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Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

msfox99
Guide

How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

Hi, besides looking at the color of the light on the top of the Orbi, is there something in the web admin app which will show me how strong the signal is between the router and the satellite?  I am getting very good performance so far in terms is Wifi speed, but I was thinking if I knew signal strengh, it might help me determine if I can immprove things further by moving to a different part of the room, away from something metal, or whatever.

 

Thanks.

Message 1 of 16
rhester72
Virtuoso

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

Unfortunately, no - that (otherwise very useful) data is not exposed in the web or mobile interfaces.

 

Rodney

Message 2 of 16
OrbiMan
Luminary

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

There is a convoluted way. You can connect a laptop to each Orbi via ethernet then run iperf3 between those two computers that will let you know the speed of the backhaul which is equate to signal strength.
Message 3 of 16
Weisscastle
Initiate

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

There is one way but it's not ideal.

You log into each Satellite's Status page.

It's shows color indicators of the signal going from the Router to the Satellite divided between 2.4Ghz (Top) and 5Ghz (Bottom).

2.4Ghz and 5Ghz are shown separately and the color indicator will change differently for each band.

These colors will also show on the Satellite but not by WIFI BAND and not really problem specific.

It does show a REAL TIME check but you have to manually refresh to see changes.

          BLUE mean best signal.

         AMBER means GOOD to FAIR.

         MAGENTA means POOR or NONE

         GRAY means No connection.

You can use this to find better Satellite locations and improve your overall backhaul which is the Orbi's primary feature.

 

NOTE to Netgear: PLEASE expose this signal reading as a chart.

It would make placement of Satellites so much easier which is the critical part of any MESH or MESH LIKE network.

 

Model: Orbi High-Performance AC3000 Tri-Band WiFi System (RBK50)
Message 4 of 16
Joechang
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

As orbi using another 5GHZ as backhaul, why it still shows the signal strenth of recived 2.4G and 5G, it should not receive 2.5G and 5G and amplify it if it is mesh network. quite confused.
Message 5 of 16
vcdx71
Star

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

If you enalbe telnet on the router (http://routerip/debug.htm) you can run satelliteinfo wifi and it will show you stats like the following, the backhaul phytxrate and backhaul phyrxrate are what you want to look at.

 

root@RBR50:/# satelliteinfo wifi

[

  {

    "mac address" : "9C:3D:CF:15:1D:5D",

    "hop" : "1",

    "bridge mac" : "9C:3D:CF:15:1D:5D",

    "backhaul conntype" : "5GHz",

    "backhaul rssi" : "-72",

    "backhaul macaddress" : "",

    "backhaul phytxrate" : "585",

    "backhaul phyrxrate" : "520",

    "backhaul parentmac" : "00:00:00:00:00:00"

  },

  {

    "mac address" : "8C:3B:AD:13:1B:C9",

    "hop" : "0",

    "bridge mac" : "",

    "backhaul conntype" : "wired",

    "backhaul rssi" : "-97",

    "backhaul macaddress" : "8C:3B:AD:13:1B:C9",

    "backhaul phytxrate" : "0",

    "backhaul phyrxrate" : "0",

    "backhaul parentmac" : "8C:3B:AD:13:0C:56"

  },

  {

    "mac address" : "B0:B9:8A:6A:5E:33",

    "hop" : "0",

    "bridge mac" : "",

    "backhaul conntype" : "wired",

    "backhaul rssi" : "-97",

    "backhaul macaddress" : "B0:B9:8A:6A:5E:33",

    "backhaul phytxrate" : "0",

    "backhaul phyrxrate" : "0",

    "backhaul parentmac" : "00:00:00:00:00:00"

  }

]

 

Message 6 of 16
Joechang
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

 

I have Telnet the Router and below is the result. still dont understand why Orbi use special 5GHZ as backhaul but on the satellite page shows 5GHZ amplifing weakly.

DC19091A-201A-45BC-A97B-0CDF86559C55.png2.JPG

Message 7 of 16
JoeM845
Luminary

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

You can get a sense of it with an Android phone and the WiFi Analyzer app. This will show the signal strength from each Orbi device at the phone. I don't know how accurate it will be, but you should get a sense of better/worse for different locations.

 

The back channel must be established for the phone to get the signal. The phone may (?) interact with the Orbis to prevent signals from getting too strong (shouldn't be an issue if you are doing this because of weak signals). The first and last bytes of the Orbis' MAC addresses are altered, but the middle 4 bytes are true. I have not found an iPhone app with similar capabilities -- it may be an iOS constraint.

