RBS850 wired satellite not showing up on Attached Devices - orbilogin only works near router

My sense is that the connection scheme is the root cause of both problems:

• Wired satellite not appearing in Attached Devices, and
• WiFi satellite connecting to the router at 2.4G rather than the wired satellite at 5G.

You are "getting away with this connection in Access Point (AP) mode" because the Level 2 Ethernet LAN allows devices to connect to each other through the Cisco switch by using ARP to learn the actual MAC addresses.

Netgear's design for the Orbi mesh system is that

• The router is connected (through the WAN port) to the greater world. (usually the Internet, but in many cases an existing network such as yours.
• Everything else (satellites and user devices) are connected to the LAN side of the Orbi router, either through 'wired' connections or through WiFi connections.  In router mode, this LAN is hidden from the greater world through Network Address Translation (NAT).  No device on the LAN side is visible to the outside network through its internal IP address.  The only way to connect from the outside to a device on the LAN is to forward a port through the router to a specific internal IP address.
• I believe (and this is just my opinion), that this design has led to a programming decision that satellites can be found only on the LAN side of the routrer.  They cannot be found on the WAN side.

So, what happens when the Orbi is put into AP mode?

• It no longer creates a LAN subnet or answers DHCP requests.  User devices get their IP information (number, subnet mask, gateway, DNS) from the primary network - in this case the Cisco router.  This is similar to what the Apple access points do.
• The Orbi router still broadcasts the hidden WiFi SSID looking for satellites.  (I believe) that initially both satellites connect via WiFi and learn the important information about WiFi SSIDs.  But shortly after that, the 'wired' satellite discovers the wired connection and quits using the WiFi link.  However, this is a Level 2 Ethernet network.  Devices quickly learn the hardware MAC address of other devices on the LAN, including the Cisco gateway.  They have no need to send data packets through the Orbi router.
• That 'wired' satellite no longer talks to the Orbi router. (Why should it?  By connecting directly to the Cisco router, it can reach every device on the LAN and also the Internet.)  Thus, the router has only one satellite connected - the one still using WiFi.
• Why doesn't the WiFi router "Daisy Chain" off the wired satellite? Because the wired satellite no longer 'sees' the Orbi router.

All these issues would disappear if the Orbi satellite was connected to the LAN side of the Orbi router. But there is a huge problem: only one Ethernet cable connects the Cisco location and the Orbi router location. The cable can be used for (a) the Cisco-Orbi connection or (b) the Orbi router - Orbi satellite connection, but not both.  There is a solution, which involves placing two 'managed' switches on the cable and creating one VLAN to carry the Cisco-Orbi traffic and another VLAN to carry the Orbi router-Orbi satellite traffic.  (there was  a long discussion on the forum from a user who did this and it worked great, but I have lost the URL to that discussion and cannot find it right now.)

Why do Apple AirPorts work but the Orbi not?  Because the AirPorts are not part of a "mesh" network.  They are not satellites.  They are WiFi access points.

Can I prove any of this?  Of course not.