UPGRADED TO ORBI RBKE963 AND NOW IPAD PRO CONNECTS AT ABOUT 12 MPS WHILE TV CONNECTS AT 51 MBPS. TV connects over Ethernet cable to ORBI, iPad & iPhone over WiFi. (TV is 100% Internet based. Internet connection is point to point, (not fiber, cable, DSL, or satellite))
Point to point in our case is a fixed wireless connection. We connect a router to a transmitter on our roof. We connect to a tower over radio waves to our Internet provider’s tower. Their towers are connected either by fiber or radio or cable to the Internet. We don’t have cable or satellite or POTS/phone, so no modem at all.
Before the switch to the new router and satellite, we had the ORBI 81 mesh router and satellites and both Wi-Fi devices and Ethernet devices were at around 50 mbps, which is our plan maximum. We were having trouble connecting the whole house because you can only connect two satellites in a daisy chain and they didn’t reach far enough to get to the office over the garage, or the garage, much less the barn. Also our IPTV just keeps spooling on and off. We replaced the over a decade old internet company router with the new Netgear ORBI router, hoping to fix any problems the old router may have been causing to IPTV staying connected.
The new router and satellites still don’t reach the perimeter to the offices over Wi-Fi, but the new router has Ethernet connections available, so we connected the one satellite to over Ethernet to reach the office upstairs and the the satellite in the office near the router is wifi. Though only about 10 feet from the main router, the downstairs office can’t connect over Wi-Fi to the router and has to have the satellite, maybe because it is in a closet? Fortunately I still have the Ethernet cables that go from there to the other rooms that I had put in when we built 18 years ago. They are Cat 5, but better than nothing.
Our Roku TV with attached Firestick are connected by that old Cat 5 cable to the new ORBI router and the main streaming services work. I have one main Firestick IPTV app that just keeps spooling moth of the time though, even though the Firestick shows a 55 mbps speed consistently.
I have no idea why our iPads and iPhones which were at about 50 mbps with the old router and old ORBI are now in the 12 mbps range, (over Wi-Fi). I had the Netgear Security set up and VPN and have turned it off now because the IPTV app won’t work at all with it on and I thought it might be slowing down the iPad/iPhones, but that did not fix the low speed on the Apple devices. First the ORBIs I bought last year and now the new ones and I seem to be making things worse. I must be doing something wrong.
Our ISP says they don’t throttle or limit or any of those words and since the Firestick consistently shows 51ish mbps over Ethernet through the ORBI router,
Our Internet is 50 mbps , so Cat 5 at 100 mbps is still faster than our internet service. The main TV is connected via that Cat 5 cable and is running at 51 mbps, which is our Internet provider’s speed. But shouldn’t wifi be as fast with the new ORBIs? Cat 6 wouldn’t be any faster than the internet speed we receive - 50 mbps.
I used to get nearly 48 on my iPad, with the ORBI cubes, with everything running - TVs, phones, laptops, iPads. Now, with everything else turned off, no other users connected, the fastest I can get on iPad over wifi is 25 and usually just about 12 with one other connection. Shouldn’t the new ORBI be at least as good as the old?
Seems like the pad maybe seeing lower speeds is all when connected to the RBS is all. Or the location of the pad from the RBR, though even closer to the RBS, seems to be picking the RBR connection rather then the RBS...
I connect at the top speed with the satellites unplugged completely, so that is a workaround for using the iPad - just stay close to the router. Unfortunately, that defeats the purpose of the mesh system, of extending the range throughout the home - if I can’t use the satellites at all.
There is no modem in our system. There is a radio transmitter on our roof that connects to the ISP’s tower. We don’t connect to a POTS, cable or satellite.
Home is almost 3,000 sq ft, but spread out. Separate garage, with room over garage. Then further out is the barn.
One satellite is about 15 feet from router, but I have unplugged it, so now the other satellite can’t use it.
