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Forum Discussion
Orbi WiFi speeds drop low until I reboot the router
Dear All,
I have the following Orbi mesh router with 2 satellites running the latest firmware v.2.7.3.22:
Netgear Orbi Mesh Router RBK53S-100NAS (router + 2 satellites)
Router Product Model: RBR50v2
This is NOT a wifi6 router
Every so often (once a week) my wifi speeds in all the wireless devices gets really low (~ 30 Mbps). Then I unplug and plug back the router. After that, I get back my normal wireless speeds ~ 300 Mbps. Until a few days later when speeds drop down again and I have to repeat the process. I am about to retire this Orbi and purchase a new mesh router from another vendor (no more Netgear - this Orbi has been nothing but troubles) with new WiFi6 capabilities.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve this annoying problem? I am also not so happy for getting ~ 300 Mbps on wifi when my internet capabilities are 600 Mpbs (verified with wired connection).
Thanks!
12 Replies
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and 📡 satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS📡 to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite 📡What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 to 48 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, Traffic Meter, 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). Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless SettingsOne User Experience/Configuration:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Most-Stable-Orbi-Configuration/m-p/1941087/highlight/true#M97026Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update?
Thanks. I had already tried all the settings you suggested.
Only item I have not tried is the hardware factory reset. Will that soon when I have several hours to dedicate to this as it is going to take a while to complete.
This has already been discussed on other threads. Forget all the silly questions about channel, house sq. ft. and resetting. That will NOT fix it.
I ran into this same issue. I found that a NETGEAR WiFi dongle connected to my Dish satellite receiver caused the problem. I went into the dongle WiFi configuration in the receiver and removed and re-connected to the WiFi network name, rebooted the router, and now the speed is stable.
Another user had the issue and found that his smart TV was the cause.
You may have to disconnect/reconfigure/reboot all your wireless devices to isolate and see if one is causing the issue.
Good luck.
Avohai wrote:
I am also not so happy for getting ~ 300 Mbps on wifi when my internet capabilities are 600 Mpbs (verified with wired connection).
WiFi speeds are often a disappointment, for several reasons:
- Whereas an ethernet connection is inherently full duplux (packets travel in both directions at the same tiime), WiFi is inherently (a) half duplex (i.e. a device can either transmit or receive. it cannot do both at once), and (b) the available radio time is shared with every device on the network
- WiFi has a lot more overhead than ethernet. For example, every 100ms every access point broadcasts a "beacon frame", which takes up bandwidth. WiFi frames are actually longer than ethernet frames. (A very complicated subject, for example see this reference:
https://dot11ap.wordpress.com/ieee-802-11-frame-format-vs-ieee-802-3-frame-format/ ) - WiFi frames are encrypted, which takes processing power on the WiFi device to decrypt.
- WiFi speed falls off with distance (physics square law), so a link that may be 'rated' for 866mbs will not actually achieve that speed in practice. I am sitting 4' from my Orbi and my 2019 Sony phone reports a Transmit Link Rate of 650mbs and a Receive Link Rate of 585mbs (and that's before all that overhead eats away at it). Moving just 15 ft. away dropped them both. And... they are not constant. Link rates vary by the second as WiFi devices clamor for attention.
- WiFi devices vary in their capabilities. A friend and I were struggling to understand the speed of his home network. My Sony was reporting a much higher Speedtest than his older (and cheaper) Motorola.
I think if Speedtest is reporting 300mbs on your phone, tablet, or laptop WiFi, that's pretty good.
When you get a WiFi 6 system, the theoretical maximum speed will be higher, provided that you have WiFi 6 devices to use it.
While your response is welcome, it's not useful for this particular known issue, where speed is normal but then drops to a low value (usually 30~45Mbps) days later and stays at that low speed until a reboot. Many people have reported it. It's a problem with the router. It appears to be tied to one of the devices on the wifi network, my theory is it's connecting to the backhaul path. In my case it was a NETGEAR wifi dongle. I reconfigured it and the problem hasn't returned.
fmalloy wrote:
my theory is it's connecting to the backhaul path. In my case it was a NETGEAR wifi dongle. I reconfigured it and the problem hasn't returned.
The malfunctioning device is not likely to have connected to the backhaul path. The 5G WiFi backhaul link uses WPA2 encryption the same as the front facing 5G WiFi. The 21 character SSID is hidden (not broadcast) and the password is a 63 character string of random letters & numbers. I suppose it could have interfered with the backhaul link in some way. (generating thousands of management frames?) but connecting seems a bit of a stretch.
If download speed is degrading over time and is restored by rebooting the router, that does argue for some device or process that is consuming bandwidth at an increasing rate and leaving less (and less) for other devices. It would be fascinating to know what that dongle was doing (technically). There are very few tools available to non-technical users to diagnose this sort of problem, which leads to the idea of "disconnect things until the problem goes away."
I am seriously annoyed that OpenWRT, which Orbi is based on, includes software to report the data used by each device and somehow Netgear did not include that functionality in their Orbi product. I am not 00% certain that the culprit would be revealed by the data reports, but it would be a good place to start. (I see reports that packets that are handled entirely by firmware acceleration do not make it into linux stats. WAY over my head.)
Thanks everyone who kindly provided suggestions.
