Intermittent internet connectivity outage with Orbi?

[seany187]

Just some interesting information, I recently purchased an iBaby M6S Dual Band Baby Monitor and we are having the same issue. We have to constantly restart the device.

[dmystic1]

So noticed something interesting in the (Attached devices).  Item #3 (Router)  which is a Nest-Cam is also showing the same ip address as item #1 (Satellite) and the same mac as item #2 (Satellite).

[peteytesting]

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@dmystic1 wrote:

So noticed something interesting in the (Attached devices).  Item #3 (Router)  which is a Nest-Cam is also showing the same ip address as item #1 (Satellite) and the same mac as item #2 (Satellite).

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sounds like the nest cam is jumping between the sat and router and is why you are seeing it on both which isnt umcommen as they dont forget clients the moment they disconnect , however new firmware should fix the lists

[Endorphine71]

I am about ready to return my unit too.  Sitting in the room today with the Satelite where my XBox One is connected.  Watching a movie and everything just stops working.

The XBox and my iPhone show connectivity to the router but no data.  I log onto the admin panel to check connectivity status from the router to the satelite and it has disconnected.  Had to do another full restart of the satelite to get it back up and running.  

The only good thing is I disabled the beamforming option and my Nest Cams are no longer disconnecting, just keep attaching to the router that is the furtest away.

I really wish this solution would have worked for me, but it seems more like a beta test.

[itGeeks]

What I am about to say is not going to solve your problem but it may help Netgear with an option for a fix. Orbi is not the only one having trouble with the use of bandsteering and devices such as Nest and others devices disconnecting when bandsteering is enabled as an all or nothing. A bit of history about me and Y I know this is because I and others in another community I belong to use a product called Open-Mesh and they have added bandsteering into it and it has caused all kinds of problems with devices like Nest so what they are doing now is allowing conditional bandsteering by devices instead of an all or nothing and this should solve most of these problems, Its not fully tested yet but this maybe something for Netgear to take a look at and try the same thing.

The reason for my long winded post is I just want everyone to understand some of these problems are not only related to Orbi but the technology used affects many other vendors as well.

I hope this info helps Netgear and others here....

[GadgetGuy]

One thing that I did with my installation...my Arlo and Hue routers are connected to Orbi via wire. I'm not familiar with the next camera..do they have a router as well or do they connect directly to your network.
I forgot to me mention before, I also have a thermostat connected to my Orbi via wireless. So far no disconnects.

[peteytesting]

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@GadgetGuy wrote:
One thing that I did with my installation...my Arlo and Hue routers are connected to Orbi via wire. I'm not familiar with the next camera..do they have a router as well or do they connect directly to your network.
I forgot to me mention before, I also have a thermostat connected to my Orbi via wireless. So far no disconnects.

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that makes a huge difference as its the wifi part that is causing issues with cameras and the like

[peteytesting]

the only issue with that is band steering is part of the wireless AC standard and as such should work and its up to both client manufactures and router manufactures to comply with the satndard and then it would work

what i think is happening is that band steering is a bit complex and i dont think a lot of client devices are coded well enough and this causes the issues

having conditional bandsteering is like setting 2.4 gig to 20mhz to make apple products work on wifi , its a work around not a proper solution

however apple within their own clients and router have band steering and roaming working great but that because they dont comply with the standard but choose to set their own standard

the issue here is more about enforcing the actual standard in both client and router devices , band steering works well in soho gear so there is no reason it cant work in domestic gear

pete

[itGeeks]

Right exactly, Apple is out of control and something at the Federal level needs to make them comply with standards or they will continue to run there own show, This is not only illegal but not fair to there customers. We as customers should have choices but Apple is doing everything it can to take the option of choices away from us so now it's up to company like Netgear/Open-Mesh to come up with some type of work around to make there complaint devices work with non compliant devices like Apple in order to retain happy customers or there will be very unhappy customers and returns of great products that work fine with products that work with standards.

[nitrogen1]

Has this issue been addressed any further at Netgear? I am having these issues several tiems a day. I have not returned the unit yet hoping for a firmware update to fix it. 

