Betreff: Orbi satellite dropping connection

[RogerSC]

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@Jvreemanwrote:

I am still seeing a small number of drop outs in the 2.4GHz band (about 1 or 2 an hour) - but certainly nothing like I was seeing before.  Happens to router as well as the satellites - just every once in a while they decide to upchuck for a second or so.  In the attached pic the red dropout is a satellite and the pink dropouts are the router.

Still convinced that the drop outs are are happening due to a communication failure between the router and the satellite.  

Keeping an eye on this - if I cannot get this resolved, I will have to take the system back (I still have 10 days) - but I really would like it to work.  Netgear has been responsive - and they are trying to find a solution with/for me.

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Have you tried putting the router and satellites closer together? It may be that because one or more of your satellites is a little too far from the router (or another satellite if you have daisy-chaining enabled), that variations in wireless signal strength are causing problems.

Just a thought, you may already have tried changing the satellite placement.

[Jvreeman]

Roger,

Yes, I am playing with placement and trying to keep some sort of line of sight between satellites and the router.  Just moved one of the satellites again to see if this reduces the drop outs.  But unfortunately, it hasn't really improved.

JV

[Theplumber]

I had the 6000 model and my house is approx. 2750 sq. ft. It can’t be it works for a day then not. Position has nothing to do with why it doesn’t work. I wasn’t getting performance at the satellite nor the router. It’s called JUNK. I can’t believe it has gotten great reviews from what I considered reliable reviewers. Take it back and walk away.

[Theplumber]

It won’t.

[RogerSC]

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@Theplumberwrote:

I had the 6000 model and my house is approx. 2750 sq. ft. It can’t be it works for a day then not. Position has nothing to do with why it doesn’t work. I wasn’t getting performance at the satellite nor the router. It’s called JUNK. I can’t believe it has gotten great reviews from what I considered reliable reviewers. Take it back and walk away.

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When I had the problem with my satellite and router losing sync because they were too far apart, it would only happen every 2 or 3 days. After I moved the satellite about 10' closer to the router (from my living room to the dining room *smile*), it was solid. So yes it can work for a day and then lose it. If your placement is marginal, then when the wireless strength dips below a certain level (wireless is variable strength), that's it.

I'm not saying that's the problem, just something to look at.

[Quickscan]

Hi, how can you view the connection status to see if its still dropping or not? I only know about the drops when it keeps fropping my Skype calls but I wonder if there;s some connection status window in the login I'm missing?

Thanks

Dan

[Quickscan]

Also, I'm not clear if I should also update the router with 2.0.1.4, or just the sateliites? At the momemnt I have the satellites on 2.0.1.4 and the router on V2.1.2.18? Seems to be working  ok.

[RogerSC]

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@Quickscanwrote:

Also, I'm not clear if I should also update the router with 2.0.1.4, or just the sateliites? At the momemnt I have the satellites on 2.0.1.4 and the router on V2.1.2.18? Seems to be working  ok.

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You should definitely have the router and all the satellites on the same firmware version. Netgear strongly recommends this.

[dechant11]

My problem is the same as all others in this post.  What i dont see is a resloution from Support?  Can someone from Netgear support provide an update or status of resolution on what should be done with the Orbi system to fix it and reduced or elimiate dropped connections and loss of connectivity?

Thanks,

David

[Surfer44]

This is "supposed" to be rated for a 5000 sq. ft. home. Not many people have larger than that. Sattelite placement shouldn't be a problem.

[Jvreeman]

So I returned the Orbi and went EERO PRO.

The store I returned it to said that I am not alone.  So there you have it.

JV

[RogerSC]

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@Surfer44wrote:

This is "supposed" to be rated for a 5000 sq. ft. home. Not many people have larger than that. Sattelite placement shouldn't be a problem.

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How does that follow? The router and satellites have to be placed so that they can connect to each other no matter how big your home is. For example, if your house has thick concrete walls with rebar in them, as some do, an Orbi (or anything else that relies on wireless) will not help you. There are a lot of details that can affect that 5,000 sq.ft. Your results may vary...5,000 sq.ft. is a maximum, that doesn't mean any old 5,000 sq.ft. house or any arbitraty placement of satellites.

Sorry.

[WillBill]

I have also been having disconnects of the Orbi router, which requires a manual power off then on to reconnect to the internet.  I am currently using firmware V2.1.2.18.  This version has helped reduced the disconnects. I have determined that only one device is causing my disconnects - a Harmony Hub.  It doesn't happen every time but maybe once every 10 times accessed via of the harmony Hub remote on app on iPhone X.  I have contacted Logitec about the issue, but have recieved no help from them.  It seems there is an issue with the Harmony and mesh wifi, since the Hub is only available with 2.4 Ghz wifi.

[st_shaw]

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@Jvreeman wrote:

I am keeping that in mind as a possibility.  Have to say, though, that it would be a bit hard to trust Netgear with this type of solution again (especially for more money) and I would probably lean towards another brand that has been recommended on the forum.  