The suggestion about trying to identify which device is causing a conflict is welcome but I have lots of devices (close to 40) using my home network and that will be time consuming. The other answer indicating that WiFi lower speeds are normal as a function of the distance from the router is also appreciated. To address/respond to both suggestions, all I can say that prior to using the Orbi I had another brand of router where I did not have such issues, namely (a) weekly drop out of WiFi speeds requiring reboot, and (b) my WiFi speeds in general were not ~ 50% from the wired speeds even when nearby the router (such is happening now). Those are specific problems introduced by the Orbi. The reason I moved from the other router (other manufacturer) was because I wanted to have a mesh router to cover all the spots in my home. However, I see that with the Orbi, my WiFi speeds are about 50% of the wired speeds even when I am nearby the router, and that about once a week all my WiFi speeds drop to about 10% of my best values, requiring a reboot to go back to may normal values (50%). Thanks!
Avohai wrote:Thanks everyone who kindly provided suggestions.
The suggestion about trying to identify which device is causing a conflict is welcome but I have lots of devices (close to 40) using my home network and that will be time consuming. The other answer indicating that WiFi lower speeds are normal as a function of the distance from the router is also appreciated. To address/respond to both suggestions, all I can say that prior to using the Orbi I had another brand of router where I did not have such issues, namely (a) weekly drop out of WiFi speeds requiring reboot, and (b) my WiFi speeds in general were not ~ 50% from the wired speeds even when nearby the router (such is happening now). Those are specific problems introduced by the Orbi. The reason I moved from the other router (other manufacturer) was because I wanted to have a mesh router to cover all the spots in my home. However, I see that with the Orbi, my WiFi speeds are about 50% of the wired speeds even when I am nearby the router, and that about once a week all my WiFi speeds drop to about 10% of my best values, requiring a reboot to go back to may normal values (50%). Thanks!
Understand about the number of devices (I have 26), but if you don't go thru and at least reboot them all you'll be stuck with this problem until Netgear fixes their firmware (don't hold your breath). If the "lower speeds are normal as a function of the distance" was the cause, why does it take days for the slow speed to suddenly kick in?
It's not the distance, it's not your sq. ft. or all that other nonsense. Don't bother with the "factory reset" - it doesn't fix it. Some device on your network is triggering a bug in the router. I would start with devices that are not reputable phones, laptops, desktops, etc. - like IoT devices, for example.
I didn't want to go thru all mine either, but I got fed up with rebooting every few days. Spending the time was worth it - all I had to do was reconnect my dongle to the other network name (I had duplicate network names in the config software) and have not had the problem since.
Good luck.
You'll need to track down the device or devices and see what device maybe causing this. Not everyone has this issue. I have 30+ devices and have not seen this. A factory reset will be needed to help troubleshoot this. I would reset and setup from scratch and turn OFF most of your devices. Leaving 1 or 2 running. Then graduate adding devices 1 at a time.
Also please give feedback to the questions and suggestion presented to you early on. These are helpful in giving us what you have configured and what you are using. Not everyone has the same configuration or setup so having information on what YOU have helps.
Factory resets are an integrale part of troubleshooting and is known to help fix problems:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/2-5-0-40-Attached-Devices-Issue-on-RBR50-RBS50/m-p/1827366/highlight/true#M76384
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-RBR50-2-5-0-38-firmare-bug/m-p/1826207/highlight/true#M76176
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Your-experience-with-Firmware-2-2-1-210-released-as-of-10-3-18/m-p/1681722/highlight/true#M48325
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/How-i-solved-90-of-my-quot-some-devices-keep-disconnecting/m-p/1687874/highlight/false#M49496
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Firmware-2-2-1-210-released-as-of-10-3-18/m-p/1647303/highlight/true#M42416
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/RBK40-Download-Speed-Slows-Down-After-5-Days/m-p/1643475/highlight/true#M41776
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-MR-2-1-Update-3-23-18/m-p/1548414/highlight/true#M27868
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/speed-slows-down-Orbi/m-p/1551822/highlight/true#M28289
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Is-2-1-3-4-in-auto-update/m-p/1553979/highlight/true#M28616
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-Satellite-RBS50-Not-Connecting-via-Ethernet/m-p/1556692/highlight/false#M28949
Avohai wrote:
Thanks everyone who kindly provided suggestions.
The suggestion about trying to identify which device is causing a conflict is welcome but I have lots of devices (close to 40) using my home network and that will be time consuming. The other answer indicating that WiFi lower speeds are normal as a function of the distance from the router is also appreciated. To address/respond to both suggestions, all I can say that prior to using the Orbi I had another brand of router where I did not have such issues, namely (a) weekly drop out of WiFi speeds requiring reboot, and (b) my WiFi speeds in general were not ~ 50% from the wired speeds even when nearby the router (such is happening now). Those are specific problems introduced by the Orbi. The reason I moved from the other router (other manufacturer) was because I wanted to have a mesh router to cover all the spots in my home. However, I see that with the Orbi, my WiFi speeds are about 50% of the wired speeds even when I am nearby the router, and that about once a week all my WiFi speeds drop to about 10% of my best values, requiring a reboot to go back to may normal values (50%). Thanks!
FURRYe38 wrote:You'll need to track down the device or devices and see what device maybe causing this. Not everyone has this issue. I have 30+ devices and have not seen this. A factory reset will be needed to help troubleshoot this. I would reset and setup from scratch and turn OFF most of your devices. Leaving 1 or 2 running. Then graduate adding devices 1 at a time.
Keep in mind it often takes days/week for the slowness to return. So that method is going to be really really slow...
