Re: ORBI 2..4 gHz speeds

FredFlintston · ‎2019-10-12

Hello

An ORBI RBR50 with very slow 2.4Ghz performance. I have a 50Mbs fibre service and wired connections and 5 ghz connections reach full speed but I have a tablet which is 2.4 only and it struggles to get up to 1Mbs. Often the speed test starts at 10Mbs but rapidly falls back to next to nothing.

The whole system seems a mess to be honest. The admin page shows the satelite but nothing connected to it, wireless devices show up as wired - trainwreck.

Some of the things i have tried:

Switching off all other wireless devices

Swapping wireless chanels

Switching off settings - daisy chain, mimo, fast roaming, beamforming

reset and reconnect satelite

Hardwire satelite backhaul

I have been away for much of the last 3 months and the issue has only been noticed in the last three weeks and my 90 days support expired 3 days ago while i was mucking around. Should I just return it?

Any ideas?

CrimpOn · ‎2019-10-12

The satellite connection shows as "wired" and "good"?

Does this old tablet get faster speed when connected to a different WiFi system (elsewhere)?

Are there any other devices like phones, tablets, laptops, etc. which show "full speed" on 2.4G?

Are there any REALLY OLD WiFi devices connected to the Orbi?

(802.11 2.4G WiFi is "backward compatible" so that even the earliest WiFi device will still function. However, this can have the side-effect of slowing ALL 2.4G devices to the slowest speed.)

FredFlintston · ‎2019-10-12

Hello

Thanks for the reply. Here are the answers to the best of my knowledge:

The satellite connection shows as "wired" and "good"? Yes

Does this old tablet get faster speed when connected to a different WiFi system (elsewhere)? Yes - tethered to iphone

Are there any other devices like phones, tablets, laptops, etc. which show "full speed" on 2.4G? Most of the other stuff on 2.4 can't be tested (ipcameras and smart switches etc) My wife has a iphone 6 and she is having similar issues with often connection and full signal but no through put at all.

Are there any REALLY OLD WiFi devices connected to the Orbi? - the oldest thing is an ipad from about 2012. Everything else is less than 5 years old

(802.11 2.4G WiFi is "backward compatible" so that even the earliest WiFi device will still function. However, this can have the side-effect of slowing ALL 2.4G devices to the slowest speed.)

CrimpOn · ‎2019-10-12

Thanks for the answers. Hmmmm. iPhone 6 is "Dual Band", so it is not clear (yet) which band it is connecting on.

Do you use the Orbi "app" or the web interface?

Are you comfortable with telnet?

FredFlintston · ‎2019-10-12

I use the web interface mostly

i dont have much experience with telnet but can follow instructions.

As an update turing off every device and full speed came back. I could also see many other local networks around that were not listed before. The full speed remained whilst i switched everything back on one at a time - then 20 minutes later the problem is back.

My wifes phone is still fine however (showing connection as 'wired')

CrimpOn · ‎2019-10-12

Can you itemize the devices which are connecting at 2.4G?

CrimpOn · ‎2019-10-13

The next time the issue comes back, please see if this provides any information.

Log into the Orbi web interface.
Select the Advance Tab and make a note of the Orbi IP address (often 192.168.1.1)
Change "index.htm" to read "debug.htm" and connect again.
Check the box toward the bottom "Enable Telnet"
Open a telnet program and connect to the Orbi
Log in using "admin" and the administrative password
Type this command:
wlanconfig ath0 list
This will list all of the devices connected to the Orbi router at 2.4G.
It's one very long line of values for each device and will probably wrap around more than once.
What you care about is the beginning of each line.
Here is the first part of mine:
ADDR            AID CHAN TXRATE RXRATE
b8:c7:5d:52:02:fa 1 3   65M   65M
30:ae:a4:6c:c8:40 3 3 72M   65M
f4:b8:5e:43:88:84 4 3 58M    5M
f4:b8:5e:06:79:4d 2   3 58M   72M
The TX rate is the speed the Orbi is transmitting (TX) to the device.
The RX rate is the speed the Orbi is receiving (RX) from the device
One of these should match the MAC address of the problem iPad.
(Which can be looked up on the iPad or on the Orbi "Attached Devices" page.
What, it isn't there?
This means you have to go through the process on the satellite.
Connect to the debug page, enable telnet, log on with telnet, type the command.

This seems an enormous task at first, and I realize that only a "desperate person" would attempt it.

My hope is that it shows something interesting.

FredFlintston · ‎2019-10-14

Hi there,

It took a little working out how to get telnet to play with the modem. I have this for the Router

FredFlintston · ‎2019-10-14

And this for the satellite. The ipad was not connected. Speeds on the levono tablet under .5Mbs up and down

CrimpOn · ‎2019-10-14

Sorry I assumed the problem tablet was an iPad. "Apple people" often have homogenious environments.

I feel comfortable with things like "Internet of Thiings" (IoT) controllers transmitting at a low rate. They are sending only a few packets at a time, and not very often. My guess is the IP camera was probably not sending a video stream at the time and could be just doing "heartbeat" connections. It appears my theory of everything being constrained to a low speed was not correct.

Now that you know how this works, can you take a snapshot while the Lenovo is downloading something? (that takes long enough for you to start the process and take the snapshot before it finishes. Or, maybe run Speedtest several times and repeat the data capture.)

FredFlintston · ‎2019-10-15

OK - attached for the Router first

FredFlintston · ‎2019-10-15

And now the satelite. This was done while down loading a netflix file on the table. At the moment things have improved to 5 - 15 Mbs

Many thanks

CrimpOn · ‎2019-10-15

Thanks for doing the test. We may not have solved your problem, but along the way this has exposed how little I knew about the "inner workiings" of WiFi on the Orbi. Things like:

The transmit and receive rates are usually not the same. (Maybe because the antennas and radios are different, with the Orbi having larger and more powerful antennas/radios?)
The transmit and receive rates can change dramatically over time.
The router and satellite can be on different channels (11 and 6).
The Orbi setting is either for "Auto" or the user selects a channel.
I thought the router and satellite were always on the same channel and that "Auto" just meant that the Orbi would select one channel for both.

So, I am running out of ideas.

FredFlintston · ‎2019-10-15

Thanks so much - i think my next move is to try my previous dual band wifi ISP thing and see if i get the same issue. This will help with the keep or return problem. I look forward to reconnecting all those devices - twice!

I have also learnt a lot going through the process - using telnet - that's almost as good as coding right?!!

I will update on the saga as I go, and someone else might see this and have another line of enquiry in the mean time