Note: this is NOT a question about the lights in the Orbi satellites themselves.
I have the AC3000 system, RBR50 router and two satellites. Setup went pretty much as expected, with not problems encountered.
Now, turning to the Orbi app (IOS version). When I tap on the upper (blue) portion of the home screen I am taken to a Network Map. The map shows just what I would expect: Internet at the top, Orbi router connected to internet in the middle, and the two connected satellites at the bottom. So far so good. However, each of the Orbi components displays a colored status light. The light on the router is always green, but the lights for the respective satellites are usually yellow, sometimes switching to green for a while, then back to yellow. Occasionally one of them goes red.
What to these status lights on the Network Map mean? I can't find an explanation anywhere despite a lot of searching, both here and on Google. Where is there an explanation of the lights, and what I can do to fix a yellow or red condition?
Model: RBK50| Orbi AC3000 High-Performance Tri-Band WiFi System
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
That's a logical guess, but I'm hoping someone, somewhere at NetGear or in the community knows for sure. More importanty, what steps can one take to fix whatever issues cause yellow and red lights? I've tried moving the Satellites around, re-syncing them, re-setting the Router...all the usual suspects.
For a little more info, my geometry corresponds closely to the geometry suggested by NetGear for a three-floor arrangement. The Router is at the cable entry point in the basement, mounted about six feet off the floor. It's near the center of the house. The first floor Satellite is about thirty feet horizontally away from the Router in one direction, and the second floor Satellite is about twenty feet horizontally away in the opposite directon.
Every time I sync I get the steady blue light in the Satellites, but then have yellow lights for them in the Network Map in the Orbi app.
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
I don't see the lights changing so I can't help I'm afraid. My upstairs satellite is always green and the one in the garage is always yellow. They are both about the same distance from the router so I have no idea why this the case.
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
I am having the same problem with my satelitte it changes from green (good backhaul) to yellow/orange ( poor backhaul) nothing in my system has changed. If I restart the orbi router it will be green for 12 - 14 hours then go back to orange. I had the problem of it always being orange until someone on here said to turn off Daisy chain in the router settings. I only have one satelitte so daisy chain isn't needed, after turning it off I had green for a couple of days and since then it's going back to orange. Any suggestions? Everything seems to connect Ok but I have the Arlo Pro camera's connected to my satelitte for coverage and I am now having problems with them. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the satelitte as they were working fine until the last firmware update but I just want to make sure it's not the satelitte.
I am having the same problem with my satelitte it changes from green (good backhaul) to yellow/orange ( poor backhaul) nothing in my system has changed. If I restart the orbi router it will be green for 12 - 14 hours then go back to orange. I had the problem of it always being orange until someone on here said to turn off Daisy chain in the router settings. I only have one satelitte so daisy chain isn't needed, after turning it off I had green for a couple of days and since then it's going back to orange. Any suggestions? Everything seems to connect Ok but I have the Arlo Pro camera's connected to my satelitte for coverage and I am now having problems with them. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the satelitte as they were working fine until the last firmware update but I just want to make sure it's not the satelitte.
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
The satellite is about 35 feet away, always has a strong blue ring. I upgrade the firmware tonight, restarted the router once itunes was fully connected I then restarted the satellite and had good backhaul for 20 mins then itunes went back to poor.
The satellite is about 35 feet away, always has a strong blue ring. I upgrade the firmware tonight, restarted the router once itunes was fully connected I then restarted the satellite and had good backhaul for 20 mins then itunes went back to poor.
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
daisy chain is disabled and mimo was disabled I just enabled it again to see if it would help. I have done a complete reset of the router and satellite 5 days ago to see if that would help but it didn't. I'll disable MIMO & fast roaming and see if that helps.
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
Well, I finally achieved green status on both my satellites...we'll see how long it lasts. Before I explain what I did, however, I have to acknowledge that rivets was almost certainly correct in his assessment that the color of the indicator lights in the App reflects the backhaul status. I had the same experience that he had: the color of the lights in the app exactly matches the backhaul status that shows up when you connect to the router via a browser.
Now then, here's what I did: following suggestions in this thread I turned off the Daisy Chain mode, then tried sixteen combinations of channel settings. For each of the four 5gz channels I tried four 2.4gz settings: channel 1, channel 6, channel 11, and Auto. I got one of the satellites to occasionally go green using channel 6, so I did a scan of the neighborhood wifi's and, sure enough, one neighbor is on channel 1 and the other is on channel 11. I locked in channel 6, and left 5gz on 48.
