Orbi satellite showing connected on orbilogin but not in app

[dhombesh]

I have the RBK50 system which has been working well for a few months with the satellite connected to the router via wifi. My house is wired with Cat5e and today I connected the satellite to the router with a wired connection with expectation that ethernet backhaul would further enhance the stability. It is running the .44 firmware.

Now the satellite shows as connected  via 'wired' with connection status listed as good and backhaul status listed as good when I login on orbilogin.net. However, none of my 50 devices show as being connected to the satellite in attached devices section. Everything is connected to orbi router.

When I go to the orbi app, the satellite is listed as 'offline'.

Why is there a discrepancy in the orbilogin vs the app and why arent any devices connected to the satellite?

How can this be fixed?

Thanks in advance.

[Evgizo]

I have a the same issue with another RBS20 hard wired to the system. I am running the latest firmware on the RBK50 (V2.3.5.30), and V2.3.5.26 on the RBS20. I did some testing around the house and concluded that when the satellite is hard wired then it is part of the RBR50 (router) connection, they no longer act as individual units (i.e. offline) but simply extending the signal from the router unit if this makes sense. Therefore, everything is connected to the orbi router.

Performance wise I think it is still getting signals from the closest unit (either router or satellite) as I am still getting the same speed even when I am far away from the router. I also noticed that you are not able to identify the system through the orbi app if your mobile device is connected via a statellite, you can only access it when it is connected to the router (I run my one in AP mode). This is another way you can verify that your devices are not solely connected to the router unit.

Morever, when the satellites are hard wired, they are not able to perform a firmware update unless you put them back to statellite mode (i.e. disconnect the wire).

I think it will be nice for Netgear to fix the bug so that correct staus gets displayed, it is simply giving false information. However, I don't think it is impacting the performance.

[dhombesh]

This is very helpful. Thanks.
So based on your tests it appears that once hard wired, all devices will die connected only to the router and all satellites will show as ‘offline’ in orbi app.
Doesn’t Netgear think that the community should be informed in order to minimize confusion?

[Evgizo]

Correct. All hard wired satellites will show as ‘offline’ in orbi app but in fact they are just connected to the orbi router. The ‘offline’ status is confusing but technically correct as they have dropped the function being a satellite and extending the router signal instead.

Your devices will connect to the closest unit (or whichever gives the strongest signal) but in orbilogin you will only see them connect to the router. As I said, you can test whether a device is connected to the router or satellite by using the orbi app on that device.

To be honest, there are quite a few things that Netgear should fix regarding both orbilogin and the orbi app. I hope they will get to the bottom of it in the near future.

[docincali]

I have the same issue. Unfortunately, my FIOS ONT is in the garage on one end of the house and it is Ethernet only. I have the rbk53 AC3000. I have 5000 sq ft house with huge walls and my satellites were getting horrible reception and a huge drop off in speed. I have gigabit fios with frontier. So, I bought some bonded 2.0 moca adapters from actiontech off amazon and connected my fios ont with the arris modem and then to the moca. So then I moved the router to the middle of the house and connected it via moca/coax and then I figured why not hardwire a satellite in an extreme corner of the house. The problem is the coax's through the house are moca'ed to the original modem but I decided to connect a satellite anyway and....

The satellite on orbilogin shows it as online and hardwired....on the app it shows up with a solid line and purple.

When I'm on the app by that satellite it doesn't recognize that I'm on my orbi network even though my WiFi shows the same SSID and I never chose another network but speed tests are equivalent to being next to the router.

All devices on the app show connected to the router only.

So what is described above is exactly what I have going on. I just purchased the AX6000 and plan to use my older satellites hardwired with it because I have read that this is possible.... I assume this will be the same sceneraio.

My question is  is there a better to wire and place everything. It boils down to should I place my router in the garage and moca satellites to the router or should I place my router in the middle of the house via moca and have all the satellites wired in via moca back to the modem as well?

Thanks in advance!

[Dmag2]

I have obseved different results to your experience with devices all showing connected to the router if you satellites are wired. I see the have seen the devices connected to the satellites in both the Orbi app and orbi login. Then when I added a third satellite, I started seeing the satellites showing as "offline" in the Orbi app and not devices connecting to them. What makes me believe that the satellite is offline is the signal strength of devices close to the satelline are the same when the satellite is powered or not and that the device shows as connected to the router in both the app and the orbi login. I am going to try a full factory reset on all my devices tomorrow when no one else is in the house to see if the problem clears up.

[MotoDC]

I'm seeing the same issue you report, i.e. 2 wireless sattliets online, but the third (wired) is offline. Also, I happen to be using them in AP mode (not router mode) in case that makes a difference.

Only other setting I can think may impact this is that I have "daisy chain" disabled.

[MotoDC]

Internesting... a little more digging and I found the IP address of teh wired sattelite on my network. I was able to login via a webbrowser (not app) and it does show online with clients directly connected.

Also, I was able to login to the web interface of the router... there is shows three sattelites. It appears this maybe an app limitation rather than an orbi error.

Hope yours is the same!

[Christian_R]

Hello MotoDC, 

May you provide us with the model number of your router, current firmware version your router is on, and the current app version you ave install on your phone (iOS or Android).

Thanks,
Christian 

[MotoDC]

@Christian_R 

Well... thanks for asking about this, because after I went into the interface, I think the one wired sattellite device may not be working as I expected.

(screen shots linked below) 

In short, the app shows its offline, the router web interface shows its online.

