Very slow network speeds on 5GHz network on Orbi RBR50 after months of solid performance

[Zablalbaz]

Hey All,

Hopefully someone can help me with this. I just started noticing some really slow network speeds on my 5GHz connected network devices a couple weeks ago. This is after several months of fantastic speed and performance with my Orbi routers. When I first set them up, I was seeing up to 700Mbps Internet speed test results on my Fiber Internet while connected to the 5GHz wifi network. Now I am lucky to see 15Mbps to 24Mbps while connected to either the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz wifi networks on my Orbi  mesh.

Before I go further, here are my specs:

Orbi Hardware Version: RBR50, and RBS50
Firmware Version V2.5.1.16 on both
Operation Mode: Router and Satellite
Region North America
2.4G Channel Auto ( 8(P) + 4(S) )
2.4G Mode Up to 400 Mbps
5G Channel 36+40+44+48(P)
5G Mode Up to 866.7 Mbps

Advanced settings:
Enable Beamforming
Enable Fast Roaming
Preamble mode: Auto
20/40 coexistence mode on 2.4 GHz is disabled
Daisy Chain Topology is disabled

Today, while I was going around doing my wifi analysis, I noticed that my phone was connecting to the Orbi routers' 5GHz network, but with only with a single, 20MHz wide channel. To be honest, I never looked at that before, so I don't know if this is typical of Netgear routers. But to rule out the phone, I also tried 2 tablets and my FireTV cube - all with the same wifi analysis tools - and they all reported back a 5GHz (5240MHz) connection with the 20MHz wide channel instead of a 40MHz wide channel.

Testing with my Lenovo Thinkpad also shows a similar result with the link to the 5GHz network only having a reported bit rate of 54 MB/s. This is the same laptop that was originally giving me 700 Mbps Internet test speeds and now is only giving me 24Mbps at best while connected to the 5GHz Orbi network.

As a further data point, I connected my laptop to a wired Ethernet port on the RBR50 and ran an Internet speed test and got over 800Mbps down and over 900Mbps up. I also ran the integrated speed test on the RBR50 and got the following results:

Latest test result (16:37 Apr 26, 2020)
DOWNLOAD UPLOAD
860.75Mbps 909.30Mbps

Since I purchased the Orbi Mesh system, I have manually updated the firmware twice. Once to V2.5.1.8 back in December 2019. And the second time to V2.5.1.16 today in hopes it would help. I did not reset the routers to factory state after updating them.

Could something have gotten corrupted during the first firmware update to v2.5.1.8? Has anyone else seen this behavior and know a fix?

[Zablalbaz · Accepted solution]

Thanks to all who pitched in. Your advice was helpful! I just took a backup of the working config in case I need it in the future. Setting this as resolved now!

[Retired_Member]

One comment.    Stop doing manual updates.    Sorry 

[Zablalbaz]

Duly noted! When something is working I don't touch it. I learned a long time ago if it isn't broke don't fix it. I only updated with the V2.5.1.8 because it had a fix for Sonos connectivity issues I was seeing. That firmware fixed the issue I was seeing, but I wonder at what cost now?

I'm guessing that I'll have to try a hard reset to see if that takes care of the problem.

[FURRYe38]

Please try a factory reset and setup from scratch with the RBR and RBS.

---

@Zablalbaz wrote:

Hey All,

Hopefully someone can help me with this. I just started noticing some really slow network speeds on my 5GHz connected network devices a couple weeks ago. This is after several months of fantastic speed and performance with my Orbi routers. When I first set them up, I was seeing up to 700Mbps Internet speed test results on my Fiber Internet while connected to the 5GHz wifi network. Now I am lucky to see 15Mbps to 24Mbps while connected to either the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz wifi networks on my Orbi  mesh.

Before I go further, here are my specs:

Orbi Hardware Version: RBR50, and RBS50
Firmware Version V2.5.1.16 on both
Operation Mode: Router and Satellite
Region North America
2.4G Channel Auto ( 8(P) + 4(S) )
2.4G Mode Up to 400 Mbps
5G Channel 36+40+44+48(P)
5G Mode Up to 866.7 Mbps

Advanced settings:
Enable Beamforming
Enable Fast Roaming
Preamble mode: Auto
20/40 coexistence mode on 2.4 GHz is disabled
Daisy Chain Topology is disabled

Today, while I was going around doing my wifi analysis, I noticed that my phone was connecting to the Orbi routers' 5GHz network, but with only with a single, 20MHz wide channel. To be honest, I never looked at that before, so I don't know if this is typical of Netgear routers. But to rule out the phone, I also tried 2 tablets and my FireTV cube - all with the same wifi analysis tools - and they all reported back a 5GHz (5240MHz) connection with the 20MHz wide channel instead of a 40MHz wide channel.

