New - RBR850 / RBS850 Firmware Version v4.6.7.5 Released

[mikijoe1]

I have a doubt regarding the pack that I have, it's a RBR850 and 4 RBS850 satellites

does it mean it belongs to RBK855 (having 1 routeur + 4 satellites =5) even if this pack doesnt exist in terms of marketing offer (only RBK854 is available)

In other words, is the firmware compliant only with the RBR850 and RBS850 only (but finally applies also to RBKxxxx being only a marketing grouped offer) ?

[CrimpOn]

This is correct.  The RBR firmware is for the router. The RBS firmware is for any number of satellites.

[FURRYe38]

Means you added a additional RBS so you got a RBK854 kit + 1 RBS850 is all. Does NOT change to a RBK854 to a 855. FW is for any RBR850 and RBS850 with in any RBK Kit. RB(K) meaning Kit or whats included in the box which is a RBR850 and RBS850. 

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

I have a doubt regarding the pack that I have, it's a RBR850 and 4 RBS850 satellites

does it mean it belongs to RBK855 (having 1 routeur + 4 satellites =5) even if this pack doesnt exist in terms of marketing offer (only RBK854 is available)

In other words, is the firmware compliant only with the RBR850 and RBS850 only (but finally applies also to RBKxxxx being only a marketing grouped offer) ?

---

[HWI0031]

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

Hello !

I own an Orbi system and I have some of the problems that you mention in these posts that may be fixed by this future firmware upgrade.

ORBI RBR850 which is in AP mode (and DHCP) + 4 satellites RBS850 which are connected to the RBR850 with ethernet cables (Backhaul ethernet direclty wired to ports 1,2,3,4 of the RBR850). Everything is up to date with the latest official version (in France) which is V4.6.3.16_2.0.51.

My internet provider is Free (in France) using optical fiber (10Gb EPON) and the box is Freebox Delta (having an integrated router with 4 ethenet Gibagit ports).

Hi,
As far as I know you can not have DHCP on in AP mode,
Reading this and your other questions gives me the hunch that using Beta-firmware might not be the best idea for you.
Since you have a full-wired backhaul, I would advice you to simply disconnect the satellite from port 1 on the router and connect it to one of the LAN ports of another (wire connected) satellite (wired daisy-chain). If you have the router port one issue that should solve it.
If it works it will be a fast solution and if issues remain or other issues appear you can at least send it all back without any difficult questions about Beta-firmware and where it came from.
It is an official release by Netgear, but you did not get it from their support and Netgear did not advice you to use it. It should work and you can use it, but it is Beta so it might cause issues.
If you have any issues remaining, you will never know if it is your hardware or the beta-firmware.
So if you feel you know what you're doing use this firmware if not then don't.

Good luck.

---

[FURRYe38]

Also if you want to free up LAN ports on the back of the RBR, you can install a non-managed GB LAN switch on the back of the RBR and connect your RBS directly to this switch. This helps free up LAN ports on the RBR if needed for other wired devices. 

https://kb.netgear.com/000051205/What-is-Ethernet-backhaul-and-how-do-I-set-it-up-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-Sy... 📡

@mikijoe1 

[mikijoe1]

I have been informed by the french support that it should be better to connect every satellite to an ethernet port of the orbi router, so that is what I did, I knew that installing an intermediate unmnanaged gigabit switch shoud word but I did not plug any.

Unfortunately the bug of the first ethenert port having ethernet backhaul with router in AP mode caused many troubles, so I have also changed the ethernet cat.7 cable just in case (but it was not guilty...).

My orbi router is on AP mode and DHCP (initially I used static manual IP address but I now I have set it in static DHCP) with the new firmware 4.6.7.5, everything is working fine !!!

4 satellites are correctly detected and displayed as Wired with backaul status "Good".

