Connected Devices Not Listed

[DarkSkyJim]

I have two devices on my Orbi network that work perfectly, yet Orbi no longer shows them as  devices. Why? One is a smart speaker that I assigned to a specific IP back when Orbi included it in the list of attached devices. It still shows up as having a reserved address when I login to the router and choose Advanced > Setup > LAN Setup. And it indeed has the assigned address; I can ping it and play audio through it. But it does not appear in Basic > Attached Devices nor Avanced > Administration > Attached Devices. However, it DOES appear in Advanced > Security > Access Control > List of devices not currently connected to the network. Yet, it clearly IS connected to the network, and with the correct IP and MAC address (which I can see from a wifi network monitoring app on my phone.) The second device that has this problem is a smart weather station. All details are the same as above except it has not been assigned a reserved IP address. Access Control off or on does not seem to impact their appearance, i.e.  I can power cycle the devices with Access Control set either way and they still DHCP correctly and they still do not show up in the attached device list. WHY??

[FURRYe38 · Accepted solution]

You can try updating to more recent version of FW to see if this helps or revert back to v16:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-2-6-1-40/m-p/1997895/highlight/tr...

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-2-5-1-16-Update/m-p/1897955/highlight/tru...

I would power OFF the RBS and RBR for 30 seconds after they are updated. Then back ON. Clear out all browser caches as well before checking the RBRs web page. 

[FURRYe38]

What FW version are you using? 

[DarkSkyJim]

Firmware is V2.5.2.4

[FURRYe38 · Accepted solution]

You can try updating to more recent version of FW to see if this helps or revert back to v16:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-2-6-1-40/m-p/1997895/highlight/tr...

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-2-5-1-16-Update/m-p/1897955/highlight/tru...

I would power OFF the RBS and RBR for 30 seconds after they are updated. Then back ON. Clear out all browser caches as well before checking the RBRs web page. 

[DarkSkyJim]

Thanks for the recommendation. But if this is simply a firmware issue (as opposed to something I have failed to account for), I'll leave it alone for now. The router/satellite are working fine and I know the IP addresses and MAC addresses of the two unlisted devices. As to a "more recent" version of firmware, the router tells me that I am using the latest version of firmware. If that's incorrect, then Netgear has an additional problem to solve - why isn't the device warning me to upgrade to newer firmware?

[CrimpOn]

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@DarkSkyJim wrote:

One is a smart speaker that I assigned to a specific IP back when Orbi included it in the list of attached devices. The second device that has this problem is a smart weather station. All details are the same as above except it has not been assigned a reserved IP address. Access Control off or on does not seem to impact their appearance.

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I had a similar experience some time ago with my Nest thermostat.  Assigned an IP in LAN Setup and always got that IP address, yet Attached Devices would not show it.  I discovered that when the Nest "app" was not open, in a few minutes the device would disappear.  Once I opened the Nest app, there it was again.  My hypothesis is that Orbi does not "probe" for device connection status. (like with ping or arp broadcasts), but instead has a timer from the last time data packets came from or went to the device.

Are there smartphone apps for both of these devices?

The smart speaker does not appear as a device even when streaming music?

[DarkSkyJim]

There's a smartphone app for the weather station (and to correct a mistake in my original post, the weather station DOES have a reserved IP assignment.) But accessing the weather station from the app does not cause it to suddenly appear in the Attached Devices list (as I just verfied.) The speaker is accessible through the Samsung Multiroom Audio app which allows me to select music/audio streams from my phone or other network sources (e.g. DLNA, internet radio, Spotify, etc.) to play through the speaker. The speaker DOES appear in the app's list of speakers that it has found on my network, and as I posted earlier, the speaker works as intended. I have four speakers, but only one of them remains hidden in the Attached Devices list.

[FURRYe38]

Whats reported on the RBR and whats up on NGs download site is not a problem. NG choses to put up versions of FW on there auto update servers and may not always put the latest on there servers. So users can choose to use whats reported by the RBR or users can look at the download web page as well. Not a problem. 

v4 has been reported as being problematic so either use it as it is or try the suggestions. I personally won't use v4. I've gone back to v16. 

Good Luck. 

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@DarkSkyJim wrote:

Thanks for the recommendation. But if this is simply a firmware issue (as opposed to something I have failed to account for), I'll leave it alone for now. The router/satellite are working fine and I know the IP addresses and MAC addresses of the two unlisted devices. As to a "more recent" version of firmware, the router tells me that I am using the latest version of firmware. If that's incorrect, then Netgear has an additional problem to solve - why isn't the device warning me to upgrade to newer firmware?

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[CrimpOn]

Thanks for humoring me.  My Attached Devices display takes up to five minutes to show changes.  Sometimes my phone latches onto the 2.4G channel, so I disconnect and reconnect.  The phone will claim a 5G connection, but Attached Devices will continue to show 2.4G for some time.

Just makes no sense.