v2.1.3.4

[FURRYe38]

OK, swap satellites around to see if the problem tracks or not..

[packetwerks]

I'll give that a try. 

Question: Does the LAN port on the back of the router and/or satellite matter for wired backhaul? Out of habit I always put the connection to my switch (what I want to be the backhaul) in the LAN port closest to the power plug. 

[FURRYe38]

No doesn't matter. Switch will route the traffic the same way on any LAN port.

[packetwerks]

I can't move the sat now but I did notice that two identical (hardware) satellites have different interfaces:

Wired Backhaul working:

bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
br0             8000.9c3dcfe5a291       no              ath0
                                                        ath01
                                                        ath02
                                                        ath1
                                                        ath2
                                                        ath21
                                                        eth0
                                                        eth1

Wired Backhaul not working:

root@RBS50:/# brctl show
bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
br0             8000.9c3dcfe58e41       no              ath0
                                                        ath01
                                                        ath1
                                                        ath2
                                                        eth0
                                                        eth1
brwan           8000.000000000000       no

Any idea why one satellite would start with different interfaces? 

[FURRYe38]

Where is

8000.9c3dcfe58e41 

connected too? Directly to router or 1st Sat? 

Is Daisy Chain enabled or disabled?

I would test this one Sat alone directly with the router, with the others turned off temporarily and see what happens.

[packetwerks]

Daisy chain is enabled. Router is in AP mode, both satellites and router are connected to eachtoher via a GigE switch. 

Ah, now that I look at it, the satellite where wired backhaul isn't working (basement) is connected to the working backhaul satellite (office). I'll disable daisy chain now and see what happens. Thanks for the help. 

[SOG1996]

The whole day wasted on trying to get my home netowrk back in business, this firmware is causing the router to reboot every 2-3 minutes. we definitly need the option in the app to stop auto update in the ORBI routers and Satelites

[FURRYe38]

Did you do a factory reset on both router and Satellite(s) then set up from scratch. Were seeing continued problems after the FW is updated and needs a full factory reset and set up again. Others have reported this and reported that after the reset, seems to clear the problems.

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@SOG1996wrote:

The whole day wasted on trying to get my home netowrk back in business, this firmware is causing the router to reboot every 2-3 minutes. we definitly need the option in the app to stop auto update in the ORBI routers and Satelites

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[SOG1996]

I did not wanted to do it at first because I label every device that connects to my network 120 of them, but as last resource I did reset the router & Satelite juts to find out it did not make any difference, router kept rebooting every 2-3 minutes, I fell back to V2.0.1.4 but I know it I will get the auto update some time in the near future.

[FURRYe38]

So is v2.0.1.4 working with out any problems?

When you did the factory reset on v2.1.3.4, did you set up from scratch or apply a saved config file?

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@SOG1996wrote:

I did not wanted to do it at first because I label every device that connects to my network 120 of them, but as last resource I did reset the router & Satelite juts to find out it did not make any difference, router kept rebooting every 2-3 minutes, I fell back to V2.0.1.4 but I know it I will get the auto update some time in the near future.

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[SOG1996]

from scratch, went thru the whole thing, entering the App admin ID/PSW, the ssid and netowok psw, I had to set up my guest network, and like I said before I lost all the set up I had where I label each devide , now when I display the attached devices I just see some odd names with IP and MAC addresses.

[FURRYe38]

There device detection maybe not fully working. I have noticed same Unknown naming of some devices. I presume there name some handshaking problems between the FW and the devices themselves.

Do your devices have host names assigned manually? I know some may not however if you give a name, the router should beable to show the host name.

Also is the same thing seen on different browsers? IE11, FF or Opera?

[SOG1996]

I tried with Firefox and IE same thing in both, the name show things like HS105, which I know it is for the TP-LINK wall mini plugs, I have a lot of them and I had each one nicelly labeled.

[FURRYe38]

This is something that maybe could be added in FW as i presume there is a long list database of vendor devices out there. Might contact one of the forum moderators to check on this. @AmitR or @DarrenM

Only thing you can do now is to set up new host names for each device and then save off a new router config file.

[SOG1996]

yes that is the plan, I will make the updates once I get a reliable firmware, Like I said before I fell back to V2.0.1.4 but I am sure they will push V2.1.3.4 again, we need the avility to disable auto update.

[FURRYe38]

Ya, I agree. Please let NG know about this.

[ppilot212]

Just updated to 2.1.3.4 and trying to run ethernet backhaul completely bricks my entire network even after hard resetting everything. What a mess.

[Stang097]

FURRYe38 is correct with the factory reset after the upgrade.  I upgraded from 2.1.2.18 to 2.1.3.4, upgraded satellite first and then powered it off.  Then upgraded router and factory reset it from scratch.  Then powered up the satellite and let it connect then connected ethernet cable.  Everything is working with on issue, but what a pain to upgrade firmware.

