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I'm new to RBE970/971 but old to all this netz stuff
I'm new to RBE970/971 but old to all this netz stuff. I have router, with 6 sats. Home is massive with cabling ranging from CAT5e from 20 years ago to recently pulled CAT7. All installed "a la Carrier" practices; all circuits validated with certed gear to 1Gbps - I won't spend what Fluke asks for 10G validation gear. I like "star topo's" for the sake of performance, delay, and convergence reasons. Had and NG multi-gig Layer 2 switch off 970 LAN port then home runs to every satellite. First 4 nodes installed easily and as expected - wired connectivity immediately (I repeat, IMMEDIATELY) recognized. Ran like this for couple of days. Upon adding the 5th satellite, everything went south. Satellites started interconnecting with Wireless rather than Wired. Satellite were declared: 'Disconnected' for hours and days before you would see: "Config Sync" and then more hours or days until you see "GOOD". Cabling never changed. When the system was connected via wireless backhaul, speed test results standing 1-meter from the satellite was poor (i.e., way under 400 Mbps DL/Uploads typically faster). When satellites were on Wired backhaul, speed test results were between 100-200Mbps faster on the DL, didn't look much at UP). The overall impression (as expressed by the end customer - the estate manager for a billionaire and neighbor to Zuckerberg in NYC), said the performance was far worse than the ASUS system I just replaced! Slower and inconsistent. Smart TVs, Google devices, Roku's intermittently disconnect of slow down (hour glass). To address possible challenges to my statements I should say: this is a gigabit serviced home with down/up speeds ranging from 925 to 970 mbps. The entire home is managed using a Domotz system; I've managed this homes technology these past 18 years without as much aggravation as I've seen these past three weeks. I do have other Orbi 4-satellite installs with multi- and 10 gigabit star topologies. NONE of these problems has appeared by the Domotz monitoring or customer complaint. What aggravates me most here is that I knew of the 4-satellite limit several years ago. I called technical sales support twice prior to purchasing this 6-satellite system . They told me that solved that problem and I can have as many sats as I want - being an engineer in this field I never encountered any compute/network device with an unlimited number of address-bits! Fortunately, NG has provided that statement of unlimited satellites in writing! So who knows where this will go. I will need to work with the estate manager to decide what to do, but it is clear that this Orbi will have to go for all the reasons OrbiTechDude has identified as well as several others on this thread and other adjacent threads. To minimize my list of things I've seen, I'll type them here (special thanks to OrbiTechDude as he's listed them before): Recognition and connection to satellites is excessively protracted (hours and days) The phases to satellites being connected appears to go through 'phases'; looks like wireless first, followed by wired - competitors use the wired connection as the first choice or allow you to choose. Band-steering is not adjustable, whereas it is elsewhere. Which bands are used should be decided by device and function. Wireless bandwidth on a property is finite much like a bank account. You have buckets on purpose for each account. when I have lower and higher resolution video streaming devices, I may segment and direct them toward different bands in order to optimize/maximize how the bandwidth is used. Again, competitive products allow further refinement in this area. MLO operation - I wish it could be turned ON/OFF. Not all MLO implementations work well especially if they are relatively new development. I can't say that MLO has contributed to my challenges but I'd sure would have liked to turn it off so I could rule it out. Furthermore, it is unclear whether Apple's implementation of MLO is complementary to NG's implementation. Having worked with ITU & IETF standards, it has happened that two developers have interpreted the standard differently and their gear did not work well together at all. It seems from the tech support suggestions that NG wanted all my backhauls to be wireless or directly connected to the router - not possible given distance between satellites is far and the router hasn't sufficient LAN side ports. Said differently, NG seems to have difficulty with legacy L2 switches interposed between satellites and router. They have said as much. I am only guessing here, but when they resolved the four-satellite max problem, did they redesign the overall schema to support their interior mesh network and break at the fundamental of Layer 2 and Layer 3? Was there a problem in which they might have leveraged an interior VPN along with multiple levels of encapsulation? "Good put" for wireless client devices seem to drop off with distance faster than other (ASUS) products. At 1-meter distance test distance to WAP, we see .ca 450-600 mbps. One sheetrock wall and 12 feet away drops to 325-450 mbps, 20 feet away with one sheet rock wall, to 225 - 300 mbps. When you couple this with