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I am hopeful that a knowledgeable someone can save me some research time in selecting a new router. I have a few must haves and a few nice to haves: Must Haves: VLAN support with wireless for each VLAN Port level VLAN with at least 3 ports Mesh capabilities that support both wired and wireless back-haul Gigabit or faster Ethernet ports (preferably 5+) Nice Must Haves: Load balancing for multiple WANs Automatic switching to backup WAN if primary fails Port isolation configurable for each VLAN I am using a much older, non-mesh router now, but it does have Fresh Tomato firmware on it that supports port-level VLANs with ability for each VLAN to have its own wireless. This allow me to keep my IoT devices separated from my primary VLAN. It also allows me to keep my guest network separate from both my primary and IoT VLANs. I am hopeful to upgrade to a new mesh router while keeping these abilities. I currently have a primary and backup Internet provider and use a physical switch to toggle when needed. If possible, I would like to have the router either switch automatically for me or load balance.Is an upgrade worth it?
Hi there Background I have a RBR50 in AP mode, connected to 4 x satellites (RBS50) in my 5500 sq feet, 3 storey house. We just about get coverage across the whole house but it doesn't stretch to our garage which is only 3 metres from the house. We also have rubbish internet connection as we live in the sticks (no fibre). Getting download speeds of 44mbps download / 11mbps upload. Question Is it worth me upgrading to the newer models? Dual, Tri or Quad? The 970 series says it will cover 8200 sq feet with just a 3 pack. Or could I try adding a 5th RBR50 satellite? Any advice / lived experience welcome. TIAConnecting a Lutron hub to an Orbi Satellite
Maybe someone has run into this configuration? We have a Lutron (home lighting system) which we will install in a utility building, away from our house. The Lutron Caseta hub (which all the light switches connect to) needs to connect via an ethernet cable to the router (as the system is designed for a house). We have an Orbi 970 mesh system in our house, and plan to extend it to the utility building. The Orbi 970 router sits in our living room in our house, connected to our ATT modem. We will have a satellite in the utility building. That satellite has ethernet ports on the back of it. I am hoping we can install the Caseta hub via ethernet into the ethernet connection on the back of the satellite to give it internet access. In theory this should work great. Has anyone done this before with a Lutron home lighting system?Orbi 970 startup issues with 4 or 5 satellites
We purchased an Orbi 970 with 3 satellite and added 4 all connected through a netgear 10g ethernet switch. We noticed some issues on boot up where they may boot up as wireless, or stuck in config sync or not found, and every once in awhile out of sync We added 5 as wireless and it got really bad where maybe only 1 out of 20 reboot would all come up as good. We have done the reset and resync etc etc. We have also notice the list of connected devices on the remote login or app is not accurate and question even if the boot up state information on the app is accurate or not because a satellite will be blue but it will say not found? Any ideas? Is there a setting or a why we need to change the balance between wired and wireless that would make this boot up every time? Any way to get accurate data in the app and remote login?Netgear Orbi 970 wired backhaul issues
I have a Netgear Orbi 970 series with one router and two satellites. I had my satellites connected using 10g port via CAT 6A to XS508M switch and then to the router to the 10g lan port. The router would reboot randomly to where I had the original router RMA'd, but the current router has the same issues. Netgear support requested that I disconnect the wired backhaul and just use wireless backhaul to test the theory of a broadcast storm on the switch causing the issue. It's been 2 days so far with no issues, but I have seen the router up for 8 days in it's previous configuration so will continue to monitor. If the issue does not reappear using wireless backhaul I was going to clear the mac address table in the switch by disconnecting power for a bit and then connect router, sat 1, and sat 2 one at a time. All gear is on an UPS. Anyone else have issues using unmanaged switch for wired backhaul? Any recommendations?BUG: KERNEL CRASH in 9.13.1.2, Orbi 970
After being up about 28 hours, one of my 970 satellites did a restart. The bug log reports that the reason was a kernel crash. It was at about 1:30 AM local time, so little or no action going on. The 970 is on a UPS. Here was the debug screen, and I included a link to the debug log zip file in my Dropbox, it was too big to attach; the debug log was run for about 3 minutes, this morning. Let me know if you need more info. Debug log: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3cjd4wkcwyv0bq8imqmx5/debuglog.zip?rlkey=himss1gtw5u0qk77wetafwyz3&dl=0 StraqDevice flipping to celllular/disconnecting when on WiFi? Read this for possible solution!