Also, in the Orbi iOS app, everything is fine, except in the RBR850 (router) that has some devices shown as wired but they are wifi (Iphone, logitech harmony), I don't know how it is possible, maybe a refresh bug or a delay when refreshing the connected devices in the orbi app (depending on if it's connected over internet or localy).

The speed tests are still good with the new firmware version, tested with iphone 13 pro : download 937,36 Mbit/s, upload 673,32 Mbit/s, ping 2,97 ms

[HWI0031]

Congrats, Well done.

Some insights:

The DHCP you mention is the DHCP towards your internet router, i was confusing it with the DHCP toward LAN. So that cleared my question, thanks.

Hope the setup remains stable.

As for the Wired / Wireless, I have seen this on my system in 2 cases:

The client was connected tot a satellite that is connected to the router by wire. The router reports a wired connection (and from that perspective that is true) but is should see trough te satellite and report a wireless connection. It's a bug but a minor one, and in my case it was just every now and then.

The client connects wirelessly (kind-off using the wifi as a tunnel) to some other device that is connected by wire (my Sonos devices do this). This is not caused by te router but caused by the device.

Please keep me posted on your experience, your set-up is fairly simular to mine and i'm curious what you find. It might be something I will encounter in the future (hopefully you'll just be good from now on, but you never know).

One question about the speedtest, did you test the speed in the Orbi app / on the routers website (sp test the rpouter speed) or straight on the device (browser on Iphone to www.speedtest.net)?

My guess is you used the ap or the router website. Impressive speeds, and as far as i know your iphone should not be able to get that speed directly to the internet, your router should.

If you test the iPhone speed directly (browser on phone to speedtest.net) you should get something around 600Kb. Apple does not use very fast Wifi hardware. So having actual phone speeds above 700Kb would be very interesting to me.

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

I have been informed by the french support that it should be better to connect every satellite to an ethernet port of the orbi router, so that is what I did, I knew that installing an intermediate unmnanaged gigabit switch shoud word but I did not plug any.

Unfortunately the bug of the first ethenert port having ethernet backhaul with router in AP mode caused many troubles, so I have also changed the ethernet cat.7 cable just in case (but it was not guilty...).

My orbi router is on AP mode and DHCP (initially I used static manual IP address but I now I have set it in static DHCP) with the new firmware 4.6.7.5, everything is working fine !!!

4 satellites are correctly detected and displayed as Wired with backaul status "Good".

Also, in the Orbi iOS app, everything is fine, except in the RBR850 (router) that has some devices shown as wired but they are wifi (Iphone, logitech harmony), I don't know how it is possible, maybe a refresh bug or a delay when refreshing the connected devices in the orbi app (depending on if it's connected over internet or localy).

The speed tests are still good with the new firmware version, tested with iphone 13 pro : download 937,36 Mbit/s, upload 673,32 Mbit/s, ping 2,97 ms

---

[mikijoe1]

I have launched the initial speedtests on the orbi app on iphone, then on the the orbi router app.

As you suggested I have run the speedtest on iphone with speedtest app (783 Mbps), and after that with speedtest website on my macbook pro M1 Pro (823 Mbps) :

[mikijoe1]

[mikijoe1]

I don't know why photo upload doesn't work... sorry

[HWI0031]

No problem I see them when i reply.

Impressive, I think you can savely say that the limits you encounter are 1gig ports and the Apple hardware. Your Orbi is doing what you can expect.

For your info, I do not make these speeds on my Apple devices (about 150K lower). The internet speed is higher but I use the 2.5gig wan-port on the Orbi (loadbalancing 2 wan lines with a dual wan router that is connected on 2.5 to my Orbi. So that is cheating a bit.

Thanks for the info, nice to see what other people manage to achieve with comparable hardware.

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

I don't know why photo upload doesn't work... sorry

---

[FURRYe38]

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

I have been informed by the french support that it should be better to connect every satellite to an ethernet port of the orbi router, so that is what I did, I knew that installing an intermediate unmnanaged gigabit switch shoud word but I did not plug any. 

