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Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Do you not see the 5G SSID Broadcast check box on the RBRs web page? 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/orbi-20-cannot-connect-Swann-Camera/m-p/1822475/highlight/true...

Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

 

To disable the wifi radio on a iphone or ipad, go into Settings/WiFI and move the WiFi slider button that you see on the right side of this page and move it to the left. This turns OFF the WiFi radio on iphones and iPads. 


@FirstKen wrote:

FURRY, the problem is disabling the 5g on the SSID. I've seen it posted here that with older Orbis it was an easy task but Netgear in their infinate wisdom removed that option with the newer units. That's what I spent over an hour on the phone with Netgear tech support yesterday trying to do. Their tech fdidn't even know how to disable 5g and fiinally gave up, and said that the weather station wasn't their (Netgears) product and I'd have to get the solution from La Crosse. I havo no idea how to disable the radios on an iPhone or iPad. I can "forget this network", reboot the phone, and reconnect to the network, but other than that you lost me when it comes to disabling the radios on a phone or iPad. guzzijason suggested a solution (second post on this thread) that several other people here have tried and it seems to work so I may try that a little later, when I have a little more time. Right now I'm a little squeezed for time. 


 

Message 76 of 129
email2rick
Aspirant

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

I went through this and found a nice soluton. I worked with LaCrosse last fall. It turns out that they are providing *free* 2.4 Ghz wifi extenders. If you use one of those, you'll be able to connect your LaCrosse to your internet. Don't know if they're still doing this, but it's worth a shot. One more trick, and it sounds crazy but someone else I know did it, is to wrap your orbis in aluminium foil. The 5G signal won't get thru but the 2.4 (since it's more capable of penetrating the foil) will. then you can connect to it. 

Message 77 of 129
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Would be no reason to wrap Orbi in foil since these devices only see 2.4Ghz and never see 5Ghz. 

Message 78 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Been there done that. That's where the Netgear Tech started yesterday, after all of that out of the 14 peripherals that are connected to my network only one switced to 2.4Ghz, and ironically it was the smart TV that's the closest to the Orbi router. Everything else remained connected to the 5Ghz band. There just doesn't seem to be any easy way to disable the 5Ghz band. I think guzzijason may have the only solution, at least so far it's the only one here that seems too have worked for anyone. 

Message 79 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

email2rick, thanks for the reply. I don't know if you've read this entire thread, but a ways back I posted that I've tried for a week to get in touch with La Crosse, two phone calls with extensive hold times and then both times it finally told me to leave a message and they "WILL" return my call. So I left then two messages, I've heard NOTHING from them, I started a week ago, and I have now sent them two emails in addition, and again, nothing. So while the extender idea from La Crosse tells me that they are well aware of the issue the fact that they will not reply to any form of communication also tells me that they aren't concerned with supporting their products. 

Message 80 of 129
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

When you disable the 5G band those that were left still connected to the 5G band will remain connected until there wifi radios are disabled or they are rebooted. Reason for disabling the wifi radios on the iphone or ipad then back on. 

 

Hopefully the suggestion will work for you. 

 

Good Luck. 


@FirstKen wrote:

Been there done that. That's where the Netgear Tech started yesterday, after all of that out of the 14 peripherals that are connected to my network only one switced to 2.4Ghz, and ironically it was the smart TV that's the closest to the Orbi router. Everything else remained connected to the 5Ghz band. There just doesn't seem to be any easy way to disable the 5Ghz band. I think guzzijason may have the only solution, at least so far it's the only one here that seems too have worked for anyone. 


 

Message 81 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

I've have spent officially over a week now trying to get the LaCrosse weather station connected to my now Orbi based WiFi network, to no avail. I've tried every suggestion posted here. I am now absolutely convinced that either one of two things HAS to happen. 1) The PHONE has to be connected to a 2.4Ghz band, and at this point that appears to be impossible. 2) I have to be able to separate the 2.4Ghz band from the 5.0Ghz band by renaming one or the other, in my case I would want to rename the the 5.0 band. It appears as though Netgear has made this impossible with their latest Orbi units and firmware.

