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Beam Forming & iOS issues - likely bug

twocybers
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Beam Forming & iOS issues - likely bug

Yesterday I updated the Firmware to 1.4.0.34 and turned on Beam Forming.  After that I was unable to backup any of our iOS devices vis WiFi.  Rebooted the world without any affect.  Turned off Beamforming and WiFi backup of iOS devices worked just fine.  

 

All iOS, macOS, etc. software the most current as of this date.

 

I suspect this is a bug and hopefully NetGear monitors this board and will fix things with a future update.  

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MarkC1024
Luminary

Re: Beam Forming & iOS issues - likely bug

I believe it's been noted is that setting for Implicit Beamforming is for legacy devices/standards, and normally not needed.  Explicit Beamforming is built into the 802.11ac standard and on by default.  Consensus seems to be to just leave it off unless you have a unique situation that requires it.

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MarkC1024
Luminary

Re: Beam Forming & iOS issues - likely bug

To add, did a little digging around and the below from one link seems to be a consistent piece of information from different sources:

 

Universal Beamforming or Implicit Beamforming
Beamforming is an idea that is first implemented in 802.11n for wireless N networks. It was “optional” and never enforced and there was no uniform standard. Some vendors created their versions of it and not all of them are compatible. This earlier version of beamforming is called Universal Beamforming or Implicit Beamforming.

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Hydro130
Luminary

Re: Beam Forming & iOS issues - likely bug

I hate to sound like an Orbi schill here (not my intent!), but I've had my Orbi since late October, and from then up to & including this most recent firmware, I've never experienced any drops on any devices - including multiple iOS and macOS devices.

 

Although I have very few non-ac wireless devices anymore (but I admittedly have no cams), I've always left the "implicit beamforming" option checked (as well as mu-mimo).  No drops.

 

In another thread, someone brought up satellitle positioning as their fix -- they discovered that that the satellite was positioned a bit too close to the router, and that was causing just a bit too much of an overlap - when they increased the satellite distance, the drops stopped happening.

 

Food for thought?

 

Cheers, Chris

Message 4 of 5
twocybers
Star

Re: Beam Forming & iOS issues - likely bug

Mark thank you for your comments on Implicit Beamforming.  I really know nothing about it.  I just noted that when I when from on AirPort Extreme to a TimeCapsule with Beamforming in 2013, the change was huge.  So when I discovered it was not turned on, I decided to give it a try.  

 

I really did not see any significant change, but I was only using seat of the pants observations.  I did some some improvement with the multiple Orbi units before I tried the Beamforming.

 

My specific setup may be a factor.  We have default backups of iOS to iCloud.  The backups that were failing, were manually activated requested WiFi backups to iTunes.  i.e. open iTunes and click on "Back Up Now" button.  After syncing and apparently making the backup a gray triangle appears next to the iOS device in the sidebar saying something about a reconnection or connection - 

 

Not really important now, it may be in the future.

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