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RBE971 AP: Wi-Fi drops, wired stable, QCN9224 SSR & 6GHz fatal errors
Hi all, I am looking for help/visibility from Netgear staff/engineering. I have been having this issue since around the time of the Hardware / Firmware Model: Orbi RBE971 (single unit used as ...
What is the brand and model# of the Cable modem?
Motorola Docsis 3.1 MB8611
What all devices are connected to the system?
A mixture of normal home devices. Windows and Mac systems, phones, a printer, apple TVs, a thermostat. The Satellites and a couple of the devices I have given (internal) static IPs outside of the DHCP range. I have one or two things on the IoT network.
Is IPv6 enabled on the RBR?
No
Happens with out the RBS turned ON?
Have not and will not try running without the Satellites for any length of time waiting for the issue. That is not really an option.
Size of home in sq feet please?
2500 ish not including garage/patio/exterior. I know this question relates to if the satellites are stepping on each other/placed too close. They are mainly in opposite sides of the house although I have tinkered with placements here and there. The furthest one is on the complete opposite corner of the house with many walls in between it and the router and is usually daisy chained, it was obtained to try and improve fairly poor performance in the farthest area away from the router. Changing the position of the router in relation isn't really a viable option.
Try downgrading FW to see if this issue continues?
The netgear support/firmware downloads page is 404. Where are older FW to obtain? The reason for posting was in the hopes that netgear support was going to post an answer to Travisivart's questions
Channels used on the RBR?
For 2.4GHz - auto. IoT network 2.4GHz only. For 5GHz I have tried 40, 44, 48 and even tried a couple of the DFS channels as well just to see if anything changed. The problem has persisted across each and no I don't live near known radar sources.
I have tried 20/40MHz Coexistence on and off. I normally have it on.
I have tried Long Preamble and Auto.
I have tried MLO 240 on and off.
No change in symptoms when the event occurs.
Has a factory reset been performed since last FW update? This should be performed if it hasn't been yet.
Factory resets were done on the Satellites but not on the RBR. Frankly that is an annoyance and one that shouldn't really be necessary as a default go-to "have you done this yet" troubleshooting step after any/every firmware update on such an expensive piece of gear just in the off chance that solves the problem. A problem with very similar symptoms to travisivarts. If the problem can be solved via a firmware upgrade/downgrade or another mitigation in the settings as travisivart asked then I'd rather save factory reset as a last resort. And tbh If I reach that point then I'm about one repeat of the problem away from ditching orbi/netgear forever for something more reliable.
RicOShea you can do what you want of course, but regarding:
Has a factory reset been performed since last FW update? This should be performed if it hasn't been yet.
Factory resets were done on the Satellites but not on the RBR. Frankly that is an annoyance and one that shouldn't really be necessary ...
You can see on every firmware release notice that Netgear issues (for example, for the 970, it's at:
New - RBE970 / RBE971 Firmware Version 9.13.2.1 Released | NETGEAR Communities
Near the bottom it states:
NOTE: If continued problems are seen after a FW update, it's recommended to try a factory reset and setup from scratch with out loading any saved configurations from backup files. Use the ERASE button on the routers web page to factory reset the router.
I have had to do this in the past, I take a screen shot of each page of the web admin pages (at first; eventually I learned which of my settings were non-default and I could quickly write them down). So after the clean setup it takes about 10 minutes to go thru and mod any settings necessary. It's not that hard, and imho it's a lot less time than researching another router, getting it in, learning about it, setting it up, adjusting to its idioscyncracies (for example, wifi radios are different - where you place its satellites will likely be different locations)
FYI, this is not uncommon for these kinds of networking products. I just did some searching, resets are recommended in 3 different cases, depending on the router, for Asus, TP-Link, Ubiquiti, and Eero. The three cases cited in different places are problems after major firmware jumps, when behavior becomes non-deterministic (random disconnects, clients fail to connect, IPv6 issues, settings that won't 'stick'), and after restoring from backups created with older firmware. They are NOT, by anyone including Netgear, required as part of normal maintenance or after every FW update - only when there are issues not otherwise solved.
Have you tried seeing what the signal strength is at each of your satellites, using one of the Windows/Mac tools on a laptop sitting next to each satellite one at time? I use WiFi Explorer Lite on a Mac, free, and you might see one of two things (1) weaker signal than you thought, which would surely cause disconnects, or (2) similarly strong singles from multiple Orbi devices, which will confuse network connectivity in a mesh enviornment.