Despite trying all advice from various threads, my Orbi 50 system wifi speed is very low
Hi, I have been very pleased with my Orbi system for a long time, but recently I have discovered that my WiFi speed has dropped dramatically - even standing right next to the Orbi base station, the download speed caps out at 10-12 Mbps (last I checked I saw 200-300 Mbps). My fiber into the house delivers 500 Mbps, and the speed test built into the Orbi app measures it at that speed.
I have a setup with 1 RBR50 base station and 3 RBS50 satellites, running firmware 2.5.1.16.
I run a couple of Macs (at the very latest OS version), quite a number of IoT devices (light bulbs, thermostats, etc.), and my wife and I use iPhones and iPads around the house. The house is about 200 m2, built out of wood.
As the heading says, I have tried most advice I could read from various threads about slow WiFi; turning on/off various settings related to beamforming, MU-MIMO, fast roaming, etc., but nothing has helped.
I am really running out of ideas - is there anything else that can be done?
Re: Despite trying all advice from various threads, my Orbi 50 system wifi speed is very low
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? What are your wired speed results?
What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz. Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
Try disabling the following and see: Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Set Short preamble instead of Long preamble modes. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).
Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update? Press the back reset button for 15 seconds then release.
What Firmware version is currently loaded? 2.5.1.16 What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too? Zyxel P2812ac What are your wired speed results? 500+ Mbps up and down
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? About 30 feet between the RBR and two of the RBSs, probably around 45 feet to the third RBS
What channels are you using? 11 for 2.4 and 36 for 5 GHz
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many? We live in a very rural area so I can only barely detect the neighbor's network
Try disabling the following and see: Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Set Short preamble instead of Long preamble modes. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).
Should I try them all at once or one at the time? I did something to these once earlier, but at some point my Home Connected washing machine would no longer be able to connect - any idea which, if any of these, causes that issue?
Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update? No, would that involve a lot of effort? I mostly fear having my smart home devices getting into trouble, but I guess resetting and setting the same network name/password won't cause much trouble?
Re: Despite trying all advice from various threads, my Orbi 50 system wifi speed is very low
@FURRYe38, one more thing, I have used Netspot and WiFi Explorer to analyse the network, and all seems fine, with low noise and good signal strengths. However, I notice that for the 5 GHz networks, the max rate is shown as 54 Mbps, as opposed to 400 for the 2.4 GHz ones. Is that normal?
Re: Despite trying all advice from various threads, my Orbi 50 system wifi speed is very low
Yes, Reset. Besure to not enable Access controls, Armor, Circle or Traffic meter. Soon as the setup wizard is completed, run a wired speed test with a couple of different wired PCs using ooklas installable speed test app with the RBR. I would not connect everything else until testing is done. Turn off all wifi and wired devices accept for 1 or 2 wired PCs. You don't want any interferences during speed testing to be sure.
Re: Despite trying all advice from various threads, my Orbi 50 system wifi speed is very low
Hi, @FURRYe38, with summer vacation going on, I have not had much time to look at this lately. I am also hesitant to reset the system, as I have so many smart home devices with reserved DHCP addresses, which I fear will create problems in a reset.
One additional question; I have the option to easily connect one of the satelites (which covers the most important area of the house) through ethernet (the other two satelites are out of reach for this). Is it possible to have such a mixed setiup, with one satelite over ethernet and the other two wirelessly, and can it alleviate my low speed problem?
