Re: Orbi drops Internet Connection

dsturdevant · ‎2017-01-13

I recently purchased and installed the Orbi RBR50 mesh wifi system with 2 sats and it works GREAT! Until it drops the internet connection repetedly. It does this about every 2 hours and comes back on its own after 10-20 minutes or instantly with a reboot. This has been widely reported and is CLEARLY an Orbi issue of some kind. Where's the fix??

juniormint88 · ‎2017-01-13

Are you running the latest firmware?

DarrenM · ‎2017-01-16

Hello dsturdevant

Have you tried moving the satellites in the home to different locations to find the best connection. and as juniormint88 said make sure you are on the latest firmware.

DarrenM

Yld2rob · ‎2017-01-16

The fix is to return it or wait until Netgear fixes the issue in a firmware release

dsturdevant · ‎2017-01-17

The latest firmare is installed and the sats have been tested in 4 different locations in a 1,700 sq. ft. two story home. The issue occured once more after the final sat replacement but hasn't happened since. It's been 2 days so.....

Yld2rob · ‎2017-01-18

Well, hate to do it, but i have to return Orbi back to Costco. Thank goodness that you can return anytime. I tried one more time last night to upgrade to the latest firmware and did a hard reset. Woke up this morning the router was down. Back to my working Asus AC 5300. Netgear: when you get this beta product working (stays online, works with nest cameras and you can enable ALL features such as MIMO and beamforming) I will be back. Tired of companies launching products before they are ready.

Thorborg · ‎2017-03-25

I have the same problem and have the newest firmware, what to do?

JMU1998 · ‎2017-03-25

Not much we can do for now other than combination of various temperory manual workarounds like reduce 2.5GHz power, turn off beamforming, switch channels etc.. we are at the mercy of Netgear Engineering and they are quite aware of all these issues but they don't have an answer yet hopefully we will get lucky and a Firmware in the next few release will stabilize and resolve majority of annoying issues... Just hang on bit longer there is no magic formula for wifi takes time to refine and polish!

Thorborg · ‎2017-03-26

Ok thanks, it's just extremely frustrating to be part of a beta, when you pay top dollar.

Cheers

Martin

russcruz77 · ‎2017-03-27

Just bought the orbi from costco. I was able to setup and wifi working great, but internet keeps dropping conections. I had to reset factory settings 3 times! I had charter come to the house twice already.

I noticed the internet drops when I try to set my devices to the network. ex: wemo light switch...

What should I do? I've on the phone waiting over 2 hours to get customer support.

Please help.

JMU1998 · ‎2017-03-27

Make sure you have updated both base and satellite to latest firmware, out of box it may have old version on it.

bentcarhood · ‎2017-05-14

Come on NetGear. This is ridiculous. My router is getting worse; losing internet every night now. Having to reboot every morning when I wake up.

Folks, please don't highjack this thread and talk about radio issues. This has nothing to do with radio issues. It's about the router losing it's WAN connection to the internet.

fstockel · ‎2017-05-14

This is a common issue. I reported exactly this to Netgear back in Januari. And I have an ongoing support case for this - but I can't say I feel like we have closed in on the actual cause or reason why this is happening. The wan disconnect issue has appeared in every firmware (released or beta) since I bought my kit.

I really hope they can find the cause soon as it's an ok product when it works (apart from the UI and config options and stats) but in its current state it's too unreliable.

mixolyd · ‎2017-05-15

I am having same issue with Orbi and Frontier FIOS.

I am losing internet connection intermittently. I started running Pingplotter on my windows machine and set it to ping google.com and the local router IP every 5 seconds. Every few hours google.com becomes unpingable for 1-5 minutes, but the router stays pingable, so it's clearly a WAN issue. When I am home and notice this, then rebooting the router fixes it.

I bought the Orbi from Costco which has a 90 day return policy. I think I'm getting close to 90 days, so I'm debating on returning it. This is really unacceptable for a $400 device. I really like Orbi otherwise, but I cannot deal with the internet disconnects. I am on latest firmware and have tried factory reset.

JMU1998 · ‎2017-05-15

It is a known issue been around as far as I can remember unfortunately no fix yet.

Retired_Member · ‎2017-05-16

For what it's worth I really regret not returning mine before 90 days. It has been constant frustration with Wi-Fi disconnects and speed fluctuations. Orbi has so much potential but these issues ruin it.

mixolyd · ‎2017-05-16

I don't get it. This is Netgears bread and butter. They should know how to make a good router. Why is the Orbi so unstable? How is it that a startup like Eero can make a more stable system? Let alone Google. I'm returning mine this weekend. I had hope for the beta firmware but read in the other thread that it's still unstable

bentcarhood · ‎2017-05-25

I have a workaround I bought a non-wireless router and set the Orbi into AP mode. No more internet drops. The router only cost $60 and supports VPN connectivity. I actually like this architecture better now. Having a seperate router from your wireless makes thing easier to manage once it's set up.

Retired_Member · ‎2017-05-25

That's good to know it works as an option. It sure is a shame that a $60 router is able to fill in the gaps of Netgear's flagship networking system.

fstockel · ‎2017-05-26

Internet/WAN disconnects are still happening with the latest firmware (1.10.1.2) (Orbi in router mode). I can more or less force the issue by simply running a speedtest several times from different locations in my house (I use https://www.bredbandskollen.se to test my speed)

I have tried several betas (and official releases) and the only version that solves my WAN issues is an old beta. I installed a later beta but it was extremly unstable and I decided to revert to the old beta again (in order to keep the peace with my kids). The problem now is the autoupdate feature... (I can't keep the beta installed that long). Catch 22 situation sorta.

I bought this kit in Januari and reported the WAN problem after a few days of usage. It seems to be a very difficult problem to solve as we are soon in June. I'm sure Netgears doing all they can and that they have this issue on a priority list and in a planned release sprint at some point in time. For me this is a DOA product as I haven't been able to use it as intended since start. I like the Orbi when it works but I can't rely on reinstalling old betas in order to enjoy it.

zobisch · ‎2017-05-31

Where can I download beta firmware? My current version is not connecting with my Galaxy S8+

jleecloak1 · ‎2017-05-31

I just got the new beta a couple of days ago and it's sad to say it's worst than the last firmware 1.10.1.2. I have been losing connection more often than before and my Orbi router has rebooted 2 times within an hour. OMG this thing is terrible.

DarrenM · ‎2017-06-02

Hello Jleecloak1

Did you try a factory reset after loading the firmware?

DarrenM

jleecloak1 · ‎2017-06-02

Yes, I had to do a factory reset just to get the Orbi router and satellite to work again after installing the firmware. After an hour long process of getting everything back online within the first 10 minutes my Orbi router rebooted and to my surprise it rebooted again 30 minutes later. That was enough for me.

I got tired of the frequent drops and random connection speeds and just decided to connected my ASUS AC87U back to my network. I took the Orbi off completely. I am definitely thinking about posting it to Ebay, since Asus and Samsung are about to release new mesh routers. So far my ASUS router has been great no problems at all with my network.

zobisch · ‎2017-06-02

I did a factory reset... problem is still occurring