Re: How i fixed my Orbi Wifi woes

seanrkelly71 · ‎2017-01-19

I turned off my Hue lights (and bridge). My frequent disconnects between router and and satellite have ceased and my wifi conections from iOS devices have become rock solid. All i need to do now is figure out the channel mismatches so I can turn them back on again 🙂

Ely · ‎2017-01-19

Glad that it worked for you.

Transalp · ‎2017-01-20

I also use the Philips Hue hub with many lamps and plugs without any issue with Orbi. Curious about the outcome.

michael814 · ‎2017-01-20

Just curious, when you observe the noise level on the network (from a computer, as I don't think iOS can show this), do you see any indication of this interference? I ask, because when I encountered drastic speed problems on the 5ghz band, which I eventually traced down to a Vizio soundbar transmitting to a wireless subwoofer, compared to the upper 5ghz channels (which were almost always -96) I saw higher interference on channel 36 (around -80 to -90). This has improved a bit since getting rid of the soundbar (now averages about -88), and speed is now perfect, but still I was surprised that something with such a debilitating effect on my network speed did not register more noise. I don't know if the still higher noise on channel 36 is an indication that there is something else in my home transmitting on 5ghz or if it's just "background noise", but regardless, shutting down the rogue soundbar yielded a huge improvement in throughput, yet only registered a couple of dB of noise (at best).

TheEther · ‎2017-01-20

The dB scale is logarithmic, so even a small difference can be significant. A difference of 3 dB is equal to 200%. The difference between -80 dB and -96 dB (i.e. 16 dB) is almost 40000%.

michael814 · ‎2017-01-20

@TheEther wrote:
The dB scale is logarithmic, so even a small difference can be significant. A difference of 3 dB is equal to 200%. The difference between -80 dB and -96 dB (i.e. 16 dB) is almost 40000%.

Thanks, very helpful! What's really odd to me is that I just hooked up the old soundbar again to see if I could observe any noticeable difference in noise level, and I could not. With the soundbar off, noise levels on channel 36 would stay at -89, sometimes fluctuating to -90 or -88, and on rare occasions would monentarily spike to -80 or so (even got as high as -72 once). But throughput was still fine. As soon as a turned the soundbar on, throughput tanked badly, but there was no discernable effect on the indication of noise... behaved pretty much exactly as it did with the soundbar off. Turn the soundbar off, proper throughput is restored.

That tells me 2 things...

1) The noise indication is not necessarily a totally reliable source for troubleshooting, and

2) Something really weird seems to be going on here with the lower 5ghz channels (even with the soundbar removed, noise on these channels is subtantially higher, though throughput does not appear to be substantially affected)

TheEther · ‎2017-01-20

I agree that noise level, alone, is not necessarily a good indicator of performance. Signal to noise ratio, however, should have a stronger correlation.

Another thing to keep in mind is that channel 36 is part of what is known as the U-NII-1 band (channels 36-48). If I am not mistaken, the maximum power allowed in this band is 50 mW. Contrast this with the U-NII-3 band (channels 149-165) where the maximum power allowed is 1 W or 20x greater. That's roughly the difference between a human speaking normally and very loudly.

seanrkelly71 · ‎2017-01-21

I thought had resolved my issues by turning of Hue but alas not the case. My iOS devices sometimes have a terrible connection to wifi. Runnng a speed test takes me to less than 1Mb when I'm normally up around 60Mb, on all my wifi devices. Seems to just be iOS devices which have this problem. So I'm going to deprecate this entry or least change the heading.

seanrkelly71 · ‎2017-01-21

I thought had resolved my issues by turning of Hue but alas not the case. My iOS devices sometimes have a terrible connection to wifi. Runnng a speed test takes me to less than 1Mb when I'm normally up around 60Mb, on all my wifi devices. Seems to just be iOS devices which have this problem. So I'm going to deprecate this entry or least change the heading.

DarrenM · ‎2017-01-23

Hello Seanrkelly71

what Firmware version are you on that you are seeing IOS issues?

DarrenM

seanrkelly71 · ‎2017-01-23

Hi Darren I'm on V1.4.0.34

DarrenM · ‎2017-01-24

I know we have had connection issues with .34 FW I have been reporting these issues you may want to try and revert back to .16 as some user say IOS devices have alot less issues on that FW.

DarrenM

whsbuss-1 · ‎2017-01-24

@TheEther wrote:
I agree that noise level, alone, is not necessarily a good indicator of performance. Signal to noise ratio, however, should have a stronger correlation.

Another thing to keep in mind is that channel 36 is part of what is known as the U-NII-1 band (channels 36-48). If I am not mistaken, the maximum power allowed in this band is 50 mW. Contrast this with the U-NII-3 band (channels 149-165) where the maximum power allowed is 1 W or 20x greater. That's roughly the difference between a human speaking normally and very loudly.

I wish Netgear gave us the choice of the 5G channels. In my location the upper channels perform much better penetration wise than the lower ones.

seanrkelly71 · ‎2017-01-25

Cheers Darren I will try give that a go and report back.

tucsontico · ‎2017-01-26

seanrkelly71, I feel your pain! I've done what I consider an enormous amount of troubleshooting my ORBI system (router+1 satellite). Like you I discovered there are alot devices that generate interference but it is not a constant issue, hence the intermittent nature of the dropouts. I've folowed most of the recommendations of the community members and have gotten teh system somewhat stable. I did recently discover that enabling the guest network caused an enormous problem with signal strength and connectivity (dropouts) to the satellite.

After disabling the guest network, finding the least crowded 2.4 gHz channel (1) and rebooting, I've had stable connections to my iOS/Mac OS and other IOT devices for over 2 weeks. The plus side to the ORBI for me is areas in my house that were total deadzones are now covered with decent (-50dB to -60dB) signals. According to the MetaGeek website any wifi signal stronger than -65dBm is good enough to support basic mobile devices. For streaming video or VOIP, you'll want signals above -60 dBm.

Good luck with your system!

seanrkelly71 · ‎2017-01-26

Thanks for sharing Tucsontico. DarrenM recommended I give V1.4.0.16 a try so i dowgraded and so far today its been better. Network on iOS devices much more stable, but ad this wierd network disconnect for multiple devices (not all) in different places in house which was resolved by turning off / on satellite. Prior to that there was no warning lights on any of the two orbi devices, they both stayed dark, which was just weierd. So, .16 seems better and will stick with this until the boffins at Netgear crush the bugs.

tucsontico · ‎2017-01-26

You're welcome. Hope v .16 will keep your system stable. I'm good now with v .34 and great signal strength inside and outside my house. BTW, my house is stucco over cinder block exterior walls that are firred out with 2 x 4's and drywall on the inside. It creates very strong barriers to most wifi signals. My previous router (NetGear R7000) couldn't get outside the house very far (<10') and never into my garage. Now I've got decent wifi signals up to 50' away from the exterior walls!

After all the troubleshoting, I'm reasonably content. However, I'd like to see a better GUI and a properly finctioning Guest Network.

Riser88 · ‎2017-04-03

Had exactly the same problem so your post made me move my Orbi satellite away from my wireless soundbar and now everything is rock solid! Thanks for the post that tweaked me on a possible solution. Bottom line, satellite placement is critical.

tucsontico · ‎2017-04-03

Glad you found the problem. Like any other RF issue, antenna (satellite) placement is critical to get proper performance!