I have a few questions - hoping someone can help: Devices (unknown), which satellite, 2.5ghz

[conker89]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the vague title, if you have come this far, hoping you can help me with a few queries that I have:

1. When I look on the app, I can see (kind of) all of the devices connected to each satellite. Most of them are showing as 'unknown' and I'm wondering if there is a way to understand what is what? If so, can they then be renamed? In theory I could disconnect everything and re-add one by one, but if you can't rename, it's not really worth it
2. Following on from the above, is it possible to then tell a certain device to connect to a certain satellite? There seems to be a heavy bias on my wireless devices connecting to the router/satellite downstairs when the devices are permantently upstairs and thus it would make sense that they connect to the upstairs satellite.
3. Are you able to tell a device whether it should connect to 2.5ghz or 5ghz?

Sorry for all of the questions, overall my network is running well, but I feel that with some housekeeping it could be better/slicker.

Thanks in advance.

[plemans]

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@conker89 wrote:

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the vague title, if you have come this far, hoping you can help me with a few queries that I have:

1. When I look on the app, I can see (kind of) all of the devices connected to each satellite. Most of them are showing as 'unknown' and I'm wondering if there is a way to understand what is what? If so, can they then be renamed? In theory I could disconnect everything and re-add one by one, but if you can't rename, it's not really worth it-----there's a bug with the current firmware causing this issue. It seems like the issue gets fixed and then the next time the firmware is upgraded, it goes back to "unknown". 
2. Following on from the above, is it possible to then tell a certain device to connect to a certain satellite? There seems to be a heavy bias on my wireless devices connecting to the router/satellite downstairs when the devices are permantently upstairs and thus it would make sense that they connect to the upstairs satellite.---no you can't tell them which satellite to connect to. You can optimize a bit in that the orbi router/satellites struggle if they're to close. They need at lease 30 ft minimum between them.  
3. Are you able to tell a device whether it should connect to 2.5ghz or 5ghz?  Nope, orbi does band steering. the orbi router/satellite themselves determine which band should be used. There's been mod's that work for a bit and then get broken during firmware updates, reboots, etc. I wouldn't recommend doing them unless you truly know what you're doing. 

Sorry for all of the questions, overall my network is running well, but I feel that with some housekeeping it could be better/slicker.

Thanks in advance.

---

[tomschmidt]

What version firmware are you using?  If you are using v2.5.0.38 or v2.5.0.40, they have known issues with device naming.  The workaround is to manually downgrade the firmware of your router and satellites to v2.3.5.30 or the v2.3.5.34 hot fix available from https://www.netgear.com/support/product/RBR50.aspx#download

[conker89]

After a bit of digging around, I can see that I am on version V2.3.5.30 and that there are apparently no updates available. Is this where I should be 'downgrading'?

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@tomschmidt wrote:

What version firmware are you using?  If you are using v2.5.0.38 or v2.5.0.40, they have known issues with device naming.  The workaround is to manually downgrade the firmware of your router and satellites to v2.3.5.30 or the v2.3.5.34 hot fix available from https://www.netgear.com/support/product/RBR50.aspx#download

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[conker89]

Thanks for the response. I saw a reply about the firmware below, so going to follow that to see if I can get some visibility on devices that are connected.

Regarding the connected satellite, I know my house is much smaller than the coverage that the orbi provides, but it seemed like everything was connecting to the one satellite, unless I was reading it wrong.

Cheers for the advice on the last part, I won't be attempting anything like that. I'd read that my Firestick should be on 2.5ghz, but presumably if that is the case then Orbi would know and manage accordingly?

The other question I had, is there a way to 'throttle' bandwidth to certain devices (assuming I am able to find out which device is which)?

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@plemans wrote:

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@conker89 wrote:

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the vague title, if you have come this far, hoping you can help me with a few queries that I have:

1. When I look on the app, I can see (kind of) all of the devices connected to each satellite. Most of them are showing as 'unknown' and I'm wondering if there is a way to understand what is what? If so, can they then be renamed? In theory I could disconnect everything and re-add one by one, but if you can't rename, it's not really worth it-----there's a bug with the current firmware causing this issue. It seems like the issue gets fixed and then the next time the firmware is upgraded, it goes back to "unknown". 
2. Following on from the above, is it possible to then tell a certain device to connect to a certain satellite? There seems to be a heavy bias on my wireless devices connecting to the router/satellite downstairs when the devices are permantently upstairs and thus it would make sense that they connect to the upstairs satellite.---no you can't tell them which satellite to connect to. You can optimize a bit in that the orbi router/satellites struggle if they're to close. They need at lease 30 ft minimum between them.  
3. Are you able to tell a device whether it should connect to 2.5ghz or 5ghz?  Nope, orbi does band steering. the orbi router/satellite themselves determine which band should be used. There's been mod's that work for a bit and then get broken during firmware updates, reboots, etc. I wouldn't recommend doing them unless you truly know what you're doing. 

Sorry for all of the questions, overall my network is running well, but I feel that with some housekeeping it could be better/slicker.

Thanks in advance.

---

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[tomschmidt]

Since you are running v2.3.5.30 firmware, then you should be able to rename devices as you want.  Many devices marked as "unknown" you should be able to rename accordingly.  For example, if the MAC address for one of the unknown devices is a media streaming device (AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, Google Chromecast, Roku, etc), then you can rename it as you want, and change the device type icon accordingly.  In my home, I have multiple devices like that, so I rename it to show its location, such as 'FireTV-Kitchen'.  Do not include quotation marks in the device name (i.e 'Vizio 65" SmartTV'), but other alphanumeric characters should be fine.

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@conker89 wrote:

After a bit of digging around, I can see that I am on version V2.3.5.30 and that there are apparently no updates available. Is this where I should be 'downgrading'?

---

@tomschmidt wrote:

What version firmware are you using?  If you are using v2.5.0.38 or v2.5.0.40, they have known issues with device naming.  The workaround is to manually downgrade the firmware of your router and satellites to v2.3.5.30 or the v2.3.5.34 hot fix available from https://www.netgear.com/support/product/RBR50.aspx#download

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[FURRYe38]

FYI:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Firmware-v2-5-1/m-p/1837488/highlight/true#M78401

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@conker89 wrote:

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the vague title, if you have come this far, hoping you can help me with a few queries that I have:

1. When I look on the app, I can see (kind of) all of the devices connected to each satellite. Most of them are showing as 'unknown' and I'm wondering if there is a way to understand what is what? If so, can they then be renamed? In theory I could disconnect everything and re-add one by one, but if you can't rename, it's not really worth it
2. Following on from the above, is it possible to then tell a certain device to connect to a certain satellite? There seems to be a heavy bias on my wireless devices connecting to the router/satellite downstairs when the devices are permantently upstairs and thus it would make sense that they connect to the upstairs satellite.
3. Are you able to tell a device whether it should connect to 2.5ghz or 5ghz?

Sorry for all of the questions, overall my network is running well, but I feel that with some housekeeping it could be better/slicker.

Thanks in advance.

---