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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 am, I don't think that's the issue though. I think it's later model Apple devices at least, the ones that have tri-band - 2.4GHz, 5GHz, WiFi 6 GHz - the Wifi 6E setting/standard. I think it's caused by moving between these bands, and somehow it makes the decision incorrectly to pop over to cellular 5G.
If you turn off the setting in your Information ('i') for your connected WiFi SSID (settings/Wifi/SSID), set 'WiFi 6E Mode' to OFF not Automatic, the flip to cellular will go away. You lose some speed, maybe from maximum 1200-1400 Mbps d/l speeds near a router or satellite, to ~900. But it stays on WiFi.
Just to be clear:
1. It is not a backhaul issue. I had it with a wired satellite.
2. It is not an iPhone-specific or cellular issue. It affects non-cellular iPads too (which is where I noticed it first). iPhones have cellular to fall back to. iPads do not.
3. It is not a one-off Apple hardware issue. Apple replaced my M4 iPad Pro to try to resolve this. It didn't.
4. I had the issue with Wi-Fi 6E mode set to both Off and Automatic - on both iPhones and iPads. But it also was not a problem with my previous non-6E iPad Pro - I don't have an explanation for that. Having the M4 iPad arrive seemed to make this problem visible on all my 6E devices sitting in that same area. Which device exhibited it at any given point was random - one would be working fine showing max speeds sitting side by side with another that was not working.
5. It is unlikely to be a hardware issue - because it happened with both my original router+satellite set and with my RMA-ed router+satellite set.
6. It's unlikely to be a signal strength issue - it's baffling that I had 1.4 Gbps up and down in the exact spots where this problem would happen daily.
It is most likely a router to satellite and back hand-over issue (firmware maybe). Why? Because:
- Netgear's aware of the issue and have been trying to solve it with firmware updates. I had early firmware access that did not solve this issue. Which led to an RMA (for also a second reason: overheating, which was resolved by the RMA).
- With my satellite repositioned closer to the devices (direct line of sight) and in between the devices and the router (not sure if this is relevant - it likely is though because mesh-roaming is probably prevented), I don't have this issue anymore. On all the devices that exhibited the problem.
- kjx , I only use wired backhaul. I think you are having 6Ghz band (and maybe 5Ghz also) WiFi interference between one or more of the mesh nodes. Remember, these RBE971/970 units each have 12 internal antenna’s (if my memory is correct). I don’t think your issue (or mine) is/was related to weak mesh signal. I think it’s just the opposite.
Here’s my theory. I read how this occurs sometimes in cellular networks because of geological features and weather conditions relative to the location of multiple cell sites.
You know as your cell device moves around, the signal strength at one (or more) tower(s) will strengthen, while at one (or more) tower(s) it will weaken. That’s what causes the cell connection to transfer the device cell connection from one tower to another tower with a stronger signal.
Now let’s assume you are driving away from one cell site (signal getting weaker) and you are headed close to another tower in the valley located very close to the edge of the road you are traveling, but there’s also a third tower on top of a ridge a good distance away from your closest tower, but various weather conditions, frequency interference etc can create a situation where two towers, both sensing relatively strong signals to the mobile device results in neither accepting the weaker towers signal transfer, each tower thinks the other tower will take the handoff, and neither one does. I think something similar is happening with our WiFi mesh handoffs.
I relocated one of my mesh nodes (a wired satellite). I actually moved it from the living room into a bedroom. This added one wall of “signal reduction” (prior to this, it was almost line-of-site to both of the other two nodes) plus it put more distance between the “problem” satellite and each of the other two mesh units (the router, and another satellite).
My node re-location changed the signal strengths between the 3-nodes and the 6E device, and it also reduced the WiFi band interference node-to-node. With those changes, my drop/flips from WIFI back to 5G cell (the “default” configuration of my iPhone) stopped.
Also, my 6Ghz symmetrical speeds increased from 1200-ish Mb up to 1400-ish Mb. The mesh is now handing the WiFi signal from node-to-node smoother (I’m not going to say “perfectly”, I still think NG needs to revise firmware for signal strength transfer thresholds between nodes for 6Ghz band).
Is it possible to try relocating one or two of your units so they each have a well defined mesh “service” area, and a lower percentage of mesh area overlap that can create the dropped WiFi transfers that flips back to cellular service? Try turning them ever so slightly so the front face of each unit does not directly face toward the front of another unit.