Technical Analysis and Repeatable Evidence of DHCP/Routing Bug in Netgear Orbi 971 (Router Mode) Summary of Issue In environments using the Orbi 971 system in router mode, certain iOS/iPadOS devices (tested: iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPad Pro 2024) sporadically exhibit a failure state in which the device: Remains physically connected to the Orbi Wi‑Fi network (SSID displays as connected), Maintains a strong Wi‑Fi signal with excellent throughput (700–1200 Mbps), Yet silently fails over to the cellular interface (e.g., 5G), with no data traversing the Wi‑Fi path. Others on the Netgear forums over the past months have posted similar failures, using both Apple and Android devices. My analysis and solution may be correct for other non-Apple devices and other Orbi routers. This failure is not associated with actual signal loss and does not trigger any user notification other than the UI-level switch from Wi‑Fi bars to a 5G indicator. It self-recovers after 1–2 minutes. No other devices on my network (macOS, smart TVs, Windows laptops) display similar behavior. Summary of Solution For any device exhibiting drops/flips to cellular when on a good WiFi signal, change IPv4 address to a manual address, outside the router’s DHCP range. Also, change DNS address to a manual entry – it can either be your router (192.168.1.1 usually) or a 3 rd party DNS server of your choice. Finally, you must disable IPv6 on the 970 router – Advanced tab, expand the Advanced section in the sidebar, choose IPv6 and disable. To learn more as to what the problem may be, read on. My Environment Netgear Orbi 971 (Wi-Fi 7), latest stable firmware (9.13.1.2) as of July 2025. Router mode (default DHCP and NAT). IPv6 disabled at the router level. iPhone and iPad running latest iOS/iPadOS 18.5. Orbi system is sole DHCP and DNS provider on LAN. WAN is Comcast/Xfinity (stable, no packet loss during tests, 2100/300 dl/ul plan). Orbi clients tested within 15 feet of router or satellite in clear line-of-sight — eliminating signal strength as a factor. Problem Behavior When in default DHCP configuration (automatic IP and DNS): iOS devices periodically experience a silent failover to cellular (5G). Devices retain visible SSID connection. Internet connectivity is routed over cellular until the issue self-resolves. The issue is sporadic, occurring 1–5 times per week for me (others have seen higher failure rates) under default conditions. Disruptions have been reported on non-iOS devices on the Netgear forums. I wrote and tested an Apple Shortcuts automation that will trigger when the Apple device it is running on does a Wi‑Fi disconnect. It does not fire, confirming that SSID association is intact. Testing Methodology and Key Finding I conducted controlled testing to isolate the failure cause. After numerous incidents in DHCP mode, I applied the following configuration to both iPhone and iPad: Manually assigned IPv4 address within the LAN’s valid range (outside the DHCP pool to avoid collision). Manually assigned IPv4 DNS server set to 192.168.1.1 (Orbi’s own LAN IP). IPv6 explicitly disabled at the router. This configuration has now been running for over 5 consecutive days as of the date of this posting, with no recurrence of the issue. Devices have remained on Wi‑Fi, and no visible or functional failovers to cellular occurred. Why Disabling IPv6 Was Critical On iOS and iPadOS, users cannot manually configure IPv6 addresses or DNS servers via the system interface. As a result, if IPv6 remains enabled on the network: iOS will continue to obtain IPv6 connectivity using SLAAC or DHCPv6 (often via Router Advertisements from the Orbi), Even if IPv4 is statically assigned, IPv6 may still be selected for outbound traffic when iOS considers it preferred (which is often), This reintroduces reliance on the Orbi’s IPv6 DHCP or routing stack, which in prior testing exhibited instability and routing failures, often leading to connectivity loss or fallback to cellular. Thus, disabling IPv6 at the router level is a necessary precondition to ensure the device fully relies on the statically configured IPv4 path — eliminating Orbi-managed DHCP lease/route state from the equation entirely. Theory: Root Cause Analysis I propose the following sequence of events under default DHCP operation: iOS frequently initiates DHCP lease renewal or INFORM messages more aggressively than other OSes (due to roaming, sleep/wake cycles, and Apple’s proactive network health checks). The Orbi 971’s DHCP server intermittently fails to respond promptly (or at all) to these renewal or rebind requests. During this silent DHCP stall, the iOS device: Still has a valid SSID association and a cached IP, But considers the Wi‑Fi interface non-functional due to: Missing or expired lease, Failure to renew default gateway, Unsuccessful DNS resolution, Or failure to receive HTTP 204 from captive.apple.com. iOS silently switches to cellular, even with Wi‑Fi Assist disabled (which I did a long time ago), because it considers the Wi‑Fi path “connected but unusable.” Eventually, the Orbi responds again, routing is restored, and iOS resumes Wi‑Fi traffic — all without disconnecting or notifying the user. Supporting Factors No failure symptoms observed under static IPv4 + DNS configuration with IPv6 disabled. Monitoring showed no WAN outage or SSID drop during incident periods. When using dynamic DHCP/DNS, the issue persists in high signal-strength environments, ruling out RF-related causes. IPv6 had previously been associated with similar instabilities and was disabled early in the test cycle. Recommendations to Netgear Engineering I recommend the following areas be prioritized for investigation: DHCP Server Responsiveness Analyze handling of frequent DHCP RENEW/INFORM messages from Apple devices. Investigate whether ACK or lease confirmations are being dropped or delayed. Internal Lease Table Integrity Confirm whether memory or timing issues affect DHCP state or ARP caching. Routing Table Consistency Validate propagation of default routes across mesh nodes, especially post-roaming or post-sleep. IPv6 Handling (if re-enabled) Evaluate Router Advertisement stability and DHCPv6 consistency. Provide user-accessible controls for IPv6 lease time and DNS relay. Debug Logging Tools Enable deeper client-specific DHCP logging in future firmware versions to support field diagnosis. Conclusion The silent failover of iOS devices to cellular, despite strong Wi‑Fi signal, appears to be rooted in intermittent failures of DHCP IPv4/IPv6 or routing state management by the Orbi 971. Disabling IPv6 and bypassing DHCP/DNS with manual configuration eliminated the issue so far — confirming the failure lies not in radio or ISP connection, but in the Orbi’s handling of dynamic IP and DNS lease logic under typical iOS behavior. I welcome the opportunity to collaborate on further testing or provide supplemental logs to support engineering review.Has the random connection drop outs from early this year been resolved yet?
Not to hijack your post, I swear that I mean well here! Has the random connection drop outs from early this year been resolved yet? I moved to Eero a while back just for stability but may go back and pick up a 970 system again if they’ve been able to resolve these. I had iPhones/ipads/computers etc just stop working on WiFi for a minute or so at a time then sometimes just drop WiFi all together! Wondering if that was a hardware revision that was needed or if it was software!
