ORBI RBK50 worked for 2hrs, now dead

[rjdennison]

This is so frustrating... Paying as much as I did for this kit, and it's far far worse than what we had.

I set this up last night. Everything seemed to be going well... got the satellite connected, and showed off to the family (of COURSE I did ><) how fast the wifi was all over the house. Even in the far corner where we've never had wifi before, we were getting 170Mbps (undoubtedly capped by my internet bandwidth). The web interface said there was a firmware update available, but I didn't install it.

2 hours later my daughter says "the wifi is really crap Dad... it's all laggy and stuff". Seemed like a bit of a hitch, but went away fairly quickly so I didn't worry about it. Then at bed time, I'm watching my ipad in the bedroom and it stops to buffer... check the wifi, and the iPad is disconnected.&nbsp;Try to reconnect, "wrong password"... keep trying the password I know is correct, nothing. I'm not fixing this at midnight on a work night, so I just shut down and have a look in the morning.

Next day, none of the devices are connected to the wifi... they've all fallen back to the old wifi network.

I hit the power button on the ORBI router, and power it back on... it comes back up shortly, I connect to the web interface, and it's been automatically upgraded to the new firmware (2.2.1.210). That probably happened last night, and is likely when the trouble has started.

I've reset this thing to factory defaults, and now I can't even connect to the ORBI60 default network, which goes away after a short time (I can't see it right now). I can't get to the web interface to roll anything back (but of course it would autoupdate over top of any older firmware).

This router is essentially a white, rounded BRICK right now, and it's been less than 24 hours since I started the damn thing up.

Netgear - why are you autoinjecting a shutdown virus into your hardware that you cleverly call "firmware"? Clearly this isn't ready for consumption... I can't believe it even got past QA.

I'm going to start a phone support session, because I'm NOT going to sit on this thing waiting for them to get around to fix it.

So disgusted by this experience.

[rjdennison · Accepted solution]

Update:

They RMA'd the router, and when the new one arrived, it worked fine. It's now autoupdated to the new firmware, and it still going strong. 

Looks like I had a bad piece of hardware.

Thanks for the help everyone!

R.

[FURRYe38]

What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode?

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
What WPA security modes are you using?

After doing the reset, connect a wired PC to the base router and use a web browser to walk thru the setup wizard at 192.168.1.1. 

[ekhalil]

What wired devices do you have connected to Orbi? Do you have any wired mesh devices (e.g Sonos speakers)?

[rjdennison]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?

The ORBI is plugged into another router at this point. It's not the upstream connection I'm having trouble with. The router is up and down all the time now.
Is the Orbi system operating in Router or AP mode?

I've flashed the 2.1.4.16 firmware onto both the satellite and the router, and forced the router to not autoupdate. It's operating as its own router, although I plan to use it as an AP and turn off the other router's wifi when the ORBI is reliable enough to do so.

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?

5,000 including the basement, but the router is on the main floor at one end of the house, and the satellite is on the 2nd floor around the middle of the house.

What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.

Probably a bit more than that, but when the system is working, the satellite reports a "good" connection with the router.

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.

I haven't changed the channels at all, so I would assume auto

Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

There are wifi neighbors near by. We are on a single family home cul-de-sac, so it's not terribly dense, but there are neighbors to be sure.

What WPA security modes are you using?

WPA2 Personal AES

After doing the reset, connect a wired PC to the base router and use a web browser to walk thru the setup wizard at 192.168.1.1. 

I'm now on a laptop connected to the router via ethernet, and can hit the router at 192.168.1.1

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[FURRYe38]

What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too? So is the Orbi working now?

[rjdennison]

Sorry - I put this in the prev reply, but didn’t change the color of that text.

It’s plugged into another router that is running TomatoUSB. My intention is to use the Orbi as an AP with the Tomato router doing all the “router” stuff.

The Orbi router is working if I’m plugged into it. The wifi, however, doesn’t work. The wifi is kind of the point 😉

Thanks for all your help on this FURRYe38

[FURRYe38]

So how is the wifi not working? 

Do you get any wifi from the base router while in AP mode? 

Besure ALL other wifi sources are disabled on the Host router and other devices you may have. 

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.

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

Try disabling the following and see:
MIMO, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

If you updated to recent FW v.210, try enabling Daisy Chain. Some have mentioned that this seems to be working in reverse order, enabling means disabled actually.