 

I didn't have these issues with my old system, which consisted of an Apple Airport Extreme as my primary router and an Apple Airport Express as an extender. 

 

I have 30 days from the date of purchase to return the Netgear products for a full refund/exchange, I'm stll a couple of weeks out from that, but at this point I think it may be my only option. 

 

Thanks to all who replied. 

 

 

 

 

Message 82 of 129
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

So did you find the 5G SSID broadcast check box and disable it and apply the setting? Turn OFF The wifi radio on your phone OFF then back ON to have it connect to the 2.4Ghz radio on Orbi? 

 

 

 

 

Message 83 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Yes, several times. I may just go back to what I had for now, or go with another brand. I'm currently looking at the LinkSys Velop and the eero. I will also look to see what Consumer Reports has to say. I've wasted a lot of hours in the past week plus to get me nowhere. The biggest red flag was when I was on the phone with Netgear tech support for over an hour and their own tech support agent couldn't even figure it out. That in itself says multitudes. And as I have stated more than once, and other people have also confirmed, LaCrosse customer support is nonexistent. 

Message 84 of 129
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Good Luck then. 

Message 85 of 129
mrpthompson
Aspirant

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Great solution.

Message 86 of 129
guzzijason2
Guide

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Turning of the 5GHz SSID broadcast DOES NOT turn off the 5GHz radio! Disabling SSID broadcast is rather pointless - all it does it stop the router from announcing itsellf, but it DOES NOT prevent clients from still connecting to 5GHz. Some people do this for security (but its a placebo... no real security benefit from turning off SSID broadcast).

 

The ONLY method that I'm aware of to truly disable the 5GHz radio is the procedure I documented in post #2 on this thread. Once the 5GHz radio is disabled, your phone will have zero choice but to connect via 2.4GHz.

Message 87 of 129
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Devices remember the last wifi connection in there profiles. Thus will connect to the 5Ghz radio, even though the SSID has been hidden or disabled. We know this, however to get client side HW to connect to the 2.4Ghz radio, users have to tell the phone or pad to forget the current wifi network, then disable the wifi radio on the device then re-enable the wifi radio, then have the device re-connect to the SSID which will be only seen as the 2.4Ghz wifi radio. Input the password and the phone or pad will conect to the 2.4Ghz radios. This does work. 

Message 88 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

guzzijason, I was close to giving up yesterday, and frankly I'm still leaning that way, but I wanted to give your solution one last try. The issue that I'm runnng into may very well be firmware related, and your solution may not work with the latest update. Most of the posts that I'm reading are dated 2017, 18 and 2019, which I'm guessing are referring to solutions compatible with the older firmware. I'm running Mac OS 10.15.3 which is the latest version of Mac OS. I've tried both ways, the telnet as well as the nc, and neither seem to work. All I get is an error "command" message. Do you have any further suggestions? Or maybe any clarifications that I may be missing? Thanks in afvance. 

Message 89 of 129
guzzijason2
Guide

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

It is entirely possible that recent firmware updates have broken my script. I haven't been poking around inside the Orbi much lately, because frankly... its just working fine for me, and I haven't had to. However, as soon as I get a chance, I'll take another look and try to see what, if anything, has changed.

Message 90 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Thanks guzzijason, I'll hold off doiing anything drastic for now. 

Message 91 of 129
LightSport
Aspirant

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

THIS WORKED! thanks

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 92 of 129
Pfredd
Guide

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Using the Orbi Advanced setup, rurn the power of the 5GHZ radio as low as it will go.

 

Then, move as far away as you can from your router, while still able to get a wi-fi signal on your phone.

 

On yoiur phone, "forget" your wi-fi connection, then re-connect to it (you will have to present your wi-fi password). You should not be connected to the 5GHz band now.

