×

Introducing the Orbi 970 Series Mesh System with WiFi 7(BE) technology. For more information visit the NETGEAR Press Room.

Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
Reply

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

dan_123
Tutor

Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

I purchased and installed an RBR50 AC5000 with a Satellite RBS50 on July 5. It worked great. I had much more coverage for our house/property and all our devices were able to connect from everywhere and get better coverage. We have 4 people (2 adults, 2 kids). There's Xbox, Nintendo Switch, 2 laptops, iphones, ipads, roku tvs with sling and netflix (cut the cord years ago), thermostat, apple airport expresses, etc. I think at any one point in time there are about 12-15 devices connected. Anyway, with comcast/xfinity my data usage for the last 6 months with this same device list has been 470GB, 473GB, 590GB, 593GB, 691GB, 744GB (July, first month with Orbi), and 2188GB (this month!!). WTH! Comcast has a cap at 1024GB, above which it costs $10 per 50GB. They give me 2 courtesy months, and obviously I've used the first. Problem is our consumption habits haven't changed that much to account for an extra Terabyte and a half! Sure, this was the last month of summer when the kids are home, but I would expect it to be more in line with June and July (~700GB), not nearly quadrupled for 1 month! I feel I'm left with couple options after reading a bit here to try to figure this out and solve the issue:

 

1. Fire up my older replaced router (Netgear WNDR3700v4) and try to install DD-WRT or something like that to try to pinpoint which devices are consuming all this data. Unfortunately this expensive Orbi setup can't even tell me that (just overall date usage). That's a big pain as it doesn't seem that easy to flash some 3rd party firmware on old hardware and then run it for a month to determine high data culprits. Lots of time and effort...

 

2. Try and find out if the Orbi firmware I'm running has something to do with the extreme usage. I've read a couple posts here about people complaining about similar issues and a few saying a fix for them is reverting to an old firmware version. I'm currently running firmware version 2.1.4.16. Does anyone know more about this or have suggestions how to revert to old firmware? I'd almost rather try #2 first before all the time and effort #1 would take. Suggestions on which firmware version to try?

 

Thanks!! Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Model: RBR50| Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi (Router Only)
Message 1 of 58
RocketSquirrel
Luminary

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Just a guess.... your iPhones may have noticed that they can do voice over WiFi via the Orbi and now you're making calls that cost you data. There's an iPhone setting which allows you to disable WiFi calling.

Message 2 of 58
roberto1234
Aspirant

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

I had the same issue. If you’ve enabled Circle, disable. I monitored traffic and saw GB of data per day heading to Circle.
Model: RBK50| Orbi AC3000 High-Performance Tri-Band WiFi System
Message 3 of 58
naseerkhan
Guide

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Have you tried to use the XFi app.  It requires a lot of setup since you have identify all or most of the devices that are using your Xfinity connection.  It works for wired and wireless connections, although they imply only wireless.  But since I've assigned all my devices, I can tell that my security cams take up about 47% of my total bandwidth, one daughter about 10%, son about 15%, my own usage about 12%, and all others the remainder.  I did go over my cap for couple months, and monitor this closely.  There's supposedly an unlimited option from Comcast for $50 a month, but that's not the solution you should seek, IMHO.

 

Are you sure you weren't hacked in the sense that someone is camping on your network, downloading stuff by being in the vicinity?  Or like others pointed out, some new device going crazy with erroneous usage.  I don't think Wi-Fi calling can be that much... but maybe something that's trying to cache the internet by predicting your needs?  What about web browsers left open with YouTube running on automatic play next?

 

I was just about to consider Circle so that gives me pause if it creates traffic on it's own...

Message 4 of 58
dan_123
Tutor

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

I've now turned off wifi calling on all our iphones and disabled Circle (I didn't find the free version to be that useful anyway). I don't have an Xfinity branded modem (I hate paying the monthly rental fees) so I don't think the XFi app will work for me given I'm not using one of their gateway routers. I don't have any security cameras running either. I've got my network locked down pretty well, and I don't suspect outsiders (the one thing I liked about Circle is it notified me of every new device as it connected to the network. I knew them all). Maybe this month was a complete fluke, but I find that hard to believe. I guess I'll try flashing my old router with a firmware that allows for device usage monitoring and swap out my Orbi for a month. That should tell me if it was any one device. If usage goes back to normal, I suppose that points back to the Orbi itself as the culprit...

Model: RBR50| Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi (Router Only)
Message 5 of 58
David-D
Aspirant

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

I am experiencing the EXACT same issue. My data usage has remained very consistent for several years and then suddenly, after installing Orbi, my data usaged has skyrocketed and for the first time EVER, I have exceeded my data allowance and nothing else on my network, users or usage has changed, and there are only 2 adults here. 

