Re: Orbi satellite to satellite connection is very slow

dsrl · ‎2022-01-26

I have what I think is a very strange problem with a very slow connection between two satellite stations.

I have a main station (RBR50) and two satellites (RBS50). The main and sat-1 are in the same room about 20 ft apart. Sat-2 is about 50-60 feet from them with intervening walls. All stations have the latest firmware (2.7.3.22). The only wired connection to the main is the internet connection. There are several wired connections to each satellite. There are also several wireless connections to mobile devices that vary as the devices move within the house.

A computer is attached via a cable to each satellite. The computers use the SMB protocol to share disk volumes. One computer acts as a data server, the other as the client.

When I run Quicken (financial) or RootsMagic (family history), for example, on one system to update its database on the other system, updates usually take more than two minutes to complete through the mesh network. When I connect the two satellites together with a cat-6 cable, the updates take about a second. I moved sat-2 closer to sat-1, putting them in line of site with each other about 35 feet apart. There was no improvement.

The only thought I have is that the main station and sat-1 are fighting each other to establish a connection with sat-2.

I would appreciate any help or suggestions you have to fix this problem.

plemans · ‎2022-01-26

The satellites prefer to connect back to the router versus daisy chaining.

And a lot can be program dependant.

Have you tried other programs or even just speedtested each satellite?

dsrl · ‎2022-01-26

Thanks for the reply.

I’ve tried streaming video and opening/updating spreadsheets. Neither works well — buffering delays for video and long open/close times for the spreadsheets. With a cable connection everything is smooth and responsive.

I’d like to test the satellites but the only speed test I see is a test for the internet connection. How can it be done?

plemans · ‎2022-01-26

@dsrl wrote:
Thanks for the reply.

I’d like to test the satellites but the only speed test I see is a test for the internet connection. How can it be done?

Usually I hardwire a pc into each satellite and run a speedtest on the computer. (disable its wifi)

That'll test the backhaul between router----satellite

dsrl · ‎2022-01-27

My normal setup is a pc hardwired to each satellite. One pc acts as a data server and the other acts as a client. It’s not a true server/client arrangement — more like peer-to-peer with SMB shares.

How do you do the speed tests? And what is a reasonably good speed to expect?