I'm currently running an AT&T Fiber connection with a BGW320-500 modem/router combo unit. First week of March I picked up an Orbi RBRE960B and swapped out my old Netgear Nighthawk for it. I immediately (quite literally the first time I powered everything back up) started having issues with my Modem seeming to be unable to sync to the AT&T Network. (AT&T has been quite confused by the situation because the modem flashes white when trying to come back up, not red which would indicate a network issue. They also tried 5 different modems, all with the same result). I'm somewhat fluent in networking and understood exactly how "my router is preventing my modem from syncing" sounds, which is why it's now two months later and I haven't done too much reaching out, but I'm at my wits end here with this now and coming up on more drastic solutions like changing ISP.
Over the last two months I've done a fair bit of troubleshooting. Removed satellites thinking they were too close together (and I'm sure they were). The last week I haven't been using any of the satellites, just the router alone. What I've been seeing, which has remained consistent the entire time, is that when the modem drops, if I disconnect the Orbi from the power source, the modem comes back online within minutes. I've confirmed this pattern easily more than two dozen times, and it always works. My internet has been down nearly all week (AT&T said they saw 114 disconnects in one day) so I finally swapped my Nighthawk back into the mix a few days ago. This has resolved the issue entirely.
Has anyone seen or heard of this kind of issue before? I'd like to get a replacement for my router and verify if it's truly a compatibility issue or some kind of defect with my router. I'm relatively sure it's not a configuration problem at this point, but maybe I'm missing something there. But I was fairly certain Netgear would likely just say "you can't use two router devices in the same home" and so far my brief conversation with Netgear seems to confirm those expectations, as that's exactly what I got from the call I just had with Netgear support. "Don't use a modem/router combo, I'll escalate your case".
Any thoughts on this? I actually have a self install kit in the mail from another internet provider. One where I could use my own modem. But after confirming with the Nighthawk that everything works just fine with a different router connected, I'm kind of wanting to cancel that and stick with AT&T. Their service has been flawless for two years. Something I couldn't say about the competitor in the past, which is why I switched in the first place. But I'd really like to find a way to use this Orbi mesh and keep AT&T.
What CAT# lan cable are you using between the RBR and ISP modem?
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft? What is the distance between the router and 📡 satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS📡 to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite📡
Understood. As mentioned, the modem is configured for pass-through and has the routers IP address provided. Wifi was also disabled on the modem prior to configuring it for pass through, and the Orbi is running in Router mode. (Though I've considered trying it in AP, but that seems a huge waste to use an RBRE960 as an access point)
When the issue began, the router and modem were connected using a Cat5e cable. All of the cables have since been replaced and it's currently using a Cat8 cable. No change in behavior between the two.
House is only about 1100 square feet. The satellites are unplugged and sitting in the closet currently. That was part of the troubleshooting throughout the last 2 months, again as mentioned in the original post. The combination modem/router and Orbi router are the only network equipment being used. And as mentioned, with the Nighthawk router everything works flawlessly. But with the Orbi Mesh, the fiber modem desyncs.
I'll have to check the firmware later and get back with that. But it was recently updated. Within the last 30 days.
Yeah I'll give that a try. Will have to wait until after work. I WFH and have the Nighthawk connected currently so I can stay online. On a side note, just as a test I took the RBR to the other end of the house and plugged it into the power to see what would happen. About ten minutes later the modem dropped again. Went and unplugged the RBR from the wall and I was back online before I got back to my chair.
I'm not immediately sure of the precise channels, but all are set to the highest available option. I'm currently only showing one neighbor, running on channel 1. I know quite a few more SSIDs pop up in the list in the evening. Maybe 5 - 10 total. I've monitored that a bit last month and I'd never seen any terrible overlap with the channels I'm using. Maybe one or two, not in the same channel but on a nearby frequency.
Firmware is 6.0.3.85 I haven't tried AP mode. But I disabled the 6ghz band about 6 hours ago and so far there have been no issues. That said, it's worked for a week or two with no issues before, but this week it's been a really consistent pass/fail situation.
I'm having this issue right now with the same devices. I don't even have them connected together as I'm on Xfinity until I can get this working. All I have to do is have the Orbi router on and BGW320 goes offline. This is the craziest thing I've ever seen. I've tried dozens of different things but cannot get the modem online as long as the Orbi is powered up. I have not tried putting the Orbi on different channels yet, but frankly doesn't seem like it will matter. I've turned the WiFi off on the modem so it should not be broadcasting or receiving on any channels anyway. ATT has no clue, the techs say they've never seen this before.
Sorry to hear that. But it makes me feel a bit better that it's not just me seeing this behavior.
