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I am running firmware V2.1.1.16 and it is showing my Orbi Satellite status as poor and all my devices are showing as connecting to the router even though the router is located further away. I have moved the satellite to various spots and sometimes it is good but still the devices connect to the router. I would love to have a guide or some guidance on the best settings and practices for this router as I am extremely dissatisfied with the performance and the money I have spent.
Can someone tell me should these be checked?
Enable Daisy-Chain Topology
Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices Enable MU-MIMO Enable Fast Roaming
I have read that the 2.4MHZ channel should be set to 1,6,11 for optimal settings. Is this true for the orbi?
What is the best firmware to be on and what settings will give the best performance.
As with the previous several firmwares, I'm still getting excellent performance and stability on V2.1.1.16, but I acknowledge there are a heckuva lot of moving parts both with Orbi itself and environment-dependent factors that can make or break that performance... For what it's worth, here are my thoughts on the Orbi setup options specifically...
I have a basic 1-router-1-satellite Orbi setup. The Sat is ~20-25 feet from router with a "Good" wireless backhaul connection (ethernet wired connection not a option in my house). The router is in my basement and sat is on main floor - a couple of walls in between too.
Daisy Chain
I recommend enabling this feature only if you have multiple sats that link like this: R-S-S. If you have just one sat or your multiple sats are hub-&-spoke (S-R-S), then leave Daisy Chain disabled.
Implicit Beamforming
It's my understanding that implicit beamforming is only potentially helpful for older non-ac wireless devices (i.e. b/g/n 2.4-only devices). I only have a few of those in my house, and they connect fine with beamforming disabled, so that's where I leave it. I've experimented with having it "on" too, and didn't have any issues, but I also didn't notice any improvements. So, in an effort to keep things as simple as possible, I leave that option disabled.
It's also my understanding that explicit beamforming (specifically for wireless ac devices) is inherently built into Orbi - there's no seperate selection option for that explicit beamforming capability.
MU-MIMO
I'd bet almost anything that you don't have multiple mu-mimo devices that could potentially take advantage of this feature (such devices are still quite rare). I don't have any such devices at all, so I leave this feature disabled. To paraphrase one of the wise old-heads on smallnetbuilder.com, MU-MIMO is the 3-D TV of wifi these last couple years -- a lot of glitzy hype, but no real substance 😉
Fast Roaming
I have this feature disabled, since it caused my phone to bounce back-&-forth between my router and sat wayyy too much. I am very dependent on wifi-calling, so that's how I noticed it. My wifi-calling is super stable with this feature disabled, but it's certainly worth playing around with in your own setup - maybe it'll work great in your particular environment.
Wireless channels (2.4 and 5)
I've always left mine at the default since those work fine for me, but I'm in an uncongested area. If you are in a more congested area, it's definitely worth analyzing your overall local wireless environment to determine the best channel selections for you, but that's good advice for setting up any router - Orbi or otherwise.
If you are running 2.1.1.16 without too many issues I would stay on that until they fix the device display issues.
As for settings, yes, enable all those options as they should give the most flexibiltiy. I think auto channel settings are just fine, but dependant on how heavility you are surrounded by other Wifi routers.
Daisy chaining is an option if you have a very long space to cover and the router is on one end and the two satellites are lined up so then the furthest satellite can connect to the in-between satellite if it cannot reach the router with its backhaul signal. For my space I have it off, but it should not hurty anything to have it enabled if the software is reliable - which I don't think it is at this point so you may need to make manual adjustments to get the most reliability from your Orbi.
As with the previous several firmwares, I'm still getting excellent performance and stability on V2.1.1.16, but I acknowledge there are a heckuva lot of moving parts both with Orbi itself and environment-dependent factors that can make or break that performance... For what it's worth, here are my thoughts on the Orbi setup options specifically...
I have a basic 1-router-1-satellite Orbi setup. The Sat is ~20-25 feet from router with a "Good" wireless backhaul connection (ethernet wired connection not a option in my house). The router is in my basement and sat is on main floor - a couple of walls in between too.
