RBR20 constant connection issues

[Ciridae]

I've been through a lot of the previous posts with similar issues and have tried those "fixes" with no success

So here's my system:

Xfinity internet

Arris SB6190 modem

Orbi RBR20 router

1,000 sq ft home 

no satelittle (disconnected per netgear support suggestion)

several other WiFi networks around me

every device intermittently drops connection. My wife's laptop, both phones, tablet, tv streaming, and Xbox all lose connection. Makes it impossible for video conferences (my wife works from home) streaming for the tv or iPad, doing anything while on WiFi with our phones or any kind of online gaming. We constantly have to disconnect and reconnect and that only works for a few minutes at a time. My Alexa is the only thing I notice doesn't have the disconnection issue. 

my modem has constant connection and my orbi shows no connection issues. 

ive spent a couple of hours with my isp just rule their service out of being the issue, bought a newer cable modem to rule out that and bought all new cables leaving the router as the weak link. We only had the normal issues with them from our old time machine which worked brilliantly until I "upgraded" with the orbi. Since Apple no longer makes or supports their routers I wanted something that would have support, is still being made and has the latest router protocols etc. so far this has been a huge disappointment, I've been at this since June. 

I just did a reset on the orbi so now it's back to factory defaults. 

any help or thoughts would be really appreciated. 

-Ciridae

[Ciridae · Accepted solution]

I’m dropping the switch and time capsule out of the system. I had the time capsule setup correctly so the radios were off but when I used a WiFi scanner it was tagging the router as the Apple time capsule. So I removed it from the system and it cleared up a good bit of the issues. The Xbox is only getting 40 ish mbps download. Once test it jumped to 140mbps but that was only once. It’s enough to stream through it and not get constantly disconnected.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

So the recap was first part of the issue was the modem (bad chipset) and second the old time capsule that was being used as a external hard drive was somehow high jacking the orbi (even though the radios were shut off).

[CrimpOn]

Is there a pattern to the disconnects?

Just for entertainment value, could you please look at the Orbi web interface, the Advanced Tab, and click on "Connection Status".

The last two lines show the DHCP lease the Orbi received from Xfinity and how much time is remaining on the lease.

[Ciridae]

No pattern I can see

lease obtained: 4 days 0 hours 0 minutes

lease expires: 3 days 14 hours 20 minutes

[FURRYe38]

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or maynot be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update? 

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@Ciridae wrote:

I've been through a lot of the previous posts with similar issues and have tried those "fixes" with no success

So here's my system:

Xfinity internet

Arris SB6190 modem

Orbi RBR20 router

1,000 sq ft home 

no satelittle (disconnected per netgear support suggestion)

several other WiFi networks around me

every device intermittently drops connection. My wife's laptop, both phones, tablet, tv streaming, and Xbox all lose connection. Makes it impossible for video conferences (my wife works from home) streaming for the tv or iPad, doing anything while on WiFi with our phones or any kind of online gaming. We constantly have to disconnect and reconnect and that only works for a few minutes at a time. My Alexa is the only thing I notice doesn't have the disconnection issue. 

my modem has constant connection and my orbi shows no connection issues. 

ive spent a couple of hours with my isp just rule their service out of being the issue, bought a newer cable modem to rule out that and bought all new cables leaving the router as the weak link. We only had the normal issues with them from our old time machine which worked brilliantly until I "upgraded" with the orbi. Since Apple no longer makes or supports their routers I wanted something that would have support, is still being made and has the latest router protocols etc. so far this has been a huge disappointment, I've been at this since June. 

I just did a reset on the orbi so now it's back to factory defaults. 

any help or thoughts would be really appreciated. 

-Ciridae

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[Ciridae]

2.4ghz is auto and 5ghz is set to 48. I’ve tried all the combinations of 2.4ghz 5ghz and still have the same issues. I have multiple networks around me of varying strength. I’ve adjusted my radios signal strength as well.

Beam forming and WMM are enabled, daisy chain and fast roaming are off. I’ll have to double check IPv6 when I get home. The 20Hz/40Hz button is checked, does deselecting it turn it to 40hz only?

I just factory reset the router Sunday evening.

[Retired_Member]

Has your Orbi network ever worked fine?  

What firmware are you on?

[Ciridae]

It’s never worked well since purchase. I should have returned it then.

I’m on the current firmware according to the web portal when I check it yesterday. V2.3.5.26.

[FURRYe38]

Yes. 

Sounds like even if you have tried all the troubleshooting suggestions, you may have a faulty or bad RBR. 

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@Ciridae wrote:
2.4ghz is auto and 5ghz is set to 48. I’ve tried all the combinations of 2.4ghz 5ghz and still have the same issues. I have multiple networks around me of varying strength. I’ve adjusted my radios signal strength as well.

Beam forming and WMM are enabled, daisy chain and fast roaming are off. I’ll have to double check IPv6 when I get home. The 20Hz/40Hz button is checked, does deselecting it turn it to 40hz only?

I just factory reset the router Sunday evening.

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[Ciridae]

After a little time with customer support last night, they're sending me a replacement. 
heres hoping for better results. 

thanks for the help and suggestions. 

[FURRYe38]

Good to hear. Hope the new systems works much better. 

Let us know how it turns out. 

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@Ciridae wrote:

After a little time with customer support last night, they're sending me a replacement. 
heres hoping for better results. 

thanks for the help and suggestions. 