To be honest, after struggling with it off and on for a couple months, once I found disabling the 6ghz resolved any issue... I've just left it that way and stopped putting time and energy into it. My mobile phone is my only wifi 6 device currently anyway. Haven't done any additional follow up troubleshooting at all. No issues in almost two months now with the 6ghz disabled. Tremendous waste of money though using this router without the 6g band.
I started to post on the AT&T forum about the modem, since that seems to be where the problem is. But never went back and actually posted anything after signing up. Would love to hear the results if you get any further with it. I'm not sure I care enough to keep troubleshooting at this point. Started back in like early February.
It really seems like just changing ISP and getting a third party modem would be a functional fix. But I don't have any alternate ISP options here that wouldn't make it pointless to have wifi 6 anyway.
I went over it with some more techs today as my router-modem issue apparently also brought down some of the neighbors service. Anyway, I pointed them to your post as where I found my fix. They are going to escalate it and get hold of the same Orbi router so they can replicate the issue back at ATT. I just posted to ATT's forum regarding our exciting issue also..
I moved mine to the other end of the house to test, hardlined my PC to the modem, and just plugged the router into power at the other end of the house. Still knocked the modem offline. And as he mentioned, he knocked neighbors modems offline in other houses.
When I talked to AT&T, I called to ask if there were any third party modems I could use. They looked up my modem and said it was the newest they had and that the service had to use it. The tech also tried five different BGW320 when he was at my house. I'd have to assume that there's not a newer version, unless it's very recent.
Ok, well, i believe theres nothing else we can do here in regards to this. This needs to be looked at by NG and Arris to see whats happening and where the fix can be effected. Something NG and Arris will need to dive into.
When you talk about disabling your 6GHz network - are you talking specifically about unchecking the box under the entry labeled 6 GHz Wireless Settings on the Wireless tab?
This does not enable/disable 6GHz SSID - this enables/disables a separate 6GHz SSID - separate being a different 6GHz band from the standard SSID used by the Orbi. To better explain this - If my Orbi SSID is called NETWORKABC, I have a NETWORKABC SSID broadcasting on 2.4GHz, a NETWORKABC SSID broadcasting on 5GHz, AND a NETWORKABC SSID broadcasting on 6GHz.
If I enable the 6GHZ ONLY band using the 6 GHz Wireless Settings in the Wireless tab, then I get another SSID broadcasting on the 6GHz band using the name that I provided in that setting.
At least that is what MY 960 is doing.
So - just curiously - are you providing the same SSID as used on your regular ORBI network in this area - thinking you will have the same network name across all three bands? If so, is it possible that you are creating two SSIDs under the same name on the 6GHz band using same channel - thereby causing something funky to happen? If so, maybe try a different SSID name under that special 6GHz band and see if it corrects that issue.
To verify that your Orbi 960 and MY Orbi 960 are functioning the same - can you verify that you can connect to the 6GHz band using the regular Orbi SSID after turning OFF (unchecking) the 6 GHz Wireless Settings box where it says "Enable 6GHz only network" and hitting apply. If you can not connect on the 6GHz band using the regular Orbi SSID - you may need to forget the Orbi SSID in network settings, then try and reconnect using the device that is 6GHz capable. It also helps if you are on Windows 11 to verify that it is actually on 6GHz - I'm not sure all Windows 10 releases are supporting 6GHz correctly yet.
Hi , To answer your questions, I have always setup distinct SSID names. I did not reuse my main SSID anywhere in settings. Unchecking "Enable 6 GHz Only Network" is the only change I made to get around the issue reported here, and it was sufficient to address it. I tried what you mentioned, used the forget network option on my phone, and reconnected and I do see the 6GHz frequency for my main SSID on my phone now; thanks for that tip, didn't know any of that. Nice to know I'm not actually losing the entire 6GHz feature. So I guess this issue is only related to this separate 6GHz-only WIFI.
I'm glad you found that you still have a 6GHz band available! It's not very well explained in the User Manual - hoping Netgear will update that some day. I think a lot of users believe you have to enable this option to GET/USE a 6GHz SSID.
I think there is still and issue somewhere - the option is there, it SHOULD be usable without taking down the connection. But I'm sure it may take some digging by NG to figure out WHY it is happening.
That's a good call out. I had noticed that the signal appeared to be registering as wifi 6 on my phone, but so does the IoT SSID (which is 2.4 and 5.0 only) so I figured it was just an anomaly at the time, or registering what the device was capable of. But looking closer at the network information, it is indeed sometimes picking up five signals off of my primary SSID, one broadcasting on channel 213. Though MOST of the time, the Orbi wifi analytics doesn't see that signal.
And no, my SSIDs all have the same name except they end in IoT, 50, and 60.
