ORBI: Switch off WiFi on certain time slots

[fdrebbin]

Hello all,

Message to the Netgear ORBI firmware development team.

I'm new ORBI (RBK50) user at home.

The ORBI satellite is used to cover the bedroom area of my house, where I was previously using a WiFi access point form alternative supplier.

I would like to switch off the WiFi from the Orbi satellite during night time... and keep the ethernet switch on...

Unfortunately, you are not offering such a feature, at least with firmware 2.7.2.104.

Would be cool if you implement this.

Best Regards!

[CrimpOn]

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@fdrebbin wrote:

I would like to switch off the WiFi from the Orbi satellite during night time... and keep the ethernet switch on...

Unfortunately, you are not offering such a feature, at least with firmware 2.7.2.104.

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From what I have observed, Netgear does not monitor the community forums where customers discuss products with each other.

There is an "Idea Exchange" which appears to be where customers make suggestions:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/idb-p/idea-exchange-for-home 

You are not the first to suggest this feature.  My (personal) view is that it runs against the "Internet of Things" movement which depends on 24/7 access to WiFi to function and Netgear may assume that not enough customers would take advantage of such a feature to make the development cost worthwhile.

[FURRYe38]

Also kind of hard to get RBS satellites back online as well as they depend on a contant wifi singal when they are wirelessly connected. 

[CrimpOn]

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@fdrebbin wrote:

I would like to switch off the WiFi from the Orbi satellite during night time... and keep the ethernet switch on...

Unfortunately, you are not offering such a feature, at least with firmware 2.7.2.104.

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If the goal is to eliminate "radio waves" in the bedroom during the night, this cannot be done.  To keep the ethernet ports active, the satellite must maintain contact with the Orbi router, which is done using a 5G WiFi connection. Even if the "user facing" WiFi were turned off, the backhaul WiFi signal will remain.

[fdrebbin]

Hello,

Except that I forgot to mention that the backhault is connected by Ethernet LAN in my case and not wirelessly over 5GHz WiFi…

Best Regards

[FURRYe38]

Even when ethernet connected the wireless backhaul is running in case the ethernet conenction fails. It can't be turned off. 

[CrimpOn]

OK. There IS a solution to this, with a modest investment.  (It will be a cold day in <that place> before Netgear implements this feature).

Purchase an inexpensive unmanaged gigabit ethernet switch and a smart plug.

Connect the switch to the etherent cable, the Orbi to the switch, and all devices that are currently connected to the Orbi LAN ports to the switch.

Plug the Orbi into the smart plug and define a schedule on the smart plug to turn off the Orbi whenever it needs to be off.  I have tested this using TP-Link KASA smart plugs. Although the plug needs WiFi to be set up and to learn the time, as long as the  plug has electrical power it will continue to operate as scheduled.

[FURRYe38]

To get around the smart plug needing wifi, they may manual non wifi digital timer plugs that one can program and set then connect the device to be controlled to this timer. There fairly cheap too.