) successful:
- Configure WiFi adapter in monitor mode, channel 48.
- Open Wireshark using WiFi adapter and capture only packets with the MAC address for Sony phone.
- Enable WiFi on Sony phone.
- Wireshark capture clearly shows:
- Phone broadcasts a Probe request.(with a bewildering number of settings!)
- Orbi router and satellite respond with Probe Response.
- Phone sends Authentication Request
- Router sends Authentication Response
- Phone sends Association Request
- Router sends Association Response
- Walk downstairs and stand close to Orbi satellite. Wireshark capture shows
- Phone sending Probe Request
- Orbi units sending Probe Response
- Phone sending Authentication
- Orbi sending Authentication Response
- Phone sending Reassociation
- Satellite sending Reassociation Response
- Phone continues to send Probe requests all the time. (another experiment would be to capture for an extended length of time and see how often the phone "looks around"
- One of the Orbi satellites continues to response that the Guest network is available, when it was clearly disabled. (WTF? People who complain that guest network behaves strangely may have a valid point!)
- Unfortunately, this Wireshark experiment did not capture the phone reconnecting to the router when it returned upstairs. (darn! Closed the capture too soon?)
Is there a point to this rambling narrative?
Yes. There is clear evidence that:
- Some WiFi devices continue to broadcast Probes asking "What WiFi Access Points are here?"
- When a mobile device moves from one Orbi WiFi access point to another, it will Reassociate with the stronger signal.
The hypothesis remains the same. When the iPhone moves between floors, the Orbi WiFi signal falls off so suddenly that the phone decides to change to LTE data before it finds a WiFi signal and this causes it to lose connection with the LAN subnet.
How to document this hypothesis is unknown.
What might seem like a root canal to most people is entertainment to a computer nerd. Haven't had this much fun since.....
Using a pair of Panda WiFi adapters (PAU09 and PAU0D) connected to a Linux machine.
- One set in monitor mode to capture management frames on the 2G WiFi channel.
- One set in monitor mode to capture management frames on the 5G WiFi channel.
I can trace the path of my Sony phone as I walk downstairs, then outside to empty trash, then back inside the house. Right now, as I sit four feet from the RBR50 router, the phone remains connected at 2.4G to the downstairs satellite which I pass on the way out (and back in again). Oops,, there we go. A "Reassociation Request" from the phone to the RBR50 router 5G channel. The Orbi Attached Devices continues to display the phone as connected to the satellite 2G channel, but the phone now reports a 5G connection.
It is pretty clear (at least to me) that diagnosing roaming issues on Orbi systems is likely to be a frustrating experience because:
- The Orbi does not update information about client devices very quickly.
- It does not log when devices connect, disconnect, "roam", etc. (Or does it? Netgear does not publish information about what is in the Debug Log that can be generated using an option on http://orbilogin.net/debug.htm )
- Capturing useful information requires hardware and software that most customers are not likely to have access to or experience using. (The Wireshark learning curve is steep.)
- Devices vary in how they select WiFi access points and when they decide to change from one to another. iPhones may not behave the same as Android phones. (Android phones may operate differently from one manufacturer to another.)
