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Forum Discussion
Orbi 770 – WiFi Drops Every Hour
At the beginning of the year, I posted in this forum about hourly interruptions with my ORBI770 mesh system. At the time, other users were experiencing similar problems, and I worked with Netgear Support to identify and solve the issue. Unfortunately, the past 8–9 months have been unsuccessful...
Recently, I have read less from others with the same problem. Perhaps the problem has been solved for others, or they have switched to a different vendor.
Unfortunately, the problem has not yet been solved for me, and I am still regularly writing to Netgear Support and uploading logs. Unfortunately, without a qualified answer or solution.
Over the past few days, I have tried a number of troubleshooting measures, such as:
- Adjusting NTP to a different NTP server
- Deactivating DHCP on ORBI and providing it on a Linux server
- Disabling private MAC addresses on all Apple devices
- and so on ...
Unfortunately, none of this has been successful and I still experience hourly interruptions. I have now provided ChatGPT with the information and uploaded the log files, and received the response in the pdf attached to this post. I am aware that ChatGPT is often wrong and often just writes nonsense (e.g. firmware version, which are not available). But maybe it points in the right direction, since Netgear Support doesn't feel responsible for simply analysing log files.
I also installed uptime-kuma on my computer and pinged various devices over the last few hours. I can only set the pings to every 20 seconds, so it doesn't catch all the hourly interruptions. However, you can see the pattern.
In the first three screenshots, I marked the interruptions at xx:03 / xx:04 in red.
In the last three screenshots, I ping the router and satellites (all wired). I find it interesting that the satellites respond faster than the router. But perhaps that is normal behaviour.
Am I alone, or do others still have the same problem?
Thanks.
Patrick
60 Replies
What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6A STP is recommended.How many RBS are deployed?
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router 📡 and satellite(s)🛰️? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR 📡 and RBS 🛰️ to begin with depending upon building materials when wired or wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite🛰Does this happen with the RBS turned OFF?
Does this happen with both wireless and wired devices?
What channel configurations are currently set on the router?Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Smart Parental Controls or Circle, IPv6, Traffic Meter.Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update?
My 770 series is back online and is stable for me. Been solid on v.3. FW and prior. Had it online for around 20+ days back in July.
What Firmware version is currently loaded?
- V10.5.20.3What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
- Sunrise ISP Switzerland Connect Box 3 Modem (DOCSIS 3.1)Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6A STP is recommended.
- Yes, tested also other cable, same issue.How many RBS are deployed?
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router 📡 and satellite(s)🛰️? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR 📡 and RBS 🛰️ to begin with depending upon building materials when wired or wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite🛰
- 220 square meter, around 2400 square ft
- 4 floors
- 1 router and 2 satellite with more than 30 feet distance between RBR / RBS
Does this happen with the RBS turned OFF?
- Not sureDoes this happen with both wireless and wired devices?
- Only wirelessWhat channel configurations are currently set on the router?
- Different configs (48, Auto but also 40, 5)Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
- no
Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Smart Parental Controls or Circle, IPv6, Traffic Meter.
- All disabled except IPv6
- Can I disable this over Advanced - IPv6 - Internet Connection Type - Disabled?Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update?
- Yes, nothing changed.For that size of home, the RBR and just one RBS would be needed. Can you try with turning OFF one of the RBS for now?
Please see if the all RBS turned OFF if this still happens with the RBR alone.
Try channels 1 and 40 or 11 and 48.
Yes to disable IPv6.
How long have you had this system for?
Have you checked the power levels, signal to noise ratios, error counts, and log file provided by your modem, to ensure that this isn’t coming from the outside network? What are they, and how do they compare to? What is recommended by your ISP? I am familiar with Comcast modem information, but it varies by ISP.
Yes, I have checked everything and there are no faults on the modem. The problem also occurs with local traffic only.
The PDF describing log entries is quite interesting. It is not entirely clear (to me) what this information represents. i.e. a WiFi adapter (ath12k?) in a (MacBook?) logs network events. I would like to look for similar information on my systems, but am not confident how.
There appears to have been a bit change in the overall situation between February and October. Is it still the case that
- The RBE771 is in 'router' mode?
- Satellites are 'wired' to the LAN ports on the RBE771?
- Ethernet connected devices are not affected, either wired to the router or to a satellite?
- WiFi connected devices are affected every hour?
