ORBI RBR20 Satellite Constantly Dropping Internet (With High Packet Loss)

[kyukenmyo]

Hi everyone! Been struggling with a high packet loss and constantly disconnecting connection between my router and satellite kit. If I turn off the satellite, the packet loss significantly improves, but the loaded latency on fast.com is still like 500-800 ms. I'm running this on Suddenlink gigabit internet with a CM600. I know the CM600 works, since I've been told it doesn't have the ghastly puma 6 chip. Plugging in the modem directly appears to give me pretty decent speeds. For whatever reason though, the connection is constantly dropping and I feel like it could be a DHCP problem?

Would love some help and completely willing to submit any documentation from the backend. This's been driving our family crazy.

Oh, and the firmware is the newest 2.5.16, and the router is in router mode. Daisy chain is off (as I have only one satellite) and so is Mu-MIMO/Implicit Beamforming. Power to both 2.4 ghz bands and 5 ghz bands is 100%.

Would love some advice from ya'll..!

Thanks !!

[FURRYe38]

Be sure your using good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6 is recommended.

What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router

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 enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or maynot be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

Try disabling the following and see:

Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Set Short preamble instead of Long preamble modes.  Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update?

[kyukenmyo]

Thanks Furry!

The two are about 40 feet away from each other. I have performed two factory resets with no avail. Still the satellite consistently disconnects. 

Enabling Mu-Mimo did not help, and somehow implicit beamforming reduced my existing speeds to 10 mbps from 300. 

Set 2.4 GHz at manual channel 11, and the 5 GHz on 48. Not sure what neighbors are running, and what software to use to find this.

Disabling Daisy chain didn't help either. IPV6 is already disabled. 40 Mhz only: haven't tried that. I'll try it. 

But it seems to be some sort of interference or backhaul being overwhelmed? I am going to try reducing transmit power of both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands to 50% later tonight, as well as maybe roll back firmware to the pre 2.5 version as well.

I've attached the RST statistics log and can supply the debug log if necessary as well. The modem doesn't appear to have any issues, so I am fairly confident this is not a modem (CM600) or ISP problem. 😛 I'm also running a CAT 5E cable, and have CAT 6 cables coming in by tomorrow. 

Does anybody have any other ideas on what I could do to find out the problem? 

[FURRYe38]

Try moving the RBS a bit closer? Try 5 ft increments.

[kyukenmyo]

Continued to move it closer. The closer it gets to the satellite, I notice the backhaul switches to 2.4 GHz, which of course severely reduces speeds. I have since downgraded firmware to 2.5.30, which is stable by most things I've read. 

If the backhaul is switching to 2.4 GHz, could it be that there is interference on the 5 GHz band between the satellite and router? Perhaps I should try turning down the power of the 2.4 GHz transmision to 50%. 

Or separate SSIDs? I'm at a loss. Haha

[FURRYe38]

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 turning down the power output on the RBR and see...

Has a factory reset been performed on the RBR and RBS? 30 feet should be good. Whats the building material of the home? 

[kyukenmyo]

Set to 1 for 2.4 GHz band and 48 for 5.0 GHz. I have two neighboring wifis, but that's it. Signal is not too strong. The building material of the home is wood and brick, I believe. I will try turning down the RBR power output and see... A factory reset has not been performed since I downgraded the firmware today. I believe the firmware will force itself to update if I factory reset and use my phone to set it up.

Managed to go inside via telnet and disable auto update^^

Hmmmm... (And thanks again to Furry for the help)

[FURRYe38]

See how that goes. 

No a factory reset won't update FW. 

[kyukenmyo]

I just set power from 2.4 GHz to 50% and 5 GHz to 75%. The Satellite connected to the Router briefly, but then dc'd and went magenta. It seems to be more on and off here. Backhaul status is good, at 5 GHz too. Hm... Might go back.

Also keep seeing "DOS ATTACK" in the orbi log. Could be Iphones and auto ip stuff.

One thing of note: I had another router which was named "x" before I got my orbi. I set the orbi to the same name and password and all of my devices seamlessly made the transition automatically. This wouldn't be the reason for a problem, could it?

[FURRYe38]

So you can use prior SSID name and PW on the Orbi. Which is recommended. 

So if you turn OFF all wifi devices and just have the RBR and RBS online. Do the RBS keep connected at all? 

Almost sounds like the RBS could be faulty. 

If you have two RBS, swap them around to see if the problem follows? 

[kyukenmyo]

Really appreciate your help, Furry. 

Check this out- I attached the pingplotter map. Lord- it seems to build up and just disconnect after a while. Packet loss is all over the place.! Wow!

I'm going to do another test with just the RBR on pingplotter and see if latency is improved.

Unfortunately, I'd say it's impossible to disconnect all the wifi devices to isolate this until everyone's out of the house. Hm...Does sound like it could be faulty. I don't have another RBS20 at the moment to try this out, but at this point I'm wondering if dropping another 100 on an RBS is worth it or if I should just upgrade to another system (orbi pro or not). 

I'll do the packet loss test again with the satellite off just connected to the router to confirm. But yowzas. Do you have any idea what this graph means? Haha

[kyukenmyo]

LOL. Here is the ping / packet loss test with just the router (mind you the router is quite far away from my computer). Satellite is powered off. 

The graph looks extremely clean. One latency spike, and that's it. Two calls with my ISP (suddenlink) confirmed no problems on their end. This looks like it is specifically an Orbi RBS20 problem. I wonder if it's somehow due to interference in the area? Hm...

[FURRYe38]

Interesting tests...

Besure to ping test with a wired PC directly connected to the modem with out the RBR. 

[kyukenmyo]

Kind of given up so far on using the satellite. Router is almost completely fine. Some ping spikes every hour or so, but nothing unmanageable. Satellite has 30% packet loss every 3 seconds.

[FURRYe38]

Possible faulty RBS. Something to ask NG support about.