New to Orbi - RBK50 / RBR50 V2 - rebooting often

[theoak]

Device rebooted again.  Got approved for an RMA; unfortunately, none are in stock 😞  As soon as one is available, it will be sent.  I will have to limp along until then.

[Retired_Member]

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@GregCook wrote:

Hi,

not to be rude but if you have nothing of value to offer perhaps you can troll another post.  Im looking for some help and at this point you have provided nothing of value.  Thanks

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No need to apologize for being rude. I only tried to bring forth the idea of bad firmware.   As it turns out I guess your device is bad?   So at this point my position was another point of view.  The value is in the eye of the beholder.  

[FURRYe38]

Curious, did you try Voxels FW? 

Do you have a prior your you could use has your host router, then configure the Orbi for AP mode? 

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@theoak wrote:

Device rebooted again.  Got approved for an RMA; unfortunately, none are in stock 😞  As soon as one is available, it will be sent.  I will have to limp along until then.

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[theoak]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Curious, did you try Voxels FW? 

Do you have a prior your you could use has your host router, then configure the Orbi for AP mode? 

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@theoak wrote:

Device rebooted again.  Got approved for an RMA; unfortunately, none are in stock 😞  As soon as one is available, it will be sent.  I will have to limp along until then.

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I am still in my 90 days of full support, so I did not want to venture too far off the approved path.

My final last ditch effort (I have said that before too) in hopes to bring increased stability until the new one arrives ... I "Erase"d (Revert to factory default settings) via the GUI ... followed by a pin reset on the router ... followed by configuration.

Way back in my R7000 days, and earlier for that matter, that was the common recommendation when resetting the device.  Folks said back then that both were not needed as they should be the same, but others swore by it.

Long story short ... thus far I am pushing 12 hours of up time .. which is one of my longer runs.  We'll see what happens once the kids get on for school.

[FURRYe38]

Ok, was wondering. 

Yes, been contention with factory resets. I have for years now used resets with in my process troubleshooting or FW updates which I have never seen odd issues like random reboots or other oddities. Factory reset has been and always will be a valid troubleshooting step that for most users should be a last resort effort to see if it changes things. Most cases it does and does solve problems, thus is why its a needed and valid step. 

Hoping that this will be the case for you as well. I was thinking regardless of of your warranty, while you are waiting on an RMA since they are out of stock, you could try Voxels FW to see if it brings stability as another last resort kind of thing. You can always revert your system back to stock FW before sending this system back to NG. 

Hoping the reset will bring better operation. Be sure to make a backup configuration to file for safe keeping.

Keep us posted. 

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@theoak wrote:

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Curious, did you try Voxels FW? 

Do you have a prior your you could use has your host router, then configure the Orbi for AP mode? 

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@theoak wrote:

Device rebooted again.  Got approved for an RMA; unfortunately, none are in stock 😞  As soon as one is available, it will be sent.  I will have to limp along until then.

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I am still in my 90 days of full support, so I did not want to venture too far off the approved path.

My final last ditch effort (I have said that before too) in hopes to bring increased stability until the new one arrives ... I "Erase"d (Revert to factory default settings) via the GUI ... followed by a pin reset on the router ... followed by configuration.

Way back in my R7000 days, and earlier for that matter, that was the common recommendation when resetting the device.  Folks said back then that both were not needed as they should be the same, but others swore by it.

Long story short ... thus far I am pushing 12 hours of up time .. which is one of my longer runs.  We'll see what happens once the kids get on for school.

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[Retired_Member]

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Factory reset has been and always will be a valid troubleshooting step that for most users should be a last resort effort to see if it changes things. Most cases it does and does solve problems, thus is why its a needed and valid step. 

Mostly true in the case of manual updates.  Auto-push has a lower rate of the need to trouble shoot.  If it ain't broke...don't fix it

[theoak]

Got my replacement:

• They only replaced the router versus the whole kit. 
• New router booted up to 2.3.5.30 firmware. 
• The serial number was actually "lower" than my now old kit was.  Not sure if that means anything.
• Yes, I updated to 2.5.1.16 to match my satellites.  Yes a manual update.  The update page did say there was NO update available while on 2.3.5.30.
• I configured the new router from scratch.  Considering I use Orbi in Access Point mode, it is not that bad.
• I did "erase" and pin reset the new router before configuration.
• I "removed" my satelltes from the original router and "erased" it to factory.
• I did have to sync my satellites to my new router.

Results:

• 1.5 days up time.  So far so good!  So far its a keeper.

I did have a work video chat meeting.  I had one individual comment how "clear" my video was versus others and asked what settings I use.  I said, no special setting - just my good looks - is why it is so clear.  Everyone on the call laughed - not sure why 

With a little luck it will keep on going.

[FURRYe38]

Glad the new replacement is working out well. Let us know how it goes. 

You looks may have broke the prior system. Hehe. Just kidding. 