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@rjdennison wrote:
Sorry - I put this in the prev reply, but didn’t change the color of that text.

It’s plugged into another router that is running TomatoUSB. My intention is to use the Orbi as an AP with the Tomato router doing all the “router” stuff.

The Orbi router is working if I’m plugged into it. The wifi, however, doesn’t work. The wifi is kind of the point 😉

Thanks for all your help on this FURRYe38

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[rjdennison]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

So how is the wifi not working? 

Yeah, I guess I didn't explain that very well. So it seems that the wifi SSID is there, but when I connect to it from any device, there is no internet. Strength seems fine, but the wifi won't pick up an IP address (can't contact DHCP server). Recall I've got this set up as a router right now, so it's the router's DHCP server that either isn't responding or doesn't hear anybody asking for an IP address. 

Do you get any wifi from the base router while in AP mode? 

I haven't tried AP mode since rolling back to 2.1.4.16. I figure I should get the "default" configuration working before I get fancy.

Besure ALL other wifi sources are disabled on the Host router and other devices you may have. 

I'm going to try that next. I haven't experienced any strength issues, but I don't know much about mesh, so I guess it's conceivable that the interference is causing all the problems.

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.

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

Try disabling the following and see:
MIMO, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

If you updated to recent FW v.210, try enabling Daisy Chain. Some have mentioned that this seems to be working in reverse order, enabling means disabled actually.

I've rolled back from v.210 to v2.1.4.16, but I'll try all those things above that you suggested. I'll try shutting down all the other wireless networks first, see if that changes anything, then start shutting down those services one by one.

Thanks again @FURRYe38 . Going to try all this stuff on Friday morning.

R. 

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@rjdennison wrote:
Sorry - I put this in the prev reply, but didn’t change the color of that text.

It’s plugged into another router that is running TomatoUSB. My intention is to use the Orbi as an AP with the Tomato router doing all the “router” stuff.

The Orbi router is working if I’m plugged into it. The wifi, however, doesn’t work. The wifi is kind of the point 😉

Thanks for all your help on this FURRYe38

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[FURRYe38]

Ok, let us know how it goes. Either mode should work well. If you don't think the system is working in either mode like it should. I would contact NG support and ask for an RMA. 

[rjdennison]

Ok here's the state:

- Firmware v2.1.4.16 on both RBR50 and RBS50

- all other sources of wifi are off.

- I am connected to the RBR50 via ethernet, and can access the web interface and internet

- No wireless clients can connect to the orbi network.

   - the SSID is there

   - it connects for a second, then shows "no internet access" (recall a wired connection to the router has internet, so the router is connected to the internet). Evenually clients just drop the wifi connection.

Trying some of the adjustments you mention:

Disable MIMO, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming... no change... still no internet connection on wireless clients and eventually drop the wifi

Turn off 20/40MHz coexistence... got it to stay on wifi for a few seconds, and it looked like I actually had a connection (although only 80Mbps vs. the 180Mbps I was seeing when I first hooked the Orbi up), but that went away in less than a minute. I watch wifi clients just sitting there trying to connect to the Orbi network, then drop, then try to connect, then drop....

 Rebooted router (after trying 20/40 coexistence)..

Ok - NOW things are cooking... > 300Mbps on Orbi wifi.

I'm going to leave this for a bit to see how stable it is. After I determine it's stable, I will try turning things on (except that 20/40 coexistence thing) one by one to see if anything breaks it.

Spoke too soon... 1 minute later, the wifi has dropped and the clients say "no internet connection"... 

So clearly this thing cooks on a fresh reboot, but the wifi problem is not being solved. Not even sure if it's the 20/40 coexistence thing that solved it... might just be on the reboot.

Spent the last hour on telephone support to no avail. I should hear back from them after she takes the issue to L2.

Might be that I have a dud here ><

[FURRYe38]

Get ahold of NG support and ask for an RMA. 

@Blanca_O

[rjdennison · Accepted solution]

Update:

They RMA'd the router, and when the new one arrived, it worked fine. It's now autoupdated to the new firmware, and it still going strong. 

Looks like I had a bad piece of hardware.

Thanks for the help everyone!

R.

[FURRYe38]

Enjoy.