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Forum Discussion
How to optimize my Orbi Network/Am I getting the best performance?
Hi My network is detailed in the attached diagram, hope it makes sense. I'm not convinced I am getting the full potential from my system, probably because of poor configuration (by me) on the Orb...
This seems like a LOT of WiFi radios in a small space. The general practice is to space Orbi units "about 30 ft." apart, depending on building materials. It appears that several of these are not much over 10' apart.
The house has brick exterior walls. What is the interior construction? (walls, floor)
It is unusual to connect another Orbi router "behind" an Orbi router, as this creates two separate WiFi networks. Even if they have identical SSID/password, devices will not "roam" between the two.
Diagnosing things generally requires software that can report the signal strength at various places. Often, WiFi device network management will report RSSI and "Link Rate" in numeric terms (rather than those stupid pictures and words like "Excellent").
There is software for Apple products that allows the user to walk around and see how strong the signal is in various places. (not an Apple person, can't remember the name). On Android, I use "WiFi Analyzer by Kevin Yuan. There are free programs for Windows that do the same thing.
The reason I bought the Orbi four years ago was I picked up a free "Heat Map" program and plotted signal strength in the house. LIke your situation, I had great signal where the ISP modem entered the house, but it fell off tremendously at the far end.
A lot of discussion, but "not much help" I'm afraid.
Thanks for your reply. Yes, it is overkill, but my reasons are purely due to lack of signal in those areas. Internal walls are brick and flooring is wooden. The RBR40 is set up in access point mode (I got it cheap) so thought why not chuck that in too. I guess from reading your comments the kit is simply not sufficient at short range, or the internal brick walls are potentially causing an issue?
My Virgin Modem and RBR50 are close to each other and close to the Virgin Media TV Box and TV, also my Phillips Hue Bridge, I will try moving the RBR50 away from all that.
To be honest not sure what doing a walk round signal check will do other than identify the Orbi kit isn't doing it's job, surelly the wired devices should be giving out a strong enough signal, maybe someone can asnswer that at a later date.
Again, thanks for taking the time to reply.