Re: Just replaced my Velop for Orbi...So far not impressed.

jesseasi · ‎2018-05-25

I had the Linksys Velop system - 3 nodes - bought it over the Orbi when they both first came out - mainly because the Velop offered wired backhaul. It worked great - evern QOS.

We just finished an addition to our house and big back yard upgrade with pool, pavillion, etc.

Linksys does not offer any outdoor options for the Velop - and with Orbi now offering wired backhaul - I took a huge plunge.

RBK53 - 1 Router and 2 Satellites.

RBS50 - Additional Satellite

RBS50Y - the Outdoor Satellite.

My house is about 5000 sq feet but my outdoor space is probably another 3000+

I have the router and two satelites inside the house (one is wired and one is using 5G backhaul). I have an additional satillite located in our pool equipment room with some sonos connect amps and 6 wemo wifi switches along with wired pool controls all either connected or near this satellite.

Finally I have the outdoor satellite located on the other side of the back yard.

My complaint? Everything is so unstable. I can be standing just a few feet from a satellite and my iphone will say I am connected but without internet service. My sonos connect amps stop playing or skips songs because they lose connection.

Sometimes my wired satellites will show not connected - then later connected.

I just invested nearly $1000 for this setup and I am starting to have some serious buyers remorse.

Are there some best practices to get things running smoothly? For my wired satellites (2 of them) they are connected via switches. Should I try to bypass the switches and try to daisy chain them?

Apprecaite any tips or suggests. Also - where is the QOS?? I run a media server at home and normally I give it the highest priority. But I don't see where or how this is possible with Orbi.

DarrenM · ‎2018-05-29

Make sure you are on the latest firmware on all orbi devices. And you may want to experiment with a couple of settings in the advanced wireless settings such as Beamforming, MUMIMO, and Fast roaming see if enabling these or disabling them helps at all with your wireless devices losing connection.

DarrenM

WAP · ‎2018-05-29

Since you are still within the 90 day Netgear support window you should call them and ask when the new firmware to fix the wired backhaul problem is coming out (and post the answer to the forum so the rest of us can know when it might drop).

Some folks can get the wired back haul to work, I can't. (I followed all of the suggest and can't get it to work even though it it used to work for me until the latest firmware which broke it for me and many others).

Can't explain why it works for some and not others. Netgear has done a terrible job communicating what is going on with the wired backhaul. To make matters worse I can revert to old firmware and my wired backhaul works perfectly but Orbi won't allow you to decline firmware updates so after I've downgraded the firmware a few days later the ORBI overwrites with the latest firmware and I'm broken again.

Welcome to the world of Orbi, you just spent $1000 to be a beta tester for Netgear.

jesseasi · ‎2018-05-29

It has been nothing but frustration so far. My latest discovery is that it may appear that I can't use a network switch between the router base and the satellites. Which makes no sense to me. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

I was able to get one of the satellites to work using ethernet backhaul with a switch - but after a reboot it would not work at all. Even though the satellite keeps broadcasting the Network Wifi info and allows users to join even though it is not connected. Very frustrating.

If I connect the Satellite directly to the router/base it seems to be more stable. But sorta defeats the purpose.

Anyone here know the best practice?

Router/Base to Satellite with switch connected (Need more ports than 3).

Or can you go:

Router/Base to Switch to Satellite?

And would it be possible to go Router/Base to Switch to 2nd Switch to Satellite?

mpf541 · ‎2018-05-30

I have mine going through a couple of switches using a wired backhaul. But i have also noticed that some switches do not work. I have 2 dlink swithes that I am using. But I have noticed that if I use a netgear smart switch it stops working.

FURRYe38 · ‎2018-05-30

Orbi systems don't seem to like managed or smart switches. So use non manged switches with Orbi systems.

I also have two non manges switches in between my 1 satellite. Back haul is working fine.

jesseasi · ‎2018-05-30

I have one satellite - if I just boot it up without connecting it to the network via wire - it works ok - but not as fast as it should be.

If I try to use the wired backhaul - everything fails. Nothing on the network works. I have tried it with a network cable connected directly from the Orbi Router to the Satellite - I have tried it with a switch inbetween.

I do have one managed network switch on my network. I have seem where the Orbi does not like managed switches. I am not really even connecting the Satellites using the switch - but could that be the culprit?

FURRYe38 · ‎2018-05-31

Ok, so try this, factory reset the satellite, ensure daisy chain is disabled on the router. Re-add the satellite via wireless. Get to the point where you see the top led turn BLUE. After you see this and it turns OFF, connect the ethernet cable between the router and satellite. Any port should work. Wait for about 5 minutes. The top led should turn BLUE again. I would disconnect ALL other LAN networking devices at the router temporarily before you try to add the satellite via wired. Check the connected clients on the router. Whats the status here.

Besure your using a good working cable.

@jesseasi wrote:

I have one satellite - if I just boot it up without connecting it to the network via wire - it works ok - but not as fast as it should be.

If I try to use the wired backhaul - everything fails. Nothing on the network works. I have tried it with a network cable connected directly from the Orbi Router to the Satellite - I have tried it with a switch inbetween.

I do have one managed network switch on my network. I have seem where the Orbi does not like managed switches. I am not really even connecting the Satellites using the switch - but could that be the culprit?