I still had solid yellow on one satellite and occasional yellow on the other, so I started changing the locations of the satellites. What I discovered was that Netgear's recommendations for the distance between router and satellite seem to be wildly optimistic, at least in my house. I finally achieved green in both satellites by moving them to within about 12 feet horizontally of the router. Since they're on different floors, the vertical distance is only about 9 feet for satellite 1 and 18 feet for satellite two.
Now, here's one more thing to consider, and I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else: my router is oriented east-west (i.e. it's long axis runs east and west, while it's broad sides face north and south.) Many of the unsatisfactory positions I tried for the satellites had them east and west of the router, but the positions where I finally achieved green status have them placed north and south of the router. I'm wondering if the router's antennas are oriented such that better signal coverage occurs in an axis that runs through it's broad faces.
Anyway, that's been my experiencse. I hope my green status lasts more than a day.
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
Whats your house materials made up off? This can be a factor as well. Thats pretty close for satellites to be since the router can cover up to 30 feet, depending upon building materials. Concrete and steel will impact the range and single penetration for sure.
Well, I finally achieved green status on both my satellites...we'll see how long it lasts. Before I explain what I did, however, I have to acknowledge that rivets was almost certainly correct in his assessment that the color of the indicator lights in the App reflects the backhaul status. I had the same experience that he had: the color of the lights in the app exactly matches the backhaul status that shows up when you connect to the router via a browser.
Now then, here's what I did: following suggestions in this thread I turned off the Daisy Chain mode, then tried sixteen combinations of channel settings. For each of the four 5gz channels I tried four 2.4gz settings: channel 1, channel 6, channel 11, and Auto. I got one of the satellites to occasionally go green using channel 6, so I did a scan of the neighborhood wifi's and, sure enough, one neighbor is on channel 1 and the other is on channel 11. I locked in channel 6, and left 5gz on 48.
I still had solid yellow on one satellite and occasional yellow on the other, so I started changing the locations of the satellites. What I discovered was that Netgear's recommendations for the distance between router and satellite seem to be wildly optimistic, at least in my house. I finally achieved green in both satellites by moving them to within about 12 feet horizontally of the router. Since they're on different floors, the vertical distance is only about 9 feet for satellite 1 and 18 feet for satellite two.
Now, here's one more thing to consider, and I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else: my router is oriented east-west (i.e. it's long axis runs east and west, while it's broad sides face north and south.) Many of the unsatisfactory positions I tried for the satellites had them east and west of the router, but the positions where I finally achieved green status have them placed north and south of the router. I'm wondering if the router's antennas are oriented such that better signal coverage occurs in an axis that runs through it's broad faces.
Anyway, that's been my experiencse. I hope my green status lasts more than a day.
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
I have moved the router around so broad side is facing satelitte, I reset the satelitte to factory settings and moved it about a foot closer to router. I have a weatherboard house and live in Australia. So far after reset and changing positions of both I have had good backhaul for 14 hrs. I haven't diabled fast browsing or MIMO yet as I don't want to mess anything up now it's good. I have however got slower speeds since the upgrade to 2.1.4.16
I have moved the router around so broad side is facing satelitte, I reset the satelitte to factory settings and moved it about a foot closer to router. I have a weatherboard house and live in Australia. So far after reset and changing positions of both I have had good backhaul for 14 hrs. I haven't diabled fast browsing or MIMO yet as I don't want to mess anything up now it's good. I have however got slower speeds since the upgrade to 2.1.4.16
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
Just updating, I have had good backhaul on the satellite for close to a week now and haven't changed any settings or moved the router and satellite since my last post. I'm going to leave it alone now and hope it keeps working. thanks for all the advice.
Re: Status lights in the Network Map of the Orbi App
Thanks for the post - in my environment I have the Router on the 1st floor and Satellite 1 upstairs and Satellite 2 downstairs - after setup I was getting the green lights on the Router and SAT1, but SAT2 was yellow (note: as indicated on the Netgear Orbi smartphone app).
After reading through the entire thread I first tried moving SAT2 closer - nothing changed.
I then changed the Channel for 2.4ghz from Auto to '6' - this did the trick.
In my case there was no need for further troubleshooting or disabling of things like Daisy Chain, etc.
