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Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

sherveyjeff
Apprentice

The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Ok for as long as I had my ORBI's (RBK53 - 1 Router 2 sats)  (3- years+ now) and as long as I had Samsung Galaxy cell phones (S6, S7, S8, Note9) the Samsung Galaxy cell phones will randomly get the WIFI authentication error after a number of hours or days at home on the ORBI wifi network.  Assuming because as you are moving around the house and moving between ORBI Router and ORBI Satelities.   This is just a fact of life.  I tried various tweaks along the years and none of them work.   (30+ years in IT).  The fix is to turn off wifi on the cell phone and reenable (Takes about 5-8 secs).   But there are issues when the phones wifi is having authentication errors - you miss notifications to your phone from apps.... as the WIFI is stuck.  Internet is unusable until you turn off/on WIFI.

3 of the peoiple in my house have Apple phones and dont have this issue.   It is only the Samsung Galaxy Phones  (currently S8 Active and Note 9) all with whatever latest OS and patches that ATT pushes to us.  (Android 9 with patches every couple of months).

Does anyone have a definitive answer to this problem?    Please dont answer with did you try this, did you try that... latest firmware.  This is a long standing problem with Samsung Galaxy phones and there are probably 1000's of postings on this issue.  

By now "years" this must have been brought to Netgear and Samsung support organization for a collabroative fix?   If so what is it?

I really dont want to move off of Android to an Apple cell phone to fix this issue.

I am looking for the reponse that says "yes this is a known issue and here is what Netgear/Samsung recommends" or a simple answer that says "yup known issue cant be fixed".

 

Jeff S.

P.S. ORBI believer - I've helped to install 3 or 4 ORBI networks at friends houses.  COSTCO usually ha

Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 1 of 26
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

I have had my Galaxy Tab S2 v7.0 and Samsung S8 latest OS and have not seen this with my two Orbi systems. Sounds like this is a Samsung issue that you should post about in there forums for make contact with Samsung support. It's up to Samsung and there support to ensure there devices work on various wifi systems. 

Message 2 of 26
Mstrbig
Master

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

I have owned every Samsung Galaxy phone since the very first one. I also have customers with Orbi setups who use Samsung Galaxy phones. Currently we have 3 S10+ and 1 S20. I have never experienced this problem on the Orbi or any other WIFI network. Your years in IT should tell you this is related to settings or some app on the device.

This might also happen if you use a fixed IP address on the device, causing an IP conflict or you possible have a weak WIFI signal at the time of the disconnect.

Check to see if your phone is set to DHCP. Auto connect  should kick in as soon as you have a decent WIFI signal.

The tons of posts about this problem, does not mean it is an Orbi problem, as Orbi's WIFI system does not care what device connects to it as long as it is compatible and has the proper credentials.

Message 3 of 26
sherveyjeff
Apprentice

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

If tons of other people are having similiar issues then one would think Netgear might investigate the issue...to keep current customers happy and to fix problems that future customers may have.  I tried all the settings with ORBI including DHCP and static IPs and I worked with Samsung support in the past.  Samsung sells 296 million phones per year for 2019 - they could care less if it has issues with one vendors router.

Jeff S.

Message 4 of 26
sherveyjeff
Apprentice

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Also if your Samsung Galaxy S* cellphones do not have authentication issues with your RBS50/RBR50s.   What carrier do you use - I use ATT.  Please share sceen shots of your most common router settings.   Are you using any of these settings:   (I lose too much speed using these except Fast Roaming which isnt a speed setting)

 

- Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices
- Enable MU-MIMO
- Enable Fast Roaming
Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 5 of 26
Mstrbig
Master

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI


@sherveyjeff wrote:

Also if your Samsung Galaxy S* cellphones do not have authentication issues with your RBS50/RBR50s.   What carrier do you use - I use ATT.  Please share sceen shots of your most common router settings.   Are you using any of these settings:   (I lose too much speed using these except Fast Roaming which isnt a speed setting)

 

- Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices
- Enable MU-MIMO
- Enable Fast Roaming

If you Google your problem, tons of people are having the same issues with all devices, not just Netgear. I read it could be an Android problem, phone make/model problem, phone setting problem and more. There are several fixes talked about. But since I've never had any issues with any of my Android devices, I do not know if the fixes work. The most common one is the workaround "Forget Network" re-search and rejoin.

 

2 of my phones are on ATT, the rest on T-Mobile <- Both GSM carriers.

 

I get the better speeds with the following settings:

Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices <- This improves WIFI speeds

Enable MU-MIMO <- This improves network traffic handling

Disable Fast Roaming <- I don't like my devices jumping around just because a Sat WIFI signal gets stronger for a few seconds

Enable WMM <- Improves speed by optimizing shared network resource allocations

Disable 20/40 MHz Coexistence <- This helps your devices connect at the maximum supported wireless speed

Daisy Chaining depends on how you have your satellites setup. Mine are wired so it's disabled.

