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Re: RBR/RBS50 2.1.4.10 dropping internet

ck33
Aspirant

RBR/RBS50 2.1.4.10 dropping internet

Hi All,

 

About 2 months ago I bought the RBK53 RBR50+2 RBS50 at Costco.  I had installed one RBR50+RBS50 at my parents with great results.  In this setup I have the RBR50 in the basment where the cable and cablemodem are, one RBS50 on the 1st floor and a RBS50 on the second floor.  Coverage is great and the thing is blazing fast.  I have one big problem.  Every few days some devices loose connectivity to the internet.  A month ago I discovered turning off the 2nd floor RBS50 made the problem go away, though with slower speeds upstairs.  I've since updated to 2.1.4.10 firmware and still have this problem.  After a day or two some devices can't get to the internet.  I power off the 2nd floor RBS and it all comes back.  Power it back on and things are fine for a bit.


Can anyone give me some pointers on how to troubleshoot this?  I'm pretty familiar with linux and networking (25 YEARS familiar, starting on AIX).  I'd love to try something before bringing this all back and trying some other mesh wifi.  Other details of my setup:

 

  • ARRIS SB6190 cablemodem (owened by me) connected to comcast xfinity
  • 5 Sonos speakers connected via a Sonos BRIDGE
  • ORBI is in router mode.  I do have an Edgerouter Lite I used prior to the Orbi I could press back into service and try this in AP mode.

Thanks in advance for any help I can get on this.

Model: RBK53| Orbi Router + 2 Satellites Orbi WiFi System
Message 1 of 7
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBR/RBS50 2.1.4.10 dropping internet

Can you test the system with out the Sonos devices turned ON? Seen issues with these devices.

What is the distance between the router and satellite? Should start with 30feet in between and go past this.

 

What channels are you using? Try 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5ghz.

Any wifi neighbors near by? If so, how many?

Disable MIMO, Daisy Chain and Fast Roaming and see how it goes.

 

 Besure your ISP modem is up to date on FW:

http://badmodems.com/Forum/app.php/badmodems

Message 2 of 7
ck33
Aspirant

Re: RBR/RBS50 2.1.4.10 dropping internet

Hmm, I see my SB6190 listed as a bad modem.   It would be odd in my mind if issues with the modem caused some clients to loose internet and not others, but as this modem looks problematic and I have an older modem that should run as fast as my ISP specs I will swap that out first and give it a try.  In the interest of speed I will also turn off daisy-chain.  This may kill my performance upstairs but it is worth a test.  MU-MIMO, Fast Roaming and BEAMFORMING are all off, I hadn't looked at turning them on and they seem off by default.  Thanks for the pointers, I'll start here and see if I can improve things.  I have a gut feeling about daisy-chain, though that not working would bite.  I can try to work out a better setup, but I was counting on not pulling cable up from the basment, and placing the satilites where I need wired connections.  Hence the dual satilite setup (with all the $$$)!

Message 3 of 7
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBR/RBS50 2.1.4.10 dropping internet

I would try to get the Orbi router up on the main floor if possible. Then place the satellite(s) were needed. Starting distance recommended is 30 feet in between. 

 

You can leave beamforming enabled. This shouldn't impact performances. I have it enabled on mine. 

Message 4 of 7
st_shaw
Master

Re: RBR/RBS50 2.1.4.10 dropping internet


@ck33 wrote:

Hi All,

 

About 2 months ago I bought the RBK53 RBR50+2 RBS50 at Costco.  I had installed one RBR50+RBS50 at my parents with great results.  In this setup I have the RBR50 in the basment where the cable and cablemodem are, one RBS50 on the 1st floor and a RBS50 on the second floor.  Coverage is great and the thing is blazing fast.  I have one big problem.  Every few days some devices loose connectivity to the internet.  A month ago I discovered turning off the 2nd floor RBS50 made the problem go away, though with slower speeds upstairs.  I've since updated to 2.1.4.10 firmware and still have this problem.  After a day or two some devices can't get to the internet.  I power off the 2nd floor RBS and it all comes back.  Power it back on and things are fine for a bit.


Can anyone give me some pointers on how to troubleshoot this?  I'm pretty familiar with linux and networking (25 YEARS familiar, starting on AIX).  I'd love to try something before bringing this all back and trying some other mesh wifi.  Other details of my setup:

 

  • ARRIS SB6190 cablemodem (owened by me) connected to comcast xfinity
  • 5 Sonos speakers connected via a Sonos BRIDGE
  • ORBI is in router mode.  I do have an Edgerouter Lite I used prior to the Orbi I could press back into service and try this in AP mode.

Thanks in advance for any help I can get on this.


You must manually configure both Orbi and Sonos to use non-overlapping 2.4 GHz channels, or they can interfere.  Set one system to use CH 1 and the other to use CH 11. Do not use Auto channel selection on either system.

 

Message 5 of 7
ck33
Aspirant

Re: RBR/RBS50 2.1.4.10 dropping internet

Thanks for the tips.  Failures take several days so troubleshooting has been slow going.  So far I have:

1. Moved satellites within 30 ft

2. Replaced cablemodem with a model not known to be problematic

3. Turned off Daisy-Chain, MU-MIMO, BEAMFORMING and Fast Roaming (the last 3 of these were already off)

 

Still having the issue so now I am looking at SONOS.  I don't think I want to turn these off as I use them constantly.  I will move them to a different channel and do some more research on them.

Model: RBK53| Orbi Router + 2 Satellites Orbi WiFi System
Message 6 of 7
st_shaw
Master

Re: RBR/RBS50 2.1.4.10 dropping internet


@ck33 wrote:

Thanks for the tips.  Failures take several days so troubleshooting has been slow going.  So far I have:

1. Moved satellites within 30 ft

2. Replaced cablemodem with a model not known to be problematic

3. Turned off Daisy-Chain, MU-MIMO, BEAMFORMING and Fast Roaming (the last 3 of these were already off)

 

Still having the issue so now I am looking at SONOS.  I don't think I want to turn these off as I use them constantly.  I will move them to a different channel and do some more research on them.


See my post above about Sonos, follow those instructions and make sure you wire only one Sonos device, no more.  As an alternative setup, you could remove the bridge, wire NONE of your Sonos devices, and connect them via WiFi. (I use a bridge with no issues, and prefer this setup.)

 

You should download the new 2.1.4.16 firmware and update to that also. 

 

If you still have trouble after that, I would put the edgerouter back into service and run Orbi in AP mode. That's how I run mine and I've never had any issues.

 

 

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