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Forum Discussion
dmcpublic10
Nov 03, 2023Aspirant
RBR850 wifi drops when moving around house, won't reconnect for several minutes
Hi everyone, hoping someone can help with this...I have a quite new (few months old) RBR850 and seven satellites (we live on a large plot, and thick walls and insulation mean that the signal doesn't ...
dmcpublic10
Nov 13, 2023Aspirant
Hi tucsontico, a belated thanks for your previous posts, and a quick update: This is just to say that so far I've run the firmware updates, and changed the 'private wifi' setting on my phone, and the result is...inconclusive. When I come down to the kitchen, sometimes the wifi drops out on my phone, sometimes it doesn't.
I certainly take your point (and don't disagree!) about too many satellites. I also have a LOT of ioT devices, from fridges & dishwashers to light bulbs, floor heating systems and entire lighting rigs, so I'm sure that I am not short of a little interference. Do you have any advice for the best channels to set my 2.4 and 5ghz wifi to?
What does puzzle me about the wifi drop out is that it is most obvious when I move from the rest of the house (which has the router and several overlapping satellites, some wired, some not) to the Kitchen, which is as previously mentioned a bit of a signal black hole, and has in it just one, hardwired, satellite. Thus I would have expected it to be easier to connect here, not more difficult. Is there possibly some issue whereby the device resists switching from a wireless to a wired node?
In any event I am going to get on with the next steps that you suggest, which is to remove a satellite at a time and see if that helps.
Thanks again, I'll update here when I have further info.
tucsontico
Nov 14, 2023Virtuoso
As far as the "best" channels go for 2.4 gHz and 5 gHz goes, the easiest answer is: "It depends." If you look on your iPhone under the "System Settings" WiFi area, do you see other networks from neighbors? If so, you can use the old Apple AirPort Utility to scan for WiFi signals and determine what channels your neighbors are on. If the signal strength is greater than those from your satellites (which will also show up on the AirPort Utility scan), I'd definitely set both 2.4 and 5 gHz on different channels. ( I believe the current school of thought is Ch 6 for 2.4 gHz and Ch 48 for 5 gHz are "best".) Lots of times "Auto" will prevent problems in a dense signal environment.
For your signal drop outing the kitchen, try swapping the current kitchen satellite with another one to see if it is hardware related.
Do you have any ethernet switches in your hardwired system? If so, be certain they are of the "Unmanaged" type. The Orbi system doesn't handle managed switches to well.
Good Luck!