NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Wi-Fi signal disappears, probably due to too many competing devices – or could there be another expl
I am afraid I already know the answer to the following question (and that it cannot be mended), but thought I would check this with someone more knowledgeable than me anyway.
I live in a 96-square-meter, three-room apartment in central Copenhagen. In my home office I have a NetGear Orbi RBR50 Router (connected to a modem on the wall in the same room), and in my living room a RBS50 Satellite.
The total number of devices connected to this set via Wi-Fi consists of the following four: Two internet radio signal streamers, one portable laptop and one iPhone. (My desktop PC is connected by cable.) On most days a maximum of three devices will be switched on simultaneously: One radio streamer, my iPhone, and my desktop PC.
Recently, the signal to the radio streamer has begun disappearing (so that the radio becomes silent) very frequently, for seconds or even minutes – this typically happens six or seven times per hour.
After a while the Satellite ring LED turns on its magenta – and after another 5 or 10 seconds the signal reappears (i.e., the radio starts playing again), and the LED then turns blue.
The Router ring LED remains without light during the whole “event.”
I suspect that the reason for this is that the number of Wi-Fi devices (competing for access to the same limited bandwidth in the immediate vicinity of my apartment) has gone up?
About two or three months ago, the total amount of devices used to be around 23 (according to the “Search Wi-Fi” facility of the “AirPort” app on my iPhone) – but now it suddenly appears to average some 37 devices.
Perhaps I should add that when I open the “Devices connected” at http://www.routerlogin.net/index.htm, the little images of different devices (including the RBS50 Satellite) keep disappearing and re-appearing – at a frequency of about six or seven times per minute.
I realize I could by an extra modem and have it installed in my living room and then connect my internet radio streamer by cable.
But are there any other tricks that I could try out first (in other to stabilize the Wi-Fi connection)?
Thanks in advance for any information and recommendations!
Nikolaj Lunoe
Copenhagen
Denmark
7 Replies
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
What WPA security modes are you using?Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings.
Try disabling the following and see:
Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).
NikolajLunoe wrote:
Recently, the signal to the radio streamer has begun disappearing (so that the radio becomes silent) very frequently, for seconds or even minutes – this typically happens six or seven times per hour.
....
After a while the Satellite ring LED turns on its magenta – and after another 5 or 10 seconds the signal reappears (i.e., the radio starts playing again), and the LED then turns blue.
The Router ring LED remains without light during the whole “event.”
....
Perhaps I should add that when I open the “Devices connected” at http://www.routerlogin.net/index.htm, the little images of different devices (including the RBS50 Satellite) keep disappearing and re-appearing – at a frequency of about six or seven times per minute.
From the description, it appears that the "backhaul" connection between router and satellite is failing and then reconnecting. One solution is to connect the router and satellite with ethernet cable (i.e. "wired" backhaul). Alas, in many situations stringing cables around an apartment is difficult. (Although, if installing another modem is possible, then the modem has to be cabled up as well.)
The WiFi backhaul is in the 5G band, typically on channel
ekhalil has written up an excellent description of the Orbi radio channels: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Understanding-Orbi-Radio-Fronthaul-Backhaul/m-p/1671092
And, there is a long thread about which 5G channels are used for backhaul (especially in Europe!) https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/5Ghz-channels/td-p/1538610
Here are some suggestions:
- Turn off "Daisy Chain". As there is only one Satellite, Daisy Chain is not needed, and (it appears) that turning it on causes the Satellite to broadcast an extra 5G channel.
- Use a WiFi scanner to detect which 5G channels your Orbi is using for backhaul. They will not have an SSID, but they will have the MAC addresses identified in the first thread above. See how many other WiFi Access Points are using the same channels.
- Consider Weather Radar. Six times a minute seems like how frequently a radar antenna would rotate.
If you can run an ethernet cable, that's your best bet.
Dear FURRYe38 and CrimpOn,
Thank you so much for your many suggestions. I have spent some three days testing them, separately and in various combinations (and having my internet radio receiver play for at least an hour after each reset in order to count the number of times per hour it lost connection) – rather a time-consuming procedure, I say – but none of these seems to be able to amend the problem I described.
The only correlation (with the number of times per hour my radio receiver loses connection) of which I am absolutely certain is with the total amount of Wi-Fi appliances currently active in the immediate vicinity of my apartment – according to the “AirPort” app in my old iPhone.
The latter can only register appliances using the 2.4 GHz. The number of these, however, fluctuates quite dramatically, from about 21 to 43. Whenever that total amount is close to the first value, my internet radio receiver appears to be able to still get a stable signal via my Orbi RBR50 Router + single RBS50 Satellite – but above a threshold of some 23 Wi-Fi 2.3 GHz appliances, the connection gets lost most of the time.
According to the “Airport” app on my iPhone the number of devices communicating in the vicinity of my apartment has clearly grown dramatically during the past four or five months – and many of those that appear, disappear, and re-appear on the list seems to be printers and similar office machines located in my neighborhood.
My router and satellite are, by the way, only separated by some 12 meters, with no brick or concrete walls between them – but it would be a bit inconvenient with a cable (which would make it difficult to close the doors to single rooms).
I am indeed an amateur in this area, but I guess the conclusion is that there just is a limit to how many devices that can communicate via Wi-Fi in the same small area – and that, when there are too many, radio-streaming will be worse off than, say, signals from a computer to a printer?
So I guess the short sweet time when I could feed my internet radio receiver with a signal from my Netgear Orbi set is over for good – and that I will have to by an extra modem instead, so that I can feed my internet radio receiver via cable. (Luckily, my apartment has phone jacks in all its three rooms, so modems could fit in in all rooms.)
But thanks for your help – it was much appreciated!
Kind regards, Nikolaj
Probably hitting the connection limit with Orbi. Especially on 2.4ghz. You may need to spread out where the devices get connecte or add another 2.4Ghz AP to help off load some of these devices from the Orbi system. Adding more APs can help however can also cause problems with noise and interferences.
