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Forum Discussion
Disconnects for iOS Devices Multiple Times Per Day with Orbi 970
I have EXACTLY this problem. Was fine until sometime around mid-April and now it's a nightmare. Only new Apple devices (iPhone 16/16 Pro and new iPad Air). I can sit with my older iPad next to my iPhone 16 Pro and the iPad is solid as rock while the phone goes in and out. Same with my PC - it's getting almost 1Gb on speedtest while the phone right next to goes in and out - sometimes I have to turn off WIFI, but often it comes and goes with me doing nothing.
I also have a ton of IoT devices (most not on the IoT network) that will complain as soon as they lose connection, yet none of them do. Of course, they are in fixed locations and don't roam around the house like my phone. But even when the phone is sitting on my desk not moving around, I have the dropouts.
I plan to try this with the SAT turned off to see if the mesh is part or the problem. Also trying the IoT network at 2.4 to see if that is stable and then will try it at 2.5/5 if I get that far. Maybe I'll try the WPA3 thing, but yes, I would likely have to move many devices to the IoT net, and I really don't want to do that.
And I agree that I am also way past a basic response. I think Apple broke something early Spring '25 - at least that is when we started seeing all these issues. We've had the phones since winter, and the iPad is new. My older iPads work fine. Although we were out of the house most of the winter, from Jan to Apr I didn't see any issues like this. Arggg!!!!
Pointless things I tried:
- reset iPhone network - who even suggests this nonsense, but I tried it - don't bother
- turn off Private WiFi address - again, don't bother
- turn off Limit IP tracking - or just wave your arms in the air - same effect
- Wifi 6e mode - try all the settings - and then wave your arms more
- move your satellites to various locations - maybe put one outside somewhere...nope
- reboot everything - in fact turn the power off to your entire house for 15 minute and restart everything! OK, don't do that either.
- get a different phone or ipad or hope Apple fixes this - surely other people are having this issue unless it is unique to Apple/Orbi?
15 Replies
Let us know what happens with setting WPA3 only if you can.
The WPA3 thing may be it. And this gives support to it being an Apple device problem more than an Orbi problem as people using the XB8 Xfinity modem Wifi are seeing the same thing:
From what the poster said in there initial findings, they had stable Apple device connections after setting WPA3 only on the main WLAN.
Seems like mixed mode, Apple and possibly Android, all newer gen stuff may have issues with mixed mode, if setting WPA3 only seems to make things work better.
And that may be why I have a solid connection from the phone to the IoT connection at 2.4/WPA2-PSK all afternoon. So, iPhone 16, etc. doesn't like the "WPA2-PSK + WPA3-Personal" and cannot always negotiate between them?
I'll have to see which causes more issues for me:
- switching on 5Ghz on IoT or...
- WPA3 only on the main SSID.
I suspect some piece of gear is not going to like either of those options, but if either works, it is worth reconfiguring those devices rather than having spotty connections on the phone. I'll give those a go and report back.
Possible that newer Apple devices/iOS maybe mis handling how they connect IF, Mixed mode is set on the Orbi system. Or possible how the mixed mode and FW and wifi drivers on the Orbi system maybe handling internactions and connections with newer Apple devices/iOS. I presume this maybe why NG is taking longer than expected. Maybe working with Apple, Android and the chipset mfr to find out where fault is and everyone needs to work together to come up with a fix. My 2 cents.
I was able to keep my phone on the IoT (WPA2) network all day yesterday. Today, I've switched the main SSID to WPA3 only and so far it's still a nightmare of poor connectivity. So much so that I put a fan on top of the 971. I have zero faith in that, but easy to do. If anything, it seems worse.
I need to take a step back and establish a reliable baseline. I still have my older Orbi 96X I have not sold yet, so I think I have to unbox it and set it back up to see if it has the same issues.
I feel like my situation is maybe more complicated...
I'm sticking with WPA3 for the moment although I'm not sold on that fix - it could be coincidence. The behavior I was seeing, if I were just guessing and knew nothing else, would be that it seemed like some sort of interference; working good one second and then dropping out even when I was not moving around the house. So I got this "WIFI Commander" app for my PC that shows all networks...
My Orbi SSIDs are the NGOxxxx ones along with Sonos's hidden network, I think, and the backhaul - all on ch11 and ch36 now.
The "hidden" networks I circled in Yellow and very LOUD and should not be there (the weaker other SSIDs are neighbors). It turns out the Xfinity XB7 modem WIFI, even when disabled and especially in Bridge Mode will not be disabled. And they often come up automatically on the same channels I am using for Orbi. When I saw this and manually set the Orbi channels away from them, things improved quite a bit. Fingers crossed I'm back to normal - at least until the XB7 looses power and reboots back onto my Orbi channels. Someone on Reddit posted a way to open the XB7 up and unplug the antennas to stop it, so I may have to do that, but at least I can see what is going on and work around it.
I won't say this is the definitive solution, but there's no way Orbi would work well with another very LOUD network blasting on the same channels. Still not sure why newer iPhones and iPads were uniquely affected, so there may be more to it or a combination of issues including WPA3.
I'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes and if all is stable for a few days, I'll try reverting back to WPA2/WPA3 to see how that affects things. Fingers crossed.
Let us know if you see new FW on your system:
New - RBE970 Series v9.13.1.2 Firmware Via Auto Update | NETGEAR Communities
And if so, does it change anything?
And finally I see the new firmware v9.13.1.2 on both the 970 and 971. Not sure when it got updated - sometime within the past few days.
Any progress on this?
No. There's something incompatible with the newer Apple devices, that's all I can see. For example, today my iPhone shows connected to the WIFI, but with no internet and "limited compatibility" and some odd message about separate network names:
But my iPad is fine, sitting right next to the phone:
Rebooting the Orbi fixed that issue with the "network names and limited compatibility" - so some of this behavior is certainly an Orbi issue. I have no idea what got it into that state.
What I have found to be reliable over the past several days is keeping my iPhone on the IoT connection, so no WIFI7 I assume. And my older iPad is only using 5G. My wife's newer iPad has the same problem as our phones with the WIFI7 network.
In fact, the only devices on the network having problems are the newer Apple devices that support WIF7. Ironically, the only reason for having the 970. :(
I did find this about Apple WIFI7:
Channel bandwidth: 160 MHz (note: Apple has capped it at 160 MHz, even though Wi-Fi 7 supports up to 320 MHz)
And there's a setting on the Orbi Advanced Config:
It's the only setting I see for setting the bandwidth, so I disabled it, and I'm not sure if that will help or is only for Backhaul. I have wired the backhaul lately, so that won't matter. I did see this post, but not sure if or how it applies to my setup or if we have DFS RADAR events:
Thats for MLO Backhaul, thus 5+6Ghz between the RBR and RBS.
It was recommended to me to not use that check box. Let the system handle the wireless BH configuration.
HI bullm00n I have reported this problem for a long time - I do also believe it's an issue for newer Apple devices at least (I don't have any Android). I found turning the setting "WiFi 6E mode" to OFF fixed it for me - except that at different times, the iPhone or iPad would turn it back on! Once I started to turn it OFF, the next failure I would check and the setting was on Automatic again. So that wasn't a reliable solution. It would be interesting to see if you find it works as long as it's set on your devices.
PS - I have been on the new FW 9.13.1.2 for about a week - I have had 2 disconnects. So it is better now, but not fixed.
