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Just a friendly message because it may help others. I'm using an RBR50 with 1 RBS50 sattelitte on firmware V2.3.1.60 ... I've been having a horrible time with the smart switches in my house (I have about 55 wall switches from TP-Link, (HS200 and HS210). They only communicate on 2.4ghz and I could never keep all of them connected to the network. I would reboot the router, or change channels, over and over again and every now and then I could get everything connected, but then a few days later things would be bad again.
I finally figured out what the problem was (although I've done a ton of troubleshooting, even setting up subnets and seperate wifi networks using old equipment I had lying around). What finally fixed the problem was disabling the DHCP server on the Orbi and enabling the DHCP server on an old ASUS router runnning tomato firmware and connecting the LAN switch to the the Orbi with an ethernet cable (after setting up a static IP address on the old router that was compatible with my network). As soon as I did this ALL my light switches connected and I also noticed things like my smartphone connect to the network much faster.
I short I think the DHCP server is buggy and is challenged when there are a lot of IP addresses in the network. If anyone uses the TP-Link switches and they just flash green forever (rather than turn red) then that flashing green tells you they are connected to the wifi network, but are not getting an IP address assigned. (I didn't know that, but it makes sense in hindsight).
Hope this helps anyone with a similar problem (and I hope I've used enough keywords to get google searches here).
I just noticed the new upgraded firmware (V2.3.5.30) and in the release notes is this fix:
[Bug Fixes] The client was not able to obtain an IP address when the router rebooted or the client renewed the IP address
I'll try to update over the weekend when I have some time, but this seems like a likely fix to my issue since my problem was that subsequent reboots of my large network always ened up with some devices unable to obtain an IP Address (with different numbers not working each time). I'll report back if this fixes it, but I'm hopeful.
After loading v60 FW, did you do a factory reset on the RBR and setup from scratch.
Also did you attempt to setup IP address reservations, one at a time, for each of your IoT devices? Or did you have them all online at once while connected to the RBR? Possible having that many all at once could be bogging the system down.
55 wall switches and how many other devices are connected to the system?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
Instead of disabling the DCHP server on Orbi, why not try AP mode on the RBR with your Asus router?
Just a friendly message because it may help others. I'm using an RBR50 with 1 RBS50 sattelitte on firmware V2.3.1.60 ... I've been having a horrible time with the smart switches in my house (I have about 55 wall switches from TP-Link, (HS200 and HS210). They only communicate on 2.4ghz and I could never keep all of them connected to the network. I would reboot the router, or change channels, over and over again and every now and then I could get everything connected, but then a few days later things would be bad again.
I finally figured out what the problem was (although I've done a ton of troubleshooting, even setting up subnets and seperate wifi networks using old equipment I had lying around). What finally fixed the problem was disabling the DHCP server on the Orbi and enabling the DHCP server on an old ASUS router runnning tomato firmware and connecting the LAN switch to the the Orbi with an ethernet cable (after setting up a static IP address on the old router that was compatible with my network). As soon as I did this ALL my light switches connected and I also noticed things like my smartphone connect to the network much faster.
I short I think the DHCP server is buggy and is challenged when there are a lot of IP addresses in the network. If anyone uses the TP-Link switches and they just flash green forever (rather than turn red) then that flashing green tells you they are connected to the wifi network, but are not getting an IP address assigned. (I didn't know that, but it makes sense in hindsight).
Hope this helps anyone with a similar problem (and I hope I've used enough keywords to get google searches here).
After setting a IP address, you have to save then apply the change. Do a full reboot of both RBR and client device. It should setup the IP address and work. I have a few set up on mine however I don't have that many devices like you do.
@vrtladept wrote: Yes, I tried assigning addresses, they were not honored by the router.
Can you give an example? On my Orbi, the router has IP 192.168.1.1 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0, which means that the Orbi "knows about" devices with IP from 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.1.255. I have assigned IP from 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.29 to various devices that are on most of the time. The Orbi assignes IP in the range 192.168.1.30 to 192.168.1.40 to anything that asks for one. And, 192.168.1.41 through 192.168.1.254 are available if I choose to use them.
How is your Orbi set up and which IP addresses are "not honored" by the router?
I did not do a factory reset, but the firmware update occurred on the first night I owned the router, before configuring it a month ago.
I had everything working until I had to reboot due to a power outage. Then could never make it stable again. I have a total of about 97 devices on my home network.
