×

Introducing the Orbi 970 Series Mesh System with WiFi 7(BE) technology. For more information visit the NETGEAR Press Room.

Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
Reply

Force Satellite To Specific Device

rich1233211
Follower

Force Satellite To Specific Device

My orbi has been great, however I am experiencing frequent mini dropouts in signal. My phone and xbox drop for a few seconds and reconnect automatically. I have discovered that it frequently connects to the router or a satelite farther than the nearest device available. Is there a way to force a device to stick to a certain router/satelite? I am certain this will solve my problems but also make or break the system for me. I also tried to enable 5ghz ssid to be separate via telnet but it is not working. I am running firmware 2.1.14.16

Model: RBK22| Orbi AC2200 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 1 of 5
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Force Satellite To Specific Device

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
Try disabling the following and see:
MIMO, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

 

Message 2 of 5
Adrian97c
Apprentice

Re: Force Satellite To Specific Device

I’m going to look into some of these suggestions..

I just got a rbk20 kit (1 router & 2 sats), my house is 2000sqft single family, my outdoor wifi cams(1 on each corner -4total) are 2.4/5ghz WiFi... They keep connecting to the router in middle of home instead of the 2 sats on each opposite side of house. My orbi setup is default settings (daisy, mimmo, etc all enabled), most recent FW, and layout is (Sat, Router, sat) with about 30-50ft from each other, with the middle being the router. I know a 6k sqft system is overkill, but my outdoor cameras struggled to connect with my R7000. so I thought an Orbi would help me... now I’m struggling with the Cameras connecting to the middle (router), instead of the satalites right next to the cameras! 😞
Message 3 of 5
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Force Satellite To Specific Device

Alot of signal handling is done at the camera as well. It all depend on what they are set up and configured for in handling wifi signals.

What you might try is to reduce the power levels on the router from 100% to say 75 or 50% and see if the cameras connect differently. This may impact signals between the router and satellites as well.


@Adrian97c wrote:
I’m going to look into some of these suggestions..

I just got a rbk20 kit (1 router & 2 sats), my house is 2000sqft single family, my outdoor wifi cams(1 on each corner -4total) are 2.4/5ghz WiFi... They keep connecting to the router in middle of home instead of the 2 sats on each opposite side of house. My orbi setup is default settings (daisy, mimmo, etc all enabled), most recent FW, and layout is (Sat, Router, sat) with about 30-50ft from each other, with the middle being the router. I know a 6k sqft system is overkill, but my outdoor cameras struggled to connect with my R7000. so I thought an Orbi would help me... now I’m struggling with the Cameras connecting to the middle (router), instead of the satalites right next to the cameras! 😞

 

Message 4 of 5
randomousity
Luminary

Re: Force Satellite To Specific Device

This is just speculation, but I'm wondering whether the issue is related to the channel(s) you're using. By default, the Orbi should be using both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. But, under the wireless setup page, you can choose the channel for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. If you have the 2.4 GHz one set to "auto," and there's interference, the router and satellite might frequently be switching channels to find one with less interference, and a device connected to the satellite when the satellite changes channels might look first to the router, which is (hypothetically) still on the previous channel, even though it's farther away. You could manually choose a channel, and the Orbi won't bounce around from channel to channel anymore. If the devices aren't connected to the 2.4 GHz band, or it's not set to auto, then I don't know.

 

Also, this depends on the device, but you can sometimes, in the settings on a particular device, tell it to connect to a particular access point, by specifying an access point MAC address (or by blocking certain MACs). I have no idea whether an XBox has this feature, or your other devices, but if you can set them to ignore the satellite MAC, they'll be forced to connect to the router (or vice versa). As long as you don't rearrange locations (probably easy with the XBox, anyway), it should be fine.

Message 5 of 5
Top Contributors
Discussion stats
  • 4 replies
  • 20732 views
  • 1 kudo
  • 4 in conversation
Announcements

Orbi WiFi 7