the reduced speed while using wireless backhaul, it makes you wonder whether this is reasonable. I do all I can to make as much wireless capacity available for wireless clients - things that do not move in the home/business get wired leaving the wireless only to phones, tablets and laptops. Turning off 20/40 MHz has noticeably increased user perceived speed. This property is very far from neighbors, and the radio spectrum is clean. Interference from other system and devices allows me to turn this option OFF - normally defaulted to ON. New iPad Pro devices showed better response. During this interim period awaiting a "fix", NG tech support advised an elaborate and long list of steps to add each satellite. carrying each satellite close to router, plugging in with wire to router, then breaking wire, then re-link satellite to router via button pushes, once connected, powering down, powering up, then reconnecting wire. Wait for hard wired backhaul to normalize. Then power down and walk to final location for that satellite. Do that 6 times twice! Results some satellites attached, and others did not. Finally, I detached the wired backhaul, it was claimed as disconnected by the router, so I removed the satellite from the router. Then factory reset the satellite. With it in place (final WIRED location), I added the satellite. Eventually it joined the network. But then interruption of fiber terminal gear or rebooting router, through all the satellites out again. Inaccurate state information - devices that I know via Domotz monitoring to be online, are presented as offline by the Orbi app and web platforms. I can telnet to them and ping them. The Orbi UI is simply wrong! Why it shows some devices and not all, is unknown to me. Excessive implementation complexity - I woke this morning at 3AM, all satellites were up as they have been for the last 24 hours. I received a notification at 4:15 from Domotz that internet service stopped on the property. Yet, I could use Orbi App connect to the router! I rebooted this network at 4:15AM. It's now 3:30PM and only 1 satellite is in "Config-Syng" state all other satellited deems disconnected. This illustrates that although the router is connected to the ISP (and reachable), the LAN devices plugged into its ports could be 'cut off' from the operating WAN connection! I've seen this before with Satellites, when the satellite is logically 'disconnected' from thr router, the hardwired devices sitting on the LAN side of the satellite can no longer be seen on the local network. This is why I believe the NG implementation of state, interior VPN, lyer 2/3 switching and/or multi-encapustion is messed up big time. The reasonable design practice would be to have any/all hardwired devices connected to the LAN ports be IMMEDIATELY placed onto the backhaul uplink side; NO FURTHER encapsulation or protocal wrapping is needed - that basic networking. If they had done this on the router and the satellites, all the hardwired devices would have had access to the internet REGARDLESS of the s/w problems in the router; said differently the physical LAN ports should flow immediately to the Firewall and router side of the main router and bypass any interior stuff that is being done for client roaming over the wireless! In the meantime, industry practice SNMP and layer 2 monitoring platforms cannot be used with this Orbi product due to NG interference. I've offered enough with these issues. In this day, we are reminded to fail-fast and repair faster to be successful in technology. You've already lost this customer. Customers vote wtih their perception and their wallet. For NG's sake, lets hope that this customer doesn't tell his billionaire neighbor about this "SxxT show". Meanwhile, NG has clearly not focused on fixing this problem; if OrbiTechDude has been documenting these for 6 months without remedy, how long will it take NG? Even ASUS took over 3 years to get AiMesh right before I would introduce it into my systems. Given the costs for enterprise solutions (Aruba, Cisco, Juniper) were too high for residential, I simply had separate SSID zones for large properties and asked customers to switch the wifi off then on. The android and apple gear know which WAP to attach to. Apologies for this long comment. I couldn't spend much more time to place each comment within each forum subject area - especially when well probably return the system this week. ...marcelBlocked/Not-Blocked Devices
Late last night I found a UI in the app that allowed me to "block" devices from accessing a specific satellite (showed a device list for the specific satellite with a blue background). This sounded like a great thing because an Apple Tv in my basement was connecting to a satellite on the other side of the house rather than a satellite 5 feet away. Fast forward to today, the Apple Tv cannot connect to the internet at all (is connected to wifi). The strange parts are - I cannot find that UI I found last night, the app shows no indicator that the Apple Tv has been blocked from anything (Device Manager shows green), yet the Web Admin shows the device as blocked. Any ideas how to A.) get back to that UI in the app? B.) how to unblock the device? Devices: 970 Firmware: V9.12.5.3_1.3.24Is my satellite dead?