Other satellite is over garage, probably 30-50 feet from router and is too far from router, or blocked by brick walls and fireplace to connect over wifi to router. It was connecting to the other satellite, but I had to turn off the other satellite in order to use wifi in the house or it slowed my connection. So now I am only using the one satellite, attached via aging cat 5 cable we laid through the attic in ‘05, so that the office above th e garage can have internet and we can use the phone up there. Without wifi our cell phones don’t work, so I want the wifi signal throughout the house and yard. I can’t find anyplace to connect the first satellite so the second satellite can daisy chain through it, that doesn’t cause connection issues. If I plug it back in where it is, close to the router, the other satellite can use it over wifi, but all connected devices then only get about a fourth of the speed. I was told you could connect up to two satellites via daisy chain, but you showed me that by disconnecting the one closest to the router, my iPad and phone inside will connect at full speed, so it is now sitting idle until I figure out how to make it work.
Before the switch to the new router and satellite, we had the ORBI 81 mesh router and satellites and both Wi-Fi devices and Ethernet devices were at around 50 mbps, which is our plan maximum.
I have no idea why our iPads and iPhones which were at about 50 mbps with the old router and old ORBI are now in the 12 mbps range, (over Wi-Fi).
I, also, find this inexplicable. The 960 router and 960 satellite are placed in exactly the same location as the previous Orbi units? (as an aside, Netgear names each router at the factory with a WiFi name (SSID) consisting of the letters "O-R-B-I" plus a two digit number. This appears to be a method to reduce the chance of two neighbors purchasing systems with exactly the same WiFi name. The actual product number appears on the product label - bottom of the case.)
Though only about 10 feet from the main router, the downstairs office can’t connect over Wi-Fi to the router and has to have the satellite, maybe because it is in a closet?
Something is definitely "not right". Maybe if the closet walls are solid brick or concrete. But WiFi penetrates 2-3 walls of ordinary residential dry-wall construction with "no problem." Perhaps a rough pencil diagram of these locations would help to understand the situation. It appears there is some flexibility in where the cable from the radio is placed. Perhaps what seemed like a suitable location for wiring hub 18 years ago is no longer optimal. It might be worth taking a fresh look at the total picture.
Great info. Thank you. Our previous ORBI router was an RBR10, that I referred to in error as an ORBI81, (the network SSID assigned lol). Yes, when I set up the new router, RBKE963 set, I put the router and two satellites in the same places as the RBR10 and RBS10s. The walls are just drywall, not stucco, BUT right behind the media closet, where the router sits, is the brick fireplace - real brick. Between the office upstairs over the garage where a satellite sits and the router is
1 the brick fireplace, 2 The exterior wall of the house, which is brick, and 3 The exterior wall of the garage and upper office, also brick. That is why putting a satellite in another room in the house, near the router, but not with the fireplace in between, helped boost the signal. It eliminated 1 the barrier of the fireplace and 2 may have eliminated one brick wall because more in line with a window between it and the office over the garage. With the old router RBR10, the wifi did not reach the printer or laptop in that close office. Putting a satellite in there fixed that problem. Putting the new satellite in there created a conflict somehow, but the new router is strong enough to reach the printer and laptop in that room without a satellite, so that part of the problem is solved. Unplugging that new satellite in that room solved the problem of iPad and iPhones connecting at a slow speed also. And it now seems that the satellite in the office over the garage, which is connected via a wired connection is extending the wifi to the garage and driveway area, (further than the RBR10], so that is an improvement.
Yes, that satellite in the office over the garage is showing as a wired connection. Whether this new, more powerful set could send the signal to that room over wireless, I haven’t tried. With 3 layers of brick, and an Internet speed that is under 100 mbps, Ethernet Cat 5 is just fine.
So, it’s still a puzzle why the second satellite causes a problem, but I am betting it is just too close to the router. Either way, everything is up and running now at the speed it should be without disconnecting from the router all the time like the prior version did. The new router’s wifi extends further and the cable to upstairs still works, so the help I have received here has been priceless. I could probably call Netgear, since I paid for support and let them help me troubleshoot why the second router causes problems. But you all already helped by having me turn off the second router, so y’all already made some great progress for me.
