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Re: ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!

worldofshayan
Apprentice

ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!

Okay here is my issue: My wifi sucks. My internet connection is awesome. But with ORBI my wifi sucks. I've now gone back totally to basics:

 

1. I've reset the NV RAM and restored ORBI to factory settings.

2. I've setup ORBI and its two satellites and installed the latest beta firmware 2.1.2.10.

3. I've setup a brand new SSID

4. I've gone into advanced settings and into SCHEDULE and input the correct TIME ZONE so the logs are accurate

4. I've done a speed test through the Orbi App and its fabulous. 320mbps up and 190mbps down on average. 

5. I have not touched the QoS page on the advanced menu (which I'm told is troublesome if you do)

6. On the advanced Wifi page Beamforming, Mu-Mimo and Fast Roaming are off. I've tried each of these before in combinations and they are not optimised at the moment so clean is better overall.

 

ALL GOOD. I COULD NOT HAVE A CLEANER SETUP.

 

But now I'm connecting on Wifi through both my Macbook Pro and my iPhone (only two devices connected too so no load on the system!)

 

a. The speeds are 40mbps up and 20mbps down or something like that.

b. My main router is in the living room and my two satellites in each bedroom with closed doors. The wifi test that shows speeds of 40mbps up and 20mbps down are with me about 7ft away from the router in the liviing room itself and yes my devices are connected at 5Ghz. 

 

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

 

My settings are all DEFAULT in the main Orbi settings page. Key facts:

 

1. I have daisy chain enabled though my setup is more like a star sort of setup ish. The router is not in the middle per se but its sort of - see attached apartment plan. You can see where the ROUTER And SATELLITE 1 and 2 are placed.

 

Please help me if there are any advanced settings that I need to tweak to get the Wifi up to speed! ORBI support is absoutely useless giving only 3 months knowing how troublesome their product is. I really want to flog this off and go for the EERO PRO as I'm sure I won't have any issues there. Who cares if I get 20-50mbps less. At least I'm getting Wifi. here I have 300mbps and I'm not even getting 50mbps on Wifi!!!!

 

HELP!!!

 

 

Model: RBK53| Orbi Router + 2 Satellites Orbi WiFi System
Message 1 of 7

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worldofshayan
Apprentice

Re: ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!

Thank you. As stated, the problem is not in the bedroom - well it is when there is a problem in the living room where the main router is. As i stand one foot away from the main router, I'm still getting upload speeds far far worse than the router test or ethernet. Download fluctuates. Sometimes the downloads are 20mbps and the uplaod is 180mbps, then the download is 220mbps and the upload is 10mbps. It's a nightmare. Anyway ordered the Zyxel Multy X. Should be far better and more stable as I've read and their customer service is really good - online CHAT etc. Which is more than I can say for Crappy Netgear that never gave a damn about their customers by only giving 3 months phone service. With Zyxel I get 2 years! 🙂

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Message 7 of 7

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st_shaw
Master

Re: ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!


@worldofshayan wrote:

Okay here is my issue: My wifi sucks. My internet connection is awesome. But with ORBI my wifi sucks. I've now gone back totally to basics:

 

1. I've reset the NV RAM and restored ORBI to factory settings.

2. I've setup ORBI and its two satellites and installed the latest beta firmware 2.1.2.10.

3. I've setup a brand new SSID

4. I've gone into advanced settings and into SCHEDULE and input the correct TIME ZONE so the logs are accurate

4. I've done a speed test through the Orbi App and its fabulous. 320mbps up and 190mbps down on average. 

5. I have not touched the QoS page on the advanced menu (which I'm told is troublesome if you do)

6. On the advanced Wifi page Beamforming, Mu-Mimo and Fast Roaming are off. I've tried each of these before in combinations and they are not optimised at the moment so clean is better overall.

 

ALL GOOD. I COULD NOT HAVE A CLEANER SETUP.

 

But now I'm connecting on Wifi through both my Macbook Pro and my iPhone (only two devices connected too so no load on the system!)

