orbi rbs50v2 ping spikes

[MrHottPocket]

I bought my orbi routers almost a year ago. They were perfectly fine until late October when my ping started to spike out of nowhere and this went on for a month. At first i thought it was spectrum but i have found out that it is not. February 24th came and the ping spikes started but now they have lasted almost 3 months. I have tried everything i can find to try to fix them but have found no solution. They are on the latest firmware available. I had previously bought a netgear wifi extender and tried using that instead of the satellite but the issue is still there. I am pretty sure that this is an issue with the router not the satellite. It has been 3 months since i have been able to enjoy gaming any help would be greatly appreciated.

[FURRYe38]

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6 is recommended. 

How are you testing pings? 

Have you run ping tests with a wired PC connected to the ISP modem directly then with the RBR in line using pingplotter.com test app? 

What devices are all connected to the system?

How many RBS are deployed? 
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and 📡 satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR📡 and RBS🛰️ to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite ‌‌🛰

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 to 48 channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

️Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Smart Parental Controls or Circle, Traffic Meter.

One User Experience/Configuration:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Most-Stable-Orbi-Configuration/m-p/1941087/highlight/true#M970...

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update? A complete pull of the power adapters for a period of time after the factory reset then walk thru the setup wizard and setup from scratch with a wired PC and web browser. Recommend setting the default DHCP IP address pool range to the following after applying and a factory reset: 192.168.#.100 to 192.168.#.200.
https://kb.netgear.com/24089/How-do-I-specify-the-pool-of-IP-addresses-assigned-by-my-Nighthawk-rout...
I would power OFF the ISP modem for 1 minute. Factory reset the Orbi router and power it off. Power ON the ISP modem and let it sync. Then power ON the Orbi router and walk thru the setup wizard again using a wired PC and a web browser.
Press the back reset button for 15 seconds then release. 
https://kb.netgear.com/31486/How-do-I-reset-my-Orbi-system-to-factory-default-settings
https://kb.netgear.com/000062081/How-do-I-erase-the-configuration-settings-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-System

[MrHottPocket]

Both the router and the satellite are both running v2.7.4.24 the Mfr is spectrum and the model number is ET2251.
Yes i am using a cat 6 lan cable going from my modem to router and from my satellite to my pc. 
When my pc is connected directly to the isp modem or my orbi router i experience no problems its as soon as i connect to my satellite i experience the ping issues I also sued the netgear extender in place of the satellite and had the same issue so it is a router wireless issue.
the devices connected are
my pc
3 phones
oculus
thermostat
and 4 roku tvs

we have only 1 orbi router and 1 orbi satellite
home size is 1,457 square feet
i have the satellite placed in my room all the way on the other side of the house so i would probably say 55-70 feet away from the router and the satellite shows blue when connecting to the router

i did as you said and changed the 2.4 GHz channel from auto to channel 1 and i changed the 5 GHz channel from 48 to 44 and i tested it and still experience the issue
every neighbor around me has wifi so i would say 10 at least but when trying to connect to networks 3 are in range of my house
and yes everything that you listed is disabled 

i disabled daisy chain a month ago and the ping spikes are not as bad as they used to be but it is still happening i re-enabled the daisy chain after i tested the new channels without it and the issue still persists

i also have MU-MIMO on and beamforming on

i factory reset it about 3 weeks ago, i updated the software 2 months ago and the issue still persists i might try factory resetting it again but still no matter what i do it will not work.

[CrimpOn]

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@MrHottPocket wrote:

perfectly fine until late October when my ping started to spike out of nowhere and this went on for a month. At first i thought it was spectrum but i have found out that it is not. February 24th came and the ping spikes started but now they have lasted almost 3 months.

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• five months, ping good.
• one month, ping bad
• three months, ping good
• three months, ping bad

It is tempting to ask, "what changed?"

The VR Headset and PC are connected to the satellite.  Sorry to display ignorance: which is used for gaming?  (both together?)  How is the PC connected (wired? WiFi?)

Unacceptable latency is being reported how?

• By the gaming software?
• From a test run on the PC?

[KevinLiT]

Hello @MrHottPocket ,

I understand that you have been recently experiencing ping spikes with your RBK50 on FW v2.7.4.24. The latest FW for your RBK50 Orbi Mesh system is FW v2.7.5.4. To resolve this issue please ensure that your RBK50 Orbi Mesh system is on the most current firmware. Testing network connection with your ISP is highly recommended. 

Please navigate to the link below for the download file for your RBK50: 
https://www.netgear.com/support/product/RBK50#download

Please let us know if you require further assistance!

Best

Kevin 

Community Team

[MrHottPocket]

i just realized that there is new firmware but i already installed it previously before i factory reset it and the problem still persisted even after the update and the model is rbs50v2 not rbk50.

[MrHottPocket]

ping plotter and in game ping both show the same thing 

[MrHottPocket]

the pc is the only thing that i know is directly connected to the satellite because its connected through ethernet

[MrHottPocket]

i will re update the firmware as soon as i can i will come back if the issue persists (im pretty sure it will)

[CrimpOn]

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@MrHottPocket wrote:

i just realized that there is new firmware but i already installed it previously before i factory reset it and the problem still persisted even after the update and the model is rbs50v2 not rbk50.

