RBE971 Router and 6 RBE970 satellites

I am sorry for the confusion. I have been working on this issue for several days and I am mentally exhausted.  As of 12/31/25 the latest status is that all Satellites and devices are online, and all showing correctly connected in the network map and the Wi-Fi coverage is excellent. It has been over 10 hours with no problems. I am keeping my fingers crossed, that everything stays in current state. I will post an update if anything changes. I am almost thinking that the webpage was displaying incorrect information, but mesh network was functioning correctly following the latest (48 hours ago) reset and firmware update performed by Netgear Support. (following that support, I still had disconnected satellites and only 11 devices incorrectly showing as all wired and the system never stabilized overnight). Next morning is when I rebooted the router and all Satellites showed disconnected with 25 of my devices showing as wired and the Wi-Fi signal was great since all devices were actually connected. There was no change for the next 24 hours.  I should have cleared cache in the edge browser, but somehow this morning, by connecting my computer via ethernet instead of Wi-Fi and restarting the computer, everything is displaying correctly. I did discover that the 970 system takes longer to stabilize than older Orbi mesh systems. I have Orbi 860 with six satellites up and running at my second home and it works flawlessly without any issue.

It would be helpful to have link to information about issues with more than four satellites.  The official documentation is a bit ambiguous.

https://kb.netgear.com/000062035/How-many-satellites-can-you-add-to-an-Orbi-WiFi-System

In this specific system, all six satellites are 'wired'.

It is not clear (to me) what the current status is.  From two messages posted today (Dec 31)

Must_Function wrote:

I decided to restart my PC and keep the Wi-Fi disabled. To my surprise all satellites correctly show "Wired" and status "Good". On top of it all my attached devices are now properly displayed in the network map.

and then more recently:

Must_Function wrote:

Presently, I still have excellent coverage with 1 gigabit speeds from the router and each satellite, but 10 of my connected devices (all online) and all 6 satellites show as disconnected.

So is the issue

• When the router is rebooted (but the satellites are not rebooted), it takes a significant amount of time for the system to stabilize, but once it does then things are "good"? or
• The system will spontaneously go from "all good" to devices and satellites being reported off-line? (will it stabilize again?)

FYI, currently there is a known issue of having RBS count past 4 RBS. Others have posted about issue with having more than 4 RBS connected on the 970 series. NG is aware of this. Not sure if or when something will be fixed. WIFI7 differs from older Orbi systems and seems more complex in it's workings thus maybe more limiting in how many RBS can be deployed. Something NG will need to address if something can be done. 

My wi-fi covers approximately 24,000+ square feet. All on ground level. My placement of 971 Orbi Router and all 6 satellites, gives me excellent wireless coverage throughout my property without any dead spots. The issue is that I discovered when Orbi 971 router is rebooted, it does not recognize the network map and all attached devices, including the Satellites. Presently, I still have excellent coverage with 1 gigabit speeds from the router and each satellite, but 10 of my connected devices (all online) and all 6 satellites show as disconnected. This Orbi 970 setup replaced Orbi 850 with 6 satellites which worked great for several years until it failed

Must_Function​ what is the topology of your house - floors, square footage etc.? A 971 router and 6 satellites is rated for over 20,000 square feet, and approximately. 450 devices! If your house/building is not that big, you will see poor performance. Each node transmits very strong Wi-Fi signals (each Orbi device has a range of about 3300 square feet, and having them myself, that is no exaggeration), and when too many are placed in close proximity, their coverage areas heavily overlap. This creates excessive co-channel and adjacent-channel interference, where devices and mesh nodes spend more time negotiating airtime, backing off, and retransmitting instead of moving data. Clients may also roam poorly, constantly switching between nodes or clinging to a farther one because the signal is still “good enough,” leading to higher latency, packet loss, and inconsistent speeds. On newer bands like 6 GHz, oversaturation can break the clean-spectrum advantage entirely, negating one of its biggest benefits. In short, with powerful mesh systems, fewer, well-placed nodes almost always deliver faster, more stable Wi-Fi than blanketing the home with hardware.

If you don't have a good justification for that many devices, can you try testing from the minimal and then expand - star with a router - how do things work in its range? Then add one 970 - test again, etc.

It would be useful to know if the Orbi router logs these loss of internet events. (The log is cleared when the router reboots, so it is important to look at the log before rebooting the router.)

And, if the router log does show loss of internet, does that correspond to events in the modem log?

A substantial investment in networking gear and wiring.  With WiFi access points 65-70 ft. apart, there may be area with poor 5G coverage and marginal performance.

It may turn out that any time the router is rebooted, the satellites should also be powered off and then restarted one at a time.  (Perhaps a question for Netgear support.)