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Forum Discussion
RBK750 - Devices lose connectivity when moving from base station to satellites (wired backhaul)
I have an RBR750 with two RBS750, all devices on firmware V7.2.6.31. Each satellite is connected to the base station over gigabit ethernet. Once any wireless device successfully connects to the network via the base station or either satellite, connectivity and communication is excellent and completely stable. However, when such a successfully connected device is physically moved such that it connects to a different satellite, communication is often lost for up to several minutes. During this time, other wireless devices connected to the same satellite continue to have excellent throughput -- only the moved device is unable to communicate. Turning the affected device's wi-fi radio off and on does not resolve the issue. It's only after a period of several minutes that it can regain communication.
What I have tried:
Directly connecting a single satellite to the base station (single LAN cable with no switches in between)
Factory reset of base station and satellites
Switch base station between Router Mode and AP Mode
Use a static IP address on the device and adding a DHCP reservation for it
Different devices (iPhone, iPad and Android phone)
The only thing I've found that resolves the issue is using wireless backhaul instead of wired. However, this configuration is not acceptable due to reduced throughput and increased latency.
15 Replies
What specific ports on the router and satellites are connected?
Is the system currently in router mode or Access Point mode?
At the moment the router is in AP mode with the Internet port connected to the WAN and Ethernet port 3 (closest to the power connector) connected to a LAN switch. One of the satellites has the port 1 connected to a LAN switch and the other has port 2 connected to a LAN switch. All other ethernet ports are empty.
There have been several posts recently describing issues when Orbi systems are in AP mode and satellites are not connected to router LAN ports. This does not appear to be the issue here unless somehow the LAN and WAN ports are attached to a common pathway.
Does the Attached Devices page show devices attached to the satellites correctly?
It is truly surprising that turning WiFi off and back on again on the device does not result in an immediate connection.
Yes, this is a long-standing bug with the Orbi. As DolceArdore says, it appears to be specific to the wired backhaul (in my case, one wired satellite and one wireless satellite). Moving between the router and the wired satellite will sometimes (not always) cause the iPhone connection to drop and it will not reconnect for a few minutes.
I noticed that when this happened, it was trying to assign some weird IP address and I do think that assigning the iPhone a static IP in the Orbi management screen has reduced the frequency of this happening (although not eliminated it entirely).
I first reported this years ago and it's never changed so I'm not hopeful it will ever get fixed.
Good point Garwoofoo, now I remember that I also tried configuring a static IP address (in the iPhone settings, not in the router settings), which possibly helped a little, but ultimately failed to resolve the issue satisfactorily. Because of this I would be very hesitant to go with Orbi when I eventually upgrade to a Wi-Fi 7 mesh system.
FYI, we've brought this issue up to NG for review. Will see if we can get some more eyes and feedback on this.
Someting to try as well while we wait, v.31 had been reporting with other users problems. Last good stable FW version was v.21. Could you downgrade your system back to v.21 FW and see if this issue is still seen there? You'll need to factory reset the system and setup from scratch after FW has been applied to the RBS first, then RBR lastly.
Please try RBS wirelessly connected at first, then if you have ethernet support, directly connect the RBS to the back of the RBR and continue testing.
Please provide the following:
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router 📡 and satellite(s)🛰️? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR 📡 and RBS 🛰️ to begin with depending upon building materials when wired or wirelessly connected.What channel configurations are currently set on the router?
What security modes are you using on the RBR? WPA2 only or mixed mode WPA2/WPA3?
Current Brand and model# of devices your seeing this issue with.
I have an RBR750 with two RBS750, all devices on firmware V7.2.6.31. Each satellite is connected to the base station over gigabit ethernet. Once any wireless device successfully connects to the network via the base station or either satellite, connectivity and communication is excellent and completely stable. However, when such a successfully connected device is physically moved such that it connects to a different satellite, communication is often lost for up to several minutes. During this time, other wireless devices connected to the same satellite continue to have excellent throughput -- only the moved device is unable to communicate. Turning the affected device's wi-fi radio off and on does not resolve the issue. It's only after a period of several minutes that it can regain communication.
I appreciate your effort to help find a solution, FURRYe38, but I don't have time to troubleshoot it again right now. I've had the same problem with all firmware versions I've tried since I purchased the system back in 2021. 2500 sq. ft. home on two levels, distance between router (RBR750) and satellites (2xRBS750) between 40 and 70 feet. 2.4 GHz channel 9 and 5 GHz channel 48, which are the least congested channels, using mixed mode WPA2/WPA3. Devices I can recall trying are iPhone 13 Pro, iPad Pro, Google Nexus.
Well for that size of home, having the RBR unit and two RBS maybe causing problem, too much wifi overlap and such. You might turn OFF one RBS and test.
Also try using primary channesl on 2.4Ghz, 1, 6 and 11 are primary channels to use. Try 40 on 5Ghz.
Be sure to disable IPv6 on the RBR as well.
What iOS version is on these devices?
Be sure to disable any MAC Address randomizers on phones and pads while at home:
NETGEAR Mobile Applications and Android/Apple/Windows Devices FAQ | NETGEAR CommunitiesPlease try RBS wirelessly connected at first, then if you have ethernet support, directly connect the RBS to the back of the RBR and continue testing when you can come back to this.
Hello Garwoofoo ,
Welcome to the NETGEAR Community!
In the future, please create a separate new post for the issue that you are experiencing so that we can analyze the case objectively. Your post mentioned that firmware updates did not fix the issue, this may be due to the security measures used by Apple. To resolve this issue you can try turning off your private IP address on your iOS device.
To turn off the Private IP address please follow the directions listed below:
Open "Settings"
"Wi-Fi"
Select the "i" icon next to your connected network
Toggle off "Private Wi-Fi Address"
Best,
Kevin
NETGEAR TeamThanks Kevin. I first reported this issue back in 2022, including the fact that your suggestion there doesn't do anything to fix it, so I'm not sure how many times you want people to post the same things.