---

Netgear has a distinct product naming practice:

• RBK50 indicates a "Kit" (hence the "K"), consisting of
• One RBR50 router ("R") and
• One or more RBS50 satellites ("S")

It would be helpful to isolate the problem to:

• Internal (within the Orbi network) or
• External (the Internet Service Provider network plus the "Internet" which is everything from the ISP to the gaming host)

Ping Plotter identifies the latency from the host computer (the PC connected to the Orbi satellite) through each data center through the ISP and internet until it reaches the ultimate destination.  Here a test against twitter.com shows that one of the intermediate points appears to have a huge variability:

This example was with a PC connected directly to the RBR50 router, so ping times are very short.  It would be interesting to see how much the times to 192.168.1.1 vary on your system.

[MrHottPocket]

idk if this helps but here

[MrHottPocket]

when plugged in directly to the isp modem i have no issues at all same with the orbi router but as soon as i connect to the router wirelessly is where the problems arise i know it is a problem with the router itself because like i said i bought a netgear extender before i purchased the orbis and i experienced the same issue when using the extender in place of the satellite

[CrimpOn]

Thanks.  I think this helps a lot.

• It shows that the latency (ping time) to the Orbi router is very fast.
• Latency to various parts of the path within Spectrum (part of Charter) is significantly more variable.
• Latency to twitter.com varies quite a bit.

This doe not seem (to me) to "point a finger" at the Orbi network as being responsible for problems with gaming.

[MrHottPocket]

i only have the problem when i am plugged into the satellite like i said i have no issues being plugged into the isp modem or the orbi router.

[MrHottPocket]

this is my ping to im pretty sure the north america west fortnite servers and as i see there is a big hang up could that be causing my issues? i have the same problem in any game so i have no clue if this is the problem

[MrHottPocket]

I found a epic blog post and it had the exact address to ping an this is what came out

[CrimpOn]

Must be missing something. Do not see anything about ping times on that screen shot.

What does Ping Plotter show when pointed directly at the Epic Games IP rather than Twitter?

(This is where my lack of familiarity with Internet gaming becomes evident.   Which IP is the destination?)

Latency across the WiFi backhaul between satellite and router will always be greater and more variable than latency across a wired gigabit connection:

• Wired connections are inherently Full Duplex.  Data can flow in both directions at the same time.
• Ethernet has less "overhead" than WiFi (the frames which encapsulate data are shorter and contain less information).
• WiFi is inherently "one device talks at a time".  I have one router and three satellites. They all use channel 157 to communicate.  If the router is sending a data packet to satellite 1, then satellites 2 and 3 must remain silent until they get a turn to send.  If there are powerful WiFi systems nearby that also use channel 157, that means more devices "waiting their turn". When two attempt to broadcast at the same time, this causes a "collision" and both must back off and wait for a new opportunity to send.

There is a really cool tool for Windows called hrping.https://www.cfos.de/en/ping/ping.htm 

I spent a weekend checking out various connections:

• Desktop PC wired directly to Orbi router.
• Desktop PC wired to router, but pinging satellite IP (one WiFi link)
• Desktop PC wired to router pinging device connected to satellite over WiFi.
• etc. etc.
• Dumped the results of 5,000 pings into an Excel spreadsheet and calculated minimum, maximum, average, fastest 10%, slowest 10%, etc. etc.  Great "fun for nerds".

The conclusion was that Ethernet connections are fantastic at latency and WiFi varies all over the place.

[CrimpOn]

(Oh, shoot. posts "crossed".)  On the Epic Ping Plotter, the Orbi router does not appear as entry number 1??

[MrHottPocket]

welp like i said this is what ping plotter shows when i have the north america west server inputted 

[CrimpOn]

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@MrHottPocket wrote:

welp like i said this is what ping plotter shows when i have the north america west server inputted 

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I got it now.  The results screen was scrolled down so that the first 'hop' visible is hop 5.  The Orbi router (hop 1) is there, just not being displayed.  I added displaying the Maximum value by right clicking on the Heading line.

Ping Plotter's information on how to interpret the results is fascinating:

https://www.pingplotter.com/wisdom/common-network-problems/ 

Ping Plotter works by sending out ICMP packets with different time to live settings, starting at 1.  When that packet reaches the Orbi router, the router says, "oops. no farther for you." and responds to Ping Plotter.   Packets with larger values get farther along the path before they stop.  Ping Plotter seems to think that some routers along the router may not be set to respond with much priority to ICMP packets that time out.

To me, the contrast between hop 1 (the router) and the final destination is the key. This problem has come and gone in the past.  If extreme latency is an issue right now, it should show up in the results.

[MrHottPocket]

idk at this point i just give up i dont think its possible to fix im just going to get new routers if i cant sort this out in the next day or 2

[MrHottPocket]

im trying to manually update them but the file is downloading as a zip file and it says i need and img file do i convert it?

[MrHottPocket]

nevermind i found if you right click and open the downloaded file the img file is in it but when i use that file it says the file is incorrect what do ido now?

[MrHottPocket]

ok i got the satellite on 2.7.5.4 i just need to figure out how to update the router

[CrimpOn]

Router and satellite have different image files