Just for future reference, you can plug in RBS to a good quality non managed LAN eithernet switch and they will work fine thru the switch: NG GS-105/108v4 and GS308v3, D-Link DGS-105/108 and HP ProCurve 1400/1800 series switches work for Orbi systems.

Unfortunately the bug of the first ethenert port having ethernet backhaul with router in AP mode caused many troubles, so I have also changed the ethernet cat.7 cable just in case (but it was not guilty...).

When in either router or AP mode, the yellow WAN port on the RBR should be connected to the upstream modem when in router mode or host router when in AP mode.

My orbi router is on AP mode and DHCP (initially I used static manual IP address but I now I have set it in static DHCP) with the new firmware 4.6.7.5, everything is working fine !!!

4 satellites are correctly detected and displayed as Wired with backaul status "Good".

Also, in the Orbi iOS app, everything is fine, except in the RBR850 (router) that has some devices shown as wired but they are wifi (Iphone, logitech harmony), I don't know how it is possible, maybe a refresh bug or a delay when refreshing the connected devices in the orbi app (depending on if it's connected over internet or localy).

The speed tests are still good with the new firmware version, tested with iphone 13 pro : download 937,36 Mbit/s, upload 673,32 Mbit/s, ping 2,97 ms

Seems that you are good to go now. Glad you got it working. Be sure to save off a back up configuration to file for safe keeping. Saves time if a reset is needed.
https://kb.netgear.com/000062080/How-do-I-back-up-the-configuration-settings-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-System
Enjoy. 📡

---

[Ely]

Ok, after over a week of no crashes, I think I might have found out my culprit and the root of all my issues I have been experiencing with my Orbi during the last 6 months.

When I purchased this Orbi (RBK852 AX6000) I also leased a Comcast XB7 Gateway. I have never rented modems from my ISP before, but this time it was different because I wanted to take advantage of my 1.4Gbps connection plan. (Comcast refuses to let you utilize any modem with more than one Ethernet port, I mean you can use one of those modems if you wish, but only ONE ethernet port on that modem can be used at any given time, You can only do that with their own modem) Since this Orbi only has one 2.5Gbps WAN port  I wouldn't be able to get that full speed on my main desktop PC which has a 10GbE Network card.

The Comcast gateway has 4 ports, among those there's one 2.5GbE ethernet port, the rest are 1Gb. So I connected my main desktop PC to that 2.5GbE port and then connected the Orbi to one of the aditional gigabit ports. The Comcast modem was functioning as a router, while the Orbi was in AP Mode. This is how I have had everything working all this time and everything was working as it should (Or so I thought)

Over a week ago I decided to purchase this QNAP 6-Port 10GbE & 2.5GbE switch. Then I connected the switch to the XB7 2.5GbE port, then the Orbi with a CAT 7 cable to its 2.5GbE port respectively.

Now both my main desktop PC and the Orbi as well as my NAS all enjoy direct 2.5Gbps connections from the switch. With this new setup I have not experienced any more crashes. So in short it appears that either the Comcast Gateway was unable to reroute traffic properly to the Orbi with that setup or the Orbi was not able to receive the traffic properly. 

Either way, I believe that was the issue, now this new firmware might have also helped, however before introducing the new switch in the mix and with this firmware already on the Orbi I still experienced a crash one time. However it seemed it was more stable with the setup I had than what the previous firmware was.

I'm crossing fingers that things keep working this way and I'm re-writing my reviews about the Orbi where I was absolutely blaming it for the issues I was having.

[FURRYe38]

Good to hear. Sounds like you've done some troubleshooting and narrowed things down. 

New FW seem to be better for everyone. I sure it still a work in progress and hoping it's in the right direction. 

Be sure to save off a back up configuration to file for safe keeping. Saves time if a reset is needed.
https://kb.netgear.com/000062080/How-do-I-back-up-the-configuration-settings-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-System
Enjoy. 📡

---

@Ely wrote:

Ok, after over a week of no crashes, I think I might have found out my culprit and the root of all my issues I have been experiencing with my Orbi during the last 6 months.