But rooting for Netgear to get this resolved for everyone.  Especially with now 6 router drops in the same hour (4 in the 2.4GHz and 2 in the 5GHz)

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@Jvreeman Please understand that your plot does not indicate a problem with your Orbi.  The plot also does not indicate that the Orbi dropped the WiFi signal.  The only thing the plot shows is that your WiFi scanning device missed six packets. This is completely normal, given how the scanning tools must work.  Your scanning device can only listen on one channel and one band at a time. So, your device must change to a given band and channel, send a probe request, wait for a response, change channels, and repeat.  Because the router and device are not sync'd in the process, the scanning device will occasionally change channels before the respone is received. You need a scanning app and a WiFi card that can be locked to a particular channel to avoid these dropped packets.

I understand you bought an Orbi Pro.  I wouldn't be surprised if you see the same scanner results with the pro.  If you do, keep in mind that it does not indicate an actual problem.

[Jvreeman]

St_shaw,

Thanks for your explanation of how the WiFi analyzers work and the explanation of packet loss on the graph screen shots. I would absolutely agree with you if my basis for coming to dropout conclusion was based solely on this tool. Please read this in the way it was written: I am not angry nor being defensive - just describing the scenario and how I came to my conclusions. Feel free to pick apart my methodology. I really wanted the ORBI to work.

I have a cell phone carrier with crappy service in my area. That’s not saying much because all of the carriers have crappy service in my area for an abundance of reasons. As a result, I switch to WiFi calling almost exclusively while in my house, where I work from. Calls completely dropped out and were lost and often in sync with the 5GHz router dropouts. And it wasn’t just my device, but every other mobile phone or iPad experienced the loss of connectivity simultaneously within the house.

LAN connections trucked forward with no issues, so calls made on the VOIP lines didn’t have any dis connectivity issues like the mobile devices.

I actually went to eero Pro and not ORBI Pro. Yes there are packet losses being seen on the analyzer, but there have been no dropped calls or disconnects on the other devices. Eero locations are in the same locations as the ORBI satellites.

So given that the disconnects have disappeared with a different product with locations of “satellites” (eero doesn’t like this term) and the acknowledgment by Netgear that something funky was happening on this latest firmware release (thus rolling it back) I am fairly confident in stating that the ORBI wasn’t doing its job. Perhaps the ORBI Pro would be better, as some have argued, but I chose not to take the chance.

And should the eero perform in like fashion over the next three weeks (the amount of time I owned the ORBI) I will eat crow and jump in this thread to let folks know. 🙂

[st_shaw]

@Jvreeman No problem.  Yes, I see you said EERO Pro. I read that too quickly.

My point was just that drops in the WiFi analyzer graphs are to be expected, and don't indicate a problem with your WiFi. The fact that you see the same drops with your perfectly functioning EERO Pro should further illustrate that point.

I did understand that you might have a legitimate issue with your Orbi, and that you were probably using other problems to conclude that.  I just wanted to make sure that you, and others who read this thread, know they shouldn't use the WIFi analyzer graphs to conclude their WiFi signal is "dropping."  A lot of people got spun up over this misinformation once before, and it caused a lot of unecessary grief.

Good luck with the EERO.  Please do let us know how it works for you.

[Jvreeman]

St_shaw,

I can see how the inclusion of the screenshot without discussing other ways that I was experiencing drop outs would lead to a questionable troubleshooting process.  Thanks for calling it out, if nothing else to encourage other users to try and be thorough in their process.  

I will say that there are things about the eero that I DO not like, that were not the case with ORBI.  The fact that there is a web interface with ORBI where you can get in and change settings to fine tune your system is huge; eero constrains you to the phone app and has a "we handle all the hard work" and "our system learns your usage patterns" messaging that I am not entirely comfortable with - but mostly because I like to get my hands dirty.  They also state that web access opens the units up to other ulnerabilities - which may be the case - but then give the user an app for OSX or Windows similar to what Apple has with AirPort Utility.  I am far from a super user expert - but at this point have a fairly decent understanding of the technology and how to not entirely mess it up. 🙂  

I liked ORBI's approach, and like I said I wanted it to work.  It was extremely accessible to those of us who aren't afraid to get under the hood.  And while other's on the forum may have a different experience, Netgear's support was fantastic once I could get them on the phone.  I spent (what felt like) hours with them on the line as we looked to figure out the issues.  

[RogerSC]

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@st_shawwrote:

@Jvreeman No problem.  Yes, I see you said EERO Pro. I read that too quickly.

My point was just that drops in the WiFi analyzer graphs are to be expected, and don't indicate a problem with your WiFi. The fact that you see the same drops with your perfectly functioning EERO Pro should further illustrate that point.

I did understand that you might have a legitimate issue with your Orbi, and that you were probably using other problems to conclude that.  I just wanted to make sure that you, and others who read this thread, know they shouldn't use the WIFi analyzer graphs to conclude their WiFi signal is "dropping."  A lot of people got spun up over this misinformation once before, and it caused a lot of unecessary grief.

Good luck with the EERO.  Please do let us know how it works for you.

