Ethernet Backhaul kills LAN traffic *partly*

[BigBlue_007]

Hi,

my issue is not really the same than the one in the "Ethernet Backhaul kills LAN" topic, so I decided to open a separate topic for it.

My RBR40 router + RBS40 satellite were working with wireless backhaul for quite a while and pretty much ok. To improve speed on the satellite, I recently decided to give Ethernet Backhaul a try, despite the lots of reported problems with it. Surprisingly, I got it to work pretty much easily. I turned off router and satellite, connected satellite to the LAN cable, powered it up, waited 5 minutes, powered up the main router, waited another 5 minutes, and after that the satellite showed up in the router's webinterface as connected via Ethernet Backhaul.

So much less trouble than I had anticipated... 🙂

However, in this configuration I now have the following issue:

I have 2 STBs (Set Top Boxes), one in the living room, one in the sleeping room. Both are connected via LAN. From the RBR40, a LAN cable goes to the sleeping room. There's a 4-port TP-Link LAN switch to which the STB and the Smart-TV is connected to. Another LAN cable goes from the RBR40 to the living room, where I have a 8-port TP-Link LAN switch which is being used to connect all my A/V equipment via LAN (TV, Xbox, Apple TV, the mentioned STB). To this switch I now also connected the RBS40 satellite.

The STB in the living room is connected to a satellite dish and contains the smart cards for Pay-TV. The box acts as a streaming server for the 2nd STB in the sleeping room, meaning I can access all TV channels from the STB in the living room via LAN on the STB in the sleeping room. When streaming HDTV channels (let alone UHD channels), this obviously causes a constant LAN traffic in my network.

Now here's the problem: This was working fine for years until I decided to connect the RBS40 via Ethernet Backhaul. Since I did that, the connection between the STBs drops every few minutes. It is being re-established right away when I switch TV channels on the STB in the sleeping room, but that's not a solution obviously. After unplugging the RBS40 it works right away.

I assume that this issue is technically not limited to these 2 STBs, meaning that if I would have other devices in my LAN which transfer larger amounts of data I would probably see the same issue there as well.

I tried the following: Unplugging the LAN cable that goes from the RBR40 to the 8-port switch from that switch, plug it directly into the RBS40 (so that there is a direct LAN connection between RBR40 and RBS40 without a switch in between), and then connecting the 8-port switch to the 2nd LAN port of the RBS40. Ethernet Backhaul worked again without any problem, but the issue with my STBs were the same.

So right now I had no other choice than to revert back to WLAN Backhaul.

Is this something that anyone else experienced? Any possible solution?

TIA!

[FURRYe38]

The process to set up wired back haul is to have the satellites already connected via wireless. Disconnect all other wired LAN devices from the router bofore setting up wired back haul. Both router and satellite should be on, the connect the LAN cable between the satellite and router, no powering OFF of anything. Wait 5 minutes and the top led on the satellite should turn on PINK then BLUE which indicates a sucessful connection. 

Be sure your using good quality lan cable, CAT6 recommended. 

Ensure any switches used are NON-Managed. Orbi seems to have issues with Managed switches. You can place switches in between the router and satellite. I wouldn't place a switch after the satellite. 

[BigBlue_007]

"The process to set up wired back haul is to have the satellites already connected via wireless."

Yes, I am aware of that. From fully reading my post you would have recognized that this is exactly how I did it, and you would also have recognized that establishing the Ethernet Backhaul is NOT my problem. 🙂

The rest of your answer also indicates that you haven't read and/or understood my posting. You are describing how to properly establish Ethernet Backhaul connection, but again, this is not the issue I have. Ethernet Backhaul between RBR40 and RBS40 works like a charm.

Thanks for trying anyway. 🙂

[FURRYe38]

So of wired back haul isn't a problem, why did you revert to wireless back haul? 

Maybe a diagram of your configuration and how things are connected would be helpful for us to understand your situation better...

[st_shaw]

I don't know if this will make a difference or not, but you might try connecting the RBR40 wire to the RBS40, then connecting the switch to the RBS40.  Sounds like you have the RBR40 connected to the switch.

[BigBlue_007]

That's exactly what I already tried as explained in my first post... 

Ok, so you guys need a picture? Ok, here you go... 😄

The orange and blue LAN cables are the 2 alternative connection methods that I tried. Orange is the first method, where I simply connected the RBS40 to the existing 8-port hub in the living room. Blue is the 2nd method where I unplugged the cable coming from the RBR40 from the switch, plugged it into the RBS40 directly, and then connected the switch to the 2nd LAN port of the RBS40.