Message 6 of 26
LeoNardsLou
Initiate

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Hey everyone, Jeff is right here. While this may not be an issue solely for orbi, there are problems. After 2 months going from an S8 plus to the S20, I get freezes at least every couple days. Never had that with the S8. You don't know until you turn off wifi and then turn it back on. It locks the pipe from both wifi and cellular bc as soon as you turn off wifi all you notifications come through from cellular.

Anyway, it's be great for someone to explain what's happening.
Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 7 of 26
Mstrbig
Master

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI


@LeoNardsLou wrote:
Hey everyone, Jeff is right here. While this may not be an issue solely for orbi, there are problems. After 2 months going from an S8 plus to the S20, I get freezes at least every couple days. Never had that with the S8. You don't know until you turn off wifi and then turn it back on. It locks the pipe from both wifi and cellular bc as soon as you turn off wifi all you notifications come through from cellular.

Anyway, it's be great for someone to explain what's happening.

I have an S20 Ultra and don't have any issues with my phone.

So I'm thinking maybe you have some sort of app installed or a setting that is causing this issue.

If you call Samsung, they will tell you to factory reset the phone and reconfigure. This is the only way to tell if an added app is the issue.

I have also see similar issues with provisioning errors and bad sim card. So try re-provisioning the phone, and if possible get a new sim card. You can sometimes get them for free if you go into a store, depending on the carrier.

Message 8 of 26
sherveyjeff
Apprentice

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Both my sons phone Galaxy Note 10 and my Galaxy S8 Active both have these issues.   We use different types of common apps - nothing crazy.   Its a pain to reset phones and reload/restore and there are some apps that ATT has baked/locked into the phones that you cant remove.  Two other people in my house have have iphones - no issues.   

I havent tried some of these settings that I wanted to try:

Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices <- This improves WIFI speeds

Enable MU-MIMO <- This improves network traffic handling

Disable Fast Roaming <- I don't like my devices jumping around just because a Sat WIFI signal gets stronger for a few seconds

Enable WMM <- Improves speed by optimizing shared network resource allocations

 

Have you noticed lately that it is hard to get "network down-time" in your house?  To reset router or try new settings.

Everything is a stream.... and cameras, cell phones, laptops, game console are always going 24x7.

Gees it's as hard to get an outage at home as it is at work to get an outage.   (Connected world...)

 

Jeff S.

 

 

 

Message 9 of 26
Mstrbig
Master

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI


@sherveyjeff wrote:

Both my sons phone Galaxy Note 10 and my Galaxy S8 Active both have these issues.   We use different types of common apps - nothing crazy.   Its a pain to reset phones and reload/restore and there are some apps that ATT has baked/locked into the phones that you cant remove.  Two other people in my house have have iphones - no issues.   

I havent tried some of these settings that I wanted to try:

Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING - Boosts WiFi speed, reliability, & range for all mobile devices <- This improves WIFI speeds

Enable MU-MIMO <- This improves network traffic handling

Disable Fast Roaming <- I don't like my devices jumping around just because a Sat WIFI signal gets stronger for a few seconds

Enable WMM <- Improves speed by optimizing shared network resource allocations 


I can guarantee this is not an Orbi issue. Orbi or any other mesh system, for that matter, does not pick and choose what device is allowed on the WIFI network. If the device is compatible with the standard WIFI, it will be able to login. 

If one device can get on the WIFI network, and/or get on the internet, and another device cannot, it is usually the fault of the device.

It's funny we are seeing problems with Galaxy phones. It's usually the iPhones that have serious connection problems, because of some recent firmware issues. I tried to duplicate it with a few of my Galaxy S9, 10, 20 notes and phones. I don't see an issue on any of them. I checked a few settings that might cause problems: we do not use WIFI calling, Data roaming is on, Network mode is LTE/3G/2G auto connect, WIFI and Bluetooth are always on, mobile hot spot is off unless needed, we are linked to Windows, no power modes used as all phones are set for maximum performance. The last item if set, may cause issues because of sleep functions and auto turn off of certain apps. 

Message 10 of 26
sherveyjeff
Apprentice

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Agreed - I think it is also a Samsung Galaxy issue.   I just wish I knew why some poeple have this issue and others don't.  I have 50+ devices on my home network - no other devices have issues.

We push/pull several TB of data per month - last I looked a few years ago with Spectrum internet.

Everything nowadays is a stream...

Jeff S.