- Both 2.4G and 5G WiFi are affected the same way?
- WiFi connections to both the router and satellites are affected the same way?
- The symptom is an interruption in connection for 30-60 seconds? (videos do not play, pings fail, etc.)
An interesting piece of evidence would be whether the WiFi stops broadcasting management information during these interruptions. For example, if a WiFi adapter was placed in Monitor Mode, it would expect to capture 5-10 "Beacon Frames" every second. A Wireshark capture from that adapter could be configured to capture only Beacon Frames, and it would be interesting to see if there are no frames captured for a period every hour.
To be honest, yes, it sounds interesting. But it could also be complete bulls**, like ChatGPT sometimes gathers information... but maybe it's still the right way to go. :-)
I created a debug log file and then opened it. There, I searched for log files that list events. I then worked with the emt_dbg_log and ntgr_debug_cmd_log files.- The RBE771 is in 'router' mode?
- Yes
- Satellites are 'wired' to the LAN ports on the RBE771?
- The Satellites are wired to an unmanaged switch and also the RBR is wired to this switch.
- Ethernet connected devices are not affected, either wired to the router or to a satellite?
- Yes
- WiFi connected devices are affected every hour?
- Yes
- Both 2.4G and 5G WiFi are affected the same way?
- Yes
- WiFi connections to both the router and satellites are affected the same way?
- No, just the devices connected to the router
- The symptom is an interruption in connection for 30-60 seconds? (videos do not play, pings fail, etc.)
- On a Playstation Portal an interruption for about 20 - 30 seconds. On other devices high ping latency or ping interruption.
The Satellites are wired to an unmanaged switch and also the RBR is wired to this switch.It's reasonable to say that the problem only occurs on the satellites and is independent of their placement.
It might be worth trying to disconnect the satellites from ethernet, and switch to wireless backhaul - just to see if the wired backhaul is part of the puzzle.
Thanks for responding. Would it be convenient to post those actual debug log messages from 08:03:10 to 8:03:20?
WiFi connections to both the router and satellites are affected the same way?
No, just the devices connected to the routerPlease confirm that the RBE771 WAN port is connected directly to the ISP device and one of the RBE771 LAN ports is connected to the unmanaged switch.
The ISP modem is connected directly to the WAN port and the router is connected to the unmanaged switch with the LAN port.
Yes, I can publish these log messages, but there are many lines. I have to upload them as a PDF here, as I cannot select txt files.
I also copied a few seconds before and after and anonymised the MAC addresses. I hope that no other sensitive information is included.
Thanks for all the work. fascinating. (it might have been significant that the mysterious BSSID was reported as "00:00:00:00:00:00" which is not a valid MAC address)
I am confused by the comment:
One might suspect that the solution is to install v10.5.28.2 which does not appear to be publicly available for the 770 series. Perhaps you "dropped off the radar" with Netgear and they could send you a beta version?
Would be interesting to understand where ChatGPT found that tidbit about firmware v10.5.28.2:
Thanks for taking the time to do this and report the results. I had done a Google search on "v10.5.28.2" and got nothing at all.
My guess is the suggestion to contact Netgear support is naive.
Hi piddyy ,
Could you please try disabling IPv6 and changing the Automatic Channel Selection to a fixed channel to see if that fixes the issue? We’d like to check if these settings are related to the problem.
Please refer to the following screenshots.
Austin
Hi Austin,
Thank you for your message. I had already disabled IPv6 and changed the channel selection. Unfortunately, this did not help.
Hi piddy,
Thank you for the update and for testing those changes.
We appreciate your time and the detailed feedback.
Our team will continue to investigate this behavior further to identify the root cause.
We’ll provide you with an update as soon as more information becomes available.Austin
I’m having same issue. I see a possible WiFi drop solution related to ORBI 870 dealing with IPhone 16 Pro and IPad Pro 2024 on NETGEAR Community site. It starts with disabling IPv6 on router. Then go to router admin web page, advance tab, LAN setup…….. instructions a bit long here but your search should find it. I don’t have the time to work on my MacBook dropping WiFi until 48 hrs from now. Didn’t have problem until new router. I know new NETGEAR security doesn’t like older intel cores. They now say need Apple M1 chip. May be my problem on drops so will also uninstall new NETGEAR Armor VPN security. Feel your pain Patrick.
