Orbi RBR20 slows wifi daily to 40mb/s.

[rthomem]

I have an RBR20 and an RBR40.  I have 2 plugin satelites and a wall satelite, RBS20 and RBW30 respectively.  Originally I replaced my RBR20 with a new RBR40 I bought on ebay (I liked that it had 2 ethernet ports on it).  I found that originally it worked very well.  I get 140mb/s hardwired to my cable router and was getting the same in every square inch of the house via WiFi.  After about three days or so, I noticed that my WiFi would slow to 40-50mb/s (Ethernet still at 140mb/s).  I have tried everything to keep it from slowing.  If i reboot the Orbi with the app, it comes back online at the 140mb/s.  It lasts about a day, then I notice things slow again.. speedtest.. back to 40mb/s.  Reboot, lather, rinse, repeat.  SO!  I decided to go back to my old, trusty RBR20.  Works great for three days.. I woke up this morning.. 40mb/s WiFi.  Now, I don't remember having this slowing problem before witht he RBR20, but I may have been.  What gives?  What can I do to keep it from slowing every day?  Has any one else solved this problem?  I see many posts where people experience it, but never seem to get it solved (that I can see).  Very frustrating!

[Mikey94025]

How are you measuring your speeds, e.g., are you using speedtest.net in a browser or an app?

Are you seeing this slowing wifi speed on one device or on multiple devices?  If one device, what is it and what OS are you running (like is it an iPhone 11 Pro running IOS 14.0.1)?

If one device, when you are seeing slow wifi speeds if you go to Airplane mode and then go off Airplane mode (i.e., if you reset the wifi connection) then does the speed return to normal?  It may be that your device is deciding to connect via 2.4Ghz or to a further/less-optimal Orbi station.  The devices largely control how and when they connect, despite various settings in Advanced... Advanced Setup... Wireless Settings like MU-MIMO, Fast Roaming, Implicit Beamforming but do play with those to see if it helps your specific device(s).

[rthomem]

ookla speedtest app

[rthomem]

I did the speedtest on both my iPad Pro (3rd gen) and iPhone 11 Pro Max.  Same result on both. iPadOS 14.0.1 and iOS 14.0.1 respectively.  I just did a reboot of the orbi, so back to 140mb/s.. I'll be able to check things tomorrow when it slows again.

[fmalloy]

Experiencing exactly the same issue with RBR20 and 2 RBS20 satellites. Turned on implicit beamforming in and rebooted three days ago, still have expected speed. 

If the speed drops down to the 45Mbps I'm experiencing (full Wi-Fi speed is 200Mbps) I am going to try moving the satellites farther apart, and turning off daisy chaining.

[fmalloy]

I got 4 days from the last reboot before the slowdown to ~40Mbps happens - I set implicit beamforming. This time I turned off daisy chaining. We will see how long that lasts.

Something is causing this slowdown after multiple days. Once the slowdown happens it's stuck there until the next reboot. Sure looks like a firmware problem. Guess I'll have to get used to rebooting every few days. 

Very disappointed in Netgear. 

[rthomem]

I put a timer on my router.. now the stupid thing has the power turned off every day around 2am and then comes back on 15 minutes later.  Stupid fix, but it works better than anything I've been able to get from Netgear and their pathetic customer service!  Hard reboot!

[fmalloy]

Well, it's a solution, and you're not impacted too much. We have the same issue, but my router goes days before it drops down to 45.

I think the timer is a good solution...so you plug it into a wi-fi socket and set an on/off schedule?

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@rthomem wrote:

I put a timer on my router.. now the stupid thing has the power turned off every day around 2am and then comes back on 15 minutes later.  Stupid fix, but it works better than anything I've been able to get from Netgear and their pathetic customer service!  Hard reboot!

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[rthomem]

No, I got a physical outlet timer from Harbor Freight for $10 and make it turn off a 3:00am and back on at 3:02am.  I figure I'll give it a couple of minutes down in case it needs a little time.  I still can't believe no one (Netgear) hasn't been able to solve this problem. 

[fmalloy]

Yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous. That said, mine's going on 8 days and still full speed. The last things I did were to turn on Implicit Beamforming and turn off Enable Daisy Chaining.

[fmalloy]

Here is what I found so far in my case:

1. The slowdown only appears to affect wireless devices connected to the RBR20 router, not devices connected to either of the 2 RBS20 satellites

2. I have disconnected every WiFi client and wired device - starting with the Philips Hue hub and the Amazon Echo - the slow down on the RBR20 did not resolve

I did not reboot the router after every disconnect and wait a week while disconnected to see if it resolves. I just do not have that kind of time. If a device was saturating the WiFi causing the router slowdown, disconnecting it should show the problem resolved.

So, I really don't think any of my devices are saturating the network and causing the slowdown.