 

Used with RBR50 and RBS50. AP mode, FW up to 2.0.0.74.

Message 8 of 16
guzzijason
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)


@Joechang wrote:

 

I have Telnet the Router and below is the result. still dont understand why Orbi use special 5GHZ as backhaul but on the satellite page shows 5GHZ amplifing weakly.

 

@Joechang keep in mind that compared to 2.4 GHz, the 5 GHz signal does not have as good range or wall penetration due to the shorter radio wavelength. So, depending on where your satellite is placed, it is very possible that the 2.4 signal will be much stronger than the 5 GHz. You might want to try moving your satellite to a slightly different location to see if it gets a better signal with the router.

Message 9 of 16
Joechang
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

@guzzijason Hey thanks for your reply. I totally agree what you said but its didnt solve my question.

pls refer below photo which explain the mechanism of Orbi. between Router and Satellite a special dedicated 5.0GHz(Quad Stream lets name this 5GHz as 5GHz-D for better clarification) is used for backhaul. Compare with Ex7300/6150 its totally different design. Ex7300 use same 2.4GHz and 5GHz to receive signal from router and amplify it.

1.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

thats what i am so confused. Why my Orbi satellite still receive 2.5GHz and 5GHz from Router, not using 5GHz-D as connection between Router and Satellite.

2.PNG

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message 10 of 16
Joechang
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

After checking the HTMLcode, I think what i said was right, there must be some problem with the satellite signal page design or Orbi cheat customer? There shows no 5GHz-D backhaul for connection between Router and Satellite. Satellite still use traditional 2.5GHz and 5GHz for R&T

3.PNG

Model: RBK53| Orbi Router + 2 Satellites Orbi WiFi System
Message 11 of 16
guzzijason
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

My understanding is that the backaul does have both 5 GHz and 2.4 Ghz connections, but the satellites will prefer 5 GHz whenever possible. If signal is not strong enough, the backhaul between router and satellite will fail over to 2.4 GHz.

Similarly, if you have wired backhaul, this will be preferred, and the satellite will only switch to 5 or (2.4 GHz) WiFi backhaul as a failover mechanism.

Message 12 of 16
joelinho
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

I am just seeing this when checking the satellite wifi info:

root@RBR50:/# satelliteinfo wifi
[
{
"mac address" : "08:02:8E:8D:B6:93",
"hop" : "1",
"bridge mac" : "08:02:8E:8D:B6:93",
"backhaul conntype" : "2.4GHz",
"backhaul rssi" : "-54",
"backhaul macaddress" : "16:02:8E:8D:B6:93",
"backhaul phytxrate" : "192",
"backhaul phyrxrate" : "400",
"backhaul parentmac" : "08:02:8E:8D:48:75"
}
]
root@RBR50:/#

 

There is nothing about any 5GHz network. Even if the 2.4GHz is selected over 5GHz for the backhaul connection like it seems to be in my case. Shouldnt there still be a 5GHz displayed when looking at the satellite info?

 

 

Model: RBK50| Orbi AC3000 High-Performance Tri-Band WiFi System
Message 13 of 16
guzzijason
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

No. If the satellite is using the 2.4 GHz backhaul, it will not show you info for the 5 GHz.

 

How far is your satellite from the router? Are there many walls or other objects in between them? 5 GHz range and penetration is weak compared to 2.4, so it's possible your satellite is just in a bad location and can't get a good 5 gHz signal.

 

I would try moving the satellite closer to the router, reboot it and try again.

Message 14 of 16
joelinho
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)


wrote:

No. If the satellite is using the 2.4 GHz backhaul, it will not show you info for the 5 GHz.

 

How far is your satellite from the router? Are there many walls or other objects in between them? 5 GHz range and penetration is weak compared to 2.4, so it's possible your satellite is just in a bad location and can't get a good 5 gHz signal.

 

I would try moving the satellite closer to the router, reboot it and try again.


I saw another post in this thread where it showed data for both 5 and 2.4GHz, so I assumed that it would show info for both also on mine. The satellite and router are on different floors but horizontinally not that far appart. Router is one floor up, so perhaps 5-10 meters apart with a floor and some plaster wall between. I rebooted the router and they connnected using 5GHz instead. No other change was made. So it is a bit random it seems. 

Message 15 of 16
guzzijason
Apprentice

Re: How to tell signal strength between router and satellite? (other than lights)

That command output would show one entry for each satellite backhaul. If you have two sattelites, then one can be on 5 GHz, while the other might be on 2.4 GHz. If you only have one satellite, you're only going to see a single entry.

Message 16 of 16
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