HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Thanks for simplifing how to accomplish this.  I'm needing to do the same thing to connect my smart applicance (Whirlpool microwave), as it only works on the 2.4GHz band, and my phone must be on this same band during setup.

I'm not clear, though, on Steps 4 and 5 in your table.  Are you on a Mac?  (I am, and am wondering if that's what MA means in step 4?)  And in step 5, is that what we enter in Terminal?

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OzzzieMike wrote:

Thanks for simplifing how to accomplish this.  I'm needing to do the same thing to connect my smart applicance (Whirlpool microwave), as it only works on the 2.4GHz band, and my phone must be on this same band during setup.

 

I'm not clear, though, on Steps 4 and 5 in your table.  Are you on a Mac?  (I am, and am wondering if that's what MA means in step 4?)  And in step 5, is that what we enter in Terminal?

 

 

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Yes, MAC means Macintosh.

On the command line in terminal you enter: nc orbilogin.com 23

This is the "netcat" command using tcp port 23 to connect to orbilogin.com.   Apple removed telnet so you cannot use that.  Telnet uses tcp port 23.

Thanks for clarifying things for me!  I'll be trying this in the next day or two.

FYI...I was able to talk to Netgear tech support, who initially told me to check I was on the correct orbilogin.net page section, as she was sure there was a means of unchecking the 5GHz radio.  I verified that there was no such button, and she then suggested lowering the 5GHz radio power to 25% and trying that.  I asked that she push this issue over to their software engineers, as it seems several of us kinda need this functionality.

There are free telnet programs for Mac out there. I use ZOC from www.emtec.com/zoc

Runs nicely on my Mac Book Pro 2008

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st_shaw wrote:

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OzzzieMike wrote:

Thanks for simplifing how to accomplish this.  I'm needing to do the same thing to connect my smart applicance (Whirlpool microwave), as it only works on the 2.4GHz band, and my phone must be on this same band during setup.

 

I'm not clear, though, on Steps 4 and 5 in your table.  Are you on a Mac?  (I am, and am wondering if that's what MA means in step 4?)  And in step 5, is that what we enter in Terminal?

 

 

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Yes, MAC means Macintosh.

 

On the command line in terminal you enter: nc orbilogin.com 23

 

This is the "netcat" command using tcp port 23 to connect to orbilogin.com.   Apple removed telnet so you cannot use that.  Telnet uses tcp port 23.

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I'm still really perplexed about this phenomenon. There is no techncial reason why the phone (app) and "smart" (I use that term *very* loosely) appliance need to be on the same band. I think that these... ahem... "smart" developers are making some incredibly stupid assumptions about how WiFi networks and clients work. The only thing I can think of is that the phone app tries to "copy" it's local WiFI config setting to the... (ugh!)... "smart" appliance, including band (???) for some reason, and because the phone is on 5GHz and the..... "smart" appliance doesn't know what 5GHz even is, so it fails. In which case, smart appliance has stupid developers.

At any rate, I hope this hacky work-around helps. Ultimately, "smart" appliance devs need to account for this use case, because it's going to become more and more common.

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OzzzieMike wrote:

Thanks for simplifing how to accomplish this.  I'm needing to do the same thing to connect my smart applicance (Whirlpool microwave), as it only works on the 2.4GHz band, and my phone must be on this same band during setup.

 

Hi OzzzieMike,

Something strange happened with the formatting on the table in my earlier reply. The right side is cut off. :(

If you reply to that message, when it quotes my original message, you will be able to see the full text.

Yes, I am on a MAC.

Step 5 is what you enter in on the terminal.

I was able to temporarily disconnect the 5GHz radio on my Orbi router...long enough to find out that my Whirlpool applicance still wouldn't connect via the Whirlpool app. 

I think the only thing I can do at this point is to wait for:

• A Whirpool tech support person who actually understands WiFi and does't have to read from a troubleshooting script.
• Netgear to push out a new app or web page functionality that provides functionality for turning off the 5GHz radio. (And for all Netgear tech support personnel to be familiar with the fact that this isn't possible for the Orbi via the web interface).

Many thanks for providing the instructions for shutting off the 5GHz radio temporarily.