Message 93 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

pfredd, I had already tried this, but I did again, only this time after I cut the 5Ghz band radio power down to 25% I actually went outside in my driveway, all the way to the end,  and "forgot" my network.  I then went so far as to shut down my phone and reboot it, and then I started trying to rconnect to my network. Each time I got an "unable to connect" to my network I would move a little closer to the house until finally I was close enought for it to connect. I then went back inside, checked and sure enough my phone was connected to the 2.4Ghz band. Within a matter of 10 seconds or less, it switched back to the 5Ghz band, I assume because my phone was again very close to the main router. Although through all of the hours and hours of frustration I have been through in the last 10 days or so this was actually the first and only time the phone actually did connect to 2.4. The only way I can see that this would be any kind of a permanent or even semi-permanent solution would be to make sure the phone was never near the router, and that's not an option.  In any event, I appreciate your efforts. 

Message 94 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

To all that have been following this thread, I finaally got a call back from LaCrosse this morning. As email2rick stated in post #77 of this thread, they are sending me what they are calling an "extender" but in fact, as their tech agent explained it to me, it is actually a device that will create a separate 2.4Ghz band, and then in turn the LaCrosse weather station will connect to that band. They are well aware of the issue and are just as bewildered as the rest of us as to why Netgear chose to remove the option to enable/disable the individual bands. In any event, I should receive the device within the next week or so and will post the results once I do get it up and running. Thanks again to all that replied to this thread. 

Message 95 of 129
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Glad you got some resolution on this. 

 

FYI, NG didn't remove the ability to separate the SSID. Orbi never had the ability to separate the SSID from the beginning. It's always been single SSID name using Smart Connect. Some devices or setup software don't like smart connect. 

 

Am curious why disbling of the 5G SSID Broadcast didn't work though. Oh well. 

 

Cheers. 

Message 96 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Obviously I would have no way of knowing how Orbi has or has not operated in the past, I think it's more than obvious that this has been my first experience with the device. So whether or not it it used to have the capability to separate the 2.4Ghz band from the 5.0Ghz band I have no idea, basically the only education that I have received regarding the device has been very recent, and from two sources, what I have been able to garner here and also from a week or so of what has turned out to be very frustrating hands on experience. Without going back and re-reading close to a hundred posts on this thread I can't say specifically who said what regarding separating the two bands, but that idea came from this thread. And frankly, at this point it's moot anyway, because whether it was at one time possible, it isn't now. 

 

As far as disabling the 5Ghz band, what I posted here is completely and precisely what I did, in detail, as well as the results. You can draw your own conclusion as to why it didn't work. 

 

Cheers. 

Message 97 of 129
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Well, just letting you know. Separation of SSIDs on Orbi has never been a supported feature and still remains that way. 

 

Possible there maybe some differences in FW between v1 and v2 versions, however I suspect that other than HW differences, there isn't much else. Seems that v1s have working abilities to disable the 5Ghz SSID broadcast and maybe v2s don't. Possible that v2's may not be working right. This would have to be reviewed by NG to see if it's really working. 

 

If your so inclinded to try at somepoint, you may give Voxels 3rd party Orbi FW a try and see if separation of SSID works. He's done some tuning on this and you may find it might work for you.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/custom-firmware-build-for-orbi-rbk50-rbk53-rbr50-rbs50-v-9-2-5-1-1...

Or keep stock FW. 

 

 

Message 98 of 129
FirstKen
Star

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

I am not so inclined. Re-read my previous posts, I have been and still am interested in only one thing, and that is getting the LaCrosse device working properly with the Orbi. I'm not interested in any involvement regarding software/firmware changes or fixes, and I am also not interested in the 'whys' or 'why nots'. As I stated, I have only one goal in mind and that is to get a device that is suppose to be compatible with the Orbi to work properly with the Orbi. It's that simple. Again, if you will read my previous post, you will see that LaCrosse has offered what should be a solution fo this issue. I'll know when I receive the decice. 

 

Cheers. 

Message 99 of 129
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: HOW TO DISABLE 5G TEMPORARILY ON ORBI ROUTER

Good Luck. 

Message 100 of 129
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