Re: Upgrade from RBK50 to RBK852 significantly drops network reliability and performance

Bonacci · ‎2021-04-16

I intended to upgrade my network by replacing my RBK50 with the RBK852. The wifi speed / throughput increased but the reliability of the network significantly decereased. There are frequent drops in signal resulting in noticebale stutters (e.g. in voice/video calls or streaming Netflix). This issue occurs on wifi and wired connections. Except replacing the RBK hardware, all other things remain the same (e.g. hardware position, wifi settings, device settings and usage etc). Likely the RBK852 hardware is at fault here. I'm wondering if this is isolated to just my unit or if there is a structurale issue with the RBK852 reliabilty. Interested to hear your experiences.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-04-16

What devices do you have connected?

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? 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?

Pososible that your unit maybe faulty. Been using 1 RBR and two RBS in a 5000sq ft home with no problems like this.

Bonacci · ‎2021-04-16

@FURRYe38 wrote:
What devices do you have connected? => Not applicable as there have been no changes to my devices compared to the setup with RBK50. I have only 30 or so devices, most (20+) connected with a wire.
If you are aware of known issues with devices please share / point me to the Mfr and model#

What Firmware version is currently loaded? =>The latest provided by NG.
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too? => Not applicable as there have been no changes to my devices compared to the setup with RBK50. If you are aware of specific issues with routers please share / point me to list MFr and model# so I can validate.

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft? Not applicable as issue is also preseting itself right next to router and in addition no changes have been made in positiong to setup with previous model.
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. Agree and I comply with this recommendation.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite

What channels are you using? Auto? => Yes auto but again this was the same as with previous setup. Will give this a try though!
Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 to 48 channel on 5Ghz. Will give this a go. Will check congestion on the channels and change channel to see if this helps.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many? In understand the question but again not relevant as previous model worked flawlessly with others nearby.

Pososible that your unit maybe faulty. Been using 1 RBR and two RBS in a 5000sq ft home with no problems like this. Yes, I agree and I'm considering sending it back for replacement.

Just to be clear, I greatly appreciate your support!!

bullm00n · ‎2021-04-16

I did the same upgrade recently, RBK53 to RBK852 - so one less satellite than I originally had. Performance has been great as you say - with a blazing fast WAN connection close to 1.4Gbps using the aggregated ports. Reliability has been solid as well. My friend and I have been doing Internet based jamm sessions during the pandemic using software that is like Zoom for musicians. It is a difficult ask: to provide a realtime music session with reasonable roundtrip latency (less that 20ms) and low jitter and dropped audio frames. We've only found two software products that can do a good job with this, Jamkazam and Sonobus. Of course we'd been doing this with the RBK50 setup for most of the pandemic and have only recently been using the RBK850 but the sessions have been solid even over the course of a few hours with no drops, disconnects, nor any other router issues. We also Zoom chat during breaks and that's been solid as well. Beyond that, I have 3 Nest cams and handfuls of other IOT devices connected all quite solid. The Nest cams are the biggest tell as they will complain about connection issues and the outdoor cams didn't do nearly as well with the RBK50 and would often show weak signals even though they worked well enough mostly - but no problems like that now.

Of course every setup is different, but my experience has been very good so far.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-04-16

Like @bullm00n mentioned, every user has a different setup, regardless of last used product or not. We also do not know what your setup and configuration IS or was prior to you posting so we don't have any idea of what you have configured. Thus reason for asking these question which are valid and helpful to us so we can get a better idea of what you have. Doen't help us much if we can't help you better with out some details.

Bonacci · ‎2021-04-16

I provided additional details where relevant. The suggestion regarding channel selection I will try this weekend. If no improvement I will exchange my unit for another RBK850. If the problem still persists after the exchange I can only conclude the product just isn't suitable to my particular setup or environment (will go back to RBK50). Will update on results. Thanks for your support!

Bonacci · ‎2021-04-23

The RBK85x continues to be a tremendous PITA and unreliable AF. I've exchanged my previous RBK85x set with another RBK85x set to rule out hardware issues. Unfortunately this didn't resolve anything, actually the issues only got worse 😄

1) Connections drop frequently

2) Wired speeds are abysmal (50 Mbps in 1Gbps LAN and 1Gbps ISP connection that delivers said speed), wifi is ok at 700Mbps (still useless due to frequent drop-outs).

3) Router cannot keep satellites in sync (eventhough everything is wired).

4) Device recognition on the network is a mess (I don't care too much about this but just another sign the product is unreliable e.g. showing tablets as hardwired).

So far I've done:

1) Exchange hardware

2) Update to latest firmware (perfrom complete factory reset etc.)

3) Remove all devices and switches from my network

4) Use wired only connection to satellites and my computer

Will give it a final go this weekend and otherwise will need to return everything.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-04-23

Seems like of two systems are experiencing the same issues, this would indicate there is something in your environment causing problems, not Orbi.

Bonacci · ‎2021-04-23

Reverting back to the my older mesh based on RBK50 these issues don’t occur. It seems the software and/or hardware of the new kit hasn’t matured enough yet or perhaps has backward compatibility issues.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-04-23

Possible compatibility issue. Not sure what all that would be though. Something I haven't seen with mine. I guess return it and keep going with the Orbi AC system then.

Good Luck.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-05-21

You may want to contact NG support and get more help and information regarding this. You may have a faulty system as well. Something to ask NG about an RMA.

@Bonacci wrote:
Reverting back to the my older mesh based on RBK50 these issues don’t occur. It seems the software and/or hardware of the new kit hasn’t matured enough yet or perhaps has backward compatibility issues.