I have an Orbi 970 set - router + 4 satellites (5 devices). I’ve extended warranty and all that. Mine was one of those sets where the router was “overheating” and dropping. And putting a fan on top fixed it. In any case, Netgear replaced the whole thing with a completely new set which fixed that problem. All that played out on these forums. It’s been rock solid since then (almost a year iirc) until 2-3 days back. The network in my master bedroom where a satellite is started showing something I’d not seen in a very long time - WiFi network drops on my iPhone. It got worse really fast as I noticed the satellite would start blinking white as soon as I took the iPhone (16 Pro Max - from Sept 24) out of airplane mode. The satellite is in line of sight from my bed so I can see all this. And then, inexplicably, restarting router + all satellites would do anything to recover this satellite. It’s always blinking white with all device wired to it having no network. So I try swapping it with each of the other satellites. Every place it goes to - it’s the same, Blinking white with no wired connectivity. My desktop wired to the satellite wired to the router would not be able to connect. Removing it from the router config and trying to rediscover it failed. So I was down to 3 satellites. 1-2 hours later, it showed up again in the Orbi app as “connecting” over 5 GHz WiFi with no assigned IP, and no connected devices. The router is permanently “optimizing…” the satellites. Is there anything obvious I should try before starting a support case with Netgear for just the satellite? Off topic: Unfortunately this is not my only problem - Netgear armor which I paid for is constantly asking me to wait 24 hours to update its status. There’s an open online case since March that no one is responding to. It’s some backend thing because a full reset and restore did nothing fix it.The community has waited six months for a firmware update
NETGEAR, the community has waited six months for a firmware update, yet critical issues persist—especially regarding wireless backhaul performance, Apple device compatibility, and overall network stability. The entire Orbi 970 community has voiced similar concerns across multiple forums, citing poor speeds and stability problems. Based on my testing, I suspect wireless backhaul may be an ongoing problem all along but has only been clearly identified now. At a minimum, an official response from NETGEAR would be appreciated. Additionally, despite enrolling in the beta program, I have yet to receive any updates regarding admittance. My urgent questions: 1) Can NETGEAR confirm whether a **firmware fix** is in development? 2) Can I join **beta testing** to assist with troubleshooting? If I receive no response by Monday or Tuesday, I will escalate via a support ticket. My intended actions include: Requesting RMAs for my two add-on satellites to rule out faulty hardware. Installing beta firmware if available to continue in-depth testing. Engaging directly with engineers for structured troubleshooting. The Orbi 970 has potential to be an outstanding system—but only if stability issues are properly addressed. If NETGEAR resolves these problems quickly, the system's premium price will be fully justified. However, until clear progress is made, I strongly advise potential buyers to reconsider. I sincerely appreciate any input from the community and NETGEAR representatives. Instead of looping through the same troubleshooting steps, let's work together to diagnose the firmware directly. I'm an experienced IT professional, and I have exhausted every possible avenue. Stop the runaround—analyze the debug logs, test the firmware with the variables I provide, and let’s resolve this. StephenT ,Straq , netgear Thank you all for your time!
I am assuming there is no scanning function within the RBR(S)970's
I have the exact same issue in regarding wifi stability. Did this get resolved for you? I used to have a Netgear triband Linksys throughout with 4 nodes off the main router. Didn't have an issue with it. That has the ability to scan for the best channels. Realise this is not deemed necessary for 6Ghz but it seems odd that as users we are recommended to 'try' different bands for 2.4 and 5Ghz. I am assuming there is no scanning function within the RBR(S)970'sOrbi 970 VPN IP Assignment
A quick preface: I work from home on a dual IPv4/IPv6 stack with a static IP. Whenever I use the VPN (when away from my home office) it only ever seems to apply the IPv6 IP address - never the IPv4 one, so I'm stuck with the IP of whichever network I'm on. As access to a of my work resources is locked to my router's static IP this isn't an ideal situation. I'm on the latest firmware with the latest OpenVPN client on my Ubuntu Linux machine. Is there a router setting I should look out for?Disconnects for iOS Devices Multiple Times Per Day with Orbi 970
I have EXACTLY this problem. Was fine until sometime around mid-April and now it's a nightmare. Only new Apple devices (iPhone 16/16 Pro and new iPad Air). I can sit with my older iPad next to my iPhone 16 Pro and the iPad is solid as rock while the phone goes in and out. Same with my PC - it's getting almost 1Gb on speedtest while the phone right next to goes in and out - sometimes I have to turn off WIFI, but often it comes and goes with me doing nothing. I also have a ton of IoT devices (most not on the IoT network) that will complain as soon as they lose connection, yet none of them do. Of course, they are in fixed locations and don't roam around the house like my phone. But even when the phone is sitting on my desk not moving around, I have the dropouts. I plan to try this with the SAT turned off to see if the mesh is part or the problem. Also trying the IoT network at 2.4 to see if that is stable and then will try it at 2.5/5 if I get that far. Maybe I'll try the WPA3 thing, but yes, I would likely have to move many devices to the IoT net, and I really don't want to do that. And I agree that I am also way past a basic response. I think Apple broke something early Spring '25 - at least that is when we started seeing all these issues. We've had the phones since winter, and the iPad is new. My older iPads work fine. Although we were out of the house most of the winter, from Jan to Apr I didn't see any issues like this. Arggg!!!! Pointless things I tried: reset iPhone network - who even suggests this nonsense, but I tried it - don't bother turn off Private WiFi address - again, don't bother turn off Limit IP tracking - or just wave your arms in the air - same effect Wifi 6e mode - try all the settings - and then wave your arms more move your satellites to various locations - maybe put one outside somewhere...nope reboot everything - in fact turn the power off to your entire house for 15 minute and restart everything! OK, don't do that either. get a different phone or ipad or hope Apple fixes this - surely other people are having this issue unless it is unique to Apple/Orbi?Orbi BE and IoT Network Check and Observations
Looking for some feedback on the IoT network and operation. Can you connect to the IoT network at the RBR and at each RBS? Does the connected IoT network devices appear on the RBRs web page and Orbi app correctly. Please give model# and firmware that you give feedback on. Thank you for your participation.
