Orbi 960 Series with 1 router and 2 satellites constantly disconnects from devices

[Casey_P]

Hey All,

I have a Orbi 960 Series with 1 router and 2 satellites. I have am having issues with multiple devices dropping off constantly.

I have a 5500 sq ft 2 story home (wood and stucco)

Router is on first floor on far side, 1 Sat is on first floor on opposite side and 1 sat is on second floor in the middle. Sat's are wireless.

All Firmware is the latest.

I have currently apprx 145 Devices. Most are IOT (Bulbs, thermostats, cameras, etc.)

I had alot of issues when first installed a month ago, saw some comments on reddit as far as some adjustments to make (Channels, Power percentage etc) and it made it fairly stable. That was when I had apprx 115 Devices.

I just added 32 more bulbs and everything went to hell. I have talked to tech support yesterday and he went thru the normal things with me (Channels, percentage etc) In the logs we found abut 750 Dos Attacks per hour. He had me switch the percentage back to 100% (from 50%) and turned the access control off. He instructed me to call me ISP (Cox Gigabit) and tel them I wanted a new IP. I did that and have completely power cycled the whole system and it now seems even worse. Things will connect and 5 min later be dead. I use this home for business and it is really costing me time and meetings. I am looking for any input to fix.

[FURRYe38]

What happens if you remove the 32 added devices? 

[Casey_P]

Thanks for the reply, I did do that (as they are a 16 bulb chandelier, and master bath lights, 2 switches and they are off). Still have multiple devices that won’t connect, and when they do, they are on for 5 min then disconnect.

[CrimpOn]

Just a random observation.  Consumer WiFi router usage has exploded with the advent of people wanting every electrical outlet, light bulb, speaker, curtain, and.... (???) to be on the WiFi network.  Specifications for the 960 product are liberal:

Those 127 numbers are definitely hard limits, and the firmware should automatically keep the user from trying to exceed them (I guess.  Maybe new devices push older devices off?  Do we think Netgear actually tested what happens when the 128th device attempts to connect?).  Most IoT devices use the 2.4G channel.  Have you counted how many of those 145 devices are using 2.4G?

If it comes down to a decision between:

• a stable network for work, and
• filling the house with IoT gizmos

This may be "one of those things".

[Casey_P]

Thanks for the Reply,

Previously I had the Orbi 750 Series (in the same configuration) and upgraded to the 960 Series for the reason of having apprx 180 devices in total. I had called Orbi sales/support and they promised me this system "would handle well over 200 devices". With the graphic you posted above, their statement seems like BS.

Now that I have the additional 30-35 devices shut off at switch/breaker you would think the rest would work...they don't lol.

Would it possibly make sense to use the old system (750) in conjunction with the new (960)?? Set it to different channel's and switch some IOT devices over to that?

I have well over $1.5M in worth of gear in my studio here and def want all the cameras and security systems to be stable.

And if this is possible...would I come out one of the ports of the 960 router into the 750 Router? I have 2 ports on the back of my arris 8200 modem, but I think I would need a 2nd IP from my ISP, I don't know if Cox offers that.

[CrimpOn]

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@Casey_P wrote:

Would it possibly make sense to use the old system (750) in conjunction with the new (960)?? Set it to different channel's and switch some IOT devices over to that?

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That is actually an interesting idea. IoT devices typically communicate with their smartphone apps through the vendor "cloud".  i.e. each device opens an internet connection to the cloud, which allows commands from the app to come through  the cloud to the device.

Steps:

• Connect the RBR750 WAN port to the 960 router. With the RBR750 in default (router) mode, this will appear to be one IP address to the 960.  Configure the 750 2.4G WiFi channel to be far away from the 960 2.4G channel so that there is no chance of interference.
• Configure the 750 system to have a different SSID than the 960.
• Turn the 5G signal Transmit Power down to 25%.  (It won't be needed.)
• Move some 2.4G device from the 960 system to the 750 system. (This probably means a reset and reconfigure.)
  (Start with just one.)
• See if the device works.
• If so, move some more.
• Before getting too carried away, does this make any difference???

If any of the 90 days of 'complimentary support' remain, I would not want to let Netgear support off the hook. Keep the ticket open, "it's not fixed yet!!" Ask to be escalated to Level II (or whatever they call it).

p.s. did you ever get a count of how many 2.4G devices are on the network?

[Casey_P]

So I did add the 750 Series Mesh as a secondary mesh system last night. Transferred about 40 IOT devices over last night. Seems to have made the 960 Series mesh even worse. Alot of cameras, alarm panels and existing devices are dropping off and reconnecting constantly. The level 2 tech support had me go back a version on firmware on the 960 series, def seems to be worse. She also stated I am not the only one having trouble with the 960 series, people are not happy. I'm really trying to figure out what to do.

@CrimpOn I believe there is around 110 total 2.4ghz devices, of which I moved apprx 40 to the 750 series mesh.

[TC_in_Montana]

@Casey_P @CrimpOn @FURRYe38 

Casey

Now that you have moved some of the devices off of the 960 and onto the 750's network, you may want to drop the power level back down on the 960.  Devices connecting, dropping, reconnecting, dropping, reconnecting is a prime example of devices hopping from satellite to router to satellite - meaning you have too much coverage (yes, there is such a thing).   I am truly surprised that the CS rep had you bump the power back up to 100%.   

Since you have the router and 2 satellites on the 960 side, I would start by dropping the transmit power back down to 25% and see if that helps with the stability.   If the devices that are dropping/connecting/dropping/connecting are 2.4GHz band devices, drop that band only - leave the 5GHz band alone.  

Unfortunately, while adding the 750 to the mix may help - it may hurt as well.   While you can adjust the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands on the 750 to use far away channels (as much as possible on the 5GHz), the hidden backhaul channels are the same for the 750 and 960.  So that could cause some issues with router to satellite communications.  

As for the DOS Attack/PortScans, that is a problem with the 6.3.7.10 version of firmware with the 960.  While you can stop the logging of those - it doesn't stop them from happening.   The 6.3.7.5 did not have that issue, but I don't remember what else changed between 6.3.7.5 and 6.3.7.10.   You mentioned that 6.3.7.5 made things worse - but I'm wondering if it is not the 100% power level that is actually making it worse.  You may want to try 6.3.7.5 with 25% power on 2.4GHz.