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Re: Is there any benefit to have a wired backhaul for an Orbi Mesh system?
In my experience no! I’ve had an RBR750 and 5x RBS750s for a couple of years. Although for some of that time I’ve had pretty good Wi-Fi network, I’ve spent countless hours/days/weeks fiddling tryin...
In my experience it is a lot easier to make things worse than better. Especially when the actual problem hasn't been identified. And especially when the basic settings don't work. That's a red flag that something fundamental is likely a problem rather than something esoteric. When I see people starting to go down the path of CTS/RTS settings and grasping for the latest "CATx" spec cable, my sense is that it won't end well until the grasping at straws is over.
I appreciate that you had issues and that you have stabilized things, but "wired backhaul" as the culprit is probably a red herring and something else you did inadvertently settled things down.
For the 3 systems I have owned, RBR50, RBR850, and RBR960, wired backhaul has always been better. Not by a lot with the 960, but still better - even with my old 1996 installed CAT5 cables. And there's zero reason that "old house with some big thick walls, and lots of nooks and crannies" would make wired backhaul work worse than wireless. If anything, it would very likely be the opposite.
Wireless backhaul works well, but there is no reason wired backhaul shouldn't be better if it can be done. Just as a wired connection to any networked device is going to generally be better than WiFi. WiFi is for convenience, but the most robust performance will be wired given reasonably modern equipment.
JamesSimpson wrote:
In my experience no!
I’ve had an RBR750 and 5x RBS750s for a couple of years. Although for some of that time I’ve had pretty good Wi-Fi network, I’ve spent countless hours/days/weeks fiddling trying to improve connectivity problems. ...
A lot of this was made worse with a wired backhaul. I’ve tried every available settings and way of connecting them to try and improve things, including firmware updates, numerous different channels, CTS/RTS ratios, preamble settings, transmit powers, router and satellite placement, soft resets, factory resets with re-sync wireless, factory resets with re-sync wired then wireless, new Cat7 cables, gigabit switches in between, hub/spoke, daisy chain….. and my final conclusion is that the network is much better without any wired backhaul at all. With a wired backhaul I was consistently plagued by frequent disconnections, very slow re-connections, and patchy connection to other devices on my LAN. All or most of this disappeared when I sacked the ethernet backhaul. I live in quite an old house with some big thick walls, and lots of nooks and crannies which probably doesn’t help.
I’m sure in general you are correct, wired will usually be more robust than Wi-Fi, which is why I wanted to go down that road in the first place. All I know is that the end result for my network has been very clear. After a huge amount of time and troubleshooting (new cables, setting everything up from scratch etc), the network is significantly more stable with a wireless backhaul. Handoff when roaming between APs works much more smoothly and devices connect much more quickly. I’m not sure why, that’s just my experience. Perhaps I’m just unlucky!
Would need more details and feedback on questions given to better help you figure out the "I’m not sure why".
Sorry, last reply was in fact a reply to the post before yours. Thanks for taking the time to help.
In answer to your questions:
Firmware V4.6.14.3_2.3.12, all satellites up to date.
Property size is roughly 5000sq feet. Lots of thick cob (mud) and stone walls. Minimum distance between APs is 20 feet (when walls are v think), max 40 feet (across garden to garage). I have read the recommendations about optimal placement/distance and have spent a lot of time experimenting with different positions, as well as reducing the transmit power of both bands.
Switch was a TP link SG1005P unmanaged gigabit switch. It's not in there at the moment, but I tried with and without as a test just in case.
I have tried different cables, but the current ones (which I disconnected last week and it's been fine since) were brand new, Cat7 shielded. The RBR750 confirms that when connected they manage to negotiate a full speed connection, looking at the statistics page (1000M/Full).
I have 5 satellites. Now that they are all on wireless 5GHz backhaul, it's all working pretty smoothly, with generally good handoff and roaming, reasonable speeds and quick device joining. Testing speeds from APs to the router with the openspeedtest add-on for Home Assistant (ethernet to router) I get generally get 300-600mps wirelessly with latency of a few ms.
It is probably worth noting that I do have a potential double NAT situation going on at the moment, as I have a Starlink v2 router providing my internet. This is plugged into the WAN port of the RBR750. Starlink does not appear to be fully compatible with Orbi (numerous examples in these forums of people with similar experience), and I have found that when enabling bypass mode (as recommended by Starlink when using a 3rd party router) on the Starlink my network (in terms of latency and speed) is actually much worse! So whilst I do have a potential double NAT situation, my network is currently performing the best it has for a long time with the Starlink in router mode and the Orbi using 5GHz backhaul. The problems with wired backhaul being less stable than wireless pre-dated the Starlink router (I had an ADSL modem before that) so I had assumed the two were not linked but I thought it was worth mentioning just in case.
Your system is behind on FW as well:
What is the size of the home in Sq Ft?
Where do you have the RBR and RBS placed with in the home and remote locations?
Can you draw us up a floor diagram and lay out with indication of where the RBR and RBS are placed with distances please?
Please describe the issues and problems seen when the RBS were all ethernet connected...
Some non NG branded switches can also impact how the RBR and RBS work when ethernet connected. NG GS-105/108v4 and GS308v3 series switches work for Orbi systems.
For the 7 series Orbi system, CAT6 UTP cabling would be recommended and sufficient for ethernet connections between the RBR and RBS.
Recommended connection paths for ethernet connected RBS:
Depending on size of home and placement of RBS, 5 RBS maybe too much. I have a 5k sq ft home and can get away with one RBS ethernet or wireless connected when I have my 750 series online.
