Hi Everyone!
So last week I finally got tired of my old Apple Time Capsule restarting automatically at inconvenient times, and bought what I thought would be one of the best Wi-Fi solutions out there; the Orbi RBK50 (router + satellite).
I do however experience frequent problems with video streaming. In my family we only use internet based streaming services like Netflix, as well as I have my own Plex server set up that streams my local content to both the local network as well as to the internet (to friends, to my ipad when I'm at work etc).
What typically happens is that a streamed movie from the internet hangs for 5-10 seconds before it continues. This happens from all Internet-sources (Netflix, Youtube, + 3-4 more) maybe once a hour or so. Also, if I stream Plex-media via the internet the receiver will get hangups every 5-10 minutes or so (might be related to smaller buffer size?).
However, streaming Plex via the local network is 100% smooth; and we have never experienced any sort of troubles in relation to this.
My internet speed is 80/80 Mbit fiber and I get consistent tests at 80-85 Mbit both up and down against speedtest.com/fast.com/ookla and local test-providers. Pinging sources close to my location (local and national webpages) is consistent in the 7-9 ms range.
Also note that my NAS (hosting media files) and iMac (hosting Plex server) are connected via ethernet, and I'm still experiencing problems with PLEX-hosting, indicating that it isn't a wifi-problem.
I have set up my network as follows:
- Internet router in bridge-mode.
- Orbi router in "Router mode".
- Orbi directly connected to internet router via CAT6.
- Orbi satellite 6 meters (20 ft) away. Located 20 cm from AV-receiver. The receiver is on the far side of the orbi's, so there should be a direct line of sight between the orbis except for the wooden floor between the etages (partially blocked signal?).
- Orbi units running latest firmware (V2.0.0.74)
Ethernet-connections:
- Orbi Router -> switch -> iMac 1, iMac 2, alarm system 1.
- Orbi Router -> direct ethernet connection -> alarm system 2, Synology NAS
- Orbi Satellite -> TV, PS4, AV-receiver & BluRay-player.
(the alarm systems should be no factor, as they are just access points for the alarm system's wireless units (IR-units w/cameras, door-sensors, and keyless entry integration).
Wifi-setup:
- Standard 2,4 GHZ (CH=auto) and 5 GHZ (CH=36) setup.
- WPA2-PSK AES security.
- No guest network.
- Connected Wifi-Devices: ChromeCast Ultra, AppleTV,
- Wifi-Scanner finds 12 networks, and states that "best" channels (least interference) is ch1 for 2,4GHZ and ch161 for 5 GHZ.
- Beamforming, MU-MIMO and Fast Roaming are set to "OFF".
- "Advanced Wireless Settings" are set to standard for both 2.4 and 5 GHZ networks.
Internet-setup:
- I have static IP from my ISP.
- Orbi router internet setup is set to "Get Dynamically from ISP" and it automatically use the "static IP" as it's internet facing IP-address.
DHCP/ports:
- Orbi runs local DHCP-server.
- I have reserved the automatically assigned addresses to my network units, just so they don't change.
- I have forwarded selected ports to te appropriate devices (torrents, minecraft server, plex server).
Monitoring:
I'm currently using a tool on my iMac (CAT6->Router) thats checking my internet-connection every 10 seconds and declares (and logs) an outage if there is a 4 second period of no response from the server. It has been running for a few days now, with not a single declared outage; so it seems there is a steady connection, but that the speed of the connections drops from time to time....
So..... Anyone have the slightest clue what might be going on here? 🙂
Both me, my wife and our kids are getting quite angsty from the intermittent dropouts, so we'd appreciate any input you have!
Cheers
Quintilian
