Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
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Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

MeshedUp
Tutor

RBRE960 reboots itself daily

New RBKE963 system in service a couple of months.  Recently, the RBRE960 router began rebooting on its own daily at about the same time of day. The reboots do not occur at precisely the same time, but within a window of roughly about an hour plus or minus.

 

I can find no issue with the RBRE960, cable modem, or ISP that would cause reboots. Further, no hacking attempts show up in the logs.

 

Running firmware version 6.0.3.85.

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

Message 1 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6 or CAT6A STP is recommended.

 

What time does the RBR reboot? 

Does the front LED on the RBR turn on RED when this happens?

 

Do you have IoT and Separate 6Ghz SSID enabled? 

What devices do you have connected?

 

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and 📡 satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS📡 to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite 📡

 

What channels are you using? Auto? Try Auto and 48 on 5Ghz. Or try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 to 48 channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

Message 2 of 14
PeterHo
Aspirant

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

Mine was doing this very same thing, reinstalled the current firmware which seems to have sorted it.

Message 3 of 14
MeshedUp
Tutor

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

Thanks for your reply, FURRYe38,

 

Modem:  Hitron EN2251 provided by Spectrum   connected to Orbi with the Ethernet cable that came with the Orbi

 

In looking further back at logs, the Orbi has rebooted 12 times since first observed on August 25. Orbi front LED flashing white. Have never seen red.

In looking further back in logs, reboot times vary widely. Reboots seem to have occurred roughly every other day, with some variance. On only one day did the Orbi reboot twice; otherwise only once in a given 24 hour period.

 

Orbi configured with three separate bands as follows: IoT on 2.4G, computers and smart devices on 5G, and 6G for future smart devices.

2.4G is on channel 6; 5G on channel 40; 6G on channel 69. These channels were selected based on spectrum analysis of neighbors' Wi-Fi channel usage.

 

About 31 devices attached and active at any given time.

 

Home is about 2,500 SF and the remotes are approximately 30' from the base.  However, the issue is that only the base reboots.

 

 

Message 4 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily


@MeshedUp wrote:

Thanks for your reply, FURRYe38,

 

Modem:  Hitron EN2251 provided by Spectrum   connected to Orbi with the Ethernet cable that came with the Orbi

I would replace this cable with a CAT6A STP lan cable. 

 

In looking further back at logs, the Orbi has rebooted 12 times since first observed on August 25. Orbi front LED flashing white. Have never seen red.

In looking further back in logs, reboot times vary widely. Reboots seem to have occurred roughly every other day, with some variance. On only one day did the Orbi reboot twice; otherwise only once in a given 24 hour period.

 

Orbi configured with three separate bands as follows: IoT on 2.4G, computers and smart devices on 5G, and 6G for future smart devices.

2.4G is on channel 6; 5G on channel 40; 6G on channel 69. These channels were selected based on spectrum analysis of neighbors' Wi-Fi channel usage.

Can you turn OFF the IoT and the separate 6Ghz radio on the RBR?

 

About 31 devices attached and active at any given time.

 

Home is about 2,500 SF and the remotes are approximately 30' from the base.  However, the issue is that only the base reboots.

Please turn off one RBS for now, leaving the other RBS on. 

For that size of home, having two RBS deployed is too much:

https://youtu.be/UR0viMLISz4

 

 


 

Message 5 of 14
MeshedUp
Tutor

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

Thanks, PeterHo,

 

I'll give that a try.

Message 6 of 14
TC_in_Montana
Virtuoso

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

@MeshedUp 

 

The Hitron EN2251 is a Puma chipset based modem.   Anything Puma based is notoriously problematic.

 

I see that this is a voice support modem as well -   are you getting voice (telephone) service through this device as well as internet?  If so, the next time you see the Orbi drop - pick up the handset on your telephone and see if you have a dial tone.

 

I had a Hitron based modem from Spectrum - and had similar dropouts - always with a loss of telephone service at the same time.  While lights on the modem never changed - all services provided by it were lost including both internet and voice.   Spectrum always reported no issues.