 

Has anyone determined what is causing this and more importantly, how to fix it?

Model: RBK53| Orbi Router + 2 Satellites Orbi WiFi System
Message 6 of 58
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Message 7 of 58
dan_123
Tutor

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Not sure this will help anyone, but I might as well share my solution. I did end up flashing an old netgear router with the opensource firmware DD-WRT and then ran the very helpful YAMon script for a couple weeks. My Orbi was offline that whole time as I ran everything back through the old router. Turns out I was able to immediately isolate the traffic to one of my laptops and once I dug into that laptop found a rogue backgound process running. The backgroud process "calendaragent" was out of control and downloading dozen's of GB of data per day. I killed that and rebuilt the online shared calendars and it's been ok since. I've since put my Orbi back online and things seem back to normal (this month's data usage is back in line with all my previous months). I did change a few things on the Orbi when bringing it back online like I turned off wifi calling for our phones and I disabled Circle (while a neat tool, it really wasn't that helpful). I still wish Orbi's firmware supported network traffic monitoring at a device level. That would be VERY useful for tracking down similar occurences in the future. In retrospect, I should have started with the computers on my network and just run something simple like Activity Monitor to view the network traffic. I'd have easily seen the rogue process there and would have saved a lot of headache.

Model: RBK50| Orbi AC3000 High-Performance Tri-Band WiFi System
Message 8 of 58
Christian_R
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Please ensure that the Orbi unit(s) are on the latest firmware. Please let me know if the issue persists. 

 

 

~Christian 

Message 9 of 58
j42k
Tutor

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Netgear should enable monitoring of Data usage PER DEVICE.  We can see it for the entire Orbi router (today, yesterday, this week, this month, last month), so the capability is there.  I can turn off internet per device.  If the Firmware could just log data usage per device, that would be a significant help in sniffing out these problems!

Message 10 of 58
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/Bandwidth-monitoring-by-device/idc-p/1640350...


@j42k wrote:

Netgear should enable monitoring of Data usage PER DEVICE.  We can see it for the entire Orbi router (today, yesterday, this week, this month, last month), so the capability is there.  I can turn off internet per device.  If the Firmware could just log data usage per device, that would be a significant help in sniffing out these problems!


 

Message 11 of 58
David-D
Aspirant

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Thanks - couldn’t agree more. Should be very easy for Netgear to enable per-device network monitoring on the Orbi, given the cost and needed use ability.
Message 12 of 58
mikepcdoc
Aspirant

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

I also have the same issue that after installing the RBK43 system my data usage went from 250gb/month to 2.2tb/month.  How do I fix this?  My network is down more than it is up because of it.

 

Model: RBK43| Orbi AC2200 WiFi System
Message 13 of 58
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

What FW is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
What is the Mfr and model# of prior router used?


What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

Try disabling the following and see:
MIMO, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

 

Have you enabled Traffic Meter?


@mikepcdoc wrote:

I also have the same issue that after installing the RBK43 system my data usage went from 250gb/month to 2.2tb/month.  How do I fix this?  My network is down more than it is up because of it.

 


 

Message 14 of 58
Blanca_O
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

@mikepcdoc

 

I have sent you a message. Please check your inbox.

 

Regards, 
Blanca 
Community Team

Message 15 of 58
Zaggles
Aspirant

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Did you guys ever find a solution to this or identify the issue? 

 

I picked up the Orbi system on Black Friday, and for the first time ever hit data caps in both December and January.  The Orbi app shows consistent 20GB+ usage a day - there are only two adults living in my house, and we both work during the day.  We use internet quite a bit and we stream Netflix and whatnot in the evenings, but not nearly 20GB worth a day.  Really wish Orbi gave the option to see by-device usage versus overall usage so I could do some basic troubleshooting.  As it is, I'm probably just going to return this system and shoot for Google if no one has identified a cause/fix.    

Model: RBK53| Orbi Router + 2 Satellites Orbi WiFi System
Message 16 of 58
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

What FW is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?

 

Has the system been factory reset and setup from scratch by chance? 

Whats connected to the system? 

Is Guest Network enabled? 

 


@Zaggles wrote:

Did you guys ever find a solution to this or identify the issue? 

