Internet Connection Issues with RBK50

[cmihaly]

I just bought a Orbi RBR50+RBS50 combination to replace a nighthawk router I was using.  I bought it since my nighthawk was 10 years old, was gettting flacky and had to be restarted daily, it seemed like it was overheating and did not get full coverage of my house and any of my yard.

Setting it up was pretty easy, they statellite and router paired automatically and hooked to my Spectrum modem.  Had lots of coverage even several houses away.   Full coverate in thehouse and yard.   Most of my devices hooked right in since I used the same SSID/password for the 2K SSID on the nighthawk.  Had to reassign ssid/password to the devices I had on the 5G SSI of the nighthawk.   

All seemed well, but iwth use I am noticing that I am constanlty, several time an hour loosing internet connection!   Sometimes very quickly, for a second or two and somtimes for a minute or two.   It is very disruptive, it hits while steraming movies, when I am at work, I have to reconenct my sesisons and it hange for minutes at a time.  At first I thought it was my Spectrum Modem, but I hooked my nighthawk back in and it has no problems connecting and keeping connection to the internet.

I saw a bunch of articles and posts in various places with apparently a lot of users having this issue.  Most of the posts seem very old in the 2007 time, less recently.  And see good reviews on Amazon and other istes, so I do not understand what is going on with my Orbi.

Is there some way to make this more stable.  Having it disconnect every few minutes is basicly making the deviee worthless.   I'm go to have to go back to the nighthaws soon and I guess put thie Orbi in the electronic trash heap, out $300 buck and go buy a eero on another device that does not aoppear to have these problems.

Hoepfully someone can tell me how to get this resolved?

Thank you
Chris

[FURRYe38]

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?
Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode?

What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router

Has the ISP modem been powered OFF for 1 minute then back ON along with the RBR? 

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 enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or may not be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

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).

[cmihaly]

What Firmware version is currently loaded? 1.4.0.18
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too? Hitron E31N2V1 Cable Modem
Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode? Router

What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router  

It is a bit over, about 36 feet.  But indicates a strong signal between the satellite and the router

Has the ISP modem been powered OFF for 1 minute then back ON along with the RBR? 

Not this last time, but i did last night.  I'll try to do that again shortly.

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? Auto (I think it using canel 1), and 48 for 5Gh.   I see 4 other wifi ssids which must be my neighbors.

Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or may not be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
I see beamforming and MIMO under Advanced Setup/Wireles Settings, but do not see WMM.  Ah WMM is under Qos settings and is alrady enabled.

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).
I do not see Armor, circle options on the router pages.  I am trying Coexitence off, IPv6 was already disabled.   Nopt sure where Daisy Chain or Fast Roaming or the Preamble moddes are.  

For now, I turned on beamforming, MMO, WMM was alreadyon, 20/40 Coexistance is off, ipv6 was already disabled.  I'll see hopefully this helps.

Thanks

Chris

[cmihaly]

So I upgarded to the newest firmware, 2.5.1.32 on both satellite and router.  Took a bit of a trip to get the router up to the new version, had to upgrade to a couple old versions first.  Would have been nice if netgear had full instructions on what versions you have to update on the path to the latest.  But I am now there.

So far, feels good, hoping tomorrow will be a good day and I will not see any disconnects.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Chris

[FURRYe38]

Yes, v74 and v212 are key on the RBR. I think you can go directly from old to new on the RBS. 

I would recommend a factory reset if you notice anything. However see how it goes for now. I haven't updated yet. I'm still on v16. 

Keep us posted. 

[cmihaly]

Well, I was hopefull, was ok for most of the morning, but it is back.  I no longer get the magenta glow on the router, but everything, wired and wifi lock up for a few seconds to a minute or so.   Sucks when it is right in the middle of a businss call.   Kind of need dependeable internet.   A bit shocking to see all the same messages on this board.   

Anyway I am currently at:

Firmware: 2.5.1.32 on Router and Satellite

I did turn circle and Armor on, I guess I can turn them back off, but I do not think this has any effect as it was happening when they were off.

WMM is enabled on 2G and 5G, Disabled 20/40 Mhz Coexistance on 2G, Preamble is Automatic, 100% transmit power.  I do have Daisy Chan on but I just have a single satellite, so I tured it off since I do not need it on anyway.  Beamforming and MU-MIMO are turned on, Fast Roaming is turned off

In Router mode, Remote Management off, ipV6 off

2.4 is Automatic, 6Ghx is Channel 48 WPA2-PSK, Guest Network on

Chris

[FURRYe38]

Yes disable Armor and Circle to see if the problem appears again. If it does, please try a factory reset on the RBR and this time don't enable Armor or Circle...

Users have seen problems with these apps running in recent history. 

[cmihaly]

So, my router and satelite on 2.5.1.32 firmware.  I turned calbe modem, satellite and router off waited a good while turned on calbe modem let it come up fully, turned on router and went through the factory reset.  Powered up satellite and factory reset it.  Then did the stock setup, did not turn on Circle or guest network.   Everythign stock.

Got my support ticket finally with a reply, they wanted the factory reset, everythign standard and run speed test.  Man that is a great test, youc an see the problem.    It took my 10 tries to get a speed test through without the Orbi handing up for a second or more during the download upload portion.  Finally on the 10th try got a good run with 232 Down, 7 Up and 13 ms Ping.     I switched my Orbi back to my nighthawk, good runs every time at around 232 Down, 11 Up and 9 ping, no hangups ever.   Great and solid. Put back the orbi, same thing, 1 out of 10 tries gets a good run!

The support ticket wanted me to change the MTU to 1492, did that, about the same, maybe a little worse!

And during work, i see pretty much the same thing.  10 minuyte zoom called disconneted interrupted about 12 times.   My WFH connectino constantly hanging.  My son and wife complaining that they are constantly interrupted doing schooling from home and watchign streaming.   

I can't image how this can be this bad.   What disconerns me most is the # of entries on this forum that seem to be having the same problem, and now that I am googling this, more than a handful others also having this same problem.   Just feels like a real stock setup, nothing too fancy.  Just doens't not work.   And my nighthawk has no problems at all, I just do not have the coverate. And trying to extend with an NetGear extender was also a horrible experience, plus that router is 11 years old and I am nervous it is going to give out.  Every few days I had to power cycle it becuase it got studk.  But every couple days sure beats every couple of minutes 😞

Not sure what to do,  I have to Friday to ship this back to get at least some of my money back :-(.  

Chris

[FURRYe38]

When you are speed testing, is other devices connected or streaming? You might speed test with the RBS turned off. 

Is your speed testing with a wired or wireless device. Wired is preferred. 

What happens if you put the NG router on line, disable it's wifi radios, configure AP mode on the Orbi RBR? 

Possilbe you may have a faulty system.