NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
tln741
Nov 11, 2017Star
Orbi - why can't we change channels on satellites?
Wireless design best practice when installing multiple access points in an area is to have non-overlapping channels. So if you have 3 APs (RBR50, 2-RBS50) in an area, for 2.4 GHz, one AP would be cha...
molec
Jan 02, 2019Guide
schumaku wrote:
ekhalil wrote:
molec wrote:
............
Is this the reason why I'm sitting next to one of the satellites still connected to the base station at -65dB and a latency of 3 seconds?
Yes, it's the devices' choice
molec wrote:> By choosing to use the same channel the devices will not need to do too many roaming activities.
but I WANT them to!
......
Again, it's the devices choice to move or not to move!
What device are we talking about here molec ?
I's a thinkpad X1 carbon bought late 2017. wifi chip:
04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275 (rev 88)
running recent archlinux
I'm sitting 5 meters from satellite 1. Connected to orbi router about 15 meters away through 3 stone walls. Here's connection info:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"temp"
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.18 GHz Access Point: 8C:3B:AD:C2:C0:46
Bit Rate=12 Mb/s Tx-Power=22 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=25/70 Signal level=-85 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:9 Invalid misc:493 Missed beacon:0
ping latency is good (3ms), but you can see bit rate dropped to 12 Mb/s and signal is -85dB
a screenshot of the setup is attached
my oldish android phone (nexus 5) is at the same location as the laptop and is connected to satellite 1, so that roamed fine.
when I put laptop into suspend and wake it up, it will connect to satellite 1 (in earlier tests)
molec
Jan 02, 2019Guide
I'm not sure using a different channel on satellite 1 would alleviate the issue. Seems like a workaround to me (for this problem) and the problem here really is the intel chip / linux combo somehow refusing to roam to satellite 1 despite crappy connection.
The *real* reason why I want different channels on the satellites and router is
1.) the routers / satellites are at the sides of the house (inside, of course), facing different neighbors. I can see roughly 2 to 3 neighbor networks from each side of the house (different ones). It's a rural area and the house has a rather large footprint. So naturally (since neighbors tend to select differing channels), each side of the house has a different "optimal" channels to be used there (I use from outdoors). I cannot find a channel that doesn't conflict with a neighbor network on at least one side of the house. I can't ask the neighbors to reduce tx power because they also have not small houses and use single APs, so the have to use a bit of power to cover they hosues / outdoor areas)
2.) internal interference: This is more of a feel-good thing for me since I don't have real data to back up this problem actually has impact, but obviously (as can be seen by my problem description) there are many points in the house where I can see 2 or even 3 of the satellites / router. It just seems more clean to me to use separate channels and I don't really care if my devices keep roaming around in those overlapping areas.
- molecJan 02, 2019Guide
just to complete problem description (2 posts up), here's connection info after suspend / resume cycling the laptop:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"temp"
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.18 GHz Access Point: 8C:3B:AD:C3:0E:7F
Bit Rate=780 Mb/s Tx-Power=22 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=46/70 Signal level=-64 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0