 

a. The speeds are 40mbps up and 20mbps down or something like that.

b. My main router is in the living room and my two satellites in each bedroom with closed doors. The wifi test that shows speeds of 40mbps up and 20mbps down are with me about 7ft away from the router in the liviing room itself and yes my devices are connected at 5Ghz. 

 

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

 

My settings are all DEFAULT in the main Orbi settings page. Key facts:

 

1. I have daisy chain enabled though my setup is more like a star sort of setup ish. The router is not in the middle per se but its sort of - see attached apartment plan. You can see where the ROUTER And SATELLITE 1 and 2 are placed.

 

Please help me if there are any advanced settings that I need to tweak to get the Wifi up to speed! ORBI support is absoutely useless giving only 3 months knowing how troublesome their product is. I really want to flog this off and go for the EERO PRO as I'm sure I won't have any issues there. Who cares if I get 20-50mbps less. At least I'm getting Wifi. here I have 300mbps and I'm not even getting 50mbps on Wifi!!!!

 

HELP!!!

 

 


It's good that you have fast Internet service, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with what WiFi speed you can achieve.

 

You've posted in other threads that, "I have tried VELOP, GOOGLE WIFI, and ORBI."  If you have tried all these systems and all perform poorly, then it should be clear by now that your problem is not your Orbi.  Assuming you are testing with capable WiFi clients, the problem is most likely your RF environment.

 

 

Your WiFi speed could be limited due to neighbors' APs, or other RF interference.  You may also have more satellites than you need, or have them too close together. 

How big is your apartment?

Have you run a WiFi scanner to see if there are other APs visible? Are they overlapping your Orbi?

Do you have other wireless devices--Hue bulbs, Bluetooth devices, wireless speakers, wireless video links, etc?

Are your WiFi client devices capable of 400-500 Mbps throughput? An iPhone 7+ is.  I'm not sure about other models.

Do you have a modem from your ISP? Is the WiFi disabled on that?  Is your ISP modem also a router? If so, have you set your ISP's box into bridged mode, or have you set Orbi into Access Point mode?

 

Start with some basic investigation. Enable MU-MIMO and Implicit beamforming on Orbi.

1. Turn off both your satellites and test in proximity to the router first. You will only get maximum speed in the same room as the router, and within ~10 feet of the router.

 

2. Do not test your WiFi speed using an Internet speed test.  You should test your WiFi speeds using iperf3 between two devices on your LAN.  Run iperf as a server on a desktop or laptopn wired to your Orbi router.  The command is "iperf3 -s".  Do your testing with your MBP on WiFi.  The command would be "iperf3 -c <IP_OF_SERVER> -t 30" Do not have any WiFi scanning apps open on the MBP. Do not have the WiFi menu open on the MBP during testing.

 

3. Pay attention to the link speed of your MBP.  Option-click the WiFi icon on your MBP.  Look at the Tx Rate.  You need to connect at 5 GHz and a Tx Rate of 866 Mbps to get maximum speed.  You will only ever get about 50% to 60% of the link speed as throughput.  If you have an older MBP you might see a slower link speed.  My older MBP shows 300 Mbps Tx Rate.

 

Message 2 of 7
worldofshayan
Apprentice

Re: ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!

Thanks for your reply. Let's go step by step:

 

1. I run all the latest devices on the planet. Latest Macbook Pro (fully suped up), iPhone X etc.

2. In my living room where the main Orbi router is, there is my home theatre setup but not bluetooth. Only wifi connected to the Router itself and right now nothing but my phone and laptop are connected to the router. So it's clean.

3. While I've said that my wifi speeds were slow, i meant in the bedrooms, when I tried Google Wifi, the main router was super fast when setup - it gave me some 300mbps up and 200 mps down on wifi. Why I returned it was that in the bedrooms the wifi signal dropped by 50%. With Orbi the wifi connection to the satellite is strong in all the bedrooms - its the main router throughput which is dismal on Wi-Fi, leading to some firmware issue as it was never this way. Also all my cables are all CAT 7 cables and everything is top notch. As stated the speed test within the router is perfect and when I connect my Macbook pro directly to the internet via ethernet the speed again is perfect. So something is definitely WRONG with the Orbi unit.

