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Forum Discussion
Possible Fix for iPhone Dropping WiFi
I have an RBE973S system. think I have identified the reason my iPhone keeps dropping WiFi, and I wanted to share so others can see if it solves their issues. On your iPhone, go to Settings>Cellula...
I've had this general issue in one room in my home with all 6E devices (iPad Pro M4, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, etc.) - the closest satellite was separated by 2 walls in direct line of sight. The devices would have extremely fast connections up to 1.4 Gbps up/down but would randomly drop WiFi for no apparent reason. When this happens, the assigned IP visible in Wifi settings would also change from one in the assignable range to something like 169.254.xxx.yyy - check if you see this symptom.
My original 970 and a brand-new RMA set (overheating) displayed the exact same issues. The thing that fixed this was to move the satellite into this 6E-device saturated room with direct line of sight to the devices. Minor decrease in perf in going from wired backhaul to wireless for this one satellite (down to 1.2 Gigs, and pings take 10 ms now), but the drops went away.
The take-away for me is that 6E on the 970 (and likely in general due to higher frequencies) is highly sensitive to walls in the way between the device and the router or satellite. This is likely what you need to address - you may need more satellites if repositioning them strategically doesn't help. It's baffling though that these drops happen in what seem to be otherwise great reception areas (consistent 1.4 gigs is nothing to laugh at on a mobile device).
If you find your device doesn't like to hand over connections between satellites / router and you notice it, simply flip airplane mode on and off quickly. Apple devices seem to tolerate going into the 200 Mbps range before deciding to switch.
kjx, thanks for your input. I too have already noticed 6Ghz band is very “wall intolerant”!
I saw in your earlier posts that you (like me had used Ethernet backhaul initially.) I do have 2 satellites in 2000 Sq ft house, but I think NG needs to work on mesh mode transitions and stability changes. Why won’t any of my IoT’s in the same room as the 971 on-board with a satellite on the other end of the house??? This results in very weak IoT connections with most all of my IoTs that are located in the Office (where 971 is) or all three rooms that share a doorway and a wall with the home office?? I think there’s mesh node handoff issues going on here.
On the flips from WiFi to 5G cellular, see my reply below to donawalt, it will give you insight in what we’ve observed with our iPhone 15 Pro Max 5G cell and Orbi WIFi flips.
I’ll have to check IPs next time this stability/flip issue happens, but what donawalt and I both observed is that in our iPhone settings, even with 5G Cell and strength icons displayed on our phone screens after the flip, iPhone WiFi settings show we are still connected to the Orbi Main SSID!! Your “airplane” mode work around is like “slapping the Orbi in the face” to get it to straighten up!!
If the iPhone was truly in 5G cell mode, the WiFi Setting would show “not connected”. With it still showing the main SSID but not actually being connected to it , I think the mesh node handoff started, and never finished, thus both nodes dropped WiFi, which put iPhone into Cellular mode.
You use Airplane mode to get the Orbi to snap out of the funk, I change my iPhone settings, and connect to the 2.4 IoT SSID which it promptly does (that’s my router “slap in the face”). Then I can select the main SSID and it reconnects until the next “flip/drop”.
I’m not going to WiFi back haul, I spent too much time and money replacing my 25 year old Cat 5e, 6, 6a (I’m old, or is it 5a and 6E??) with Cat 7, 8, and OM4 MM fiber to connect my NG 10Gb home network switches.
I’ll move my MasterBedroom 970 satellite around, even though it’s wired backhaul, there might be some WiFi interference going on with the office RBE971.
If we all work at this with NG, they’ll get the firmware fine-tuned.
Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll post again after a try relocating the satellite. I’ll watch for IP info when I flip again, but donawalt and I thing it’s a mesh handoff/stability issue.
You’ve added another data point to our investigation with you change from wired backhaul to wireless backhaul that corrected most of your stability issue with a satellite. I wonder if the RBE 971 can process “hand off” wireless mesh node WiFi signals easier than wired mesh node handoffs because of software mismatches, wired vs wireless?
I saw in your earlier posts that you (like me had used Ethernet backhaul initially.) I do have 2 satellites in 2000 Sq ft house, but I think NG needs to work on mesh mode transitions and stability changes. Why won’t any of my IoT’s in the same room as the 971 on-board with a satellite on the other end of the house??? This results in very weak IoT connections with most all of my IoTs that are located in the Office (where 971 is) or all three rooms that share a doorway and a wall with the home office?? I think there’s mesh node handoff issues going on here.
On the flips from WiFi to 5G cellular, see my reply below to donawalt, it will give you insight in what we’ve observed with our iPhone 15 Pro Max 5G cell and Orbi WIFi flips.
I’ll have to check IPs next time this stability/flip issue happens, but what donawalt and I both observed is that in our iPhone settings, even with 5G Cell and strength icons displayed on our phone screens after the flip, iPhone WiFi settings show we are still connected to the Orbi Main SSID!! Your “airplane” mode work around is like “slapping the Orbi in the face” to get it to straighten up!!
If the iPhone was truly in 5G cell mode, the WiFi Setting would show “not connected”. With it still showing the main SSID but not actually being connected to it , I think the mesh node handoff started, and never finished, thus both nodes dropped WiFi, which put iPhone into Cellular mode.
You use Airplane mode to get the Orbi to snap out of the funk, I change my iPhone settings, and connect to the 2.4 IoT SSID which it promptly does (that’s my router “slap in the face”). Then I can select the main SSID and it reconnects until the next “flip/drop”.
I’m not going to WiFi back haul, I spent too much time and money replacing my 25 year old Cat 5e, 6, 6a (I’m old, or is it 5a and 6E??) with Cat 7, 8, and OM4 MM fiber to connect my NG 10Gb home network switches.
I’ll move my MasterBedroom 970 satellite around, even though it’s wired backhaul, there might be some WiFi interference going on with the office RBE971.
If we all work at this with NG, they’ll get the firmware fine-tuned.
Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll post again after a try relocating the satellite. I’ll watch for IP info when I flip again, but donawalt and I thing it’s a mesh handoff/stability issue.
You’ve added another data point to our investigation with you change from wired backhaul to wireless backhaul that corrected most of your stability issue with a satellite. I wonder if the RBE 971 can process “hand off” wireless mesh node WiFi signals easier than wired mesh node handoffs because of software mismatches, wired vs wireless?