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Forum Discussion
Stardust1300
Feb 26, 2025Aspirant
RBR850 Router frequently displaying purple light and being uncontactable
In my house we have an RBR850 router and two RBS850 satellites. My PC is hooked up, via powerline adapters, directly to the router.
Occasionally, like once a week or so, the router will go AWOL. It'll display a purple light, output no internet, and in some cases be completed uncontactable.
I say sometimes because sometimes I can access the router using the Orbi App and orbilogin.net. Other times I cannot. When I can access it, it'll just say the internet connection is "WAITING" and not improve. I believe we have had some success resetting the router digitally (IE: Through the interface on the app or website) but the majority of the time this reset does not fix the issue. Instead we resort to power cycling and this has always fixed the issue.
But why is this happening in the first place? It has happened at all times of the day. Often overnight while we're asleep but I have had it happen earlier at night and in the afternoon. The satellites at this time do not display any light and do not require power cycling or any other changes for them to start working once we fix the router.
What issue could be causing this?
3 Replies
- CrimpOnGuru - Experienced User
It is often helpful to know:
- Which firmware version is running on the router and satellites. (Can be found in the upper right part of the web interface or on the Details page of the Orbi 'app'.
- What specific ISP device connects the Orbi router to the internet.
- Are you able to query the ISP device to determine if it has recorded any outages?
- Stardust1300Aspirant
Update: It just happened again. That's twice in one day. This time I was able to contact the router but the internet connection kept switching between 'waiting' and 'not connected'.
Power cycling the device didn't actually fix it this time. Instead I went into the router settings and my internet settings and just hit apply without changing any settings and it seems to have fixed the problem.
The router is on Firmware Version V7.2.6.31_5.0.24 and the satellites are also on V7.2.6.31. I'm not sure what you mean by ISP device. The router connects directly into the NBN box which presumably connects to the NBN. Our ISP is Superloop which hasn't recorded any outages recently. And it wouldn't make sense that power cycling fixes that anyway.- FURRYe38Guru - Experienced User
Front LED with PINK usually means the RBR can't get connected to the ISP services or the services from the ISP modem or ONT have failed or something went intermittent. https://kb.netgear.com/31030/What-do-the-LEDs-on-my-Orbi-mean
I'd have the ISP check the signal up to there modem or ont and check the logs during the time frames you notice this happening to compare notes.
Might update FW as well, v.31 wasn't well received by users. New stuff is here: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-WIFI-6-AX-AND-Wi-Fi-6E-AXE/New-Orbi-RBR-RBS-850-860-and-960-series-Firmware-Version-7-2-7/td-p/2435724