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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...
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!!
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!!
I have been doing some more testing on this issue, iPhone 15 Pro Max (happens with my iPad Pro 2024 too), Orbi 970. The issue is, seemingly when the device is attempting to go from 6GHz to 5GHz or vice versa, for example entering the house or moving between Orbi devices, the phone flips to 5G instead of staying on WiFi.
I have tried now, with the WiFi 6E setting - Auto and Off; IP Address - automatic (via DHCP) and manual (outside DHCP address range) - all combinations of these 2 settings - and the 5G flips continue.
I have also noticed the WiFi 6E setting and the Settings/Cellular/Wi-Fi Assist setting will CHANGE! on its own! So I am testing now with WiFi 6E off, a manual address, and Wi-Fi Assist OFF. I am trying to watch those carefully to see when they revert to the opposite setting. I have ruled out hard resets and Settings/General/Shut Down, they don't cause it. I am think now it's coming back into the house, but not immediately - in a minute or to. I usually check the WiFi symbol immediately upon entering the house and it is on.
This is very confusing to get to the bottom of...
Hi, I would also like to quickly share my thoughts and insights gained from Reddit. Can you try to have a fixed channel for all WiFi bands (not sure for which you can set fixed channels, at least for 2.4 GHz for sure) and can you disable the 20/40 MHz coexistence? This helped me with my (retired) Orbi 850 system to significantly reduce the drops.
Additionally, have you figured out if drops also occur if the Orbi system is in AP mode (access point mode) and the routing is done by another device, such as, for example, a Firewalla?
Looking very much to hearing your experiences!
speedmatters to answer your questions from my network:
1) The Orbi's do run on a fixed channel, configurable on the router admin page.
2) You can also disable 20/40 coexistence, which I (and many here I think) have done.
3) I don't have another device to act as router, hence being able to put the Orbi 970 in AP mode.
I will say, I have now completed 3 days with NO 5G flips! For me, I turned off Wifi Assist under cellular, 6E is Off, and Private IP address is off. In testing, having any 2 of the 3 off seemed to still let 5G flips occur; only when all 3 are set do I see total success (so far). We'll see if it continues!
- This has been driving me bananas.
Orbi WiFi 7 mesh. iPhone 15 pro max. Tons of drops on WiFi calling when walking around the house, or even standing still. Tons of WiFi drops to 5G despite tons of coverage.
It’s astonishing to me that Netgear hasn’t tried to fix this given how widespread the problem and what I paid for this system. Bonkers.
The other issue I have is that my work computer that is hardwired into a satellite, which is CAT6E wired backhaul into the main unit, has multiple VPN drops each day. No idea why. And always right in the middle of an important zoom call. Maddening given what I paid. I could have bought a 50 dollar wired network system that would not drop my VPN.
Sigh. 0tis Netgear is aware. As a workaround- turn off Settings/Wifi assist, and on your connected Wifi network, set 6E to OFF not Automatic. Then turn Wifi off for 5 seconds, then on. See if that fixes it. You’ll see some speed loss, but with a good signal 5GHz is still very fast. It’s a workaround. And the flips to 5G will go away.
Post back with results…
- Thanks, appreciate it. I’ve implemented these changes. Fingers crossed …..
(My VPN drops are another issue for another day….) See how VPN works too. The Wifi Assist might help that, it can break wifi. People have reported phone call drops fixed with that.
- I can’t imagine. I’m hardwired in through a satellite on my work computer. No good excuse for those drops. I guess it could be Verizon’s fault. But I’m skeptical of that.
Yeah wifi won’t help that-but needed for the phone 5g flips. Maybe start a new thread on the vpn problem, it might get buried here.