4. The Velop was setup very very long time ago and the satellite connection was weak then. I gave it to my brother in Lnodon, he says it works wonderfully in his house now with the recent firmware improvements. I also had the EERO for a whole year (1st generation) and it was stable and flogged it off for ORBI (Biggest mistake ever!!!). At that time I had 10mbps. Now I have over 200mbps. Different ballgame. 

 

I've just researched and purcahsed a new system on the market which is exactly in build like the Orbi called the ZYXEL MULTY X (https://www.zyxel.com/in/en/products_services/AC3000-Tri-Band-WiFi-System-Multy-X/) and a guy on Amazon has given a detailed review stating it is FAR FAR more stable than the Orbi and the throughput is simply fantastic. Sometimes reviews are very biased but he does it really well. Also other reviews online support that this is one of the best units to enter the mesh system market. The problem with the EERO is that it doesn't support PPPoE which is what I ideally need as I don't want to have an extra router lying around if not required for aesthetic reasons. Also for many the new EERO just doesn't stack up and many say its not that much better than the first generation one. So was in two minds abbout that. The lack of Ethernet ports is a big problem for me too.

 

Finally, how do you delete a post on this netgear community that you've created? I would like to delete my earlier posts.

 

Thanks so much for all your advice and help. To end, Remember, pre the firmware updates when I first got the ORBI it was magical. Speeds up and down were simply fantastic in the same environment. Nothing has changed environment wise! And for the $500 spent its just too too too too much hassle to come to a forum and find out what’s wrong. MUCH RATHER go with something more stable even if it means a small sacrifice in throughput overall. Though I have a feeling the Zyxel is gonna knock it out of the park as its the latest to join the race so would have learnt from all the others' mistakes!

 

Cheers.

 

Message 3 of 7
tagteam
Virtuoso

Re: ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!


worldofshayan wrote:
Finally, how do you delete a post on this netgear community that you've created? I would like to delete my earlier posts.

 


I believe you will have to contact a moderator for that; there is no way to delete one of your own posts otherwise.

Message 4 of 7
tagteam
Virtuoso

Re: ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!


@worldofshayan wrote:
...I have a feeling the Zyxel is gonna knock it out of the park as its the latest to join the race so would have learnt from all the others' mistakes!

 


Whatever Zyxel learned, it had nothing to do with hardware since the specs are very, very similar, if not identical, to those of the RBK50.

Message 5 of 7
st_shaw
Master

Re: ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!

@worldofshayan 

 

It would have helped if you said your problem was in the bedrooms.  I don't know whether you understand how Orbi works, but the satellites and router use conventional WiFi signals to communicate. This means you need a good WiFi link between the router and satellite, or the satellite will give poor speed for every connected client.

 

If your walls are plaster with wire mesh, stone, masonry, unusually thick, or made of some other WiFi-blocking construction, then WiFi will not penetrate well, and your speed will drop in the bedroom.  Since you seem to be in the UK, that's likely the problem.  The only solution to that is to run a wire into the bedrooms.

 

This is not an Orbi problem.  It's physics.  If you put the router and a satellite where they have clear line of sight, you could establish for yourself that there's nothing wrong with your Orbi.

 

Yes, your client device will still see full strength in the bedroom, but that is only between the client device and the satellite.  The slow link is the wireless backhaul between the satelllite and Orbi router. You could try the wired backhaul as well.

 

 

Message 6 of 7
worldofshayan
Apprentice

Re: ORBI ENDLESS PROBLEMS - I'm totally lost. Totally lost...NEED HELP!

Thank you. As stated, the problem is not in the bedroom - well it is when there is a problem in the living room where the main router is. As i stand one foot away from the main router, I'm still getting upload speeds far far worse than the router test or ethernet. Download fluctuates. Sometimes the downloads are 20mbps and the uplaod is 180mbps, then the download is 220mbps and the upload is 10mbps. It's a nightmare. Anyway ordered the Zyxel Multy X. Should be far better and more stable as I've read and their customer service is really good - online CHAT etc. Which is more than I can say for Crappy Netgear that never gave a damn about their customers by only giving 3 months phone service. With Zyxel I get 2 years! 🙂

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