 

 

Message 11 of 26
GHodi
Initiate

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

I have Samsung Galaxy S10+ with this same issue. It costs me overages on Verizon because I don't know it stopped connecting to my network.
Message 12 of 26
Mjsmith3
Tutor

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

I have this issue with my S10 as well. Other than that the Orbi works great. Frustrating. And I agree that I'm tired of hearing the factory reset advice
Message 13 of 26
Mstrbig
Master

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error is not an Orbi issue but a known Galaxy S series issue. The fix is usually remedied by following some of these Samsung suggestions:

Restart the phone

Forget phone  wifi

Reset phone network settings

Toggle phone Airplane Mode on and off

Wipe phone cache partition

Install phone updates

Check for bad phone apps

If all else fails Factory reset phone. 

You can find instructions on how to perform these tasks by searching the net.

Message 14 of 26
sherveyjeff
Apprentice

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Check for bad phone apps   (Huh?   Checkforbadapps.com ?  Should I go there?  

 

If all else fails Factory reset phone.   (My phone has coporate outlook profiles with remote admin, DUO corporate profiles for VPN, OKLA profiles for daily VPN connects to work, used for all 2FA to everything)  Factory reset?   Its easier and less downtime to go out and buy an iPhone.

Model: RBK53|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System
Message 15 of 26
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/The-dreaded-Samsung-Galaxy-WIFI-authentication-error-with-ORBI...


@sherveyjeff wrote:

Check for bad phone apps   (Huh?   Checkforbadapps.com ?  Should I go there?  

 

If all else fails Factory reset phone.   (My phone has coporate outlook profiles with remote admin, DUO corporate profiles for VPN, OKLA profiles for daily VPN connects to work, used for all 2FA to everything)  Factory reset?   Its easier and less downtime to go out and buy an iPhone.


 

Message 16 of 26
Mstrbig
Master

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI


@sherveyjeff wrote:

Check for bad phone apps   (Huh?   Checkforbadapps.com ?  Should I go there?  

 

If all else fails Factory reset phone.   (My phone has coporate outlook profiles with remote admin, DUO corporate profiles for VPN, OKLA profiles for daily VPN connects to work, used for all 2FA to everything)  Factory reset?   Its easier and less downtime to go out and buy an iPhone.


@sherveyjeff  There are several apps that can change phone settings, when certain permissions are needed. If a phone has one installed, they can cause the phone to malfunction in certain ways. And your phone is not special and your setup is no different than the setup on my phone. 

I posted Samsung's suggestions, as it is a "SAMSUNG" issue. You can be stubborn and live with the issue or try some of "THEIR" suggestions. Or as you said "go out and buy an iPhone". You don't have to reset your phone, if you don't feel the need. Just make sure you blame the right people.

Message 17 of 26
not4u13
Guide

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

I had this issue a couple of years ago after a Security Patch. A few months and a few updates later and it worked again. Galaxy S10.
I recently upgraded to S20 and it worked great until a few days ago, after another Security patch.
Phone disconnects from WiFi multiple times a day. Sometimes it reconnects immediately. Sometimes it's just an authentication error.
I only have this problem on my Orbi WiFi and only with my Galaxy S phones. I also carry an iPhone with no issues. I also connect to other WiFi networks with my S20. Also no issues.
There is some sort of compatibility issue.
The last time I had this problem I fixed it by connecting to guest network.
Message 18 of 26
sherveyjeff
Apprentice

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Thanks - I tried that also... have 2 SIDs.   Normal network and guest network.   I dont remember if it worked any better for me.

What I have found that helped to reduce the pain is:  install "Wifi Automatic" by j4elin from the Google Play store.

In the App settings I used: 

Turn Wifi on...

    - When the device is unlocked

Turn Wifi off when...

    - Screen is off (for at least 10 mins)

 

Also in you phone Wifi settings... the 3 dots - where you can go into your wifi advanced settings:

"Switch to mobile data" - On

"Turn on WI-Fi automatically" - On

 

It takes away some of the stuck "needs authentication" Wifi issues... where you get no data flowing to your phone until you reset your wifi 

 

Jeff S.

Message 19 of 26
hmmwv79
Aspirant

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Still no clear solution....

Message 20 of 26
Senpai_Ruku
Aspirant

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

I have the same issue on my Galaxy A71, and I am using an Ubiquiti Unifi network, consisting of a UDM and a UAP IW-HD.

I find turning off and, on the Wi-Fi, usually fixes this. It's nothing to do with DHCP leases or the network configuration as when this issue occurs I can easily connect to another WLAN I have set up with identical radio and authentication settings to my main home network, it's just on a different VLAN.

Message 21 of 26
sherveyjeff
Apprentice

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Try this bandaid...  I dont notice the pain anymore of my cellphone with stuck "needs authentication" wifi

 

What I have found that helped to reduce the pain is:  install "Wifi Automatic" by j4elin from the Google Play store.

In the App settings I used: 

Turn Wifi on...

    - When the device is unlocked

Turn Wifi off when...