Testing with my Lenovo Thinkpad also shows a similar result with the link to the 5GHz network only having a reported bit rate of 54 MB/s. This is the same laptop that was originally giving me 700 Mbps Internet test speeds and now is only giving me 24Mbps at best while connected to the 5GHz Orbi network.

As a further data point, I connected my laptop to a wired Ethernet port on the RBR50 and ran an Internet speed test and got over 800Mbps down and over 900Mbps up. I also ran the integrated speed test on the RBR50 and got the following results:

Latest test result (16:37 Apr 26, 2020)
DOWNLOAD UPLOAD
860.75Mbps 909.30Mbps

Since I purchased the Orbi Mesh system, I have manually updated the firmware twice. Once to V2.5.1.8 back in December 2019. And the second time to V2.5.1.16 today in hopes it would help. I did not reset the routers to factory state after updating them.

Could something have gotten corrupted during the first firmware update to v2.5.1.8? Has anyone else seen this behavior and know a fix?

---

[Zablalbaz]

I'm working today, but I intend to try a factory reset and see if that helps once I get some downtime. I'll report the results back here when I do that. In the meantime, here are a few summary notes for any other folks who may be watching my progress:

1) Date/Timeline correction: In a previous post I stated that I did the FW update in December. I was wrong there. I actually purchased the system in January, 2020. And I did the FW update in February or March, 2020.

2) To be clear, I am only seeing slow connections on my wireless network. When connected to wired Ethernet, I am getting very close to the top speed of my Internet connection of 1 GBps. My wifi network slowdown issues occured sometime after I did the firmware upgrade to v2.5.1.8. Now I am only getting ~24Mbps Internet speed test results when connected to the 5GHz wifi and in the same rooms as the router or satellite.

3) When I first set up my Orbi Mesh, I definitely was getting 700 - 800 Mbps on the wireless, 5GHz network while in the same rooms as the router and the satellite. I took snapshots of the wifi speed tests and sent them to all my friends to show how amazing it was. 🙂 The specs for the Orbi indicate that it syncs at a Maximum of 867 Mbps on 5GHz and 400 Mbps on 2.4GHz. And my initial network testing confirmed I was getting very close to those speeds when I got this system back in January, 2020.

4) Upgrading the FW to v2.1.5.16 did not resolve the problem. I am going to try a factory rest of the router and set up from scratch to see if this resolves the issue.

5) I found a similar report in the forum where another user upgraded their RBR50 to version to v2.5.0.38
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/RBR50-performance-degradation-after-2-5-0-38-firmware-update/m...

But this person was seeing slowdowns on BOTH wireless and wired networks on their LAN after the update. They tried a v2.5.0.40 hotfix, and I think eventually reverted back to the v2.5.0.30 FW and got their network speeds back.

Only difference in my case is that I am NOT seeing the slow down on wired clients. My wired clients are getting full speed Internet speedtest results.

Regards! I will report my results back here after I have tried a factory reset of the router and satellite.

[FURRYe38]

What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router

[Zablalbaz]

Router and Satellite are connected via a Gigabit Ethernet connection. I do not use the wireless backhaul. I haven't measured the distance with a tape measure, but the router is downstairs on one end of the house in the living room, and the satellite is upstairs on the other end in a bonus room. I'd say maybe 90-100 feet apart in a straight line?

[FURRYe38]

Ok just checking this. 

What is the Mfr and model # of the switch in between the RBR and RBS if your using one? 

[Zablalbaz]

I have only Netgear equipment in my house. 🙂 Here is a simplified topolgy:

The Internet signal comes into my house via an AT&T BGW210 modem.

That goes directly to the WAN port of the Orbi router.

Signal then goes from a LAN port on the RBR50 to two uplinked Netgear ProSafe GS108 Gigabit switches that distribute ethernet to the rest of the house.