When I purchased this Orbi (RBK852 AX6000) I also leased a Comcast XB7 Gateway. I have never rented modems from my ISP before, but this time it was different because I wanted to take advantage of my 1.4Gbps connection plan. (Comcast refuses to let you utilize any modem with more than one Ethernet port, I mean you can use one of those modems if you wish, but only ONE ethernet port on that modem can be used at any given time, You can only do that with their own modem) Since this Orbi only has one 2.5Gbps WAN port  I wouldn't be able to get that full speed on my main desktop PC which has a 10GbE Network card.

The Comcast gateway has 4 ports, among those there's one 2.5GbE ethernet port, the rest are 1Gb. So I connected my main desktop PC to that 2.5GbE port and then connected the Orbi to one of the aditional gigabit ports. The Comcast modem was functioning as a router, while the Orbi was in AP Mode. This is how I have had everything working all this time and everything was working as it should (Or so I thought)

Over a week ago I decided to purchase this QNAP 6-Port 10GbE & 2.5GbE switch. Then I connected the switch to the XB7 2.5GbE port, then the Orbi with a CAT 7 cable to its 2.5GbE port respectively.

Now both my main desktop PC and the Orbi as well as my NAS all enjoy direct 2.5Gbps connections from the switch. With this new setup I have not experienced any more crashes. So in short it appears that either the Comcast Gateway was unable to reroute traffic properly to the Orbi with that setup or the Orbi was not able to receive the traffic properly. 

Either way, I believe that was the issue, now this new firmware might have also helped, however before introducing the new switch in the mix and with this firmware already on the Orbi I still experienced a crash one time, though it seemed that was more stable with the setup I had than what the previous firmware was.

I'm crossing fingers that things keep working this way and I'm re-writing my reviews about the Orbi where I was absolutely blaming it for the issues I was having.

---

[SW_]

---

@Ely wrote:

Ok, after over a week of no crashes, I think I might have found out my culprit and the root of all my issues I have been experiencing with my Orbi during the last 6 months.

When I purchased this Orbi (RBK852 AX6000) I also leased a Comcast XB7 Gateway. I have never rented modems from my ISP before, but this time it was different because I wanted to take advantage of my 1.4Gbps connection plan. (Comcast refuses to let you utilize any modem with more than one Ethernet port, I mean you can use one of those modems if you wish, but only ONE ethernet port on that modem can be used at any given time, You can only do that with their own modem) Since this Orbi only has one 2.5Gbps WAN port  I wouldn't be able to get that full speed on my main desktop PC which has a 10GbE Network card.

The Comcast gateway has 4 ports, among those there's one 2.5GbE ethernet port, the rest are 1Gb. So I connected my main desktop PC to that 2.5GbE port and then connected the Orbi to one of the aditional gigabit ports. The Comcast modem was functioning as a router, while the Orbi was in AP Mode. This is how I have had everything working all this time and everything was working as it should (Or so I thought)

Over a week ago I decided to purchase this QNAP 6-Port 10GbE & 2.5GbE switch. Then I connected the switch to the XB7 2.5GbE port, then the Orbi with a CAT 7 cable to its 2.5GbE port respectively.

Now both my main desktop PC and the Orbi as well as my NAS all enjoy direct 2.5Gbps connections from the switch. With this new setup I have not experienced any more crashes. So in short it appears that either the Comcast Gateway was unable to reroute traffic properly to the Orbi with that setup or the Orbi was not able to receive the traffic properly. 

Either way, I believe that was the issue, now this new firmware might have also helped, however before introducing the new switch in the mix and with this firmware already on the Orbi I still experienced a crash one time. However it seemed it was more stable with the setup I had than what the previous firmware was.

I'm crossing fingers that things keep working this way and I'm re-writing my reviews about the Orbi where I was absolutely blaming it for the issues I was having.

