How to set a separate SSID for the 5 GHz network on your Orbi

[dunciad]

madhatter asks me whether there was a reason I was not running firmware version 2.3.5.30

hi madhatter!

Yes. When I use the GUI to check it informs me that there is no firmware update available (checked two days ago)

I last updated the firmware a few weeks back -- cannot quite remember exactly when

but certainly within the last two months.

[dunciad]

Hi dwood!

Yes! Ty. That did indeed have the desired outcome.

A couple of questions:

1. Where is any of this documeneted? Did you discover it by exhaustive private investigation.

2. Is there meant to me some clever way to find post#nnn in this thread? I did the math to find your post#489

There are 752 posts on this thread. I have read only about 15. There must be good stuff elsewhere

but a precis of the stuff that works would be good.

I still do not know why version 2.3.5.30 does not show up as a firmware upgrade on this router.

[FURRYe38]

NG only post recent FW versions out on the auto update servers. All older versions are archived or you can manually download from NG support site. 

[dunciad]

As far as firmware goes.

When I visit the Netgear website I see that there is new firmware versioned as

2.7.0.70

This does not show up in the Netgear GUI if you ask it to automatically

find firmware upgrades on the net. Who knows why!? But I downloaded

the images and installed them. Nothing bad happened... nor nothing

better either. I suppose users should visit the website and not rely

on the automatic firmware upgrades.

[FURRYe38]

Thats not a latest version of V2.7. Thats been superceded now by https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/New-RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-v2-7-1-60-Officially-Released...

[dunciad]

ty FURRYe

I'll try and install tomorrow

[brunofernandez]

thank you very much. this worked for me!!!!

[madhatter]

HI!  what, exactly worked for you?

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@brunofernandez wrote:

thank you very much. this worked for me!!!!

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[brunofernandez]

this was a response for this post:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/How-to-set-a-separate-SSID-for-the-5-GHz-network-on-your-Orbi/...

Quote did not work

[madhatter]

was that the info in message 489 ??

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@brunofernandez wrote:

this was a response for this post:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/How-to-set-a-separate-SSID-for-the-5-GHz-network-on-your-Orbi/...

Quote did not work

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[brunofernandez]

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@madhatter wrote:

was that the info in message 489 ??

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@brunofernandez wrote:

this was a response for this post:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/How-to-set-a-separate-SSID-for-the-5-GHz-network-on-your-Orbi/...

Quote did not work

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yes, sir:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/How-to-set-a-separate-SSID-for-the-5-GHz-network-on-your-Orbi/...

[FURRYe38]

Instead of posting the post #, please post the permalink to where your referencing for easier access and reference to what your trying to get across:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/How-to-set-a-separate-SSID-for-the-5-GHz-network-on-your-Orbi/...

Thank you

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@dwood wrote:

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My post number 489 in this same thread. Solution is in there. Recommend you read it.

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[dwood]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Instead of posting the post #, please post the permalink to where your referencing for easier access and reference to what your trying to get across:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/How-to-set-a-separate-SSID-for-the-5-GHz-network-on-your-Orbi/...

Thank you

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@dwood wrote:

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My post number 489 in this same thread. Solution is in there. Recommend you read it.

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Instead of making assumptions about what I have and have not done, why dont you actually ask me if I have tried to permalink the item?

Answer > Yes I have, several times and it doesnt seem to work for me. 

Thank you !

[FURRYe38]

Go to the veritcal dots on the post that your wanting to link too, select the dots the select Permalink. Then copy and paste the URL seen in your browser. 

Thank you. 

[Bobalong]

For the record, I have long since given up trying to connect my Yamaha MusicCast speakers to work through Wi-Fi, for two reasons really. Firstly, it just doesn't seem to work through the Orbi and secondly, the Yamaha MusicCast app and entire system is just as flaky as the Orbi is.

Even if I could fix the Orbi to work with the Yamaha, I think the frustration of how clunky MusicCast really is would drive me mad and the idea of the MusicCast system anyway is to buy more speakers to put around the house to sync in with the system. I don't intend ever buying any more Yamaha MusicCast speakers, and after this experience with Netgear, I won't be buying any of their stuff again either.

What's even more annoying about all this is that I would never have invested in an Orbi system in the first place if I had been able to use my old modem, a perfectly capable Asus DSL-AC68U, but for some strange reason it is not possible to use this modem router with TPG NBN.

That's a shame because with my current setup, Orbi plus Huawei HG659 the internet drops out on a regular basis.

And they say technology is here to help us? Drives me mad!

Anyway, thank you to each and every one of you that did help me try and overcome my problems, it has been very much appreciated.

Bottom-line advice to anyone, don't buy Orbi and don't buy MusicCast.

[Bobalong]

@tomschmidt 

After reading your post, I'm tempted to switch to an ASUS ZenWiFi CT8 AC router myself. I have an NBN FTTN connection with a company called TPG, I'm in Australia. Do you know if the ASUS ZenWiFi will connect directly to the internet or will I have to go through the current supplied modem? Orbi currently connected to a Huawei HG559 (as a gateway I think it's called) to get connected. 

I can pick a pair of them up here for $489 AUD and I would probably get around $300 for my RBR50+RBS50. Could be $189 well spent.

I haven't managed to do that with the Orbi, I seem to need both modems to get a connection. Whilst I have given up on the Yamaha, my set up still does suffer from regular dropouts and it would be nice to fix that.