Basically I get my smart TV and all of my cell hpones in the household simply lose data at random. If I turn off the wifi on the device, or power cycle the device and reconnect it it works fine, however the data does break and the device has to be tinkered with. This does not happen when I hook my Asus router back up. It is very frustrating for a $400 device to jsut drop data like that, especially when there is growing competition in this area. Before I returned the device I was hoping there was a firmware update in the works and when could it be expected? Thanks. 

[Mikey94025]

Try this to see if it stops your intermittent disconnects: In Advanced / Advanced Setup / Wireless Settings / Uncheck "Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING"

This is a possible workaround for the current issue.  I'm not saying it makes sense or that this is still not a bug, but until we get a firmware fix this is working for me and my 2 Nest cameras.  They have not reported a disconnect in the past week after making this change.

[nitrogen1]

Thanks Mikey94025. I just unchecked that option and will keep an eye out for the next few days to see if it helped. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Namdnas]

I had this same issue with my iPhone/iPad devices after I hooked it up to the network.  After I did a reboot (unplug modem, router and satellite) and plugged everything back in, haven't had a single drop-out since.

[Skrymir]

I'm having the same issues with my NestCam. Though all my apple devices seem to be working at full speed.

What are the preformance impacts of disabling implicit beamforming?

[faderbox]

My nest cam's continue to disconnect. I had to deactive the beamforming. Argh. Where's the fix, Netgear?!

[Skrymir]

Deactiving implicit beamforming shouldn't have any effect on newer ac devices which are supported with explicit beamforming. It sucks that we have to use a work around but it doesn't look to be that impactful to performance. But I totally agree this should have worked out of the box.

While I have been mostly happy with Orbi I intend to make to clear in my Amazon product review that Orbi does have issues.

[peteytesting]

true but disabling implicit does effect the coverage and performance of those non ac devices that do support beamforming , disabling explicit makes no sense 

[Skrymir]

Have you been able to measure the difference in implicit on/off?  I wasn’t able to get any meaningful difference.

[peteytesting]

hi

i will have to dig out a few non AC client devices and do some distance testing with it on and off , but i can assure you there will be a substantial difference as you are basically taking the transmission back to wireless N standard coverage without beamforming and we know thats chalk and cheese when compared to current beamforming transmission coverage for both implicit and explicit clients 

pete

[peteytesting]

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@Skrymir wrote:

What are the preformance impacts of disabling implicit beamforming?

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disabling implicit beamforming will effect coverage to non wireless AC client adapter sor clients that dont have explicit beamforming 

thus basically taking those adapters back to the days of wireless N coverage for those adapters , for those that can remember that far back there was no way to get decent coverage at any distance or through a few walls 

with multiple access points this may not be an issue if the ap's are close together and within the confines of the main router , the issue would arise when you are on the other side of the sat and further out that will suffer coverage wise 

thats as technical as i can get but it obviously would have some impact on non AC client adapters 

pete

[nitrogen1]

So has ther been an official ticket logged with Netgear for this? Or any confirmation from Netgear that this is an issue they will be addressing? 

I turned off the beamforming feature and so far I have not seen data drops, I do however see slower speeds (though that could be caused by anything) and not as good coverage. 

I actually do not ever have a full signal anymore, no matter the distance fro mthe router or satellite. It is slightly frustrating that we can't use the system as intended and advertised. 

[ftsawick]

Add me to the list as someone who has a new Orbi system and a Nest Cam, and had drops every few hours on the Nest Cam until I disabled the beamforming feature.   18 hours and no drops.  

Netgear, you responded to some earlier messages.   Can you provide an update?

[itGeeks]

Looks like I will be holding off on purchasing Orbi till I see this get fixed (hopefully). Netgear are we working on a fix yet?

[verdugan]

I'm so glad I found this thread. I was going crazy trying to troubleshoot things.

I've turned off BEAMFORMING (Thanks Mike.) We'll see if that works.

I have until November 1st to return this. I'm hoping Netgear addresses this problem before then.