---

[Ciridae]

New router is setup, same issues.

swapped out my modem this weekend from the SB6190 to a netgear CM1000 since I read there were serious issues with the SB6190 because of the chipset, still same issues.

I'm not really that savvy in troubleshooting a network. All I have is my wifes macbook and my xbox one and I'm not really sure how to run tests or diagnose with the macbook.I ran a few network tests on my xbox and had acceptable upload and download speeds, 70ms latency and between 0-42% packet loss over 8-10 tests (I tried this wired to the switch and to the orbi). I figure it isn't really a great way to test but it's what I had at the time.

We never really had issues with our old apple timecapsule router, we just couldn't get internet in the office (which is were my wife needs it the most for work).

Any recommendations on how to test my network to run down what's causing all my network woes?

Is there a way to rule out the router and then the modem?

Are there tests I can run and provide spefic data to help with troubleshooting?

any help would be greatly appreciated and all help up to this point has been greatly appreciated.

[FURRYe38]

Be sure your using good quality RG6 coax cabling. 
Be sure there are not coax cable line splitters in between the modem and ISP service box. 

Wire connect the xbox first to the CM modem and speed test there. Then do the same with the Mac Book Pro. Find a USB to LAN adapter if needed. I had to do the same for my Mac Book Pro 2018 with only USB C ports. 

Then test with the RBR added back in. 

Swap out all LAN cables. Use good quality CAT6 LAN cables in between modem and RBR. 

There is a switch in the mix? What is the mfr and model of this switch? 

[Ciridae]

The coax cabling is sore spot.

My house was built in the 50's, when my wife and I moved in 3 years ago the house had never had cable ran to it.

When the installer ran the line he drilled 2 holes into my floor and ran the wires direct from the box up into the house.

So I have 2 coax cables in my office and living room (4 total) jutting up out of my floor.

There was a splitter on my modem line but I removed that 2 days ago, I'll have to check the box.

I tried wiring the xbox directly to the CM but it wouldn't connect and the same happend with the macbook (could be the current adapter).

When I connect the router to the CM it gets signal.

I'm getting a new ethernet adapter for the macbook today.

I'm using new CAT6 cabling between everything.

The switch (Netgear GS305) is only for our hue light bridge and to connect the old timemachine as a backup hard drive (all radios are turned off and it's in bridge mode).

I was running the tests yesterday with the switch unplugged.

[FURRYe38]

To get any connected device to connect directly with the modem, power the modem off for 30 seconds while the xbox or mac book is connected. Then power the modem back on. Wait for about 2 minutes. The xbox or mac should get a public IP address.

Is the network switch connected behind the RBR? 

There is a couple different versions of the 305 switch, managed and non managed. SG305E is managed. 305P is PoE and V2 or V3 is non managed.

[Ciridae]

Good to know, I'll test that out when I get home from work.

Yes, the switch is connected behind the RBR and it's an unmanaged switch.

I can get the exact model number when I get home just to double check.

[FURRYe38]

I doubt the switch could be a cause however try the system with out the switch being online as well. 

You can install pingplotter.com on your mac and look for any packet loss of degradation of packets while the mac is directly connected to the modem. Then connect the rbr and test again with the RBR online to compare. 

[Ciridae]

Ok, hooked up the xbox to the modem, worked fine.

hooked the macbook up and downloaded pingplotter.

I ran a test connected to the modem and one connected to wifi.

I'm not really sure what I'm looking at though.connected to modemconnected to wifi

[FURRYe38]

The red bars seen after a few hops out are not good. Nothing you can do there. No red bar at the modem which is good. 

I see your ISP supports IPv6. Do you have IPv6 enabled on the RBR? 

What do your pings look like with the RBR online and just wired pingplot is good enough. No wireless plots needed. 

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@Ciridae wrote:

Ok, hooked up the xbox to the modem, worked fine.

hooked the macbook up and downloaded pingplotter.

I ran a test connected to the modem and one connected to wifi.

I'm not really sure what I'm looking at though.connected to modemconnected to wifi

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[Ciridae]

IPv6 is disabled currently on the RBR.

should I run a test with the laptop wired directly to the RBR?

[FURRYe38]

Yes. 

Might try enabling IPv6 on the RBR as well after testing. 

[Ciridae]

Here’s the test ran wired to the rbr.

Afterwards I enabled the IPv6.

I won’t have time to check it out until after work today.

[FURRYe38]

Are you still experiencing connection issues? 

You can do this, Might leave the ping plotter program running over night or maybe even during the day if you can and see if it pick up when the connection issues happen. 

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@Ciridae wrote:
Here’s the test ran wired to the rbr.

Afterwards I enabled the IPv6.

I won’t have time to check it out until after work today.

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[Ciridae]

Yep, I can’t even get the app to work because the signal keeps dropping.

I think I’m going to run a test.
I’m going to hook the time capsule back up and see if I get all the same connections issues on my old router as I do with the orbi.

[Ciridae]

So I can plug into the rbr directly with my Xbox and get great results. When I go WiFi the orbi will only put it on the 2.4ghz channel and if I wire it through the switch it’s just as bad as the WiFi.

[FURRYe38]

So taking the RBR off line and putting your prior router back online, does the system work, wireless and wired? 

The Xbox is choosing which frequency to connect too. Orbi only sets up the platform for devices to connect to. 

Switch on the RBR or are you using a external switch?