Had a nighthawk R8000 in a 3 level approximately 2500 sq foot ski townhouse.
Eufy cameras, roku, nest cameras, etc all worked well with the exception of occasional drop outs on the cameras farthest from the router (which was in the center of the main level)
Now upgraded to RBKE963, and frankly amazed at how poorly the system works.
Nest camera 20 feet away from the main router, (installed in the same place as the R800) initially didn't work at all, and now work only poorly with iot network set up and manually set to channel 11 (auto setting wouldn't connect at all) Main SSD wont even work with nest cameras,...they don't even connect.
Satellites are wired backhaul and the app appears to think theyre working properly.
One is in the basement, and one on the third floor.
What am I doing wrong? surely the flagship ORBI mesh product must work better than a 5 year old router?
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?
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? Try channel 1 and 40. What I have mine set for.
Are you using the IoT radio or the main radio for all your cameras?
I don't have NEST cameras, however all my 4 D-Link cameras have been working well with the 9 series since it got installed. Zero issues.
I have seen others with NEST product issues. Including NEST thermostat controllers. My 3rd gen has been ok on the 9 series. I found 1 low battery on it about a week ago. Was first time I saw that since the 9 series went online. Haven't seen a low battery it since. Was worse on my 8 series system. NEST products have always been problematic with Orbi systems.
Also try turning down the power output of the RBRs wifi radios from 100% to 50% and see if this changes anything. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings
I would not assert that (all) Nest products have always been problematic with Orbi systems, unless you have the data to support such a broad claim. IMO it's only the Nest thermostat where many Orbi customers have had low battery issues and now use the Guest network or a spare router. My other Nest cameras and Nest Protects have worked fine with my Orbis and I have not observed any more issues reported here in the Orbi forums.
Nest cameras can connect at 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz. If you're using the IoT network then it is 2.4Ghz and should have better range than 5Ghz. With the older Orbi AX system many 2.4Ghz devices worked better with CTS/RTS Threshold set to 2347 vs. the 64 default that Netgear uses, so you might try that and see what happens.
Strange that such a high end product has known issues with a very popular camera system, and that (outside of these and other technical fora) it's not made known to the consumer.
I'm certainly no stranger to configuring stuff, but bought this thinking I could just use the same SSID and password that my nighthawk used and things would work. Naive, I know.
Would it work to use old R8000 as wired AP with same SSID and PW in areas with nest cameras (they seemed to play well together) or would that cause problems with othe devices.
Frankly, for the same money, could have had a decent Ubiquiti system. Was hoping this would be turnkey.
Also placement of the RBR and RBS in relation to the cameras as well can be a factor.
I found my one NEST controller for some reason didn't like being too close to my RBR 8 series. When I moved the RBR to a much farther location, the nest stopped giving low battery and remianed connected. I've done alots of troubleshooting, debugging and log collection for NG on with NEST controllers over past two years. Part of these issues seen deals with devices bouncing around trying to find and lock on to the signal. Before on your 8000 series, you only had two signal and if you didn't use smart connect, then it was easy for any device to lock on and remain connected. With Orbi or ANY Mesh system that uses smart connect all the time and having two or more wifi signal sources, devices now have many signals that they have to figure out which one is the best to lock on and to connect too. So placement of the RBR and RBS and devices is key to helping devices connect to MESH systems. Just can't place it and think it should work. Most cases it should and agree it should work, howver with MESH systems, there is a bit more to it then just turning it ON or turn key.
Strange that such a high end product has known issues with a very popular camera system, and that (outside of these and other technical fora) it's not made known to the consumer.
I'm certainly no stranger to configuring stuff, but bought this thinking I could just use the same SSID and password that my nighthawk used and things would work. Naive, I know.
Would it work to use old R8000 as wired AP with same SSID and PW in areas with nest cameras (they seemed to play well together) or would that cause problems with othe devices.
Frankly, for the same money, could have had a decent Ubiquiti system. Was hoping this would be turnkey.
Had a nighthawk R8000 in a 3 level approximately 2500 sq foot ski townhouse.
Eufy cameras, roku, nest cameras, etc all worked well with the exception of occasional drop outs on the cameras farthest from the router (which was in the center of the main level)
Now upgraded to RBKE963, and frankly amazed at how poorly the system works.
Nest camera 20 feet away from the main router, (installed in the same place as the R800) initially didn't work at all, and now work only poorly with iot network set up and manually set to channel 11 (auto setting wouldn't connect at all) Main SSD wont even work with nest cameras,...they don't even connect.
Satellites are wired backhaul and the app appears to think theyre working properly.
One is in the basement, and one on the third floor.
What am I doing wrong? surely the flagship ORBI mesh product must work better than a 5 year old router?
While I can't speak to Nest cameras since I have none, I do have 8 WiFi connected Arlo cameras that connected and remain connected with no issues with the RBKE963. I also set my RBKE963 up with the same SSID/password as the router it replaced, and ALL connected devices reconnected with no issues.
The RBKE963 has quite a bit more power than some of the older Orbis and many older routers. I see you have 2500SqFt but using the router and two satellites. Note that the RBKE963 says that the 3 pack (Router + 2 Satellites) cover up to 9,000 SqFt. It could be that you have just too much coverage and the cameras are bouncing between router and satellites. Check your router log and see if you see the camera disconnecting/reconnecting, or check your attached devices list and see if it is bouncing between router and satellites. You may want to pull one of the Satellites out of the mix and see if that helps (unless you need the satellite in place for wired connectivity. Or as Furry mentioned, dropping the transmit power a bit and see if that helps.
Someone mentioned the Nest can do either 5GHz or 2.4Ghz connectivity. If that's the case, you may want to see if it works better on one band over the other. With the IoT band, you can select to broadcast it only on 2.4GHz, 5GHz, or both, so you have a bit of customization there as well.
