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Forum Discussion
I'm at wits end with 870
Before Christmas I upgraded my internet to 2GIG, and purchased an Orbi 870 with two satellites to handle it. It seemed OK at the time. Then the second satellite started connecting only to the first satellite, and nothing else would connect to this second satellite. I have reset the router and the satellites, moved the satellites, cursed, reset everything, and been in touch with support. Support has proved less than useless ("is your router or satellite in the microwave oven?"). Now the router is "speed testing" 2GIG in, but my devices are reading only 100MB to a maximum of 600MB when connected to either satellite. I would have thought that the devices would connect to the closest satellite, but this is often not the case. Anyone have any ideas? Anything I can try?
32 Replies
With one satellite disconnected, it seems like all the wireless connections are now through the other satellite. Now the speedtest on my Lenovo shows a download speed of 100-200MB and an upload speed of 950MB.... The web app says it is connected at 6GHz. It is the only device connected at 6GHz. Others at 5GHz and 2.4
Yeah. The "good" satellite and the router are giving me 500MB in "poor locations" at the farthest ends of the house and 1Gig in "good" locations closer to the router or satellite. "Bad satellite" is unplugged and not connected to network.
Interesting thing is that I told support three weeks ago that I thought the satellite was bad and they blew me off.
Called Netgear. Sat on hold for 20min. Gave them my case number from two weeks ago (which they said they had prioritized last week). I was told engineering had the case. I told them what I had discovered about the satellites. They repeated that engineering had the case, but they would tell engineering what I had discovered. They will get back to me. When? Well, engineering has the case and it has been prioritized so sometime soon we promise you. They have to review logs etc........
About all you can do is call a couple of times every week and ask for an RMA on the "bad satellite". Netgear engineers may never discover what is making this satellite malfunction. Netgear Orbi units cool by convection. There is no internal fan pulling air through the unit. However, there have been reports of RBE971 routers overheating and several Forum users report that placing fans on top of them kept them operating. There was a suspicion that perhaps some units went through the factory and thermal paste was not applied correctly. Even when the design is good, a manufacturing defect can cause unexpected things to happen.
See, for example, this discussion from Feb of last year:
Adding Orbi 970 fan | NETGEAR Communities
If you are into experiments, there is no harm in placing a 120mm fan on top of the "bad satellite" to see if it functions differently. (under $20 on Amazon)
p.s. There is always an unstated question: is this a problem with one specific piece of equipment, or does every 870 satellite exhibit this problem?
Suppose, for example, that providing air flow through this specific satellite causes it to perform the same as the satellite that is working correctly. That would support a hypotheses that this specific piece of hardware is defective. Engineers can examine 870 satellites in their lab all they want, but are not likely to discover a "problem".
On the other hand, if cooling this satellite makes no difference, that might support the hypothesis that (a) there is a generic problem with all 870 satellites or (b) there is some other problem with this specific satellite.
All I get is an email every 4-5 days telling me that support is looking into it. It's a month today. I have requested a refund from my credit card company due to this defective product. I am purchasing an Eero mesh system today.
