RBR50 - WiFI Calling Rarely Works

[FURRYe38]

Though that tool is only meant for testing cable modems, specifically Intel chip set based modems. The tool might not give accurate results for anything else. 

[gr8sho]

I’ve seen and used the airport express utility before. But the WiFi analyzer app is just so much easier read. 😁

[FURRYe38]

Ya they don't have it for iphones. They do for iPads. 

[LAGuy]

I did try that link/tool on my iPhone, and all of the measurements starting at 100ms and up were flagged, but not sure how much that applies (since it does think this is a cable modem).  We have an Ipad Mini, but it is only a Wifi model.  I just may 'borrow' my brother-in-laws Android phone when he stops by this weekend and install that WiFi Analyzer app (he obviously does not know of this scheme yet...).

And, I did test the iPhone in airplane mode and the WiFi Calling feature does work great, and the person on the other end said the call quality was good. When I take it out of this mode and back to the norma, cellular setting, the WiFi Calling drops out again. I cycled the power on the phone, but no WiFi Calling (it only comes on randomly apparently, unless I go into airplane mode).

I do have an iPhone 6, but it has the latest IOS version. I will check my wife's iPhone 8, and this did not work at all initially, but when I turned off her VPN, and cycled airplane mode, the Wifi Calling now works. So the VPN affects the iPhone 8 on WiFi Calling, but, I do not have my VPN on the iPhone 6 enabled, and is still is uncooperative, unless I am in airplane mode.

So perhaps my iPhone 6 is just getting a bit old, and uncooperative (this happens with seniors, you know)?  VPNs seem to mess this with as well.

[gr8sho]

The biggest reason to bring up this topic of site survey is that it typically is not static, and may take multiple days for things to settle down.  5GHz is the main interest for me as most of what I care about is here.  Orbi will default to 48, but I noticed there were other signals interfering.  I moved it down one channel at a time since when I looked the channel was clean.  But it didn't hold.  Right now sitting on 36 and it has help for several days now.  I keep checking to make sure.  Your neighbors' router is probably set on automatic mode and will keep dancing around.

[gr8sho]

---

@LAGuy wrote:

I do have an iPhone 6, but it has the latest IOS version. I will check my wife's iPhone 8, and this did not work at all initially, but when I turned off her VPN, and cycled airplane mode, the Wifi Calling now works. So the VPN affects the iPhone 8 on WiFi Calling, but, I do not have my VPN on the iPhone 6 enabled, and is still is uncooperative, unless I am in airplane mode.

So perhaps my iPhone 6 is just getting a bit old, and uncooperative (this happens with seniors, you know)?  VPNs seem to mess this with as well.

---

The iPhone 6 is fine.  I'm also running Cloudflare's DNS app which installs a VPN profile on my X and I'm not seeing any issues here.  The router just needs to be reset.  Prove me wrong.   🙂

[ekhalil]

---

@LAGuy wrote:

.........

And, I did test the iPhone in airplane mode and the WiFi Calling feature does work great, and the person on the other end said the call quality was good. ......

---

Then this means that your Orbi works well and you don't need to mess around with it's settings.

It's your operator's and phone's settings that cause your intermittent wifi calling issues.

The phone is set to prefer cellular connectivity when there is any coverage and if you don't have good enough coverage then you will get bad quality calls.

Do you have an Android phone to test? Usually Android phones have an option that iPhone's don't have where you can set that wifi has priority over cellular for phone connectivity.

[LAGuy]

Am going to reset tonight, and will give everyone an update. Oh, and I did try adjust the power (I had 5 GHz set to 75% for awhile now, have 2 Kuna cameras outside that preferred this after some trials) down to 50%, but the affect seems to be minimal.

Factory reset is scheduled for this evening. Wish me luck!

[FURRYe38]

[LAGuy]

No, I dont have any Android products at home, but, will draft my brother-in-law who has a Samsung phone this weekend for some testing. And, you may be right on your synopsis, but, will give the factory reset a shot, just in case. If so, looks like the hotspot or VOIP solutions mentioned earlier may have to do. I will post my results to whatever I works (and doesn't) to give everyone more data and perhaps help anyone else with similar issues.

