LBR20 bugs and suggested improvements

[bkph]

Sadly, there seems to be no way to provide technical feedback to NETGEAR's impenetrable fortress :-). So I'll list some shortcomings and some suggestions for the LBR20 here in the hope someone will stumble across them:

In the web connection, in the Advanced tab > Internet Port > COnnection Status, some useful iformation is displayed about the cellular connection, but some of it is wrong, some not very useful, and some important parts missing:

(1) "Downlink Frequency" presently shows the same as "Uplink Frequency".
In FDD LTE these two are different.

(2) Cell ID show "physical cell ID" (PCI) instead of actual "Cell ID" (CI)

PCI is a number between0 and 503 and does not uniquely identity a base station.
Both CI and PCI are useful, but you can't tell what base station you are connected to just from the 9-bit PCI.

(3) Please also show "Timing Advance" it is invaluable in locating the cell tower one is connected to.

(4) Please indicated that LAC is in hexadecimal, not decimal. Is "Cell ID" decimal or hexadecimal?

(5) Please also show MCC and MNC. Particularly important when dealing with an MVNO such as Google Fi.

[Blanca_O]

Hi @bkph

Welcome to NETGEAR Community!

Thanks for sharing your feedback. I'll have the information forwarded to our product teams.

Regards,
Blanca
Community Team
 

[KiskuB]

Dear Netgear,

I struggle so much with the same items as @bkph . But aside of that I would like to mention the following improvement points:

1) The Webinterface is very slow.

2) Port reservations are troubelsome. My printer I want to put on address 135. It does not want to sit there it aways goes to address 11. If I move the two sattelites to 11 and 12 this causes a lot of unrest. The router suddenly thinks it is a good idea to put sattelite-2 on address 250. The printer stays at 11. Even after a reboot this does not get cured. After removal of the sattelite port settings they are on 3 and 12 out of free will while the printer is back on 11. Some advice would be helpfull to get around this strange behaviour.

3) I wonder if the the list "Connected Devices" is correct. This because if I put my phone on top af satelite-1 and switch wifi of and on it still reports as connected to sattelite-2 after refresh of the list. Later I find out that it seems to take about 2 minutes before the list really updates.

4) Automatic log out happens very fast, something like two minutes. What is worse it activates the page so it wants to be logged in while you are typing on a other page within the browser.

5) I have had other equipment from Netgear but never I have seen such strange behouviour of your equipment. As it works do not change it because you have no idea what will happen to you.(It is expensive at €300 so you want it to work fantastic!) Furhter more you do not want to buy Asiatic equipment all the time because it is cheap and works fine, but support the western way of thinking.

Best regards Cees

[KiskuB]

Further to my message this afternoon. I am trying to change my sound system on address 23 to 111. I have tried everything but it does not change. In the list I show the situation: The reserved I list:

And the list of connected equipment:

I have tried everything: rebooting the router. Disconnecting en re-connecting the device. No luck the device stayes on adres 23. All the hairs in my head have gone, no new ideas!

Maybe Netgear can help??????

[KiskuB]

I am sorry guys I have returned the RBR20/Orbi mesh system to the supplier and reinstalled my R6400 router. Everything I have been struggling with Orbi been solved by this action. My WiFi has worsened and I need to look for a solution for this.

The Orbi is fine for the casual user who only wants very good WiFi and nothing more. For the advanced user it is useless.

[bkphorn]

OK, so in firmware release 2.6.3.50 the uplink and downlink frequencies 

(in the "Connection Status" window RST_conn_status.htm) are differrent and correct.. Thank you!

But even in the very recent firmware 2.6.4.2 the other shortcomings remain:

The third line down in that window under "Mobile Information" shows the LAC (in hexadecimal), but the much more useful CID (cell ID) is not shown (*)

Instead in the fourth line, which is labelled "Cell ID" it shows the physical cell ID (PCI) which is also not very useful (**). Please show the actual cell ID (CID).

(*) Hundreds of base stations share the "local area code" (LAC) so this doesn't tell you which tower you are connected to. An illustration of how unhelpful this is, comsider that Google geolocation API accepts MCC, MNC, LAC and CID and returns latitude and longitude, but ignores LAC (since it is not needed if you know the CID, and since it may change as a carrier reassigns towers)!

(**) The physical cell ID (PCI) is a number between 0 and 1007 for LTE, assigned locally to be unique amongst local base stations (and may change when needed to avoid overlap of base stations using the same PCI). The same PCI corresponds to many thousands of base stations in different locations. Again not directly helpful in identifying cell towers.

So please show the actial cell ID (CID). Ideally, show all three: LAC:CID:PCI

To be complete it would be good to know MCC and MNC as well.

With MVNO's like "Google Fi" these are not fixed by what SIM card you are using, but may change (e.g. 310:260 for T-Mobile, 311:480 for U.S.Cellular,310:410 for AT&T  etc.)

[rebible]

I have the same problem. With the information provvided it is impossible to locate the tower being used. This is important when trying to use directional antennas to maximize signal in a weak zone.

Please update per these requests. 

thanks,

robert

[bkphorn]

Re: LBR20

Great! In firmware release 2.6.5.2, Cell ID now shows the CID, and MCC and MNC are also shown. So that just leaves TimingAdvance (TA), which in LTE can be very helpful in locating the cell tower/antenna one is connected to.

P.S. Very annoying that you insist on "Model" in this web form, but then do not accept LBR20 or list LBR20. It is a Netgear product.