[packetwerks]

Here is how I was able to use ethernet backhaul while using a central switch without bricking my network:

TLDR; 1.) access debug.htm on your wired satellites, 2.) telnet to the satellite, 3.) run "brctl stp br0 1". If you reboot the satellite you will need to re-run it - I've not yet looked into how to make it persistent. The problem is redundant paths from the satellite causes a loop/storm. 

Long version:

The problem is that the sattelites act as a layer 2 bridge. One challenge with bridges is that they are suceptable to loops or broadcast storms if there are redundant paths over the bridge: wired backhaul and wireless backhaul. Just like a microphone and a speaker are suceptable to feedback where the sound goes back into the microphone, to the speaker, to the mic, to the speaker, etc. This is what is happening when you plug in the ethernet backhaul. 

To fix loops, spanning tree protocol (STP) was invented. When enabled on a bridge, STP can detect if there is a loop, and then force traffic to the best/fastest/"least cost" connection out of the bridge. So rather than traffic going out both the wired and wireless backhauls (creating a loop/storm), it forces it out the LAN port -- which is what you want. This worked fine on the Orbi until v2.1.3.4, when I woke up to 25-50mbits of sustained brodcast traffic, hosing my entire network and causing all kinds of things to reboot constantly. 

My theory is that in v2.1.3.4 Netgear removed spanning tree protocol (STP) from satellites. So to re-enable it:

1. Enable telnet on the sattelite (debug.htm)

2. Run: brctl stp br0 1

3. Do this on all ethernet backhaul'd sattelites.

4. Plug in ethernet to LAN port (or note that your network isn't on fire now if it's already plugged in)

An alternative work around is to connect the satellites directly to the router via cat5 and don't use a central switch - that way the broadcast traffic never hits the switch (and thus never hits the broadcast domain for the network). 

I'm 99% sure that this is what is happening and I hope that (barring any other issues I'm misssing) Netgear will re-enable STP for satellites. Please give this a try and let me know if it fixes your issue. 

Edit: Here is a separate thread that shows my testing: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/V2-1-3-4-Bridging/m-p/1543720#M27221

[FURRYe38]

Glad you got it working. Yes this is pain to upgrade FW and factory reset. I was told while the new FW IS beta, factory resets are needed then setup from scratch. Once FW goes officially released, then resets won't be needed.

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@Stang097wrote:

FURRYe38 is correct with the factory reset after the upgrade.  I upgraded from 2.1.2.18 to 2.1.3.4, upgraded satellite first and then powered it off.  Then upgraded router and factory reset it from scratch.  Then powered up the satellite and let it connect then connected ethernet cable.  Everything is working with on issue, but what a pain to upgrade firmware.

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[FURRYe38]

I presume this process isn't needed if there isn't any managed switches in the mix which you do have and should mention. We've seen issues with the Orbi system and the use of Managed network switches. Non managed switches dont exhibit this issue. Nor does this issue exist when directly connected to the Orbi router with out any switches being in the mix.

This would be a work around for those using Managed switches. Users with Managed switched should also contect the Mfr of these switches to see if there is any configurations on the switches to help with confiurations and use of Orbi Systems.

I've asked for some review of this from NG support. Will see if anyone responds.

Again, have you tested the Orbi system with a NON Managed switch? What are the results?

[ppilot212]

I was using an unmanaged Netgear Prosafe switch and was still running into issues

[FURRYe38]

Whats the model # of this switch?

What model Orbi system do you have?

How many Satellites?

What Daisy chain enabled or disabled during testing?

Trying to get the details of these switches that people are using so I can forward this to NG. Hoping that they can figure this out. Any and all info is helpful so they have all they need to work with this.

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@ppilot212wrote:

I was using an unmanaged Netgear Prosafe switch and was still running into issues

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[UCFBBIRD]

System was updated to V2.1.3.4, ever since my ipad does not maintain a steady wifi signal.  Every few minutes it drops signal, not sure about my other Apple devices as the ipad is used for streaming movies and videos where the otthers are not.  Tried all of the Base and Sat Resets, and factory reset, and ipad power cycle, but same issue.  

[FURRYe38]

Try using a manual channel 1, 6 or 11. 

Set 40Mhz Coexistence only.

Try disabling Beamforming, MIMO, Daisy Chain, Fast Romaing and IPv6 on the router. 

Try setting WPA2 and PSK AES Only. 

What iOS is loaded on the iPad? 

And you did factory reset and set up from scratch on the router and satellite right? 

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@UCFBBIRD wrote:

System was updated to V2.1.3.4, ever since my ipad does not maintain a steady wifi signal.  Every few minutes it drops signal, not sure about my other Apple devices as the ipad is used for streaming movies and videos where the otthers are not.  Tried all of the Base and Sat Resets, and factory reset, and ipad power cycle, but same issue.  

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