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@tomschmidt wrote:

Netgear continues to release unstable firmware. They may have decent hardware, but their firmware bugs make it useless.  For this and multiple other issues with my Orbi, I returned it since it failed to perform as specified, nor would it remain stable.  I am now using an ASUS ZenWiFi CT8 AC router and node and it has been rock solid!  I will never buy from Netgear again.

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[schumaku]

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@Bobalong wrote:

@tomschmidt 

I have an NBN FTTN connection with a company called TPG, I'm in Australia. Do you know if the ASUS ZenWiFi will connect directly to the internet or will I have to go through the current supplied modem? Orbi currently connected to a Huawei HG559 (as a gateway I think it's called) to get connected. 

...

I haven't managed to do that with the Orbi, I seem to need both modems to get a connection.

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Your Orbi isn't a modem at all - it's an Ethernet WAN router.

FTTN means Fiber to the node - your home is connected to a network node, e.g. a cabinet in your area along the road or so, using a two wire phone cable using DSL technology, so a Modem is required. For plain Internet, it does not have to be a fully blown "Gateway" (with Modem and Ethernet WAN, router, WiFi, phone ports). However, your phone service might require to use it. FMI nbn™ FTTN made easy 

[testuserguy]

As I do not have the time to peruse all 767 (I took a decent sample size across the hundreds to see what could be useful), and have not seen anyone confirm of a way to enable dual SSIDs that would survive a reboot with the latest available firmware.

Could anyone please correct me if I'm wrong? I haven't been able to test it yet, but wanted to know if anyone has had luck with doing the following:

vi /etc/config/wireless

Modify both instances of "config wifi-iface" where "option ssid" resides to two different strings.

The reason why I ask is because the config binary no longer exists, and I haven't heard luck from others using uci or nvram to commit changes.

If it were as simple as the above edit with vi, I can give that a shot tomorrow, just would appreciate any testers' confirmation about it not getting written over after a reboot.

[FURRYe38]

Doesn't work on Orbi AX systems I believe. 

[testuserguy]

Oh, just tried it and it worked. Just need to do "uci commit wireless" to commit the config wireless afterward (though I'm not sure if "reload_config" was needed as well, thereafter). I can't reboot now, but will report later if it survives the reboot. If it doesn't, I imagine I could do something to limit write privs to that configuration file.

[FURRYe38]

Try the commit command after making changes...

[testuserguy]

I did, that's what I'm saying, it worked (I just can't confirm a reboot as of right now).

[dwood]

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@testuserguy wrote:

As I do not have the time to peruse all 767 (I took a decent sample size across the hundreds to see what could be useful), and have not seen anyone confirm of a way to enable dual SSIDs that would survive a reboot with the latest available firmware.

Could anyone please correct me if I'm wrong? I haven't been able to test it yet, but wanted to know if anyone has had luck with doing the following:

vi /etc/config/wireless

Modify both instances of "config wifi-iface" where "option ssid" resides to two different strings.

The reason why I ask is because the config binary no longer exists, and I haven't heard luck from others using uci or nvram to commit changes.

If it were as simple as the above edit with vi, I can give that a shot tomorrow, just would appreciate any testers' confirmation about it not getting written over after a reboot.

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My post number 489 might help confirm what you need. 

[FURRYe38]

Will be good to know if it survives a reboot. 

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@testuserguy wrote:

I did, that's what I'm saying, it worked (I just can't confirm a reboot as of right now).

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[testuserguy]

Hi dwood,

I got it working as a modified rendition of yours, using uci instead since the config binary no longer exists. Do you know if the merge monitor still exists (wifison-monitor_stop)? I grep'd for "monitor" and only came up with:

root@RBR750:/etc/config# uci show | grep -i monitor
hyd.Monitor=Monitor
hyd.Monitor.MonitorTimer='60'
hyd.Monitor.MonitorResponseTimeout='5'
hyd.Monitor.DisableMonitoring='0'
hyd.Monitor.DisableMonitoringLegacyClients='0'
hyd.Monitor.DisableSteeringInactiveLegacyClients='0'
hyd.Monitor.DisableSteeringActiveLegacyClients='0'
hyd.Monitor.DisableSteeringMax11kUnfriendlyClients='0'
lbd.StaDB_Adv.LegacyUpgradeMonitorDur='2100 2100'
lbd.StaMonitor_Adv=StaMonitor
lbd.StaMonitor_Adv.RSSIMeasureSamples_W2='2'
lbd.StaMonitor_Adv.RSSIMeasureSamples_W5='2'
lbd.BandMonitor_Adv=BandMonitor
lbd.BandMonitor_Adv.ProbeCountThreshold='1'
lbd.BandMonitor_Adv.MUCheckInterval_W2='10'
lbd.BandMonitor_Adv.MUCheckInterval_W5='10'
lbd.BandMonitor_Adv.NumRemoteChannels='3'
lbd.BandMonitor_Adv.MUReportPeriod='15'
lbd.BandMonitor_Adv.LoadBalancingAllowedMaxPeriod='10'
repacd.repacd.EnableEthernetMonitoring='0'
wireless.SM5.mode='ap_smart_monitor'
wireless.SM2.mode='ap_smart_monitor'

Any idea what the equivalent would be via uci? I think that the above is irrlevant to merging again. Maybe it's no longer a "feature"?