[SW_]

@LAGuy wrote:

.. the measurements starting at 100ms and up were flagged, but not sure how much that applies (since it does think this is a cable modem)...

If you have a wired PC handy, try running the same puma6 test on that PC.  Then run the same test with LTE on iPhone.  Compare those three results to see if they are consistent or not.  If those results vary drastically, that could give you another data point to ponder about the source of the problem.

[LAGuy]

When I ran this on my desktop PC, hard-wired to the Orbi, these were the results:

On the iPhone 6 using Wifi, I had the same three items flagged:

100 - 149ms xxxxxxxxx

150 - 199ms xxxx

200 - 249ms xx 

On the iPhone using LTE, I had the same three items flagged:

100 - 149ms xxx

150 - 199ms xx

200 - 249ms x 

Does that tell you anything useful?

[FURRYe38]

That your modem is Intel chip set based. 

---

@LAGuy wrote:

When I ran this on my desktop PC, hard-wired to the Orbi, these were the results:

On the iPhone 6 using Wifi, I had the same three items flagged:

100 - 149ms xxxxxxxxx

150 - 199ms xxxx

200 - 249ms xx 

On the iPhone using LTE, I had the same three items flagged:

100 - 149ms xxx

150 - 199ms xx

200 - 249ms x 

Does that tell you anything useful?

---

[LAGuy]

Well, I have great news, the factory reset seemed to work. Both iPhones have the WiFi Calling enabled, but in one of the rooms, it dropped (must have some pipes and wiring in the walls facing the Orbi satellite). Wanted to say thank you to everyone, I learned quite a bit in this exercise, and all of you were great with the suggestions and ideas. Many thanks!

[FURRYe38]

Glad it worked and it's working now. 

I would recommend you do a back up configuration to file for safe keeping later on. In case of another reset, you can save time by loading it up. 

I would recommend changing the ISP modem out for a Broadcom based chip set at some point. 

Enjoy. 

[LAGuy]

Oh, and one last (unrelated) questions since I have all of you here... should I install a VPN on the Orbi (if so, which one)? And is OpenDNS a preferred choice for the DNS service?

[gr8sho]

---

@LAGuy wrote:

Oh, and one last (unrelated) questions since I have all of you here... should I install a VPN on the Orbi (if so, which one)? And is OpenDNS a preferred choice for the DNS service?

---

Something I've been debating myself.  Cloudflare has already committed to providing free VPN service for it's iOS and Android users I believe.  I'm on their waiting list now.  My son is using NordVPN on his Windows PC and it has made a positive impact on his ability to do gaming. 

Having said that, I'm not convinced putting all of the home network on a VPN is necessarily the right solution just for performance reasons, but I'd be glad to be proved wrong on this.  I'm leaning towards leaving the implementation of VPN at the device level rather having it done by the router.

[Dd852]

Orbi 50 

After much trouble and tinkering I finally found a solution that worked for me. You need to have the right ports open and the automatic firewall was blocking the needed ones (500 and 4500). 

Here’s a full list of ports that Apple uses for information https://support.apple.com/et-ee/HT202944

by port forwarding (or just turning off firewalls) I now have wifi calling working perfectly. 

Obviously i know there are different issues for different people so I’m not claiming a universal fix, but it did work for me!

Remember to reboot the router after changing any firewall settings. Then also go through these steps on the iPhone: turn OFF cellular data, turn OFF wifi calling. Reboot. Turn ON cellular data turn ON wificalling. 

[LAGuy]

Which Orbi page did you make those changes? Thanks!

[Dd852]

Are you using Orbi as a router or as an access point? You need to set up port forwarding to your iPhone within whichever you are using as the router - if you use your cable modem as the router and dhcp source do it there, otherwise in the Orbi. Don’t forget to give your iPhone a static IP address so the port forwarding will stick. Good luck!

[gr8sho]

Meh. This is at best a one off. None of this should be necessary.
More important to start with a freshly reset router and enable advanced wireless features.