Smart Plug NOT Connecting to Orbi Mesh RBR50 - Main and Satellite
Purchased some smart wifi plugs that are only 2.4 ghz. Orbi was supposed to be this great and automatic mesh system but my smart plugs are not connecting. For someone who is not super techy... I would appreciate some help from the community or if Netgear could make it streamlined and easy for us, that would also be cool. Please advise! Thanks in advance to whoever has fixed this annoying issue. We are about to be in 2019 and people are going to use smart devices, controlled from thier smartphones. Lets make this easy Netgear!
Re: Smart Plug NOT Connecting to Orbi Mesh RBR50 - Main and Satellite
What FW is currently loaded? What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too? Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode?
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft? What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.
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? What WPA security modes are you using? Try WPA and TPIK then try WPA2 and AES.
Re: Smart Plug NOT Connecting to Orbi Mesh RBR50 - Main and Satellite
The best place to start is by identifying the specific product that doesn't work properly and describing at what step in the connection process it fails. I would also look first to their product support site rather than your networking vendor (although Netgear Community members are happy to help). If it doesn't connect to Orbi, it probably doesn't connect to other WiFi brands as well.
The explosion of products connected to WiFi has created a sort of "Wild West" environment where each manufacturer attempts to create a unique ecosystem to provide themselves a competitive advantage (and future revenue!). In the past, only things with keyboards or simple ethernet connections connected to WiFi. Type in some parameters, and it connects. Today, a "wall wart" costing $10 with no input mechanism at all is expected to learn which WiFi access point to use (which may have "hidden" it's SSID) and the password. Some products create their own temporary WiFi access point. Some use Bluetooth for the setup. Some cameras take a picture of the configuration from your phone. The variety is amazing! Netgear only provides the WiFi.
The " requires 2.4G network" seems to scare prople. The product only has a 2.4G radio. If your WiFi is only 5G, it can NEVER connect. Suppose you bought a device and the box said, "requires UK electric socket." You'd say, "well, duh, I can't even plug that in." I'm sure WiFi with only 5G exists, but certainly not very many consumer products.
Reading through these forum posts, users report having success with a number of smart plugs. Which did you get, and how does it fail?
Re: Smart Plug NOT Connecting to Orbi Mesh RBR50 - Main and Satellite
Thank you for asking! I wasn't sure what to post. I purchased the TECKIN Smart Outlet and utilized the "Smart Life" app on my phone. I went through the prompts to connect and got the rapidly blinking light etc, but no connection. No devices would show up on the app. I emailed the TECKIN company and have yet to get a response from them. I was under the impression that orbi was both 5 and 2.4 to optimize connections. I thought that it would work with both. I figured that the ghz was the issue because the app seemed to work, aside from the device not showing up part...
My home is maybe 2800 sq ft. the plug was 10 ft away from the sattelite when I attempted to connect with no walls in the way.
I am using auto channels. I am not sure how to change on the orbi app. If I do change, would this mess up the efficiency of orbi to do what we bought it to do?
Regular closely packed neighborhood suburbia. a house in every direction. walls of the house are about 50-ft apart side to side and 200 ft front to back.
Re: Smart Plug NOT Connecting to Orbi Mesh RBR50 - Main and Satellite
FW=Firmware
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.
Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz. Use a PC or Laptop connected via wire or wireless and a web browser and navigate to orbilogin.com or 192.168.1.1 and make changes there....
My home is maybe 2800 sq ft. the plug was 10 ft away from the sattelite when I attempted to connect with no walls in the way.
I am using auto channels. I am not sure how to change on the orbi app. If I do change, would this mess up the efficiency of orbi to do what we bought it to do?
Regular closely packed neighborhood suburbia. a house in every direction. walls of the house are about 50-ft apart side to side and 200 ft front to back.
....... We are about to be in 2019 and people are going to use smart devices, controlled from thier smartphones. Lets make this easy Netgear!
As you say, we are about to be in 2019, apps should be able to be well developed to work in all bands.
Currently some apps still can't handle dual band, so the app will fail if the phone where the app is is attached to 5GHz while the related smart device should connect to 2.4 GHz band. So the app will not be able to find the device because of limitations in the algorithms of the app.
The fastest way to handle those "old" apps is to use an "old" phone! Do you have an old phone that only support 2.4GHz where you can install the app on? You will see that the app will immediately find your device this way!
Looks like this product prefers to connect using Bluetooth and the alternative method is for the device to create a WiFi hotspot. This video recommends skipping the part with the "rapidly blinking light" and using the alternative method. You might want to watch the video and try his method.
Re: Smart Plug NOT Connecting to Orbi Mesh RBR50 - Main and Satellite
Yeah, I have exactly the same problem as you do. I plugged the Teckin SS31 outlet literally a meter away from my Orbi router(router, not AP, DHCP enabled), and disabled my 5G SSID broadcasting, still doesn't work. I am not sure what went wrong here. Looking for answers from both Netgear and Teckin.
Re: Smart Plug NOT Connecting to Orbi Mesh RBR50 - Main and Satellite
This flood of inexpensive smart plugs is proving to be a challenge for consumers. Yes, the plug itself has only a 2.4G WiFi radio. It is not capable of detecting or connecting to a 5G WiFi signal. If this smart plug functions similarly to other Teckin products, it appears that there is more than one way to configure it. (Did you watch the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtMXyRXKxGQ ) Does your product support both the "Quick" and "AP" methods described in the video?
What seems to happen is the "Smart Life" android app is not able to connect to the 2.4G Techin WiFi access point when the smartphone is connected to a 5G WiFi signal. Apps by Belkin, TP-Link, and Aukey have no problem when the phone is connected to a 5G WiFi, but these other apps do. People have adopted the "turn off 5G WiFi" workaround to force the phone to connect at 2.4G. So, the trick is to get the phone connected to Orbi at 2.4G and then set up the Teckin plug. After it is set up, communication goes through "the cloud", so it no longer matters what band the phone is using. (The phone no longer talks directly to the Teckin. They both talk to the Orbi.)
That's why @ekhalil suggested the wisdom of keeping an old 2.4G only phone around. (Verizon offered me $10 tradein for my old phone. I kept it for a paperweight!)
Re: Smart Plug NOT Connecting to Orbi Mesh RBR50 - Main and Satellite
I purchased a Teckin SS31 Outdoor Smart Plug from Amazon. Installed the Smart Life app on my Sony phone (which is connected to the Orbi at 5G). Created an account, got my "confirmation", defined my "Family" (sigh), and was then ready to "Add a Device". Held the button down until the blue light began to flash. It brought up my Orbi SSID. I entered the password. It complain, "Must be a 2.4G network!"
I ignored this and pressed "Continue". "Take THAT", I said aloud, "Orbi has another SSID with that same name and password on 2.4G."
After what seemed like longer than "electronics" should take, my SS31 plug works! I can turn each of the two outlets on or off (or both at one time). I gave it a cool name ("5G Orbi Plug") I have connected to it several times.
So, no fooling around with Orbi settings. No messing with radio signal strength. Just ignore the admonition to use 2.4G and "Continue."
There are at least a dozen products on Amazon which seem to be identical to the Teckin, and all use the same "Smart Life" app. My guess is that inside the plastic, they all came from the same factory and use the same firmware.