Something else to consider, maybe the client device just is not wirelessly compatible with Orbi systems. Something you should ask the Mfr. Most devices do work with the Orbi systems. However there seem to be a few that don't.

Did you disable Beamforming, MIMO, Daisy Chain, and Fast Roaming or change the CTR/RTS threshold values for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (2341 and 2345 respectively), changed preamble modes to long preamble, and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only.?

Can try these suggestions, if the device still fails to connect, I would contact the Mfr of the device and ask for more help and information. NG is problably not going to introduce any kind of radio disable feature since MESH is designed for both radios to be enabled using Smart Connect. This comes from the 3rd party vendor who develops Smart Connect to work on MESH configurations.

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OzzzieMike wrote:

I was able to temporarily disconnect the 5GHz radio on my Orbi router...long enough to find out that my Whirlpool applicance still wouldn't connect via the Whirlpool app. 

 

I think the only thing I can do at this point is to wait for:

 

• A Whirpool tech support person who actually understands WiFi and does't have to read from a troubleshooting script.
• Netgear to push out a new app or web page functionality that provides functionality for turning off the 5GHz radio. (And for all Netgear tech support personnel to be familiar with the fact that this isn't possible for the Orbi via the web interface).

 

Many thanks for providing the instructions for shutting off the 5GHz radio temporarily.

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After sending them an email asking if they planned to continue efforts to resolve my connection issue, I received a call from their support team.  (A different one this time).

After going thru several iterations with some changes each time, and learning some things (I didn't know the Sync button on the back of the Orbi satellite also serves a WPS function!), I'm not much farther along that before, but with one change:

My appliance now shows it's connected to WiFi, and Whirlpool sees it's connected at their end. However, I'm not able to do anything with it, as we weren't able to connect the app to the appliance. The tech working with me said he was going to escalate this to their developers and someone would call me back.

All signs indicate the problem doesn't lie with the Orbi system or the appliance itself, but with the app.

I'll update this thread if/when Whirlpool calls me back.

Good to hear. Hope they can figure it out.

Keep us posted.

Good Luck.

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OzzzieMike wrote:

After sending them an email asking if they planned to continue efforts to resolve my connection issue, I received a call from their support team.  (A different one this time).

 

After going thru several iterations with some changes each time, and learning some things (I didn't know the Sync button on the back of the Orbi satellite also serves a WPS function!), I'm not much farther along that before, but with one change:

 

My appliance now shows it's connected to WiFi, and Whirlpool sees it's connected at their end. However, I'm not able to do anything with it, as we weren't able to connect the app to the appliance. The tech working with me said he was going to escalate this to their developers and someone would call me back.

 

All signs indicate the problem doesn't lie with the Orbi system or the appliance itself, but with the app.

 

I'll update this thread if/when Whirlpool calls me back.

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OzzzieMike Try turning off all your satellites, so only the Orbi router is running, then doing the setup.  I've found that sometimes works for setting up devices that have problems.

I may try disabling 5GHz and turning off the satellite tomorrow, then trying to get the app connected to the appliance.  (I noted the Whirlpool app was updated later today after my session with Whirlpool...perhaps they squashed a bug that helps this, too).

Thank you so much! After an hour trying to find the answer, I now have my La Crosse wifi projection clock working too! 

I still haven't had any luck with Whirlpool on this.  They say they've changed some things on their back end and want me to try connecting both the appliance and my iPhone to the same 2.4GHz network, which I told them I'd do.

Is there a limit to the number of seconds the 5GHz network can be turned off?  Your example shows it how to disable it for 300 seconds, but I suspect I'll need to use a much larger number, as Whirlpool wants me to call them after I've disabled the 5GHz radio.

Yes, you can increase the number of seconds to something larger if need be.

Thanks.  I went ahead and entered 1200 as the timeout setting, and it took it.

After setting this, I was on the phone with Whirlpool, as they felt it should work fine since both my iPhone and appliance were now on the same 2.4GHz band. (As I thought might happen, I had to run the Telnet script again while I was on the phone, as it had timed out after 1200 seconds).

Unfortunately, the setup fails (as it ALWAYS has) at the last step, where it has my phone connect to the appliance's WiFi network.  And at this point (as ALWAYS) my phone displays a notice saying it's unable to join the applicance's network.

Whirlpool told me they will update my ticket and let their developer(s?) know it still doesn't work.

