Orbi pro started dropping connections again

[texasTrio]

I am helping an organization to debug their Orbi Pro network installed in 2021, version 2.7.0.122.  The network clients are disconnecting and reconnecting, yielding awkward and disruptive pauses.  The clients including Mac, Windows, tablets and iPad, printers, network beamers, etc.  There are three Orbi Pro devices, the main and two remotes.  They are installed in a 3500 sq foot building. The cable model is Suddenlink with 500mb download. There is a switch in the mix but I don’t know if it is managed yet.

I read online and tried the following remedies. 

1) Upgrade firmware 

2) Assign fixed 2.4 and 5ghz channels 6, 40 and 157 

3) Move the kids and staff networks to wireless 2 and 3, using wireless 1 for admin

4) Separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5ghz networks (e.g. ssid_ and ssid_5g) - I tried the telnet approach to change the SSIDs but that had no effect, so I removed the change.

5) Decrease power on staff network to 50%.

6) Change the bandwidth per SSID to favor staff and kids.

7) Monitor the wifi signals with an app to see if a signal drops to zero (indicating a hardware problem).  This is impossible due the the replication of SSIDs across the orbi devices and thus creating clutter on the wi-fi analyzer app.

😎 Saw DoS message in the log file, but it is unclear, based on internet discussions, if these are real issues. 

See pictures.

These changes appeared to work for a few weeks, but this week and today, the disconnects are happening again.  Last Sunday the iPad kid check devices dropped during check in and several times the staff computers are dropping. Today there were only five users on the network and the drops happened.  It could be that most devices are Apple devices.

I read the Orbi pro can handle 512 devices, 100 concurrently. I read separately that this number drops to 50 concurrent if streaming is happening.  We are streaming out a live recording.  We have about 25 guests connect in a bunch. There may be 40-50 total connect devices at peak, but most of them are not doing anything (except streaming).

So, what is an IT volunteer to do?

1. I asked the org to find receipts, maybe exchange the product for something else as we can’t make progress.
2. Cut off the guest network to see if there are differences.
3. Unplug the ethernet to the network beamer. We think we had an issue years ago where a ubiquity antenna was overheating in the Texas sun and causing problems on the ethernet network.
4. Remove Orbi and add vlan box and use old Netgear router.

Any suggestions?  The users are getting frustrated.