Re: Orbi 970 Wired Backhaul not Woking

I'm not even doing 10g backhaul, it doesn't work using 1 gig, from what I've seen.

Just bought an Orbi 970 with two satellites. I've upgraded to firmware 9.12.5.3 on RBR and RBS. I'm running in Access Point mode as I already have a router/firewall setup. In pure wireless mode, the RBR sees the satellites and things are ok. I get 4-5 ms latency pinging across to the satellites as they are using Netgear's wireless backhaul network. The RBR pings at less than 1 ms, so I'd like to get the satellites on ethernet.

I current have Asus routers and they are connected with 1 gig cat6e copper to the main dumb Netgear switch. This works just fine.

As soon as I connect a satellite to the network with a cable to the 10g port on a satellite, it disappears from the web ui. That satellite eventually returns on ping after about 60 seconds; however, the UI on the RBR will no longer show the satellite as connected. It is pingable and I can login to the RBS web interface and everything shows correct. If I connect BOTH RBS devices to the LAN (10g port), then they are both gone from the web UI. Using the Orbi app, it is now unable to login to the RBR. I can login to the RBR just fine on the network or using the same phone connected to the Orbi wi-fi.

I've seen many others that show the same experience. The "solution" seems to be to NOT run an ethernet backhaul to all the satellites. Well, that's not a solution. I don't have a network sniffer or smart switches, but it appears that the wi-fi connection each satellite makes has the same mac address as the LAN port? If both MACs are live, then that is a big problem for any network. I might buy a smart switch to sniff the traffic and see what is actually happening on the network. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to return this and get a product that can do access point mode and support an ethernet backhaul. I wonder if this works in routing mode? I could see where the wi-fi connections (over that non-user configurable wifi network that has NTGRBH_RANDOMSTUFFHERE) use a different MAC than for the LAN?

My config is straightforward:

Fiber Internet cable to router outside interface

Router inside interface cable to netgear switch port 1

Netgear switch port 2 to Orbi RBR

Netgear switch port 3 to Orbi RBS #1

Netgear switch port 4 to Orbi RBS #2

Cables test out clean at 1 gbit. Other devices put on those three cables test at 1 gbit, no errors.

Satellites come online via the cables..I can ping them. Their latency is less than 1ms, so I can tell it is using ethernet to reach them. I can login to them from the phone. I can login to the RBR from the phone where the Orbi app is running. The orbi app on the same phone will not connect to the RBR if network cables are attached to the RBS units. A web browser on the same phone CAN login into the web UI with network cables attached? The orbi app says "We can't find your Orbi". I'm on the same network and can access the web-ui from the same phone.

Same cables and such work with Asus routers doing the same thing, but they use their AIMesh config.