 

If you see this consistently happening, you may want to swap out with a different modem - preferably a different manufacturer.   I changed from a Hitron (Ubit made) to a Hitron (Technicolor made) and have not had a single outage since (and that was in January or February).

 

You may also want to monitor the Connection Statistics page  (http://192.168.1.1/RST_statistics.htm)   and monitor uptime on the system and uptime on the WAN interface.   This will tell whether the router is truly rebooting  (System Up-time)  or if the WAN Connection (Up-Time on the WAN) is dropping.

 

 

 

 

Message 7 of 14
MeshedUp
Tutor

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

Thanks for the suggestions, @TC_in_Montana,

 

The older Orbi that was replaced with the RBRE960 never had auto-reboot issues, but I agree that there are likely better modems out there. If (when) the Orbi goes down again, I'll check the phone as you suggest. I believe the Orbi is actually rebooting itself because both wireless and wired connections drop, and the front LED flashes as the device boots back up.

 

Netgear support recommended re-flashing the Orbi firmware and turning off Armor security, which I have done. Now waiting to see what happens next.

Message 8 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

I would replace this cable with a CAT6A STP lan cable. 

 

Orbi configured with three separate bands as follows: IoT on 2.4G, computers and smart devices on 5G, and 6G for future smart devices.

2.4G is on channel 6; 5G on channel 40; 6G on channel 69. These channels were selected based on spectrum analysis of neighbors' Wi-Fi channel usage.

Can you turn OFF the IoT and the separate 6Ghz radio on the RBR?

 

About 31 devices attached and active at any given time.

 

Home is about 2,500 SF and the remotes are approximately 30' from the base.  However, the issue is that only the base reboots.

Please turn off one RBS for now, leaving the other RBS on. 

For that size of home, having two RBS deployed is too much:

https://youtu.be/UR0viMLISz4

Message 9 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

@MeshedUp 

Any updates on this? 

Message 10 of 14
MeshedUp
Tutor

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

@FURRYe38

 

Netgear support advised refreshing firmware, moving the power source from UPS to a regular outlet, and turning off Armor, all of which was done but with no affect on the rebooting issue.  Support then advised resetting the modem and restoring it manually, rather than via a backup.  Before I undertook that laborious task, I turned Armor back on (why pay for a service and not be able to use it?) and at about the same time the modem ceased its frequent reboots.  It's been about three weeks now without an issue.  Unfortunately, I have no idea what caused the reboots to begin or to stop.

Message 11 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

Wonder if the RBR or Armor got into some bad state. 

 

Be sure to save off a back up configuration to file for safe keeping. Saves time if a reset is needed.
https://kb.netgear.com/000062080/How-do-I-back-up-the-configuration-settings-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-System
Enjoy. 📡

Message 12 of 14
MeshedUp
Tutor

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

@FURRYe38 

 

Right. Always keep recent backups. I was a bit surprised that Netgear support advised against restoring from backup after resetting the router.  The reason given was that "any incorrect settings that may have caused the rebooting issue would be restored."  Of course the same result could occur from manually restoring those same settings, but with many more hours of effort.

Message 13 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBRE960 reboots itself daily

Yes, so here's the deal for back ups. Backups are good. Have a backup saved for each version level of FW your on. Were seeing bad behavior with cross version backups from older versions of FW being loaded on newer versions of FW. Seen with with other router mfrs as well. As FW gets developed and changes are made, this may lead to some incompatible saved backup data that was saved on older versions of FW. So why we say if problems are seen after a FW update and normal troubleshooting suggestions don't work, a factory reset and setup from scratch is last resort. Usually fixes the problems seen if users FW update and continue or have loaded a backup from a older version of FW. After a fresh reset and setup from scratch, save off a NEW backup on this new version of FW. If users don't see any problems after a FW update, It's recommended to save off another NEW backup to file on this new version of FW. Keep the backups at same level of FW version and you'll be ok if and when you need to reset and restore from backup. 

 

Message 14 of 14
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