Technical Analysis and Repeatable Evidence of DHCP/Routing Bug in Netgear Orbi 971 (Router Mode) Summary of Issue In environments using the Orbi 971 system in router mode, certain iOS/iPadOS devices (tested: iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPad Pro 2024) sporadically exhibit a failure state in which the device: Remains physically connected to the Orbi Wi‑Fi network (SSID displays as connected), Maintains a strong Wi‑Fi signal with excellent throughput (700–1200 Mbps), Yet silently fails over to the cellular interface (e.g., 5G), with no data traversing the Wi‑Fi path. Others on the Netgear forums over the past months have posted similar failures, using both Apple and Android devices. My analysis and solution may be correct for other non-Apple devices and other Orbi routers. This failure is not associated with actual signal loss and does not trigger any user notification other than the UI-level switch from Wi‑Fi bars to a 5G indicator. It self-recovers after 1–2 minutes. No other devices on my network (macOS, smart TVs, Windows laptops) display similar behavior. Summary of Solution For any device exhibiting drops/flips to cellular when on a good WiFi signal, change IPv4 address to a manual address, outside the router’s DHCP range. Also, change DNS address to a manual entry – it can either be your router (192.168.1.1 usually) or a 3rd party DNS server of your choice. Finally, you must disable IPv6 on the 970 router – Advanced tab, expand the Advanced section in the sidebar, choose IPv6 and disable. To learn more as to what the problem may be, read on. My Environment Netgear Orbi 971 (Wi-Fi 7), latest stable firmware (9.13.1.2) as of July 2025. Router mode (default DHCP and NAT). IPv6 disabled at the router level. iPhone and iPad running latest iOS/iPadOS 18.5. Orbi system is sole DHCP and DNS provider on LAN. WAN is Comcast/Xfinity (stable, no packet loss during tests, 2100/300 dl/ul plan). Orbi clients tested within 15 feet of router or satellite in clear line-of-sight — eliminating signal strength as a factor. Problem Behavior When in default DHCP configuration (automatic IP and DNS): iOS devices periodically experience a silent failover to cellular (5G). Devices retain visible SSID connection. Internet connectivity is routed over cellular until the issue self-resolves. The issue is sporadic, occurring 1–5 times per week for me (others have seen higher failure rates) under default conditions. Disruptions have been reported on non-iOS devices on the Netgear forums. I wrote and tested an Apple Shortcuts automation that will trigger when the Apple device it is running on does a Wi‑Fi disconnect. It does not fire, confirming that SSID association is intact. Testing Methodology and Key Finding I conducted controlled testing to isolate the failure cause. After numerous incidents in DHCP mode, I applied the following configuration to both iPhone and iPad: Manually assigned IPv4 address within the LAN’s valid range (outside the DHCP pool to avoid collision). Manually assigned IPv4 DNS server set to 192.168.1.1 (Orbi’s own LAN IP). IPv6 explicitly disabled at the router. This configuration has now been running for over 5 consecutive days as of the date of this posting, with no recurrence of the issue. Devices have remained on Wi‑Fi, and no visible or functional failovers to cellular occurred. Why Disabling IPv6 Was Critical On iOS and iPadOS, users cannot manually configure IPv6 addresses or DNS servers via the system interface. As a result, if IPv6 remains enabled on the network: iOS will continue to obtain IPv6 connectivity using SLAAC or DHCPv6 (often via Router Advertisements from the Orbi), Even if IPv4 is statically assigned, IPv6 may still be selected for outbound traffic when iOS considers it preferred (which is often), This reintroduces reliance on the Orbi’s IPv6 DHCP or routing stack, which in prior testing exhibited instability and routing failures, often leading to connectivity loss or fallback to cellular. Thus, disabling IPv6 at the router level is a necessary precondition to ensure the device fully relies on the statically configured IPv4 path — eliminating Orbi-managed DHCP lease/route state from the equation entirely. Theory: Root Cause Analysis I propose the following sequence of events under default DHCP operation: iOS frequently initiates DHCP lease renewal or INFORM messages more aggressively than other OSes (due to roaming, sleep/wake cycles, and Apple’s proactive network health checks). The Orbi 971’s DHCP server intermittently fails to respond promptly (or at all) to these renewal or rebind requests. During this silent DHCP stall, the iOS device: Still has a valid SSID association and a cached IP, But considers the Wi‑Fi interface non-functional due to: Missing or expired lease, Failure to renew default gateway, Unsuccessful DNS resolution, Or failure to receive HTTP 204 from captive.apple.com. iOS silently switches to cellular, even with Wi‑Fi Assist disabled (which I did a long time ago), because it considers the Wi‑Fi path “connected but unusable.” Eventually, the Orbi responds again, routing is restored, and iOS resumes Wi‑Fi traffic — all without disconnecting or notifying the user. Supporting Factors No failure symptoms observed under static IPv4 + DNS configuration with IPv6 disabled. Monitoring showed no WAN outage or SSID drop during incident periods. When using dynamic DHCP/DNS, the issue persists in high signal-strength environments, ruling out RF-related causes. IPv6 had previously been associated with similar instabilities and was disabled early in the test cycle. Recommendations to Netgear Engineering I recommend the following areas be prioritized for investigation: DHCP Server Responsiveness Analyze handling of frequent DHCP RENEW/INFORM messages from Apple devices. Investigate whether ACK or lease confirmations are being dropped or delayed. Internal Lease Table Integrity Confirm whether memory or timing issues affect DHCP state or ARP caching. Routing Table Consistency Validate propagation of default routes across mesh nodes, especially post-roaming or post-sleep. IPv6 Handling (if re-enabled) Evaluate Router Advertisement stability and DHCPv6 consistency. Provide user-accessible controls for IPv6 lease time and DNS relay. Debug Logging Tools Enable deeper client-specific DHCP logging in future firmware versions to support field diagnosis. Conclusion The silent failover of iOS devices to cellular, despite strong Wi‑Fi signal, appears to be rooted in intermittent failures of DHCP IPv4/IPv6 or routing state management by the Orbi 971. Disabling IPv6 and bypassing DHCP/DNS with manual configuration eliminated the issue so far — confirming the failure lies not in radio or ISP connection, but in the Orbi’s handling of dynamic IP and DNS lease logic under typical iOS behavior. I welcome the opportunity to collaborate on further testing or provide supplemental logs to support engineering review.