I'm happy with how things are working with using the replacement DHCP server, as even if I nursed the orbi back to health a reboot seems to reintroduce the problem. I also marvel at how fast everything joins the network with the orbi as everything but a rhcp server and 7 year old router running tomato add the connected dhcp server. It's the best the setup had ever performed. The Orbis DHCP server is buggy!
To determine if the FW or DHCP service feature is actually "buggy", you'll need to factory reset and setup the RBR again and test out setting up IP address reservations with just a few devices first, then graduate adding devices. Saving and applying the changes and rebooting the RBR and devices to see if the problem still happens.
Wow, 97 devices. Thats alot. Wonder if there maybe a problem with that many devices online at once. Not sure if NG tests for this or not. Most homes don't have that many devices. Thought I agree, as new IoT becomes available, more homes are getting more into automation.
What you are asking is impracticable. All of my IOT devices address already configured for my network ssid and are hardwired into my wall. They will connect as soon as the right network is available. Even if I create a new network and manually move them one by one which takes 2 to 3 minutes a device, a simple power outage will have then all join as once next time. The DHCP server must handle that many clients at once. My old rt n12 router with a smaller memory and slower CPU handles this just fine.
LIKEWISE if a factory reset is standard operating procedure for a firmware update then I should have been informed to do that when I first setup the router. also, I don't want to repeat the procedure you suggested for the next firmware update.
Like I said before my setup works great with the old routers dhcp service. Overall I like the orbi. It provides solid wifi coverage in my larger house. It does seem clunky from a software perspective, taking a long time to load its web interface and reboot. But I can live with it. My purpose for posting was less about getting a fix, and more about helping those who might be seeing similar issues. I do hope that NETGEAR takes notice and gets to fixing the bugs in thier software.
A factory reset normally isn't needed, however working with Orbi and others over the time, factory resets have given resolve to users problems. Mostly due to configuration issues and some with how new FW gets updated. A factory reset is a valid troubleshooting step and again, would need to be performed to prove your claim. Others have not posted about having this issue like you have. Most users have working systems and even while not having as many devices, Orbi seem to work well as does the DCHP server.
I have a friend whos Orbi has been setup since day one about two years ago. Has never seen a factory reset since I set it up. Other users are not so lucky. Orbi is an interesting system to say the least. Works well for some, not so much for others. Why some of us are here to help out and help find the real issue. Most of the time we can help resolve issues. It also takes participation of the users to listen and follow what some of us here help out with.
If you feel this is an issue, you would be best served by filing a support ticket here:
This would better notify NG of the issue your seeing and again you'll need to prove to them that the system is working as designed with out a 2ndary router involved. There are debugging collection abilities with Orbi what would be useful to send to NG for review.
Fyi. I had already notified NETGEAR by opening a ticket before this post. My post was to notify others because no one was talking about this issue.
As far as proving things, I don't need to prove anything to anyone. If anyone is facing the problems I described above I recommend they try replacing the dhcp server to see if it helps!
Also could be a possible issue with your network environment or maybe faulty HW. There many various network environments and HW that could be a cause. With out more investigation, hard to tell and cant' really point to only Orbi.
Most Orbi systems are working for Orbi users and DHCP is working for them. Mine as well.
I just noticed the new upgraded firmware (V2.3.5.30) and in the release notes is this fix:
[Bug Fixes] The client was not able to obtain an IP address when the router rebooted or the client renewed the IP address
I'll try to update over the weekend when I have some time, but this seems like a likely fix to my issue since my problem was that subsequent reboots of my large network always ened up with some devices unable to obtain an IP Address (with different numbers not working each time). I'll report back if this fixes it, but I'm hopeful.
Let us know. Please do a factory reset after the FW has been upgraded on the RBR and RBS. Setup from scratch. Be sure to not enable Circle, Armor, QoS, Traffic Meter or Access controls just yet. Connect a few LAN devices to the RBR and setup some IP address reservations. Be sure any other DHCP servers are disable or disconnected from the RBR while testing.
I just updated the firmware, turned off my old DHCP server and gave everything a reboot. Everything came back up and seems to be working just fine. FYI, I didn't do a factory reset, the firmware upgrade alone seemed to be sufficient. If it messes up again, I'll try that before doing anything else.
No problem. I think it was the bug in the old firmware version that was fixed per the release notes. If a client doesn't get a IP address, that points to a problem with the DHCP server. That's why it resolved itselve when I turned off the Orbi's DHCP server with the old firmware, and works now without disabling the DHCP server in the new firmware. Mystery solved!