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@theoak wrote:

Got my replacement:

• They only replaced the router versus the whole kit. 
• New router booted up to 2.3.5.30 firmware. 
• The serial number was actually "lower" than my now old kit was.  Not sure if that means anything.
• Yes, I updated to 2.5.1.16 to match my satellites.  Yes a manual update.  The update page did say there was NO update available while on 2.3.5.30.
• I configured the new router from scratch.  Considering I use Orbi in Access Point mode, it is not that bad.
• I did "erase" and pin reset the new router before configuration.
• I "removed" my satelltes from the original router and "erased" it to factory.
• I did have to sync my satellites to my new router.

Results:

• 1.5 days up time.  So far so good!  So far its a keeper.

I did have a work video chat meeting.  I had one individual comment how "clear" my video was versus others and asked what settings I use.  I said, no special setting - just my good looks - is why it is so clear.  Everyone on the call laughed - not sure why 

With a little luck it will keep on going.

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[theoak]

Ha!  Yes, I probably "broke" my last router 

Considering my router and satellites have different serial numbers, they are not naturally paired if I reset my router.  If I restore my router from a backup, does that restore include satellite connectivity; or, will I have to re-sync the satellites again?

(Uptime: 2 days 17 hours ...)

[tomschmidt]

My original RBR50 was also replaced with an RMA, and any factory resets that I have performed did not affect the RBS50 satellites from working again with the RBR50. I only had to resync the satellites once months ago when I replaced original router so that they would bind to its RMA replacement.

[theoak]

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@tomschmidt wrote:

My original RBR50 was also replaced with an RMA, and any factory resets that I have performed did not affect the RBS50 satellites from working again with the RBR50. I only had to resync the satellites once months ago when I replaced original router so that they would bind to its RMA replacement.

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Ah ... perfect.

So it must do some sort of "perma"-setting once you sync a satellite that survives a reset.  Thanks for the quick reply.

[Agent_X20]

I'm another RBR50 user from NZ. I purchased the Orbi setup to replace a pair of Asus routers. My ASUS gear worked 'ok' but my devices would endlessly roam back and forth between the two nodes causing poor all round performance. 

My Orbi experience has been fair to poor all told. I mean this morning my RBR50 and satellite simply rebooted for no reason. And the useless logs of course are cleared down so I cannot troubleshoot things. Initially when I bought the Orbi a few months back I got quite a number of reboots and disconnects. Things have settled down somewhat with a couple of firmware updates but it still happens from time to time, with no discernable pattern or cause. I'm also somewhat unimpressed with the range of the Orbi gear compared to my very run of the mill Asus routers.

My iPhone 6S phone is also constantly resynching - switching nodes and endlessly renegotiating its speed (something I can see on the App). As a result it chews through my phone's battery. Of course it did this with the Asus gear as well but it seems, if anything, even worse with the Orbi.

The big saving grace for the Obrbi is the strong backhaul radio that has allowed me to get 'good' connectivity into my office during lockdown (no cables).

About the only thing I've not yet done, and I've tried all the usual swttings tweaks, is the factory reset process. I will do it, but with my network setup, the initial Orbi setting things up process can be a pain in the arse with clashing IP numbers etc.

Would I buy Orbi again? No almost certainly not. And I did come into this with some awareness of the problems people experience but underestimated the angst it would cause. Anyway, I just thought I'd relate my experiences as another Kiwi with the same gear.

[theoak]

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@Agent_X20 wrote:

...

About the only thing I've not yet done, and I've tried all the usual swttings tweaks, is the factory reset process. I will do it, but with my network setup, the initial Orbi setting things up process can be a pain in the arse with clashing IP numbers etc.

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Is your Orbi in Router mode?  Static IP your known devices ... say X.X.X.2 to X.X.X.100.  They set your DHCP for X.X.X.101 to X.X.X.200.  This should prevent your DHCP from giving out an IP address that is already statically assigned.

[GregCook]

Thanks for the feedback, ive put through a repair, have a new unit in my hands, sealed in box.  will likely not be keeping it will rever to the spark smart mesh system i think.. less painful..:)

[Agent_X20]

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@theoak wrote:

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Is your Orbi in Router mode?  Static IP your known devices ... say X.X.X.2 to X.X.X.100.  They set your DHCP for X.X.X.101 to X.X.X.200.  This should prevent your DHCP from giving out an IP address that is already statically assigned.

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Yeah it's in AP mode. And yes you're absolutely right - my (pihole) dhcp server settings should make things easier for a reset. Cheers.

[Liquidcore]

The Spark Smart Modem + Mesh sounds like quite a decent device judging by the feedback on Geekzone! Also looks like it can even handle gigabit PPPoE. Good luck 🙂

I nearly gave my RBR50 up for a RT2600ac + MR2200ac combo but have decided to keep it and use it in AP mode behind a more capable router.