I have a sinking feeling this applicance will NEVER work with the Orbi system!

Thank you for providing the steps to follow. I am stuck at step 5 and was hoping you might have some insight. 

After entering nc orbilogin.com 23 into Terminal I receive the following error:

Aarons-MacBook-Air:~ aaronvacek$ nc orbilogin.com 23

nc: getaddrinfo: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

I am not prompted to enter my username or password. Any advice?

Thanks so much for any and all help.

As of 20190313 with Router Firmware Version V2.2.1.210, this "fix" works. Thanks again for summarizing all of the relevant contributions in one spot.

Hi all, thanks for the information shared here. I know this is a few months old but just thought I’d share my findings. I needed to connect my Nest Protect(s) as well as a weather station to my Orbi RBR50 (FW V2.3.1.60), for which for I needed my iPhone to be on the 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi channel.

I found the easiest way to achieve this is to "hide" rather than turn off the 5Ghz channel.(In the absence of anything to easily turn it off)

1)Power off the Satellite.

2)Go into the routers web browser GUI -> Advanced Wireless Settings and then untick Broadcast SSID and WMM for the 5Ghz channel and click Apply.

3)Then go to your iPhone and Wi-Fi settings and click "forget this network", it should then disconnect.(Not sure how to perform "forget this network" on other devices but I assume it's just as easy)

4)Reconnect to your Wi-Fi using the SSID that is now only being broadcast on the 2.4 channel and voila it will have connected to the 2.4Ghz channel.

Afterwards just re tick the options shown in the above screen shot.

Hope someone will find this useful.

Glad the hide the 5Ghz SSID broadcast help you. 

Enjoy. :smileywink:

Gents, I can't thank you enough for the invaluable tips in this thread.

I had just installed a RBK23 at my friend's house but she was getting the dreaded Smart Life app error message "Only 2.4ghz Wi-fi networks are supported" when attempting to set-up her wifi porch lights via the app.

Long story short: got into the Orbi debug page and set up Telnet. Ran IPConfig to find out the router IP address, called it up with PuTTy which I had just installed for that very purpose.

Router responded straight away, asking for username and password.

Copied the Telnet string text and pasted it into PuTTy (little trick here: the Paste command is simply a right click into the PuTTy window).

Presto: a countdown started running and during the 600 seconds I had specified we were able to setup the wifi lights beautifully.

Again, thanks to all of you guys in that thread who have contributed. Absolute life savers the lot of you.

Next time, you can easy disable the 5Ghz radio by disabling the 5Ghz SSID broadcast temporarily by taking out the check mark for the 5ghz SSID broadcast Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings. Once you have the 2.4Ghz devices setup and running, just recheck the enable 5Ghz SSID broadcast. 

Enjoy. 

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Aguillon wrote:

Gents, I can't thank you enough for the invaluable tips in this thread.

I had just installed a RBK23 at my friend's house but she was getting the dreaded Smart Life app error message "Only 2.4ghz Wi-fi networks are supported" when attempting to set-up her wifi porch lights via the app.

 

Long story short: got into the Orbi debug page and set up Telnet. Ran IPConfig to find out the router IP address, called it up with PuTTy which I had just installed for that very purpose.

 

Router responded straight away, asking for username and password.

Copied the Telnet string text and pasted it into PuTTy (little trick here: the Paste command is simply a right click into the PuTTy window).

 

Presto: a countdown started running and during the 600 seconds I had specified we were able to setup the wifi lights beautifully.

 

Again, thanks to all of you guys in that thread who have contributed. Absolute life savers the lot of you.

 

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Yes noted on your solution - I hadn't scrolled to the very last page before I enthusiastically started down the telnet route.

This being said, the geek in me got a massive kick out of going full blown Telnet onto an Orbi. Good fun to get reminded that beneath that polished exterior and web interface, it still talks the same language your 56k modem did 20 years ago...

Maybe however separation of SSIDs isn't officially supported. Disabling of either radio is. The Orbi works as intended. Remember it's the Mfrs of these 2.4Ghz IoT devices and there setup software that is the problem and doesn't allow for setup devices to be on either frequency since both are on the same network techincallly. These Mfrs need to update there setup software so that the setup device can be on either frequency.