RBR850 Continually Reboots after Firmware Upgrade V7.2.6.21_5.0.20

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vader716 wrote:

I'm walking away for a while with it plugged into the "Internet" port, at least its up and running but feels wrong

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We are seeing more posts on the forum lately about Orbi routers in AP mode with all units connected directly to a switch that is between the Orbi router and the ISP router.  As FURRYe38 commented, Orbi  routers expect that Orbi satellites will be connected directly to the router, either (a) using a 5G WiFi connection with a hidden SSID, or (b) using an Ethernet connection.  It does not expect that satellites can be found through the WAN port. 

Having everything connected to the switch (ISP router, Orbi router, Orbi satellites, possibly other user devices) creates an IP subnet where "lots of things work"***(see note), but the router cannot gather information from the satellites because "they're not connected": not through WiFi and not through one of the LAN ports.

Moving the switch from "in front of" to "in back of" the Orbi router will create a working solution:

• With the Orbi router connected directly to the ISP router with the WAN port, everything will flow through the Orbi router.
• With satellites connected to the Orbi through the switch, traffic will flow in a way that the Orbi expects.
• User devices connected ot the switch will be accessible from everywhere because this remains one IP subnet.

Because this is a managed switch, it would be possible to manufacture a similar solution using port based VLANs.  i.e.

• In addition to the WAN connection to the switch, also connect one router LAN port to the switch.
• Create a port based VLAN consisting of the ports that the router and the satellites are connected to.
• This will result in all traffic from the satellites passing through the switch to the Orbi and then to the rest of the network.

Personally, I would just move the switch.  Unless, of course, the Orbi is not physically located near the ISP router and the switch.  Then things are a bit more complicated because there is probably only one Ethernet cable from the switch location to the Orbi router location. (there is solution for that involving VLANs as well, but it requires another swtich.)

*** Things "work" because the Ethernet hardware in the ISP router, Orbi router, Orbi satellites, and the switch "learn" where to reach devices by their hardware MAC address.  Ethernet switch modules have internal address tables, often capable of thousands of MAC addresses.  In an IP subnet, data packets are addressed by the hardware MAC of the machine they are intended for.  It goes something like this:

• Send a packet to IP xx.xx.xx.xx
• OK, is this on our IP subnet, or is it "somewhere else"?
  • If it is on our subnet, do I know the MAC address?  If not, use ARP to find it.
  • If it is not on our subnet, address it to the gateway and let the router deal with it.
• Send the packet.

All this happens at the hardware level. User programs think only in terms of IP addresses.  The hardware takes care of all the details.