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Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
I have two complete Orbi systems with satellites, one at each home here in Georgia. They have worked very well and I’m very happy with them. , The 4 year old RBE850 ORBI 6 started dropping its Wi-Fi connection and Internet connection and displayed a lot of intermittent connection issues with the inability to login into the Wi-Fi even though the SSID was clearly showing. After a little bit of troubleshooting I decided to just go buy a new one as the local Best Buy still had one of these with two satellites in the box. It had always performed well so I thought it was just tired.
Anyway, I’ll try to make a long story short but an interesting problem developed and stumped me and Netgear tech-support Inge me to spend almost 5 hours on the phone with them yesterday.
Since I have 50 to 60 devices in the home that connect to Wi-Fi I wanted to keep the WIFI network name/password the same so I would not have to go to each device and reprogram them. No problem Wright, sounds simple. not for ORBI… it just would not work. The router would not allow me to use the previous Wi-Fi name and password and function correctly no matter how many times I reset it or how many different things I did in Wi-Fi settings to try and get it to work. it worked perfectly with any other Wi-Fi name and password but just would not accept the name and password from the previous router that I was replacing. The “2nd tier” Netgear tech-support guy in India spent several hours with me on the phone trying everything they knew as well and could not give me an explanation as to why that would not work but we did determine that this was just the way it is.
I just used a new Wi-Fi name and went and did all my devices and everything is good now but I just thought thought that was a very unusual problem. I mean why would the router care what you give it?
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
what I'd try?
Go through and shut off as many of your wifi devices as possible. Then setup the orbi with the same ssid/password. Start slowly turning devices back on to see if they work.
Reason I say this is for about a year, I had an issue with an orbi on bootup if my firetv box was on. If I unplugged the firetv and booted up everything and then turned on the firetv, it was fine. But if the firetv was on first, it wouldn't bootup properly. That was a challenge to figure out that it was something with the firetv causing issues and not the router.
I'm not sure if it was flooding the router with requests on bootup or what the issue turned out to be because I got tired of messing with it and threw it out.
Just curious if thats the issue. And if switching the SSID to a different one is just making it so whatever device is causing the issue isn't flooding the router on bootup.
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
What SSID name are you using?
How is the RBR being set up? Orbi app or Wired PC and web browser?
What Firmware version is currently loaded? What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too? Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6A STP is recommended. How many RBS are deployed? What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router 📡 and satellite(s)🛰️?
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
what I'd try?
Go through and shut off as many of your wifi devices as possible. Then setup the orbi with the same ssid/password. Start slowly turning devices back on to see if they work.
Reason I say this is for about a year, I had an issue with an orbi on bootup if my firetv box was on. If I unplugged the firetv and booted up everything and then turned on the firetv, it was fine. But if the firetv was on first, it wouldn't bootup properly. That was a challenge to figure out that it was something with the firetv causing issues and not the router.
I'm not sure if it was flooding the router with requests on bootup or what the issue turned out to be because I got tired of messing with it and threw it out.
Just curious if thats the issue. And if switching the SSID to a different one is just making it so whatever device is causing the issue isn't flooding the router on bootup.
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
that’s pretty much what we decided also but since the labor involved would be the same shutting all my devices down as it would be just changing the station ID and reprogramming them, I went with the safer route to get it over with.
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
after five hours on the phone with tech-support we had already tried everyone of those things in multiple configurations and I was using the most current firmware
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
Please post what actual FW version is loaded?
Something to try next time, if you have a spare wifi router. Set it up and run it has your host router. Configure it for same SSID name and PW. Then set up Orbi OFF line using same SSID name and PW. Then put the Orbi router online with the ISP modem, the modem will need to be rebooted. As you put the Orbi router online, leave the out going router ON. Just not connected to the ISP modem. As the Orbi router comes online and gets connected fully and ready, just power OFF the out going router. You wifi devices should and will auto migrate and connect to the Orbi router. I do this all the time when I bring on a new router to test. Works well. I don't have to change anything on devices or reboot any wifi devices.
Also be aware of newer versions of FW, i.e. v7 have WPA3 support. Some older devices may not work well with WPA3 enabled or in Mixed Mode with WPA2.
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
I agree entirely that using the same WiFi credentials is "the way to go." I have kept the same WiFi credentials for over 20 years for just the reasons you indicated:
Allows all WiFi devices to connect to the new system without reconfiguring, and
If I decide to "go back" to the previous system, all devices will connect to it as well.
There have been posts on the forum previously describing this same issue (cannot set up new system with existing SSID/password).and I do not recall them being resolved either.
In a technical sense, it is hard to imagine how configuring the WiFi credentials could appear different (to devices) than a system restart (either deliberately, power outage, or firmware update. There are all sorts of administrative actions that cause the Orbi WiFi radio system to restart.
All those devices are sitting there waiting... "sure wish there was a WiFi network that I recognize. Been sitting here for quite a while with no network to use. Oh, look. Here's one. Associate me NOW!"
I agree entirely that using the same WiFi credentials is "the way to go." I have kept the same WiFi credentials for over 20 years for just the reasons you indicated:
I'd agree that reusing them is the best bet. I'm going on over a decade of the same SSID. the only issue I ever had was with the one device causing problems. Once that was removed, zero issues.
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
Sometimes the system may not be in the NG update data base. Or NG doesn't make FW available via Auto Update. So users have the option to manually update as well.
Also make sure that your check for FW updates is enabled prior to checking. NG added this feature in v4 FW after long years of users complaining about auto updates breaking systems. So Users have control now.
Re: Using same SSID on replacement RBR850 router would not work.
the last thing I’m gonna do is go in to my perfectly working, newly configured router, 4 satellites and 43 devices to manually update the firmware…lol I’ve been around long enough to know better than that…