    - Screen is off (for at least 10 mins)

 

Also in you phone Wifi settings... the 3 dots - where you can go into your wifi advanced settings:

"Switch to mobile data" - On

"Turn on WI-Fi automatically" - On

 

It takes away some of the stuck "needs authentication" Wifi issues... where you get no data flowing to your phone until you reset your wifi 

Message 22 of 26

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

I've been running into this for a while - can't remember when it started. What's odd, like so many others, is that it's just one device - my Samsung Note10; my wife's Samsung S10 has been fine.

 

After resetting my phone and my router (to factory defaults) and no change, I really set out to verify that my existing network was really gone / reset. This took a bit longer than I would have expected and through some states that I'm not able to recreate, particularly, at one point it was auto-reconnecting to my router with a message that said "Connected via Orbi" instead of just "Connected".

 

Anyway, part of the key to getting where I am now was turning off "Auto-Reconnect" before trying to remove the network. Then a bunch of delete, add, turn off auto-reconnect, turn off wi-fi, turn back on wi-fi, delete connection, restart phone...maybe 2 or 3 (or 5) times in a row. For good measure, I removed the Orbi app after the 1st or 2nd restart of my phone, then re-installed after the 3rd or 4th restart.

 

There were at least 2 or 3 times where I had "deleted" my connection, only for the phone to find and automatically connect to my network on resetart. I'm really not sure where this was coming from, but when this happened, I definitely was seeing "Connected via Orbi" for the connection.

 

My phone's now showing just "connected" (no "via Orbi") with a 650 Mbps network speed and no authentication errors that I've noticed since this afternoon, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there was some sort of weird interaction between Samsung and the Orbi software that's now been broken (for better or worse? At least no authentication errors, so at least that part's better.)

 

I'll update if the problem comes back, but I'm feeling good that my previous attempts to "reset wifi" weren't successful at really getting me to a fresh restart, hence why following that advice (forget, then reconnect) didn't seem to fix my problem more than temporarily.

Message 23 of 26

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Update - day two: Still working.

 

I'm starting to believe that there are several things that are happening and there's a certain amount of "bad luck" that has to happen when you add your Wi-Fi network to your phone. If you happen to get a "bad" connection during setup, it will give you the intermittent "authentication" problem until you forget the connection. However, you have a certain percentage chance of getting this "bad" connection setup each time you try, so just like flipping a coin, where you can get 10 heads in a row, you can get another bad connection after forgetting / re-adding, so the key is to keep removing / re-adding the network until the problem goes away. It's fairly likely that forgetting and re-adding once or twice or three times won't be enough.

 

The main take away is, "If first you don't succeed, try, try, (try, try, try, try...) again."

 

I just wish it was more definite than that, and I wish I had some understanding of what can be done to have a better chance of getting a "good" connection from the start. I wish there was a good way of getting Samsung to put in the work to identify and fix the problem. I wish...I had million dollars. 🙂

 

I've seen a similar issue with file transfers using encryption where there was a mismatch in the implementation of the algorithm negotiated for security. In this case, IF a particular algorithm picked and AND the data just happened to have a certain special character then negotiation failed, and, therefore, the authentication failed, but if the data in the negotiation didn't have the special character then it worked. However, in that case, this was happening on a server where I had verbose debugging information and could see all the details. Unfortunately, the issue was deep in some 3rd party drivers that I had no control over, but, fortunately, the remote vendor changed protocols and the new algorithms in the new protocol were much more reliable.

 

Working backwards from what I'm seeing, it's almost as if Samsung caches which algorithm was successful in negotiation at the time of setup (maybe to save time on subsequent connections? Maybe it only advertises that one "good" algorithm as compatible?) and unfortunately picks one that's not reliably successful but just happens to work on that first try. What doesn't feel right to me is why that wouldn't be renegotiated fully each time or how it would ever settle on a better algorithm. Without logging tools to see exactly where and why the "authentication" is failing, as well as what algorithm was used, it's going to hard to collect any useful evidence to present to Samsung. Anyone know of an easy, non-root, way to add this level of debugging to the Android wi-fi connection?

 

Regardless, don't settle on "I tried the forget / re-add on my phone and it didn't fix the problem." because it might take many times to get it right - at least, that's how it's looking for me. Again, I'll update in a few more days, just to see if the "fix" sticks.

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 24 of 26
alchemista
Tutor

Re: The dreaded Samsung Galaxy WIFI authentication error with ORBI

Is there a way to get more detailed logs out of Orbi than what is in the web UI administration area?

When the device actually connects, the log will show that an IP assignment was made via DHCP. However, there is nothing in the log showing the detail of a device attempting to join.

 

I have these same problems of "couldn't authenticate connection". If we could see detailed protocol logs we could probably figure out what is actually going on here.

Message 25 of 26
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