MikeM4937 thanks for the reply. I don't have an IoT or Guest network set up, so no risk of an issue there. One thing you said, "Apple assumption is 6GHz and 5GHz are operating on different SSIDs", is not correct - Apple’s current “Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points” support article (updated May 1 , 2025) says to “Make sure that all routers on your network use the same name for every band they support. If you give your 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz bands different names, devices might not connect reliably to your network, to all routers on your network, or to all available bands of your routers. If your router is providing a Wi-Fi 6E network that isn't using the same name for all bands, Apple devices that support Wi-Fi 6E will identify the network as having limited compatibility." Check the article out here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102766 This makes sense too, as the router can't perform band steering or Multi-Link Operation (MLO) if the SSIDs are all different (which I don't believe Orbis support anyway, likely for these reasons). You did say at the end, that your priority devices are set up with a static DCHP leases on the RBE971 - that's exactly what I said to do in my OP. Are you able to set static IP/DNS for IPv6 on Android devices? I can't on Apple - which is why IPv6 needs to be disabled. The issue I see is that DHCP messages need to be stopped, so that the router either dropping or delayed in response doesn't cause a flip to cellular for the device's internet access. It's possible your Android devices have different timings, or that they are not as aggressive as Apple devices in DHCP traffic, health checks, etc. I have seen late-model Apple devices with 30-50 DHCP messages an hour in the log! Have you looked at your router log to see how much DHCP traffic you have from your priority devices? And you are right, a lot of these issues only affect WiFi 6 and 6E devices - older ones have no issues (this includes issues with IPv6 only with 6/6E devices imho). I would turn off 6/6E support as well, as 5GHz is plenty fast, but Apple devices have the annoying habit of flipping the setting back on without you knowing it!

lostinphotoland Try doing these steps on your iPhone 15 Pro Max; post here if you are unsure how to do any of them. My bet is this will likely eliminate the flips to cellular on your iPhone 15 Pro Max, since it supports the 6GHz band and not 5GHz+6GHz MLO that the iPhone 16's do: Disable IPv6 on the router (I think you have done this, be sure it's done on the router as you cannot set this on the phone) Go to your router admin web page, Advanced tab, LAN Setup, and change your DHCP range to something like 192.168.1.2 starting, 192.168.1.150 ending. This is to give us room to create some manual address(es) outside the DHCP range, to avoid collisions. The assumes your router IP address is 192.168.1.1. Go into settings for your iPhone 15 WIFi connection, and set a MANUAL IP address to something like 192.168.1.152, subnet 255.255.255.0, router 192.168.1.1. On the same page on your iPhone WiFi connection, set a MANUAL DNS address - add two routers there. Choose Google (8.8.8.8, 4.4.4.4), Cloudfare (1.1.1.3, 1.0.0.3), or another external DNS server of your choice. DO NOT point it to the router at 192.168.1.1. By steps 3 and 4 we are eliminating DNS/DHCP conversation between the phone and router. Do these steps on any other device seeing connection drops/flips to cellular. But start with your phone as a test case. Wait to see the WiFi connection icon at the top right of your phone, Then test the connection via Speediest or browser to ensure all is set up and working ok! See how this works and report back!