Orbi Satellite is plugged into the Gigabit network with a GS108 switch between it and the RBR50

I have no problem with the wired, Ethernet speeds. That checks out everywhere in the house. Just the wifi from the router and the satellite.

[FURRYe38]

Is the RBR in router or AP mode wth your modem. Thats a modem with built in router features. 

Hopefully the reset will return the wifi back to spec. 

[Zablalbaz]

RBR is in Router mode. I haven't had time to do the factory reset yet. Too many people at home using the network now. I'll have to schedule an "outage" to get it done this weekend. 

One other data point though. I took my old TP-Link Archer C9 and hooked it up to a LAN port on the RBR. I set it up to distribute a test wifi network, and I was able to connect to the 5GHz network on it and get a 800Mbps Internet speed test with my laptop. So I think we can safely assume that the problem at this time is with the Netgear Orbis. 

My plan at this time is to try the factory reset with the latest firmware that I installed last week. If that doesn't fix it, I'll try to find the v2.5.0.30 FW and downgrade. Hopefully Netgear has those old firmware versions archived somewhere.

[tomschmidt]

Netgear pulled the v2.5.0.x firmware releases as they were extremely buggy.  Please either use the current latest v2.5.1.16 release from https://www.netgear.com/support/product/RBK50.aspx#download or the previous stable v2.3.5.30.  I have been running v2.5.1.16 for a month and it has been the most stable release for me yet.

[Zablalbaz]

Thanks tomschmidt. Just curious, are you getting better then 24Mbps Internet test speeds while connected to the 5Ghz wifi with that firmware version? And did you perform a factory reset after flashing the firmware? I'm getting ready to do this on my end and will report the results back as soon as I am done. I am hoping that the reset will do the trick, and get me back the speeds I lost after flashing to 2.5.1.8.

[Zablalbaz]

Update: One factory reset (and about 4 hours of reconfiguring from scratch) and everything is working as expected again - with theV2.5.1.16 firmware! 

I am now getting the expected Internet speeds when connected to 5GHz wifi. And I can see on my wifi analyzer that the devices are all connecting to the router and satellite at 5GHz with a 80mhz wide channel. Earlier when this all went down, I noticed that the 5GHz devices were only connecting with only a 20Mhz wide channel. Now they are all connecting again with a 80mhz wide channel. I believe that was the culprit, but I cannot 100% prove it to be the case. 

When everything was busted, I went around the house with my analyzer and saw that the 5GHz networks were advertised as "A54 - 20 MHz" channels. The 2.4 GHz networks were showing up as "g54 - 20MHz" channels. After the factory reset, my 5GHz networks are now listed as "AC867 - 80 MHz" wide channels. I believe that the 20MHz narrow channel was essentially restricting throughput on my 5GHz network to similar speeds as the 2.4 GHz network.

Anyway, what have I learned through all this?

1) Do NOT update your firmware on these Orbis unless absolutely necessary.

2) Have a good wifi analyzer app for your phone handy and take some metrics BEFORE you update the firmware and AFTER you update the firmware so you can compare.

3) If you do have to update the firmware, best to just factory reset them and set up from scratch afterwards.

4) Again.... Do you really need to update the firmware? Is it worth it? Sleep on it before doing so...

I hope my notes here in this forum help some folks!

[FURRYe38]

Glad the reset worked and your system is up and running well. 

Sometimes a reset is needed after a FW update. Just happens. Reset is mostly needed last a last resort most of the time however is a troubleshooting step. Seen odd issues with FW updates after they have been applied via auto update or manaully. My personal preference is to factory reset after FW updates. I've not seen issues with my routers using this process. 

Be sure to make a backup configuration to file for safe keeping. This is another lession that helps save time if a reset is needed. 

Please mark you thread as solved so others will know. 

Enjoy. 

[tomschmidt]

I am glad you got this working again with a factory reset.  If you previously had v2.5.0.x firmware on your system, this may have left garbage in your configuration.  Others experienced this issue with v2.5.0.x firmware as well, which is one reason that NG removed it from their downloads.  A factory reset was needed to properly clear the system of the corruption caused by the v2.5.0.x firmware.

[Zablalbaz · Accepted solution]

Thanks to all who pitched in. Your advice was helpful! I just took a backup of the working config in case I need it in the future. Setting this as resolved now!

[FURRYe38]

Enjoy.