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Last year I purchased the Orbi RBK735S wifi router and the Nighthawk CM1150V modem with Xfinity (Comcast) as my ISP. I have a smart home with Alexa and 40 devices (Kasa switches, Roku TVs, Android phones, iRobot vacuum, ADT security, etc). We have lost power three times and, in every case, I cannot get the wifi to work for several days. I unplug the router and satellites, restart the modem, and restart the router without either satellite. I don't connect the satellites until the router is working and I can connect something to wifi Sometimes, a few devices will reconnect immediately but I have to manually reconnect most devices and it usually takes 2-3 days for my android phones to connect. The problem is a failure to obtain IP addresses. The Roku TVs and phones all show excellent signal strength but are unable to connect due to IP failure. The switches don't show a reason for the connection failure but I assume it's the same IP failure. I have reset and reinstalled the system on two occasions without eliminating this problem and I have a single story home with the modem and router in the center and the two satellites on opposite sides less than 30 feet from the router. I had a minor electrical change yesterday in an adjoining room that required me to throw the breaker that controls the power to wall outlets in two rooms, including the modem and router. When I turned the breaker back on and rebooted the modem and router, none of the devices could be connected and the same IP failure occurred. For such a high priced system, this is unacceptable behavior and I have not been able to determine why it happens or how to prevent it correct it. Netgear was absolutely no help when it was under warranty (same canned instructions with no insight from support people who knew nothing and were apparently unable to do anything other than read their scripts). Can anyone give me insight into this issue?
We have lost power three times and, in every case, I cannot get the wifi to work for several days.
The rest just seems to be background detail.
After a power cut, it is important to restart the network on the correct order.
Be sure to restart your network in this sequence:
Turn off and unplug modem.
Turn off router and computers.
Plug in and turn on modem. Wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
Turn on the router and wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
Turn on computers and rest of network.
You say nothing about the software version on your router. What is it? Please don't say "the latest". That tells us nothing useful. The number is what matters.
If you live in an area where the power is flaky, then it might be a good idea to invest in an uninterruptible power supply "UPS".
The firmware version on the Orbi is 4.6.14.3 and checking for updates indicates this version is current.
As I described in my original post, I restart in the same way you suggest (unplug router, satellites, and modem, wait 5 minutes, restart modem, wait for modem to complete startup, restart router, wait for router to complete startup, then check for device reconnections. In the case of our android phones and multiple Roku Ultimate TVs, the signal strength of the wifi network shows as Excellent but attempts to connect to the network fail because the damn router won't assign an IP address. The assignment method is DHCP rather than static due to the large number of smart switches and other appliances. When the router is restarted, a few of the switches reconnect but the individual switches that reconnect change with each restart of the router. I plan to get a UPS for the modem and router but I still need to determine why this ridiculous failure to assign IP addresses is happening.
p.s. I agree that Static IPs are generally "not the way to go" (for a variety of reasons). However, I have found that having the router "assign" ( or "reserve") IP addresses for specific devices is useful for devices that will remain connected to the network for a significant period of time. (Devices like Roku's, Smart Switches, Vacuums, phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) The LAN Setup page provides a mechanism to enter the hardware MAC address of these devices to that every time they connect, they will get the same IP address.
The most recent software releases for Apple, Android, and Windows devices have a WiFi setting to "randomize" the MAC address when they connect to WiFi. (It's a "security" feature that I find really annoying, so I deliberately turn it off. Every time Apple or Google update software, they happily turn it back on again. What would the user know about what's best for his smartphone?)
I tried resetting the router to factory settings and setting it up as a new network. I recreated the same network name as had previously existed with the same password and all my devices immediately connected. I still have no idea why the restart that occurs when power is cut off and restored causes device connections to fail because of an inability to get an IP address but I'll try to figure that out later. However, I ran into another strange situation. My phone was connected to the new network but the list of wifi networks contained a second entry with same network name with a label stating "Available via Orbi." I figured this was left over from the previous network of the same name so I selected the entry with the intention of forgetting it. The only option when I selected it was Connect and, when I tried that, the connection failed and the label now showed "Available via Orbi. Reset password and try again." Selecting the entry still gave only a Connect option, no password entry screen appeared, and the entry failed. This is now the only entry for my network in the list of available networks so I cannot connect my Android phone to wifi. I don't want to reset and reinstall the router all over again- can you tell me how to connect my phone to the wifi network?
Also be aware of Random Mac feature on Android and Apple devices. When these are enabled, these cause a Uknown or a "DEV" host name to appear in the device list on the Orbi.
If your at home and not traveling, you don't need these enabled while at home.
Thanks for the tip. I had actually checked that because random MAC seemed to be a reasonable possible cause of IP address issues. In my case, that option was already turned off.
Ya not a fan of those featured being on by default unless you do lots of travel and connect to those freebee wifi sources. But at least we have a way to disable that while at home.
