NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
RBRE960 Xfinity xFi Conflict
I just installed a new RBRE960 in AP Mode to replace an RBR850 system. For some reason, the 960 seems to be causing the Xfinity XB7 Modem to reset periodically - sometimes every few minutes. It may...
Support gave me some new firmware to try last Friday and it been solid all weekend. They've been great. I'll give it a few more days and if all goes well, I can mark this solved.
plemans wrote:Why are you using the xfi in router mode and the RBKE in access point mode?
Just curious because you could try it how you say with the xfi in bridge moe and the rbke in router mode.
Also, how are the satellites connected? hardwired backhaul? wireless backhaul? Running through a switch?
There are tradeoffs of features that xFi provides versus Netgear features depending on which device gets to be the router. In fact, it may be better with the Orbi as the router. I originally set it as an access point so I could get familiar with the Xfinity features and performance. Since it has been working fine, I had no need to put the Orbi back in Router mode.
SATs are wired direct to the RBR and RBR direct to xFi gateway.
The 850 has been up solid for 24hrs now in AP mode. So, I'm starting to think there is a problem with the 960 doing something to make the xFi restart. I'll give the Bridge Mode a try later - it will be at least an interesting data point for what will probably be a support call to Netgear.
Interesting results last night. I have been thinking back through this issue and it occurred to me that this did work when I first set it up and certainly long enough to get through the setup and beyond. In fact, my first RBKE963B kit worked fine and long enough for one of the RBS960 SATs to die - literally would not power up. So support suggested since the kit was new, to return/replace rather than get a refurb RBS. So I did. And I was able to get that new kit set up as well.
So what made it stop working after the setup went smoothly? Post setup things I did:
- changed the SSID and password from the default
- put the Orbi into AP Mode
- reserved IP addresses on the xFi Router for the RBR and RBSs.
- turned off "IoT network".
I think that's it - setting this up is easy and fast - not much to do. It was stable for a few hours and then the xFi reboots started.
My plan was to back out of each step to see what caused the problem since the first kit was up for a few days before the replacement came.
Last night I removed the IP reservation for the RBR and restarted everything - leaving the two RBK SATs powered off. Both the xFi and RBR came up working fine. 🤔 So I re-reserved the IP address for the RBR and restarted it. This time was less smooth with a few restarts and WIFI dropping in and out. I was about the clear the IP reservation and restart, but it finally settled down.
After an hour, I powered up a wired RBS (IP addresses still reserved). No issues. After an hour, I went to bed. I have to do this stuff late at night or the household will freak out! 🙄
This morning - 10 hours later, all still solid and the logs show no restarts in the middle of the night. I power up the 2nd RBS (wireless backhaul) and it comes right up. All solid for a few hours now.
I feel like I need to repower everything to make sure it's working correctly and not just a fluke.
Was hoping to mark this solved today, but woke up to this:
0 - [Time synchronized with NTP server] Monday, May 01,2023 13:07:57
1 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Monday, May 01,2023 13:17:41
2 - [Internet disconnected] Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:15:35
3 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:15:57
4 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:16:46
5 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:17:06
6 - [Internet disconnected] Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:24:25
7 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:24:48
8 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:27:21
9 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:28:17
10 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 07:28:36
11 - [Internet disconnected] Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:04:11
12 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:04:33
13 - [Internet disconnected] Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:05:40
14 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:09:42
15 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:10:44
16 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:19:06
17 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:20:03
18 - [Internet disconnected] Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:21:25
19 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:21:51
20 - [Internet disconnected] Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:22:47
21 - [Internet connected] IP address: 192.168.1.2, Tuesday, May 02,2023 09:22:58
This is exactly what I've been seeing - and the above is the Orbi 960 logs. The xFi has no decent logs to even indicate that during each of the disconnects above, it restarted and cycled through all its lights. So it was up for about 18 hours before cycling a few times, then another 2 hours and more cycling. After that, solid up to now at 4pm.
Try the xfi in passthrough mode.
- I had something similar a year ago. I did the “self install” with xfinity, and my house is the only line from the pillar in the yard and pre-wired to a distribution cabinet installed by the home builder.
After switching out modems a few times, I eventually started looking at logs in the cable modem, and noticed a number of “Uncorrectable errors” being reported in the modem.
When I did the self install I used a splitter in the wiring cabinet.
My uncle’s neighbor is a VP of engineering at Comcast and when explaining the issue he thought it was the splitter. I found that hard to believe so I discounted it. I tried different cable modems and placing the modem in the basement.
My Verizon cell phone working in concert with a Verizon microcell and creating interference that was picked up on the coax line. This only became apparent when the modem was physically in the basement and microcell was on the 3rd floor. The splitter I was using had a leak that went away when separated by 80-90 feet.
I took the advice of the VP of engineering and replaced the splitter with the brand he reccomended- Antronix. I ordered off Amazon. Sure enough, when I moved everything back to original setup, microcell next to the modem again, and sure enough? the modem didn’t report the quantity of errors— “Uncorrectable Errors” in the cable modem log went to single digits over a week. It used to rack up 200-1000 in an 12 hour timeframe, depending on channel.
Point is don’t buy cheap splitters, and even the ones from HomeDepot that look like they’re from a machined block of aluminum. They have varying quality. Antronix was the only one that worked and through Amazon it’s a worthwhile fix to consider if you value your time.First night in a while with no interruptions. I did put the Orbi into Router Mode and the xFi into Bridge a few days ago. Too soon to say that solved it or helped, but I don't think it did, since I have had some outages. I will say the pattern is more like an issue with the cable service - just seems too random. The xFi gateway status shows good signal at this point so I hope I can get to that page when it starts having issues again to see if it tells me anything.
No splitters on our cable anymore - we stream everything, so the cable goes into the xFi modem/gateway and that's it - signals look good. But, as I said, I am starting to think it is something with the cable system and that the Orbi 960 arrived with bad timing.