UPDATE: Starting with iOS 18.6.1 (I'm now on 18.6.2) I've found that I no longer "drop" my connection, at least according to the Wi-Fi icon, but I do have data transfer issues until my Wi-Fi changes from 3 of 3, then 2 of 3 "bars" to a full 3. It seems to be about the same amount of time I would see the Wi-Fi icon leave and I'd transition to 5G, only to return to Wi-Fi. I had setup an active ping of my device while within the house and this seems to happen at random times throughout my home. Whatever the issue is, the phone and Wi-Fi are NOT happy with each other still. While ping isn't to solely be relied on, especially on Wi-Fi issues, I can confirm that each time I'd see a drop in signal strength, I'd lose about 5-7 pings. I could be watching a YouTube video, browsing the web, playing an online game, or even the device is idle... the disruptions are still continuing. I have also tested with disconnecting 1 of the 2 Wi-Fi nodes, which to my surprise didn't seem to adversely affect interior Wi-Fi service, but the issue did still continue to occur. Ping statistics for 10.168.168.29: Packets: Sent = 1336, Received = 1189, Lost = 147 (11% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 2279ms, Average = 68ms

lostinphotoland you didn't answer my last post, did you disable IPv6 on the router? If it's not, what you are doing with the IPv4 IP and DNS settings won't matter too much - Apple prioritizes IPv6. It will get better with IPv6 disabled. That said, the 3 step workaround is not full proof - for me it greatly reduces the disconnects, but not entirely - that's the best we have until Netgear fixes this. I have been told this is their #1 priority right now, so hopefully something comes sooner vs. later. I just had a disconnect today, with all the steps of my workaround in place. But I only get maybe 2-3 a week - much better than about the 5-10 a day I used to get - PER DEVICE. Note, no surprise iPhone 14 shows the problem - it is a WiFi 6 device.

Very Nice. Hoping this gives more direction for NG to check into this. Good work around for users in meantime.

donawalt

Mentor - Experienced User

Jul 15, 2025

Device flipping to celllular/disconnecting when on WiFi? Read this for possible solution!

Technical Analysis and Repeatable Evidence of DHCP/Routing Bug in Netgear Orbi 971 (Router Mode)

Summary of Issue

In environments using the Orbi 971 system in router mode, certain iOS/iPadOS devices (tested: iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPad Pro 2024) sporadically exhibit a failure state in which the device:

Remains physically connected to the Orbi Wi‑Fi network (SSID displays as connected),
Maintains a strong Wi‑Fi signal with excellent throughput (700–1200 Mbps),
Yet silently fails over to the cellular interface (e.g., 5G), with no data traversing the Wi‑Fi path.

Others on the Netgear forums over the past months have posted similar failures, using both Apple and Android devices. My analysis and solution may be correct for other non-Apple devices and other Orbi routers.

This failure is not associated with actual signal loss and does not trigger any user notification other than the UI-level switch from Wi‑Fi bars to a 5G indicator. It self-recovers after 1–2 minutes.

No other devices on my network (macOS, smart TVs, Windows laptops) display similar behavior.

Summary of Solution

For any device exhibiting drops/flips to cellular when on a good WiFi signal, change IPv4 address to a manual address, outside the router’s DHCP range.
Also, change DNS address to a manual entry – it can either be your router (192.168.1.1 usually) or a 3^rd party DNS server of your choice.
Finally, you must disable IPv6 on the 970 router – Advanced tab, expand the Advanced section in the sidebar, choose IPv6 and disable.

To learn more as to what the problem may be, read on.

My Environment

Netgear Orbi 971 (Wi-Fi 7), latest stable firmware (9.13.1.2) as of July 2025.
Router mode (default DHCP and NAT).
IPv6 disabled at the router level.
iPhone and iPad running latest iOS/iPadOS 18.5.
Orbi system is sole DHCP and DNS provider on LAN.
WAN is Comcast/Xfinity (stable, no packet loss during tests, 2100/300 dl/ul plan).
Orbi clients tested within 15 feet of router or satellite in clear line-of-sight — eliminating signal strength as a factor.