---

Nice setup!

Is it the same old CAT 7 cable being used when Orbi was crashing?

[mikijoe1]

I'm not considering to change my switch which is a 24 ports Gigabit TP-Link for now, the Orbi System conuled almost all my savings 😉 

More seriously, when I'll change, I will probably get a 24 port having POE ports (in order to replace some or the 10 wired cameras I have).

Addition info : I have deployed at home an apple based echosystem using a lot of certified homekit devices (brands Meross, Eve) and it's working fine with the Orbi Mesh infrastructure. The only thing is that during the orbi tests and setting perdiod, I had diddiculties to force devices to connect to the closest Orbi satellite (I always have to switch off ans on the concerned devices to get them connecte to the Orbi sat that is near them instead of another one which is further away).

Questions :

- Do you know if there is a possibility to get devices automatically connected to the best wifi signal when needed ? I thought that mesh systems would do that automatically for me (unlike Wifi repeaters which are not clever enough to do that).

- Like a lot of users, I own 2.4Ghz devices (legacy or brand new IOT) which need to connect to this network frequency (non compatible with 5Ghz). With my old wifi system (based on WiFi repeaters), I had the possibily to turn of the 2.4Ghz antenna, which is impossible to do with this mesh system, I can only reduce the power of the 5Ghz signal to get only the 2;5Ghz visible at a higher distance but some devices are still close to a satellite so still get the 5Ghz signal, I can't move them away becaus they are hard wired on my house (gate door for example). I was told that the mesh specifities are that it's not possible to turn off a frequency band.

[HWI0031]

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

Questions :

- Like a lot of users, I own 2.4Ghz devices (legacy or brand new IOT) which need to connect to this network frequency (non compatible with 5Ghz). With my old wifi system (based on WiFi repeaters), I had the possibily to turn of the 2.4Ghz antenna, which is impossible to do with this mesh system, I can only reduce the power of the 5Ghz signal to get only the 2;5Ghz visible at a higher distance but some devices are still close to a satellite so still get the 5Ghz signal, I can't move them away becaus they are hard wired on my house (gate door for example). I was told that the mesh specifities are that it's not possible to turn off a frequency band.

---

Hi, I don't understand this question.

In what situation is the 5Ghz signal bothering you (or your device)? Since the devices you mention are 2.4Ghz only they are not capable of "seeing" the 5Ghz signal. So regardless how strong that signal is it will never bother them because they can not "see" it, so the strength should not matter in this case.

You state that you could turn of the 2.4Ghz antenna. In your Orbi you can turn off the entire 2.4Ghz network, but i don't see how turning of the 2.4Ghz antenna in the past helped you in connecting your 2.4Ghz devices. I know that turning off the 2.4Ghz network in your Orbi will make it impossible for 2.4Ghz devices to connect.

Could you please explain what you want to achieve?

[mikijoe1]

sorry, I'll explain again :

 Before installing Orbi mesh WiFi, when I had to connect devices (especially IOT or wifi printer for example) which are non compatible with 5Ghz network, I had to turn off the radio 5Ghz (because my WiFi router allowed that), if I didn't do that, the devices failed to connect to the network during their installation as I could not specify the 2.4Ghz because SSID was common for both 2.4 and 5Ghz. After first successful connection to the 2.4Ghz, I could enable again the 5Ghz, and everything was working fine (IOT devices still connecting to 2.4Gghz), I guess the BSSID mac address was targeted on the 2.4Ghz radio antenna.

After installing Orbi mesh system (obviously I have disabled my previous router WiFi radios to keep onmy Orbi as WiFi access point), I discovered that the Radio 5Ghz cannot be turned off, but the power can be reduced, then I suceeded to install my IOT devices because 5Ghz was to low to be reachable by them, fortunately 2,4Ghz was powerfull enough to be the one taken into account by the devices.

