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I recently installed the Orbi RBK753 and initially everything was working great. I have a guest network set up for all the smart devices (smart plugs, thermostats, etc) in my home. IP of the base router is 192.168.1.1. At some point I started noticing devices showing up with 192.168.2.x addresses. Did some wiresharking and saw they were getting DHCP addresses from a 192.168.2.1 device. This device has an HTTPS port open (HTTP is the only port open on 192.168.1.1) and when I opened that in a browser, it was the Orbi router.
How is this possible? At this point I have a pihole set up to handle DHCP and disabled DHCP on the Orbi. But Orbi is still handing out 192.168.2.x addresses.
As my wife and I got in bed last night she said she didn't know if she could go to sleep right away and wanted to talk. So I said "I can kill two birds here, I can explain my network problem (talk) and it will put you to sleep." So as I was explaining it to her I realized it was the guest network. Duh, it needs a seperate IP space. What was throwing me was not being able to see the DHCP configuration for the guest network. I guess the Orbi just picks an IP space that isn't the regular IP space where the router lives.
That being said, it would be nice to be able to set up DHCP for the guest network. It would also be nice to disable the 5ghz network on the guest wireless side since all my IoT devices use only the 2.4Ghz. I know that defeats the mesh solution but thats not what I need for IoT. I just need rock solid 2.4ghz all over my house. As it stands now, all of the IoT things are connected to the guest network but they drop off and won't work occasionally. These are "smart" plugs or light bulbs that are not roaming around the house. I'd like it if they would grab the strongest 2.4ghz guest signal and hold on to it. But for some reason they tend to drop and then can't reconnect for a bit.
Oh..and it worked. My networking/DHCP conversation put my wife right to sleep. 🙂
Most things with Orbi systems are automatic and come with less configurations. Most most users, this seems to work well. For those, Orbi may not be what they need if there looking for more advanced features to control.
What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz. Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
Also try turning down the power output of the RBRs wifi radios from 100% to 50% and see if this changes anything. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
