My Orbi system has very poor performance. Symptoms include:
* Extremely poor ping times
* Extremely long dns resolution time
* speedtest still shows full 200Mbps connection rate
* Streaming video is fine but can take a long time to start
* rebooting the orbi and netgear cable modem dailiy seem to have an effect but it could be only psychological.
firmware version V4.6.3.16_2.0.51
I have a 4500 sqft house with 3 floors plus a basement and the walls are plaster and lath. All my wifi tests are performed in the same room as the router but the symptoms are consistent throughout the house. Base station and sattelites are over 30 feet apart with router on the second floor and the sattelites on the opposite sides of the first and third floors. My neighborhood has a lot of WiFi coverage from houses and the city's system but I have my system on two surprisingly empty channels. There are 24 devices currently connected to my network and 3 or 4 I haven't managed to get set back up after the latest factory reset.
Here's a ping sample over wifi:
$ ping 192.168.1.1 PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1): 56 data bytes Request timeout for icmp_seq 0 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=2762.054 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1761.484 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=761.153 ms
Here's a ping sample wired to the same device via a switch and cable
$ ping 192.168.1.1 PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.627 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.778 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.726 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.812 ms
Things I have tried:
* daily reboots
* reducing power output
* changing CTS/RTS threshold
* leaving one sattelite off
* enabling/disabling IPv6
* factory reset and re-install
* wired backhaul (sattelites disappear from network map when wired)
What device is being used for the WiFi ping tests?
Is it connected to the Orbi at 2.4G or at 5G?
I agree that the WiFi ping results are ghastly and the wired ping results are exactly what one would expect.
My guess is that (a) the device is connected to Orbi's 5G WiFi, and (b) there are a lot of nearby 5G WiFi systems on the same channel. Only one radio can broadcast at a time and it doesn't matter which system it is. If it's on the same channel, then it competes for air time.
If this is the case, then wiring everything possible is the only solution (which sucks).
The internet has lots of advice on how to scan for 2.4G WiFi channels to pick the one with the least interference. I (personally) do not have a lot of confidence in this method because over time most routers perform a similar scan and sometimes change channels. What was great yesterday may not be great today.
5G WiFi is a frustrating situation because there are only a couple of 80mb wide slots available for home WiFi. Page 139 of the RBR850 user manual indicates that all Orbi's operate at specific frequencies (different for US & China and the rest of the world).
There are some tools that can be used to confirm/deny this hypothesis. Android has a bunch of "WiFi Analyzer" apps that will report every nearby system and show the channel being used. For Windows, I like WiFiInfoView by Nirsoft https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_information_view.html ( No idea about iOS or MacOS, sorry.)
I'm ping testing from my MacBook Pro which, according to the "connected devices" list is currently connected on the 5GHz channel but this problem is not limited to 5GHz as far as I can tell. The Orbi app shows nearby networks and which ones to choose and the ones I'm on have been consistently marked "best" by the app.
I see a few apps for android and MacOS but they don't seem to offer much more than the orbi app.
When I look at my Orbi 'app' WiFi Analytics panel and scroll over to Channel Interference, it shows that there are 7 nearby networks on Channel 48 and the Clarity is Poor. What does your Orbi app show?
I own the cable modem, which I bought from netgear at the same time as the Orbi system. It's a Nighthawk CM1200 and it's connected to an Xfinity cable account.
Maybe this is a silly question but how would the signal quality up to the cable modem affect WiFi network performance but not wired performance (at least as much)?
This is actually on my TODO list because I have had power level and squirrel chew issues in the past.
Comcast is coming to check out my cable to the back of the modem this afternoon. Just a couple other things I'm observing:
* Looks like QOS for streaming media is enabled by default on the Orbi? I see WMM is checked.
* I have three connected Nest cameras and they're connected over 2.5GHz (most things are on 2.5)
* I have network preferences open on my Mac and I keep seeing the WiFi connection change from "connected" to "on" to "no ip address"
* I just did another speedtest over WiFi and got 5Mbps down on a 200Mbps connection, speedtest on the router says 140Mbps and speedtest over wired via the router shows 204Mbps.
Comcast is coming to check out my cable to the back of the modem this afternoon. Just a couple other things I'm observing:
* Looks like QOS for streaming media is enabled by default on the Orbi? I see WMM is checked. Yes.
* I have three connected Nest cameras and they're connected over 2.5GHz (most things are on 2.5) Theres only 2.4Ghz.
* I have network preferences open on my Mac and I keep seeing the WiFi connection change from "connected" to "on" to "no ip address" Is this while near the RBR?
* I just did another speedtest over WiFi and got 5Mbps down on a 200Mbps connection, speedtest on the router says 140Mbps and speedtest over wired via the router shows 204Mbps. What connection rate do you see with the Mac Connected at the RBR. Hold the OPT key and right click on the wifi icon to show the connection rate. Frequency should be shown as well.
Checking up again this morning and it seems better on this Mac but I just saw the Wifii blip from "connected" to "on" and back again.
It seems like which device gets the bad service changes. My Mac is getting 90Mbps over Wifi ([opt]-click Tx rate now says 219Mbps over 802.11n) but my phone is getting 17.
This perdformance is getting worse by the day. I want to open a support case before opening a return but my support is expired. Anyone know how to get help from Netgear or should I just start the return process and buy something else?
Wow. They didn't get back to me until late at night and I didn't respond over the weekend. They sent me an email that the case would be automatically closed in 5 days and then closed it the next day after a total of less than 3 days. Now on the phone they're telling me my warranty is expired but I opened the case before my warranty expired.
