Orbi AP Mode Reboots when Router Reboots

[davidgarratt]

I have my Orbi Router in AP mode with 2 Satellites hard wired back to the Orbi main unit. Now the Main Orbi is connected to one of my Non Nethgear routers ethernet points.

Everything works fine and I would estimate that it actually seems to work better than when the Orbi was acting as a router.

However - if I need to apply a change to my router which needs a reboot I notice that all my Orbi's go offline with the purple and then blue lights for a few minutes when this happens.

My question is this.

If the base Orbi detecting that the ethernet cable connection to the router is offline or is it able to detect that the internet is not available.

I would rather not have the whole house LAN go down due to wifi rebooting when I reboot the router.

What I was wondering if anyone could advise me on is this.

If I put a small ethernet switch between my NON Orbi router and my Orbi main AP unit so that the Orbi will always have a valid ethernet powered connection even when the router is rebooting - will this prevent the Orbi from going into one of its colour changing moods when I reboot my router ?

[plemans]

Well, the primary router is handling all nat/dhcp so its not that the orbi reboots, its that nothing is managing those so things when the primary router reboots so the connected devices will disconnect. 

[davidgarratt]

The Orbi does reset/reboot however. The status light shows this happening and the network SSID disappears for a few minutes until they reboot. This breaks the LAN connection and I don't see why it should happen.

[plemans]

do you have it wired primary router---->wan port on Orbi router----lan ports----->satellites? 

Or how do you have it wired? 

[davidgarratt]

The primary Orbi is wired directly to my router and my satellite Orbi's are wired back to the primary Orbi.

Thanks

Dave

[plemans]

I get that but draw a diagram.

Reason why is I've frequently seen where people have the orbi connected to the primary router either via the lan port or connected via wan port but then nothing connected to the orbi's lan. And them just using a switch or directly to the primary's lan to "be connected to the orbi". 

So its key in exactly how its wired together

[davidgarratt]

[plemans]

have you noticed if the devices connected to the orbi router drop? Or just the satellites? 

[davidgarratt]

The base (main) orbi seems to reboot (assuming that's what the flashing status light means) shortly followed by both satellites which causes all devices connected to the network to loose connection until the Orbi network has re-initialised itself.

I suspect you can replicate this by simply pulling out the wan ethernet connection from any Orbi Main unit.

Dave

[plemans]

I'm not 100% sure its rebooting. The lights blinking can mean other things. And loosing connection to the internet/dhcp sever can cause it. 

What do the LEDs on my Orbi router and satellite mean? | Answer | NETGEAR Support

[davidgarratt]

I am wondering if the addition of a switch as shown here would fix the issue as it would remain stable and powered when the router reboots. It rather depends on what the Orbi main unit is checking.

[plemans]

I tested mine to see what happens with my RBK752 running in ap mode. 

When I power the router off, it doesn't reboot. So not sure why yours is going through a reboot process.

You can try sticking a switch there if you have one sitting around just to test it out. 

[davidgarratt]

I appreciate there are lot of netgear fans on this forum (probably some who are not fans too).

I have to admit that when I forked out an insane amount of money for my Orbi I did imagine that it would have a whole bag of features which would match my previous Draytek 2963 and access points. My motivation for changing was the smooth roaming that a Mesh system offered.

Well - I can't fault the wifi - it is super fast and has a good range - but the router functionality just seems very basic compared to what I had.

So - to cut a long story short - I'm going back to my old kit because I work from home in an IT support role and just need those extra features.

I live in the UK and if anyone might be interested in re-homing my kit which is just over 1 month old then let me know.

Dave

[Straq]

Hello David,

Since router is in AP mode, as soon as the main bridge detects it has no IP, there is no possible way to give any IPs to all wireless and wired clients. In this case the Satellites are acting as wired clients, and the satellites have a feature where as soon as it detects it is not able to reach the gateway it will stop broadcasting the SSID. In this case the gateway is your router which is being rebooted. Satellites is going to keep trying wireless and wired to see if it is able to reach the gateway. In the case of the router, since it is in AP Mode it will stop broadcasting the SSID as soon as the gateway is not detected as well. 

Please remember anything working in AP Mode will not work if there is no router behind it.

You can switch to router mode instead of AP mode. This should solve you issue with LAN going down across your house. If you are worried about the IP address being the same, RBKE960 should be going to 10.0.0.1 if 192.168.1.1 is being used by your router already. 

Putting a switch in between will not help. 

Best,

Straq