I am extremely dissatisfied with the recent support received (or not received) re: my Orbi router.
I purchased a ProSupport package but cannot find a phone number of method of contacting the "supposed" accelerated front-of-the-line support. i was directed to a queue that asked if my product was purchased in the last 90 days, which is was not, hence the contract. when i said 'no' i was disconnected.
i called back and eventually was connected to an agent who then pushed me to the ProSupport agent.
the agent would continue to offer suggestions that had no bearing on the issue at hand. after about 2 minutes of this, they hung up. despite giving my phone number for call back, none was received.
I have RBR750 base. my neighbors and i were all on the same channels. i changed my 2.4 and 5GhZ channels to non-conflicting settings. after reboot, i can no longer access primary wireless - get invalid password. Guest works fine. switched to guest and accessed Admin. checked that password was unchanged and repeatedbly tried again. no success. back to admin to change the password and reboot. now able to access primary channel. channel changes made previously were ignored. so decided to give it another try. same results. back to admin, change password, reboot, regain access. tired of changing all the connected devices in my house, so changed it back to original to avoid running around the house changing the password. it is now back to the original password that i started with and working.
Channel changes:
input new channel for 2.4 and 5GhZ. they are now different, but not what i set them to. wifi scan shows new channels that don't conflict with neighbors, but do not match Admin portal.
I would do this. Use FF or EDGE or Opera. WIred PC.
Download the v6 FW files again for the RBS and RBR from NGs download site. Manually re-apply the RBS first then the RBR. Factory reset both RBS and RBR and setup from scratch using the wired PC connected to the RBR and walk thru the setup wizard.
Be sure to clear out ALL Browser caches before starting the setup wizard at 192.168.1.1 or orbilogin.net
After the setup wizard completes, don't enable Armor. Set up the Wifi and channels. Be sure you save and apply the change then reboot the RBR.
I have RBR750 base. my neighbors and i were all on the same channels. i changed my 2.4 and 5GhZ channels to non-conflicting settings.
Let's disect this. The tech specs show Orbi AX4200 Router and AX4200 Satellite (600 + 1200 + 2400Mbps).
600 Mb/s is the max link rate the device can reach on 2.4 GHz (1x1 on 80 MHz bandwidth). For this 80 Mhz bandwidth (less in Canada, even more less in the US), the _complete_ 2.4 GHz band is used.
1200 Mb/s is the max link rate the fronthaul - facing to the clients - can reach (2x2 on 80 Mhz bandwidth), Orbi does only use the low and lower mid U-NII-1 and U-NII-2A channels. Each channel is 20 MHz wide. For these 80 MHz bandwidth, only two channel sets are available:
36...48 (center channel 42)
52...64 (center channel 58)
2400 Mb/s is the max link rate the wireless backhual can reach (2x2 on 160 MHz bandwidth). Orbi does only use the higher mid and high U-NII-2C and U-NII-3 channels. Each channel is 20 MHz wide. For these 160 MHz bandwidth, theoretically, two channel sets are available:
100...128
132...161
Why ever only the lower one can be used as a single 160 MHz block under FCC, European, and most of the world regulations. Alternate possibilities are 80+80MHz split blocks. Get the picture on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels
input new channel for 2.4 and 5GhZ. they are now different, but not what i set them to. wifi scan shows new channels that don't conflict with neighbors, but do not match Admin portal.
What the UI does _try_ to set is the so called primary channel only.
Regardless, there are 80 MHz (four channels for the front haul) resp. 160 MHz (eight channels on the backhaul) used.
What the so-called WiFi analyzers show is not always reliably the primary channel. I don't know how e.g. split 80+80 vs. 160 MHz config can have an impact.
That's probably a bug, would be nice if the config would stick. But as I said above ... nothing is going to change as the full 2.4GHz band is in use. 72 MHz in the US, 77 MHz in Canada, and 83 Mhz in most other parts of the world.
Conclusion:
All so called 2.4 GHz channels are overlapping - one channel ist just 5 MHz wide.
There are just two choices for the frontahul channel set.
There is just one (160 MHz) and a small alternate combination of the 80+80 MHz possible.
All your neigbors are using the same very narrow public bands.
Most simple Wi-Fi analyzers do not show which other channels are occupied by a radio.
Sometimes the Wi-Fi analyzers fail to present the complete used bandwidth, especially if 80+80 MHz split operations are in use. Reasons vary: Mobile devices typically support only 20, 40, or 80 MHz on 802.11ac or 802.11ax, drivers of 160 and 80+80 MHz capable wireless clients don't unveil the details.
There is not much of a real choice for non-conflicting settings - most ideas from the past of much more narrow band Wi-Fi times for 5 GHz, and on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi standard wireless networks we know that there were only three independent, non-overlapping channels.
When it comes to the top of the specs Wi-Fi 6 systems - there is _no_ choice: All available channels are used.
Further on, there is much more usage on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands than what a Wi-Fi "analyzer" does unveil. Hidden channels, non-primary channels, non-802.1[whatever] usage for other technical systems. The most crazy stuff are wireless speaker systems, wireless video/HDMI distribution, ... and much more. these are ruining a lot of the fun what wireless should bring according to the marketing messages.
Probably Netgear does pick-up these informations for putting up a KB entry at least - who knows.
Now to your problem with support...
For my part, I strongly doubt what I've explained above here is within the more or less canned troubleshooting solutions L1 and L2 support can and will provide. In my opinion it's not - because it's about training and education. There is certainly no emergency on this - even the 2.4 GHz fall-back bug to Auto.
I have no idea on how they do the queueing and the priority handling for on the phone support channels. One would guess that opening a ticket online, and keying the ticket number received is the key. If just call up and wait (a possibility not existing in most markets btw.) we all end up on the last position in the queue. The same happens by the way when we call-up support from Europe - after entering the ticket number - off local business hours when we're re-directed to overseas. So yes, not everything is perfect. But when considering the wide range of support requests, I think Netgear does not make such a bad job. And I would prefer if they invest more in firmware QA and R&D.
This is an amazing amount of work and detail. I'm very grateful for your effort and information.
Workings of the wireless aside, my inital problem was that when i changed the channel, i was locked out. the password for my primary wireless would not work. luckily i was able to get wireless from guest and remotely access the admin site.
it happened not once, but twice. after the miserable experience of changing that password for all of the connected devices in the house, i tried again with the same result. so i don't think i "forgot" my password twice. oddly - and luckily - the guest network password was unaffected giving me a path in.