I need to emphasize again that in both cases, establishing the Ethernet Backhaul between RBR40 and RBS40 was NO problem. The problem is that as soon as the RBS40 is connected via Ethernet Backhaul (no matter with which of the 2 cabling variants), the communication between the 2 STBs is being interrupted intermittently. And again, I'm seeing this with these 2 STBs only because these are the only devices that I have that constantly transfer large amount of data. I am sure that any other LAN-connected devices that would constantly transfer large amount of data would experience the same issue.

To a certain degree I would understand if this issue would occur with the blue cabling, because in this case, all LAN traffic between devices in the bedroom and devices in the living room needs to go through the RBS40, which then might (for whatever reason) have a problem with the constant high traffic. But with the orange cabling, the RBS40 is just one more client attached to the living room switch, so the traffic between the 2 STBs is not going through it at all. But the issue also exists in that scenario.

So for whatever reason, solely the presence of the Ethernet-Backhaul'ed RBS40 causes this issue.

[st_shaw]

OK. I see now that you tried that.  Too much info in your post to follow easily without a picture.

Nobody will be able to see your picture for a few hours until a moderator approves it.

[FURRYe38]

Thanks for the picture. This helps greatly. I would have lead of with this.

Understanding more now, Can you try taking both switches out of the mix, connecting the STBs, 1 to the router and 1 to the satellite while you have the Satellite wired directly to the router. No switches in the mix. Need to rule out the switches.

I would then try both STBs connected to the router with out connected to the satellite.

Hopefully you will see something change...

Let us know the results....

What are the Mfr and model#s of the switches in use?

[BigBlue_007]

Ok, so I basically reverted to the blue cabling in the living room, but the cable from port 2 of the RBS40 goes into the STB directly rather than into the LAN switch. Same in the sleeping room, where I unplugged the cable from the LAN switch and plugged it into the STB directly.

There is a 3rd LAN switch that I didn't include in my drawing. It's also connected to the RBR40 and connects devices in my home office room. I unplugged this switch as well. So basically the only LAN devices which are now connected are RBR40, RBS40 with direct LAN connection, STB in living room connected to RBS40, and STB in bedroom connected directly to the RBR40. Ethernet Backhaul is up and running.

With this setup, the issue is now gone! Glad too early - it just took a little longer for the issue to appear, but it's still there. So the LAN switches have no relation to the issue.

Anyway, the LAN switches I'm using are:

- TP-Link TL-SG108 (living room, 8 ports)

- TP-Link TL-SG105 (home office, 5 ports)

- A pretty much no-name USB-powered LAN switch in the bedroom, see https://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-Network-Services-LGB304A/dp/B0148L7YI2

Any suggestions?

[FURRYe38]

Any chance you can test with two wired PCs in place of the STBs to see if PCs do the same thing? Curious if this either could be a Orbi problem or a STB problem. If PCs do the same thing, then it would be a Orbi problem.

I would do try this, use IE11 or FF browser. Download the FW update file, you might try going back to v.10 version and manually load up the satellite first, then the router. After it's applied do a full ERASE on the satellite and router and set up from scratch. Add the satellite via wireless first, then connect the LAN cable for wired back haul and give it time to configure and the top led to turn on BLUE. Then connect the STBs or PCs again in the same manor you just tested with out the switches. See if the problem continues. If it does, I would presume there could be an issue with the Orbi system.

[BigBlue_007]

Testing with 2 PCs would be kind of complicated because I would need to do something that continuously streams data from one system to the other. And it's pretty much pointless because even if the issue would not occur with PCs, it wouldn't change the fact that with the STBs the issue is gone once I remove the Ethernet Backhaul'ed RBS40 from the network and configure it back to WiFi Backhaul.

Resetting the RBR40 back to default is something that I'm not willing to do. It took me quite some while to get it running the way I wanted it, mainly because of lots of IP adress reservations. So I rather revert back to WiFi Backhaul and might give it another try with the next firmware.

Thanks anyway!

[FURRYe38]

Others have posted that a factory reset has help resolve there problems. Your situation suggests this is something unique with your system and these STBs. Something you could take a save configuration and save to file before doing the erase and set up from scatch to see. You can applly the saved configuration afterwards.

Post back after next FW update.

Good Luck.

[BigBlue_007]

Actually this is a very good idea and I'm just asking myself why it didn't occured to me in the first place... 😄

Will give this a try and report back once it's done.

Thanks!

[FURRYe38]