Daisy Chain
I recommend enabling this feature only if you have multiple sats that link like this: R-S-S. If you have just one sat or your multiple sats are hub-&-spoke (S-R-S), then leave Daisy Chain disabled.
Implicit Beamforming
It's my understanding that implicit beamforming is only potentially helpful for older non-ac wireless devices (i.e. b/g/n 2.4-only devices). I only have a few of those in my house, and they connect fine with beamforming disabled, so that's where I leave it. I've experimented with having it "on" too, and didn't have any issues, but I also didn't notice any improvements. So, in an effort to keep things as simple as possible, I leave that option disabled.
It's also my understanding that explicit beamforming (specifically for wireless ac devices) is inherently built into Orbi - there's no seperate selection option for that explicit beamforming capability.
MU-MIMO
I'd bet almost anything that you don't have multiple mu-mimo devices that could potentially take advantage of this feature (such devices are still quite rare). I don't have any such devices at all, so I leave this feature disabled. To paraphrase one of the wise old-heads on smallnetbuilder.com, MU-MIMO is the 3-D TV of wifi these last couple years -- a lot of glitzy hype, but no real substance 😉
Fast Roaming
I have this feature disabled, since it caused my phone to bounce back-&-forth between my router and sat wayyy too much. I am very dependent on wifi-calling, so that's how I noticed it. My wifi-calling is super stable with this feature disabled, but it's certainly worth playing around with in your own setup - maybe it'll work great in your particular environment.
Wireless channels (2.4 and 5)
I've always left mine at the default since those work fine for me, but I'm in an uncongested area. If you are in a more congested area, it's definitely worth analyzing your overall local wireless environment to determine the best channel selections for you, but that's good advice for setting up any router - Orbi or otherwise.
The feedback you received is great but I will tell you I am having the exact same issue after the latest firmware upgrade. My Orbi has been outstanding for 6 months but this month after the firmware update I am about ready to throw it away.
Among other issues I have had is exactly what you describe, everything connecting to the router even though my satellite shows a "good" connection. Devices are even dropping down to 2.4 to connect to the router instead of the 5 ghz connection satellite right next to it. It has been very frustrating.
I am running entirely defaults except for mu-mimo being checked. UPNP unchecked and daisy chaining unchecked.
Thanks for all the input. I wish they would put out firmware that works and if its an old option or doesnt really matter if its checked or not check they just elimate it or set it to what it needs to be set to. I see no need for an option to which gives you the same results checked or not.
Forget to include one thing in my previous post...
As with every router I've ever owned, I also have unchecked (disabled) UPnP.
I don't have any devices that no-kidding require UPnP, so disabling it keeps a potential security loophole closed. I have some devices that say they require UPnP, but those have always worked perfectly fine with UPnP disabled on all of the various routers I've owned (Orbi, Asus, Linksys, etc).
Regarding MU-MIMO it works well on Qualcomm chipsets and clients along with Intel clients (ie Intel 8265/9260 WiFi cards) as well. Even SmallNebuder found decent gains on the R7800 with MU, they only denigrate it because of Broadcom not supporting it well. Only Broadcom router chipsets have a bad implementation that actually results in a penalty. MU-MIMO as a whole is not gimmicky, like 3D TV which, in any way. Granted the Orbi is Qualcomm based, however most MU clients are 2x2 (Dual Antenna) which means a 4x4 (Quad Antenna) router like the R7800 makes more sense for it rather than the Orbi which is 2x2 making MU pretty useless in this case, unless you have Broadcom clients which drop to 1x1 mode in MU mode (ie Galaxy S7/S8). So yeah in terms of the Orbi gimmicky, but not when in routers like the R7800 or R9000. It’s only going to keep improving as it’s a standard and will be part of the upcoming ax standard as well and more and more clients are supporting it. Also the chipset decides when to use MU even when set to “enabled” it will only use it under certain conditions where the chipsets seees it as beneficial as it is computationally intensive, according to an ex Qualcomm employee.