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I've been using the eero for two weeks now, no problems at all. I'm using the eero in bridge mode, as an AP, and it is functioning perfectly, strong wireless all over the house, no disconnects, pauses, or loss of sync, etc. Very happy with it. I'm debating whether I'll sell the Orbi or not at this point.

[wase4711]

when I tested the EERO pro system, it worked well for me too; the only thing I did not like was the internet speeds were no where near what they are with the Orbi, so eventually, I returned the EERO and went with Orbi Pro, and that has been trouble free for over a month for me.

But, the EERO would definately be my second choice at this point

[tsig]

@WillBill  Have you considered setting up a guest 2.4 ghz network and moving your harmony hub over to that as a test?

[RogerSC]

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@wase4711wrote:

when I tested the EERO pro system, it worked well for me too; the only thing I did not like was the internet speeds were no where near what they are with the Orbi, so eventually, I returned the EERO and went with Orbi Pro, and that has been trouble free for over a month for me.

But, the EERO would definately be my second choice at this point

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Not an issue for me with the eero...I see close to my ISP's download speed just about everywhere in my house. But it's only 150Mbps nominal, provisioned at 180Mbps. If we ever get internet speeds over 500Mbps, I suspect I'll be rethinking our wireless. Comcast has not seen fit to give us that opportunity, though, and they have no competition here at this point.

[WillBill]

I have not tried that, but didn’t think you could separate the 2.4 g and 5 g WiFi in the guest setup either. I have considered using the telnet instruction to separate all of the WiFi into 2 and 5 ghz, but was hoping Netgear would provide a user friendly option to separate them.

[myriad_rocker]

Things are getting really bad on my end with regard to drops and network speeds of somewhere around crawling.  Last night I tested at less than 1mbps.  Tonight while running a speedtest, the network dropped.  Laptop, phone, all devices.  It's like the Orbi had some sort of failure...which seems to be consistent with the memory leaks thing they posted the article about.  I haven't had a chance to update (downgrade) the firmware.  I'm still on 2.1.2.18.  Maybe tonight.  I'm well beyond the return period, so I just kind of have to suck it up until they fix this thing.  Which is pretty sad.  I do still have my old router, but I'd really like internet out in the shop, which is the entire reason I purchased the Orbi to begin with.

[myriad_rocker]

I ended up downgrading to 2.0.1.4 and it was just more of the same crap.  Dropping internet, dropping connections, and also getting horrible internet speeds.  I haven't bothered even measuring network throughput because of everything else.  I did some testing this morning and ended up connecting my work laptop directly to the modem.  It was blazing fast at over 100mbps.  My personal laptop (via wireless because it doesn't have a cable connection) was still getting 1/4 the speed I should see.

The speed thing has been so much of an issue lately that I thought it was my ISP.  There was an issue some time back where our pool for the area had an issue and internet speeds were crawling.  It impacted the entire neighborhood (I checked with others).  Anyway, they sent someone out to fix it and it was fine then.  I thought that maybe it was that again since I saw someone working on the pool location about a week ago.  They sent someone out to look at the pool.  They said nothing was wrong so they ended up "resetting my connection".  Whatever that means.  Per the tests today, I think it was the Orbi.

I ended up rebooting the router again and plugging the modem back into it.  I then tested my work laptop wirelessly.  I verified it was connected via 5Ghz and it was testing well at over 100mbps (I should mention I had unplugged the RBS50 after the router reboot).

Anyway, fast forward to this evening and the upstairs computer (which is connected via cat 5) is getting over 100mbps and my work laptop is getting at or above 100mbps mostly.  My personal laptop is not getting quite there connected at 5Ghz.  Not sure why, but I'll assume it's a client side issue.  I haven't checked the protocol it runs at.  In short, I'm ok with it.  I think it tested as high as 75mbps before the router forced it over to the 2.4ghz connection.  it's now testing between 50mbps and 65mbps.  Ping times are all over the place, but I don't put too much stock into that.

Anyway, this is all with the main satellite unplugged.  The garage satellite is still plugged in (RBW30) and, oddly enough, Orbi reports that it is connected to the main router.  This surprises me since it's so far away.  I'm sure the speed is horrible, but it's cold and wet out so I don't feel like walking across the yard to the shop.  lol

I'm not sure when I'll plug the RBS50 back in.  Probably not tonight.  I want to keep doing some baseline testing before I do that.  That was a lot to type and I'm not sure people will read all that.  So I'll stop there.  🙂

[apollo_60]

Orbi Satellites were working just fine until the recent firmware update. I have one router and two satellites with the AC2200 system. Once every day i have to power off and on and then the satellites work ok. This is very frustrating and no other solution seems to be in the que. When the satellites work it is beautiful with almost the 300mbps coming through which is what i have subscribed for with my provider. It is a shame that Netgear has not come up with anything inspite of a lot of users reporting it. 

I finally bought two programmable digital timers and programmed them to go off for a couple of minutes in the night and then come back on. This resets the power to the satellites and they stay connected until the next reset ! I don't know what else to do? Hopefully some firmware update in future will fix this. I bought it Oct 2017 @ Best Buy so out of warranty and had to do something to make it work !