NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Orbi limiting Raspberry Pi Bandwidth
Hi! Im experiencing a really weird issue with my Orbi system. I have latest firmware on my router and satellites (2.5.1.8). My following installation looks like that: - Nokia fiber modem -> Orbi RB...
I did more tests on speedtest.net and notice that my Pi 4B starts out at "full speed" for about 10 seconds (above the 200mbs I pay for), and then the speed falls off sharply and ends up quite a bit less, but still in the neighborhood of 100mbs. My Windows computer does not exhibit this phenomenon. It stays at a pretty constant rate throughout the test. Android phone & tablet the same.
I struggle to comprehend how the Pi could be treated "differently" by the Orbi from Windows and Android devices. The Pi does respond to heat by dropping the clock rate. I am not confident how to measure for that effect while doing a speed test.
I did install Kodi, but "nothing happened" when I started it from the graphic desktop. Maybe it senses there is no HDMI connection on my "headless" Pi?
There are numerous posts on the forum questioning the Orbi's ability to deliver "full speed". Orbi was submitted to the FCC back in 2016, when 100mb speeds were rare, and I do not remember anyone offering gigabit to residential customers. Perhaps another test is to connect a computer to the switch and test speed with it. Does it achieve higher speed than the Pi? (Mine did.)
Sorry not to be much help.
When i use a computer connected to the switch i get Around 500/500. The only way to get Around 500 is to connect the Pi directly to the Nokia modem. If it goes directly to the Rbr50, i get Around 40Mb. Thats a big difference. Same cable used for both tests.
Thanks for doing the test. I am puzzled about the 40mb results. My Pi 4B gets over 100 with Firefox and almost 100 with Chromium.
Amazon says 15mb will stream 4K video. Netflix wants 25mb. Both are a lot less than 40mb.
It could be there are two issues:
- Why does Kodi buffer on the Pi?
- Why does the Pi get so much less "speed" when connected to the Orbi?
I think the problem is some QoS hidden features on the Orbi system. Ill try to switch off the two satellites and try again to see if a get another result.
I get buffer issues just sometimes, but when it happened, it does every 5 seconds...
I had another "weird" issue that was isolated. I got my IPTV decoder (From my ISP) to freeze every 2-3 minutes. Problem was on one of my computers ethernet card and "Wake on lan". It must be disabled to get my IPTV box working as normal.
So... this is the second weird problem with my Orbi system and sure i need to do again a step-by-step connecting just the Pi and one by one the other devices.
Ill try when i arrive at home today :)
The situation with Orbi and QoS is somewhat of a mystery. When Orbi first shipped, some people remember it having a menu entry for QoS. There no longer is. When I dump the Orbi parameters (over 1,300), there are bunches of entries with "qos" in the names. It appears that this is based on the port numbers used by specific internet video games. (There seem to be 18 "rules".) As far as I can tell, there is no concept of QoS by device (MAC or IP). I have a suspicion that QoS may be viewed as "unnecessary in this day of gigabit ISP speeds". When devices are competing for 10 mb of internet, QoS is a powerful tool.
(Confession: I know too little about QoS to do anything more than observe mysteries.)