I've been having a great deal of trouble getting my satellite to hold a stable connection since I purchased the Orbi WiFi system last Sunday. I've had it for less than a week, and been in contact with three different support reps. I have to say, my experience with the Netgear support team has been very poor and unhelpful. It actually seems like Netgear's support team just wants to push you aside and get rid of you, rather than deal with your issues.
The Orbi Wifi system is quite an upgrade, WHEN it works properly, however, it's very unstable.
The issue I'm currently dealing with is that for whatever reason, after anywhere from minutes to hours, clients will switch from the 5ghz band connection to the satellite to the 2.4ghz. Some clients will even switch to the router and my Internet connection speed drops considerably. I am able to resolve this issue by resetting the Satellite and waiting for it to come online again.
In my testing so far, here is what I've noticed. When I'm a few feet away from the satellite, my Internet connection speed is ~400mbs. When upstairs, with the satellite still being closer than the router, connection speed is ~250-300mbps. I verified that my client is connected to the Satellite on the 5ghz band. After a few minutes to hours, the client will switch to the 2.4ghz band on the satellite, and connection has now degraded to ~20mbps. Resetting the satellite restores the connection speed again until it breaks again.
What I've tried so far:
- Hard resetting the router and satellite
- Upgrading to latest firmware, 2.1.xx
- Changing the 2.4ghz channels, and setting the 5ghz to 48
- Changing the transmit power to 75%
- Both disabling and enabling beamforming, fast roam, daisy chaining, and miumo.
My experience with Netgear's support team:
1. Reported the issue through email, was suggested to change the WiFi channels. I notified them this didn't work, and they told me to return the product.
2. Called in this time as I've read exchaning the product doesn't make a difference. First rep said to change channels again. He also had me check for firmware updates even though I'm already on latest. Had me click on check for updates multiple times even though there wasn't one, made me feel like this rep was clueless. Tried disabling some of the extra options or enabling, like beamforming etc. He then said to wait 8 hours and see if the issue happens. I told him the issue may happen within a few minutes or hours, and he said I have to wait 8 hours for the router to stabilize. Honestly, this sounds like a load of **** and that's not how something like this works.
3. Called in again. This rep had me change transmit power, hard reset the router (not satellite) and then wait again. Rep assured me this would fix the issue and it wouldn't happen again. Was not the case, issue came up again within a few hours.
Case # 29394455
To Netgear: I really want to use your product, but you're putting me in a situation where I have no choice but to return this. You should really invest in a better support team.