The problem is that some devices still receive the 5Ghz signal even if power is reduced, so the only possibility is to move away from a satellite until only 2.4Ghz is reachable (at least for the first connection), and then I can bring back those devices in their initial location. I can't do that for devices which are wired in the wall (on electric wires).

In other terms, what I understand is that radio 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz are fully part of the Mesh network and cannot be dissociated separately, also I don't want to have 2 separate SSID (one for 2.4 and another one for 5Ghz, it's a nonsense for me because moving from a room to another oblige to change the network, and when different network are used, most of the Homekit devices are not accessible, or randomly acccessible, the homepod mini used as homekit hub is changing the network to fit my iphone's network, lossing all devices connected to the other network)

[FURRYe38]

It's up to devices to pick and choose where they connect too. Distance and placement of the RBR and RBS will be a key factor to how devices connect and to which source. 

2.4Ghz only devices will only connect to 2.4Ghz signals. They will never see 5Ghz at all. 

Orbi does not support disabling of any wifi radios or sepration of SSID names on the system. They are online all the time. 

[HWI0031]

Ok, somewhat clearer.

Although with all due respect I still have issues understanding how something the devices can not see can effect the way they operate there is an easy solution.

You can (temporarily) turn off the entire 5Ghz network in the web-interface of your Orbi router.

Then connect the 2.4Ghz devices, and enable the 5Ghz network again.

altered: 

Sorry, just figured you might just switch the AX features off and not the entire 5Ghz network, don't know for sure.

For the other question the answer just given is correct, the client decides, so no way to steer things really.

Because you have a wired Backhaul you can separate the satellites somewhat more, thus make the radiobeam overlapp smaller, thus increasing the chance that the client will pick the one you want it to pick. But you will move the coverage around the house so you might just be shifting the issue to another location.

[mikijoe1]

---

@HWI0031 wrote:

Ok, somewhat clearer.

Although with all due respect I still have issues understanding how something the devices can not see can effect the way they operate there is an easy solution.

You can (temporarily) turn off the entire 5Ghz network in the web-interface of your Orbi router.

Then connect the 2.4Ghz devices, and enable the 5Ghz network again.

altered: 

Sorry, just figured you might just switch the AX features off and not the entire 5Ghz network, don't know for sure. 

Yes it was confusing, it looks like just some enhanced features (AX for video QoS maybe) can be disabled, not the whole radio

For the other question the answer just given is correct, the client decides, so no way to steer things really.

Because you have a wired Backhaul you can separate the satellites somewhat more, thus make the radiobeam overlapp smaller, thus increasing the chance that the client will pick the one you want it to pick. But you will move the coverage around the house so you might just be shifting the issue to another location.

That's why I will temporarily use the power reduction function that is available for 5Ghz (to 25%)

---

[mikijoe1]

---

@FURRYe38 wrote:

It's up to devices to pick and choose where they connect too. Distance and placement of the RBR and RBS will be a key factor to how devices connect and to which source. 

2.4Ghz only devices will only connect to 2.4Ghz signals. They will never see 5Ghz at all. 

Yes logically but when 5Ghz is there, they fail to connect (because the connection of the IOT devices depend on the Iphone connected network at the moment, the connection wizard being done via Iphone which is connected automatically to 5Ghz when present), anyway, the temporay power reduction functionality (25%) works in most of the cases

Orbi does not support disabling of any wifi radios or sepration of SSID names on the system. They are online all the time. 

---

[FURRYe38]

5Ghz will not be the cause of your devices not connecting, rather poor development and coding of the IoT setup software that seems to require the setup device, i.e. phone or pad to be on a 2.4Ghz signal, when these IoT Mfrs fail to realized or dont' want to spend the extra time to allow for dual band mobile phones and pads to work on either frequency since both frequencies are ON THE SAME network. 

So ya, in your case, lowering the power on the 5ghz radio would help get your setup mobile device to connect on a 2.4Ghz signal long enough to get the 2.4Ghz IoT connected correctly using it's software. 