If that’s possible it may resolve (like mine did) or reduce drops/flips to a bearable level? It sounds like with all your hardware swap-outs, and these occurrences happening to multiple different 6E devices, I think it might be related to mesh signal overlaps and frequency interefence, not just router firmware (even though I think in my case the node transfers could be faster and smoother).
Also, use Web GUI and change your router 5Ghz channel to one of the newer DPS channels (I think that’s what they are labeled). This early in WiFi 6E rollout, you shouldn’t have 6Ghz band interference from neighbors (yet!!), but if you do, and your router falls back to 5Ghz WiFi band, at least be on a channel no one else on your street is using.
I hope this will improve your mesh operation at least to an acceptable level until NG can get the firmware correct, and developed.RE: "Is it possible to try relocating one or two of your units so they each have a well defined mesh “service” area, and a lower percentage of mesh area overlap that can create the dropped WiFi transfers that flips back to cellular service? "
- My units had very well-defined service areas before - the router is in the center of the home at the lower level. One satellite is at the Northeast corner on the second floor. One satellite is at the Southeast corner on the second floor. The third was in the Southwest portion on the second floor. All wired.
The drops were happening in the Northwest portion - theoretically serviceable by both the central router and the Southwest satellite. But there is a refrigerator and a floor between the router and the Northwest. There are two walls and a wall mounted TV between the Southwest satellite and the Northwest space.
I moved the Southwest satellite (Wired then) to be somewhat to be centrally 'West' and 20-25 feet from the router (now wireless backhaul) - there is still a refrigerator and floor separation. There is much stronger 'overlap' between the router and the repositioned satellite but that seems to create no problems and only seems to serve to make the wireless backhaul stronger. The previously affected devices went from being sort of equidistant from the router and satellite to having the satellite sit between them and the router - there is or shouldn't be much of competition on where the devices connect to.
This satellite movement had an unexpected benefit for IoT cameras outside the house (each equally spread between satellites) - the latency to load snapshots for all cameras together on first app load on my phone reduced to 1 second vs. 5-10 seconds.
- kjx , I’m glad moving a node helped your camera’s a bit.
Forget my question to you, and my suggestion about relocating nodes to “solve” drop/flip and mesh-node hand-off problems.
Much to my dismay, my satellite relocation just “relocated” my drop/flip area of my home. It did not correct the problem.
I don’t remember if you have an iPhone 15 pro max, or what Thread this info got posted on, but another Community member discovered yesterday, on his iPhone 15 pro max (that I also have) that the WiFi 6E (I.e. the new 6Ghz band on this latest iPhone) when set to “Automatic” (I.e. turned on), when the 6Ghz band of the iPhone connects to the WiFi 7 mesh system, it deletes all the IPV6 settings on his iPhone. This happens with any of his Apple products (Mac’s, etc) with WiFi 6E capability. That Community member turned all his Apple product WiFi 6E settings from Automatic to Off (which puts his devices back into 5Ghz band). I did the same thing yesterday too. I suggest you might also do the same. The decrease in speeds will drop from 1400-ish Mb to 1100-ish Mb, which is still better than hassling with drops/flip connections, and no mesh hand-offs on 6Ghz band which leaves you with a symmetrical up/down speed of 0-ish Mb!!
The other Community member and I both updated our drop/flip Open NG Cases yesterday so NG will hopefully address quickly. This may contribute to our drop/flip problem, but there are other issues going on with NG mesh-node hand-offs.
I turned off IPV6 in my 971 the day early last week when I relocated my satellite unit (other NG Community members thought IPV6 also interfered with 2.4Ghz IoT on-boarding). I’ve had problems on a few IoT’s, so I disabled it, but I haven’t re-tried again after disabling IPV6.
My flip/drops started happening again (I did have WiFi 6E on my iPhone enabled) but IPV6 was disabled for my NG network so the issue is more than wiping an Apple device of IPV6 values.
I also don’t think a NG/Apple IPV6 issue (which I had/have disabled) would cause my WiFi 6Ghz band drop/flip area to move around in my house. I think NG will still need to correct/update 6Ghz mesh node hand-off software.
Hopefully NG will resolve these WiFi 7 router issues ASAP, or I’ll be going back to my 1980’s dial-up modem!! I don’t need this 5G fiber and WiFi 7 speeds just to click-on “Add to Cart”, or read Apple News!!