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Forum Discussion
Satellites disconnect
Hi I’ve had a 2 satellite Orbi system since February and for the most part I’ve had a good experience. I first had to force the 2.4g channel to 11 (least crowded) and set my sonos net channel to 6. I’...
OK, so I tried connecting more than one Sonos device with a wire to see if that would cause issues. For months, I have had a single Sonos device (a Playbar) connected to the Orbi router through an attached switch. Zero issues with Sonos.
Yesterday, I also connected a Play5 via wire to the Orbi satellite. Things ran for almost 24 hours with no apparent issues, then suddenly the WiFi network crashed. Music stopped streaming, my WiFi laptop could not access any devices on the network nor the Internet. I cycled the laptop's WiFi and it came back up connected to Orbi but saying "no internet connection."
As soon as I removed the cable betwen the Sonos and the Satellite, the network went back to normal, with no need to reboot the Orbi.
So, like I wrote above--do not wire more than one Sonos.
Here’s my follow up and current resolution.
1) set sonosnet to channel 1 and then disconnected all Sonos speakers from the Ethernet
2) I turned off the satellites, and used the free version of Acrylic to measure the 5ghz signal around my house. It turns out that the signal was very week where the satellites were located. I’m surprised they connected with a blue and not yellow light.
3) I spent an hour trying to find two locations with strong enough 5g, but not too powerful 2.4g. That proved to be extremely challenging. But I did end up finding two locations with the satellites sufficiently separated.
4) I disabled satellite daisy chaining, and I noticed 20/40mhz coexistence was already set.
After 2 days everything seems stable. I’m also not having random loss of my sonos zones. I’ll see how long things stay stable.
More notes: it’s basically impossible to find a sufficiently strong 5ghz signal on a different floor from the master router, which is centrally located on the 2nd floor. My house is shaped like an O on the 1st floor and like an L on the 2nd. The router is located in the angle of the L. One satellite is located at the end of the short leg of the L and the other satellite is about halfway down the long leg. The 2.4ghz signal never drops below -55db in any room, the backyard or front yard.
It would sure be handy if there was a screen in the Orbi software that showed signal strength to each satellite.
1) set sonosnet to channel 1 and then disconnected all Sonos speakers from the Ethernet
2) I turned off the satellites, and used the free version of Acrylic to measure the 5ghz signal around my house. It turns out that the signal was very week where the satellites were located. I’m surprised they connected with a blue and not yellow light.
3) I spent an hour trying to find two locations with strong enough 5g, but not too powerful 2.4g. That proved to be extremely challenging. But I did end up finding two locations with the satellites sufficiently separated.
4) I disabled satellite daisy chaining, and I noticed 20/40mhz coexistence was already set.
After 2 days everything seems stable. I’m also not having random loss of my sonos zones. I’ll see how long things stay stable.
More notes: it’s basically impossible to find a sufficiently strong 5ghz signal on a different floor from the master router, which is centrally located on the 2nd floor. My house is shaped like an O on the 1st floor and like an L on the 2nd. The router is located in the angle of the L. One satellite is located at the end of the short leg of the L and the other satellite is about halfway down the long leg. The 2.4ghz signal never drops below -55db in any room, the backyard or front yard.
It would sure be handy if there was a screen in the Orbi software that showed signal strength to each satellite.
1993rx7 Thank you or posting the follow-up. I'm happy to hear things are stable for you so far.
One question. Did you re-connect one Sonos speaker when you were all done? That wasn't clear to me.
The 2.4 signal does carry much farther than the 5. That's why it's very useful in providing whole-home coverage. If you later find that your clients have trouble switching between Orbis (and that causes problems), you could try reducing the 2.4 radio power in Orbi.
Yes, a better way to gauge backhaul signal strength would certainly be useful! WiFi signals fluctuate quite a bit over time, and you need sufficient signal strength at the satellites to overcome periodic dips in strength and avoid connection drops. The Orbi blue ring is just one moment in time, so you may have had only a marginal signal in your prior locations.
- I’m following up to my follow up.
1) With regard to Sonos, none are connected via Ethernet, and everything seems to be working very well.
2) With regard to satellites dropping, performance is worse than ever. I spent another hour using acrylic mapping the 5GHz band, ensuring that the signal is above -60db. Now once you do that with 5G, then the 2.4G smashes all over itself.
I think that there is a fundamental flaw with the any mesh system that relies on a 5Ghz backhaul, and that is the 2.4G signal travels better through walls. You can’t get a reliable backhaul connection and not have 2.4G interference.
3) the LED indicators on top of the satellites are worthless. I’ve been standing in front of a satellite that has dropped and there is no color change.
4) Enhancement requests
A) my asus router provided a signal level for connected devices, that would be very useful for troubleshooting.
B) when a satellite disconnects from the master make it drop the connected devices. Part of the frustration of the satellites dropping is that devices connected to them still think they are connected to a viable WiFi source. This seems to be especially problematic for IOS devices. Yes, Orbi is certainly hindered by the fact that you cannot change channels and power levels on the individual devices and bands.
You should still be able to manage the 2.4 overlap by reducing the power on the 2.4GHz band. Did you try that yet?