Does an ethernet connection prevent daisychaining?

[boxersoft]

I have an Orbi RBR50 router and two RBS50 satellites, all with firmware V2.3.5.30. The Router is at one end of the house, satellite S1 at the other and S2 in an outbuilding, forming an L-shaped arrangement with S1 at the corner, as shown in the attached diagram.

The satellite units can connect to each other nicely over 5GHz with backhaul status Good, but presumably the walls in the house make direct Router to S1 connection difficult because the system configures itself as a daisychain R - S2 - S1, even though R - S2 backhaul is 2.4G Poor. I figured that connecting R - S1 by ethernet cable would be ideal, and that does work (indicates cable connection, status Good) but the system then seems to lose the connection between S1 - S2. It instead reconfigures itself so that the Router talks directly to each Satellite (S2 - R - S1) instead of daisychaining. That means it's using the 2.4G Poor R - S2 connection instead of daisychaining two Good connections.

Why does the system behave this way? Is there a way I can encourge it to use daisychaining from Router to S2 via the two Good connections instead of using the Poor R - S2 connection?

(Hope the description and diagram make sense...)

[boxersoft · Accepted solution]

> there is no dollar cost to experiment.  Only time.

And wear & tear on my knees, as I have to crawl through loft spaces to reach them   I'll give it a try over the weekend though and report back - thanks again for the suggestions.

[CrimpOn]

No, an ethernet backhaul connection does not prevent "Daisy Chaining".  Something else is affecting the situation.

You might try this:

Unplug S2 and physically move it to the same room as S1.  Plug it in again.

I would expect that S2 will connect to S1 for 5G WiFi backhaul.  If it does not, there is something terribly wrong.

Now, unplug and relocate S2 to the original location (where it had a "Good" backhaul connection to S1 to begin with).

See what happens?

If this does not cure the problem, I would consider telling the Orbi to "forget" S2.  Perform a "factory reset" on S2.  Then go through the "Add a satellite" routing on the Orbi web interface (or use the sync button method).

[boxersoft]

Thanks for the response. I can get S1 and S2 to connect via 5G backhaul simply by unplugging the ethernet cable between S1 and Router, without moving anything. Happy to move S2 though if you think that is worth trying as a test.

[CrimpOn]

I honestly have no idea WHY these Orbi units are behaving the way they are.  One thought is that they have "learned" that the backhaul path is S2 to S1 to the router.  When S1 no longer needs to go through S2 (ethernet), S2 is not smart enough to say, "Wow. Look.  It's better to go through S1 than directly to the router!"

That's why I would consider having the router "forget" both satellites.  "Add" S1 on ethernet backhaul.  Then "Add" S2, and it should pick the good connection through S1 over the weak connection direct to the router.

Anyway, there is no dollar cost to experiment.  Only time.

[boxersoft · Accepted solution]

> there is no dollar cost to experiment.  Only time.

And wear & tear on my knees, as I have to crawl through loft spaces to reach them   I'll give it a try over the weekend though and report back - thanks again for the suggestions.

[boxersoft]

Yep, that seems to have worked - thanks. When S2 first connected after moving back to its proper location it briefly claimed a connection to the Router, but after a couple of status "blinks" it changed to S1 and appears to have settled on that. I'm not entirely convinced the initial display was correct anyway, as it claimed it was a "5G, Good" connection to the Router, and I don't think that's credible. The current "5G, Good" connection to S1 is credible though, and it seems stable. Happy with that.

PS: Is there any way to include inline images in posts on this forum? I tried to do that with my little diagram of the locations but I could only find the option of attaching, which isn't very convenient for readers.

[CrimpOn]

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@boxersoft wrote:

PS: Is there any way to include inline images in posts on this forum? I tried to do that with my little diagram of the locations but I could only find the option of attaching, which isn't very convenient for readers.

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When I click on the "Photos" icon, I can inset certain file types.  Here's a screen shot of my DHCP lease

[boxersoft]

That's what I expected to be able to do, but I don't see a Photos button or anything similar on the message editor toolbar. I see buttons to insert a "spoiler", code, emoticon, link, video, numbered and bulleted lists amongst formatting options, but nothing for images.