 

I picked up the Orbi system on Black Friday, and for the first time ever hit data caps in both December and January.  The Orbi app shows consistent 20GB+ usage a day - there are only two adults living in my house, and we both work during the day.  We use internet quite a bit and we stream Netflix and whatnot in the evenings, but not nearly 20GB worth a day.  Really wish Orbi gave the option to see by-device usage versus overall usage so I could do some basic troubleshooting.  As it is, I'm probably just going to return this system and shoot for Google if no one has identified a cause/fix.    


 

Message 17 of 58
josepie
Tutor

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

I am having this exact same issue. 

 

Anyone know of a way to check what is causing this data usage? I'm at 1.2TB in 4 weeks, up from 300GB last month. Nothing new added, current firmware etc. 

Model: RBR50| Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi (Router Only)
Message 18 of 58
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

What FW is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?

 

Has the system been factory reset and setup from scratch by chance? 

Whats connected to the system? 

Is Guest Network enabled?


@josepie wrote:

I am having this exact same issue. 

 

Anyone know of a way to check what is causing this data usage? I'm at 1.2TB in 4 weeks, up from 300GB last month. Nothing new added, current firmware etc. 


 

Message 19 of 58
josepie
Tutor

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Hi Furrye38, thanks for the response. But I do not think this is a FW issue or similar. 

I guess it was answered in a different thread. There is no fix for this. Netgear do not acknowledge the issue of not being able to see what is using bandwidth, which device specifically. Seems a lot of people are complaining about this issue. Some suspect its partially related to Comcast. 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/Bandwidth-monitoring-by-device/idi-p/1627368...

Message 20 of 58
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

It would be helpful to give feedback to the questions presented to give us more details to see maybe whats going on. There are many variables that could be causing this. Hard to narrow down where the issue maybe coming from with out more details. 


@josepie wrote:

Hi Furrye38, thanks for the response. But I do not think this is a FW issue or similar. 

I guess it was answered in a different thread. There is no fix for this. Netgear do not acknowledge the issue of not being able to see what is using bandwidth, which device specifically. Seems a lot of people are complaining about this issue. Some suspect its partially related to Comcast. 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/Bandwidth-monitoring-by-device/idi-p/1627368...


 

Message 21 of 58
josepie
Tutor

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

What FW is currently loaded? V2.2.1.210
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too? Motrola MB74220 - not an ISP modem. 

 

Has the system been factory reset and setup from scratch by chance? No. 

Whats connected to the system? multiple devices. I suspected it was a camera, been disabled for 3 days. Connected - TV, xbox, Nvidia shield, thermostat, 3 x phones, 2 x iPads, 3 x computers (wifi and hardwired). Possibly one or two more small devices. 

Is Guest Network enabled? No. 

 

Also, in 3 days I have already 200GB of data. This is worrying as I will reach my max of 1TB in no time. 

I'm going to update my modem to a new one today to a newer model. See if this helps. 

Message 22 of 58
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

Please try a factory reset on the Orbi router and satellite(s). Set up from scratch. Also power off the ISP modem for 30 seconds then back on when you reset the Orbi router. 


@josepie wrote:

What FW is currently loaded? V2.2.1.210
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too? Motrola MB74220 - not an ISP modem. 

 

Has the system been factory reset and setup from scratch by chance? No. 

Whats connected to the system? multiple devices. I suspected it was a camera, been disabled for 3 days. Connected - TV, xbox, Nvidia shield, thermostat, 3 x phones, 2 x iPads, 3 x computers (wifi and hardwired). Possibly one or two more small devices. 

Is Guest Network enabled? No. 

 

Also, in 3 days I have already 200GB of data. This is worrying as I will reach my max of 1TB in no time. 

I'm going to update my modem to a new one today to a newer model. See if this helps. 


 

Message 23 of 58
Zaggles
Aspirant

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

I ended up returning my Orbi for a Google Wifi system a couple weeks ago, and so far so good.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a deal-breaker having no option for per-device monitoring.  Not interested in blindly troubleshooting/trying multiple things and then waiting to see if I might cap my internet again another month. 

 

I can monitor everything connected now and my household average use is showing 6 - 8 GB a day... little closer to reality.   

Message 24 of 58
josepie
Tutor

Re: Installed Orbi and data usage quadrupled!

It seems to me, resetting my router to factory default is not the best option. This issue is with the router not being able to track data per device. Why do you think resetting my router will help me solve the problem? This option is basic troubleshooting advice at best. 

 

I think its time to find a better option. Its a pity, I like this router but the lack of options is a deal breaker. 

The world is changing, everyone is streaming more nowadays, the internet providers are changing faster than Netgear's ability to keep up. I just think having this basic feature is must. 

Message 25 of 58
Top Contributors
Discussion stats
Announcements

Orbi WiFi 7