Problem Behavior

When in default DHCP configuration (automatic IP and DNS):

iOS devices periodically experience a silent failover to cellular (5G).
Devices retain visible SSID connection.
Internet connectivity is routed over cellular until the issue self-resolves.
The issue is sporadic, occurring 1–5 times per week for me (others have seen higher failure rates) under default conditions.
Disruptions have been reported on non-iOS devices on the Netgear forums.
I wrote and tested an Apple Shortcuts automation that will trigger when the Apple device it is running on does a Wi‑Fi disconnect. It does not fire, confirming that SSID association is intact.

Testing Methodology and Key Finding

I conducted controlled testing to isolate the failure cause. After numerous incidents in DHCP mode, I applied the following configuration to both iPhone and iPad:

Manually assigned IPv4 address within the LAN’s valid range (outside the DHCP pool to avoid collision).
Manually assigned IPv4 DNS server set to 192.168.1.1 (Orbi’s own LAN IP).
IPv6 explicitly disabled at the router.

This configuration has now been running for over 5 consecutive days as of the date of this posting, with no recurrence of the issue. Devices have remained on Wi‑Fi, and no visible or functional failovers to cellular occurred.

Why Disabling IPv6 Was Critical

On iOS and iPadOS, users cannot manually configure IPv6 addresses or DNS servers via the system interface. As a result, if IPv6 remains enabled on the network:

iOS will continue to obtain IPv6 connectivity using SLAAC or DHCPv6 (often via Router Advertisements from the Orbi),
Even if IPv4 is statically assigned, IPv6 may still be selected for outbound traffic when iOS considers it preferred (which is often),
This reintroduces reliance on the Orbi’s IPv6 DHCP or routing stack, which in prior testing exhibited instability and routing failures, often leading to connectivity loss or fallback to cellular.

Thus, disabling IPv6 at the router level is a necessary precondition to ensure the device fully relies on the statically configured IPv4 path — eliminating Orbi-managed DHCP lease/route state from the equation entirely.

Theory: Root Cause Analysis

I propose the following sequence of events under default DHCP operation:

iOS frequently initiates DHCP lease renewal or INFORM messages more aggressively than other OSes (due to roaming, sleep/wake cycles, and Apple’s proactive network health checks).
The Orbi 971’s DHCP server intermittently fails to respond promptly (or at all) to these renewal or rebind requests.
During this silent DHCP stall, the iOS device:

Still has a valid SSID association and a cached IP,
But considers the Wi‑Fi interface non-functional due to:

Missing or expired lease,
Failure to renew default gateway,
Unsuccessful DNS resolution,
Or failure to receive HTTP 204 from captive.apple.com.

iOS silently switches to cellular, even with Wi‑Fi Assist disabled (which I did a long time ago), because it considers the Wi‑Fi path “connected but unusable.”
Eventually, the Orbi responds again, routing is restored, and iOS resumes Wi‑Fi traffic — all without disconnecting or notifying the user.

Supporting Factors

No failure symptoms observed under static IPv4 + DNS configuration with IPv6 disabled.
Monitoring showed no WAN outage or SSID drop during incident periods.
When using dynamic DHCP/DNS, the issue persists in high signal-strength environments, ruling out RF-related causes.
IPv6 had previously been associated with similar instabilities and was disabled early in the test cycle.

Recommendations to Netgear Engineering

I recommend the following areas be prioritized for investigation:

DHCP Server Responsiveness

Analyze handling of frequent DHCP RENEW/INFORM messages from Apple devices.
Investigate whether ACK or lease confirmations are being dropped or delayed.

Internal Lease Table Integrity

Confirm whether memory or timing issues affect DHCP state or ARP caching.

Routing Table Consistency

Validate propagation of default routes across mesh nodes, especially post-roaming or post-sleep.

IPv6 Handling (if re-enabled)

Evaluate Router Advertisement stability and DHCPv6 consistency.
Provide user-accessible controls for IPv6 lease time and DNS relay.

Debug Logging Tools

Enable deeper client-specific DHCP logging in future firmware versions to support field diagnosis.

Conclusion

The silent failover of iOS devices to cellular, despite strong Wi‑Fi signal, appears to be rooted in intermittent failures of DHCP IPv4/IPv6 or routing state management by the Orbi 971. Disabling IPv6 and bypassing DHCP/DNS with manual configuration eliminated the issue so far — confirming the failure lies not in radio or ISP connection, but in the Orbi’s handling of dynamic IP and DNS lease logic under typical iOS behavior.

I welcome the opportunity to collaborate on further testing or provide supplemental logs to support engineering review.

orbi 970 series

Forum Discussion

Device flipping to celllular/disconnecting when on WiFi? Read this for possible solution!

21 Replies