ORBI strange issue HELP PLEASE

[aellul]

Hi all, 

I have a very strange issue with my ORBI and to be honest I have never ever came across this on any router.

I have have set up the ORBI router downstairs and the satellite upstairs.  In the house we have all sort of devices connected to the ORBI like Macbooks, iMacs, iPhones, iPads, smart tv's and a couple of windows pc too.  Everything is working fine with no issues whatsoever.  

The ORBI is set up as an AP.

Lately I replaced my kid's windows pc with a Dell Inspiron which has a braodcom wifi adapter.  The problem is with new Dell.  This Dell is not recognising the wifi network.  When I go into the network lists, my wifi is not listed there so obviously I cannot connect to it.

After many tries like update the drivers, unistall and reinstall the hardware, tried every possible solution I could find on the web, I decided to make fresh clean install of the OS, windows 10.  To my surprise the problem still persists.  At this stage I start to wonder if it is the pc or my ORBI system.

This is when the stangest thing happend...I somehow decided to enable the guest network on my ORBI and all of a sudden I could see the main network and the guest network on the Dell.  It is like the ORBI changed the way it braodcasts the network when I enabled the guest option.

Now, in view that I don't want to have a guest netwoork as the ORBI doesn't function well when there are devices connected to the guest network in AP mode (this is a known fact) do you have any suggestions please as to what I can do please?

Sorry for the long post but I tried to include all the information that I could.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thansk and kind regards

[Nsiddons]

I don’t have a solution but more questions. Have you changed any setting in the 2.4g or 5g or did you leave those settings default? When you turn off the guest network does your dells drop the wifi connection? When you turn off the guest network can your dells see the main wifi still?

[st_shaw]

@aellul  Is this an older laptop?  It sounds like the WIFI adapter might be incompatible with Orbi's single SSID approach.  Maybe it's an older 2.4 GHz-olny adapter?

An easy solution might be to buy a cheap USB WIFI dongle that supports 802.11ac (or at least 802.11n dual band) and plug it into the laptop. They cost as little as $15.

[aellul]

hi, 

the only thing i changed was the channel for teh 5Gzh network and set it to 40.  

when i switch off the guest network on the orbi the dell is still able to connect to other networks and the dell's wifi does not drop.  it is like it becomes invisible when i switch off the guest network.

no, when i switch off the guest network the dell does not see the orbi at all.

thanks 

[aellul]

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@st_shaw wrote:

@aellul  Is this an older laptop?  It sounds like the WIFI adapter might be incompatible with Orbi's single SSID approach.  Maybe it's an older 2.4 GHz-olny adapter?

An easy solution might be to buy a cheap USB WIFI dongle that supports 802.11ac (or at least 802.11n dual band) and plug it into the laptop. They cost as little as $15.

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hi, 

the dell is 2015 pc...not that old i think.  could be that the network adapter is not compatible with the orbi, however why does the dell see the orbi when there is the guest network?  i mean when there is the guest network ok, the dell sees both the private network as well as the guest.  when the guest is off, the dell sees nothing.  i have great trouble understanding that.

thansk 

[st_shaw]

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aellul wrote: 

 i mean when there is the guest network ok, the dell sees both the private network as well as the guest.  when the guest is off, the dell sees nothing.  i have great trouble understanding that.

thansk 

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It's very strange, and I don't know why it behaves that way.  Regardless, a new WiFi adapter would likely solve your problem.

[st_shaw]

One thought... The guest network is open (no security) by default.  This could be the reason why your laptop behaves differently.

[CBSEtuts]

Thanks...