When I jump to the wired sattelite web interface directly it appears to show its offline. Although it's not clear if the wired uplink connection is down or it's just reporting that the uplink isn't a wireless one. As a comparision Here is a view of a wireless satelite connected and verified to have wireless clients connected.

I did confirm there are no connected clients on the wired sattelite via its web interfaces. When its in wireless mode it usually does have a few clients (xbox, a tv, and a remote).

Shoot... back to step 1 I guess....

Model config consists of:

- RBR20 - v2.3.5.30 (From an AC2200 kit)

- 2x wireless RBS20 - V2.3.5.30

- 1x wired RBS20 - V2.3.5.30

App details:

- iOS (iPhone) 2.5.2.1

Other details:

- Wifi operating in AP mode

- Daisy Chain is disabled

[Christian_R]

Hi MotoDC,

Thanks for getting back. There is a new firmware available for the RBR20/RBS20. May you update to the latest firmware version.

https://kb.netgear.com/000061826/RBR20-RBS20-Firmware-Version-2-5-1-16

Christian 

[MotoDC]

Thanks @Christian_R 

devices upgraded. Some things I noted after plugging in one of the three to Ethernet:

• iOS orbi app still reports Ethernet backhaul satellite as offline. 
• weirdly, when you go into the satellite in the iOS app interface it does show the IP address. 
• From the router web admin page, it shows the satellite as online, but shows a 5Ghz connection. (Odd)
• from the wired satellite interface it shows online, but not via wireless. This online bit must be new in this firmware. 
• also from the satellite web interface it shows one wireless connection (which I would expect, because they're right beside each other, and also shows some wired devices). 
• however the router web admin page seems to not be reporting wireless clients on the wired Sattelite. 
• also interesting, when I go to do a firmware check. It seems the router it able to communicate with all the satellites, except the wired one. It sits at "waiting for connection" and never moves past this. 
  
  

so... in short it suggests that:

• The wired satellite does seem to be online and serving wireless cleints
• It also appears that there is not a Managment channel/communication happening between the wired satellite and the main router.
• it's not clear to me if the management communication also enables the mesh capabilities (I.e. control). I'm guessing they are separate functions/daemons since the wired satellite seems to still know about the wireless network and is broadcasting it, just management functions seem offline. 
• iOS app still seems to report an odd state of the wired sattelite. Suspect thus maybe related to the lack of management capabilities while in wired mode?

I've seem something about a debug mode for satellites. I could try to use that to verify mesh functions if it would be helpful. 

'Thanks!

[FURRYe38]

@Christian_R 

I'll chime in on this. 

I remembered that I had a RBS20 that came with my CBK40. Since I'm not using the CBR at the moment, I thought I would use the RBS20 with my RBK50 system since the 20 is compatible with the 50 series though the backhaul will be 866Mbps. I got the RBS20 updated to v16 manually today since it was behind in FW. I finally got the RBS20 wirelessly connected. Seems to take about good 5-8 minutes for the top ring LED to settle in and eventually get to BLUE then turn OFF. 

However ,I seem to have found that the RBS50 that is wire connected to the RBR50 in AP mode upstairs, now reports as disconnected in the Orbi app while the RBS20 reports connected wired to the RBR upstairs. RBS50 has been always connected via wire and preferred connection. Wireless does work in prior testing configurion before connecting wire. 

However in the RBRs UI, both RBS report as being connected to the RBR correctly. 

It's the Orbi App that seems not in sync or reports the RBS50 incorrectly with this configuration:

All devices are using v16 FW. 

Orbi app is most current versions available for apple and google products as of this date. 

Let me know if you need any more info. 

[FURRYe38]

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/AP-Mode-with-Ethernet-Backhaul-with-Firmware-2-5-1-16/td-p/192...

[MotoDC]

Well... I’ve reverted back to Wi-Fi backhaul. Despite getting more drops on some wifi cameras, the connection to tablets, phones and laptop is more stable.

Despite the iOS app issue of the wired satellite not showing up, with the last firmware update I was getting random wifi issues where no packets were passing, but the radios showed connected fine (I did have daisy chain disabled).

In the end fighting with these random wifi dropouts with eithernet backhaul were more painful than having the cameras drop out every now and then.

Disappointed, may try again with next firmware update.

[Kaspy23]

I have a satellite - not hardwired - ring is blue, online through Orbilogin it shows connection is good, but through app it shows offline. None of our devices can or are connected to it (not found). I have factory reset the satellite, it comes up blue, but not truly connected. Help!!

[jmorris718]

This happened to me today. For some reason, the Orbi Router got knocked off line. I rebooted it, and had to re connect the Satellite. I noticed after I got the blue light from the satellite, that it was not showing up on the Orbi app. Also, all the devices I usually connect to the Satellite are now showing an unusual strong connection to the Router. You reminded me about the orbilogin so I logged in there, and everything seems right. The satellite shows, and all my devices. I assume there is an issue with the app.

[jmorris718]

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@Kaspy23 wrote:
I have a satellite - not hardwired - ring is blue, online through Orbilogin it shows connection is good, but through app it shows offline. None of our devices can or are connected to it (not found). I have factory reset the satellite, it comes up blue, but not truly connected. Help!!

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Sounds just like mines... I have my satellite in my garage, where my phone would normally switch to LTE. I noticed it was still receiving a strong connection to my wifi network, and the devices nearby were responding normally as if connected to the satellite... even though the app says they are connected to Router. I say if your devices are working and the orbilogin looks right, just leave it. Maybe the app needs an update.