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Forum Discussion
Orbi RBS 20 satellite slow wifi
I have a mesh wifi with CBR40 modem/router and 2 RBS20 satellite. I have a 400mbps cable connection. The modem/router (CBR40) is able to transmit a strong signal with 350-400+ mbps receiving at or nea...
Agreed, if I had a long enough Ethernet cable, it would solve the problem but its not possible without looking absolutely atrocious. The reason why I bring this up is because just few months ago it was working fine and the satellites were beaming close to full speed. I just ran a speed test recently and saw the drop in speed on the satellite connected devices only. I have read in other forums that factory reset doesnt solve the issue either.
Yes, that's why using a cable temporarily was suggested as a method of determining that "nothing is wrong" with the satellite. If the satellite is wired to the router and performance is still below expectations, that is a whole different issue.
One of the first questions asked is, "What changed?" (Another tedious story....) My alarm system base unit is located upstairs at one end of the house. (could not find a suitable location downstairs, so "why not?") I started noticing that every time I armed the system, it would claim that one of my gate sensors was off-line. WTF?? Been working for over a year. Changed the sensor battery. Still off-line. Finally... realized that I had moved the base unit a couple of feet when doing something. Moved the base unit back to the original location. Gate sensor has remained on-line ever since!
Could anything have changed about the location or orientation of the router and satellite? Some object placed next to one of them?
- So this problem is seen on both of my RBS20 satellites, none of them have been moved nor has my router CBR40 been moved. The satellite works well when connected via ethernet to the router. Im thinking it could be related to a back haul issue but hard to tell.
There has always been an adage in computing, "If it's not working right, turn it off and back on again." i.e power off the satellites, router, and modem. Power up the modem....wait....power up the router...wait....power up one satellite at a time.
There is one potential complication with doing this: stupid devices can connect stupidly. This often happens after a temporary power outage.
Mobile devices are programmed to continue scanning the available WiFi networks all the time. When they find a better connection, they drop the previous WiFi access point and reconnect to the better one. (There are official IEEE standard which describe how this is supposed to work.) Devices that are not designed to move (televisions, cameras, smart plugs, etc.) sometimes act like once they connect to a WiFi access point, they quit looking. This can be really annoying when the router WiFi signal appears first, before the satellites have begun broadcasting their WiFi signals. A device can connect to the router, which is farther away and has a weaker signal, and then "hang onto it" despite the poor performance.
One of the most frequently asked questions on the forum is, "How do I force a device to connect to a specific Orbi unit?" The answer is, "That is not possible." WiF devices follow IEEE protocols and connect however they connect.
(This is really a stretch, but....) If the device used to measure speed was originally connected to the router WiFi, then taken to a satellite location and remained connected to the router rather than switching to the satellite, then performance would be much less. Message 1 asked if reducing the Transmit Power level might help. If the Attached Devices page showed the test device clinging to the router connection rather than changing to the satellite, then reducing Transmit Power might force the device to switch. Attached Devices does not update instantly when a device switches. Can take several minutes.
- Solution found, reverting back to firmware 2.1.4.6 for cbr40 and 2.1.4.16 for rbs20 solved the problem.