And no, the wifi radios can NOT be disabled whatsoever on Orbi systems. 

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

---

@FURRYe38 wrote:

It's up to devices to pick and choose where they connect too. Distance and placement of the RBR and RBS will be a key factor to how devices connect and to which source. 

2.4Ghz only devices will only connect to 2.4Ghz signals. They will never see 5Ghz at all. 

Yes logically but when 5Ghz is there, they fail to connect, anyway, the temporay power reduction functionality (25%) works in most of the cases

Orbi does not support disabling of any wifi radios or sepration of SSID names on the system. They are online all the time. 

---

---

[mikijoe1]

---

@FURRYe38 wrote:

5Ghz will not be the cause of your devices not connecting, rather poor development and coding of the IoT setup software that seems to require the setup device, i.e. phone or pad to be on a 2.4Ghz signal, when these IoT Mfrs fail to realized or dont' want to spend the extra time to allow for dual band mobile phones and pads to work on either frequency since both frequencies are ON THE SAME network. 

Or maybe the developers of IoT prefers to allow only 2.5Ghz connection as it's more efficient for distance and IoT devices do not need a fast connction

So ya, in your case, lowering the power on the 5ghz radio would help get your setup mobile device to connect on a 2.4Ghz signal long enough to get the 2.4Ghz IoT connected correctly using it's software. 

And no, the wifi radios can NOT be disabled whatsoever on Orbi systems. 

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

---

@FURRYe38 wrote:

It's up to devices to pick and choose where they connect too. Distance and placement of the RBR and RBS will be a key factor to how devices connect and to which source. 

2.4Ghz only devices will only connect to 2.4Ghz signals. They will never see 5Ghz at all. 

Yes logically but when 5Ghz is there, they fail to connect, anyway, the temporay power reduction functionality (25%) works in most of the cases

Orbi does not support disabling of any wifi radios or sepration of SSID names on the system. They are online all the time. 

---

---

---

[TC_in_Montana]

---

@mikijoe1 wrote:

After installing Orbi mesh system (obviously I have disabled my previous router WiFi radios to keep onmy Orbi as WiFi access point), I discovered that the Radio 5Ghz cannot be turned off, but the power can be reduced, then I suceeded to install my IOT devices because 5Ghz was to low to be reachable by them, fortunately 2,4Ghz was powerfull enough to be the one taken into account by the devices.

The problem is that some devices still receive the 5Ghz signal even if power is reduced, so the only possibility is to move away from a satellite until only 2.4Ghz is reachable (at least for the first connection), and then I can bring back those devices in their initial location. I can't do that for devices which are wired in the wall (on electric wires).

The problem is not that your 2.4GHz devices are seeing the 5GHz signal - the problem is that the device you are using to set up the IOT devices is attached to the 5GHz SSID.  It is an on-going, long-time issue with the apps that setup/control those IOT devices and it has plagued the Orbi user community since the first Orbi came out.  Your 2.4GHz only IOT device can not, and will not see the 5GHz signal.

The key to resolving this situation is getting the device you are using to set up those devices on the 2.4GHz band.  It's the app saying you are connected to 5G, not the IOT device.

If you can set up the IOT device on a PC (Windows), you should be able to go into the device manager, go to the properties for the Wireless Card, and change the preferred band to 2.4Ghz, apply changes, and let the network card reset, and it should reconnect to the 2.4Ghz band.   Then  run through the IOT device setup process.   Once done, go back to the device manager and set it back to preferred device of whatever it was before (No preference or 5GHz).

Phones are a bit more of a pain in the tookus to force to 2.4GHz connectivity vs. 5GHz connectivity.   If you can not select the band  you are connected to within the phone, you may try using on of the WiFi Analyzer apps.   There was a post last week by someone who resolved the same issue using that method.   Look back through the posts and see if you can find the post.   It's one that's marked solved and the title is pretty descriptive about solving this issue.   I'll scroll back and see if I can find it as well.