Orbi Issues with V2.1.4.16

[walkerx]

Hi,

I am a UK Sky fibre-pro user using the Sky Q Hub with the Orbi system. I have configured the router for AP mode and connected the WAN port to my switch and have reserved an ip address for it, my satellites (with reserved ip's) are also connected via ethernet to switch and I have enabled the daisy-chain topology so can use the wired connection.

But what is happening is that it constantly reports one satellite is using wifi (5ghz poor) and the other is using ethernet (good)

Is there a way to force the units to always use the ethernet back-haul and report this in the router interface

Also the app constantly fails to connect to the orbi system even thoiugh it is on the network

I actually thought this system would be a good upgrade for my wifi, but it seems i may have to send these back and go back to an tp-link setup which works compared to this, just means not as decent wifi speed

[FURRYe38]

Disable Daisy chain since satellites are connected wired, not wireless. Daisy chain is for wireless back haul.

What is the Mfr and model# of the switch?

[walkerx]

i followed the instructions and thought it meant if using the daisy-chain topology to enable the daisy-chain back-haul in the settings

I disabled that and the minute I did and it started rebooting the devices I lost my dns, yet this should not happen as I'm on wired connection and my dns and gateway on pc are set to my main router not the orbi system - if i reboot my tp-link ap (needed as my alarm system has problems with the orbi network as they are not seperated) this doesn't cause me to loose dns, so why would the orbi's

my current switch is zyxel gs1900-24e, uk (setup today due to the issues having) - it was previously a tp-link TL-SG1008D which had the same issues

my setup now is as follows

sky q hub -> samknows whitebox -> 24 port switch -> orbi router (ap mode)

the 24 port switch is then off to two other switches where the satellites are connected at the moment.

previously the setup was as follows

hg612 modem -> pfsense -> samknows whitebox -> 8 port switch -> orbi (with switch then off to two other switches for the satellites)

[FURRYe38]

Yes when you disable or enable anything on the router, it's recommended to reboot everything. Most settings will reboot the router. I would power cycle the satellite as well.

You have a managed switch:

https://www.zyxel.com/products_services/8-10-16-24-48-port-GbE-Smart-Managed-Switch-GS1900-Series/

There are users having problems with managed switches.

One user said to disable IGMP procotols on his managed switch and the Orbi started working correctly:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-MR-2-1-Update-3-23-18/m-p/1553749/highlight/true#M30673

I don't have any managed switches on my network so I can't help on this. My non managed switches all work fine though with my Orbi system.

Can you test with a non managed switch if you have one...

[walkerx]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Yes when you disable or enable anything on the router, it's recommended to reboot everything. Most settings will reboot the router. I would power cycle the satellite as well.

You have a managed switch:

https://www.zyxel.com/products_services/8-10-16-24-48-port-GbE-Smart-Managed-Switch-GS1900-Series/

There are users having problems with managed switches.

One user said to disable IGMP procotols on his managed switch and the Orbi started working correctly:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-MR-2-1-Update-3-23-18/m-p/1553749/highlight/true#M30673

I don't have any managed switches on my network so I can't help on this. My non managed switches all work fine though with my Orbi system.

Can you test with a non managed switch if you have one...

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the switch is not currently setup as a managed switch so is running in un-managed mode, but i had the issues prior to this which started at the weekend when on my old setup - so have reconfigued the whole setup today to see if can eliminate the issue - but the rebooting of the orbi router should not take out the dns even if I was using a managed switch as it is running in AP mode. I've used numerous tp-link access points and never had this issue.

 and since the reboot i've now got 764395 collisions when prior to it I only had about 800

[FURRYe38]

I would disconnnect all swtitches and other LAN devices from the orbi and satellite accept for 1 wiired PC. Turn OFF the satelilte for now and see if you can get the Orbi router in AP mode working with out all these collisions...

Set up a IP address reservation ON the main host router for the router. Or set a static IP address ON the Orbi router thats out side of the main host routers IP address pool. If you can get the system stable again, then connect the satellite again and do another IP address reservation ON the main host router.

If you can get to this poing, then you could get the switch back into the mix.

Seen this where something is creating this storm or collisions and it usually due to a conflict in IP addressing. I saw this with mine, my satellite wired back haul was conflicted with my microcell. I had to power it all off and set the satellite up with a reservation then set up the microcell on another...then reconnect everything back up.

[walkerx]

i've already reserved the ip addresses of the orbi's and they out of the range from everything else

i can access all via web-browser - both my satellites report Your Orbi Satellite connection is up and running.

Yet when access the main unit's interface neither are listed as being connected

I also can't access the unit from the mobile app if i'm connected to one of the satellites, but if I go to where the main unit is, it takes a while but then connects to it via the mobile app and does not show the satellites.

Now the main unit is connected using the wan port, which it should do if running as an ap, but if i add a cable into one of the lan ports to my switch it then sees the other units, but this then causes the collisions (now on 764503 from earlier) 

Amazon have offered for me to return it under the warranty for full refund which is my last resort, as it means finding something else which is suitable to cover the whole house (need multiple ap's as we have rsj's which affect the wifi), so ideally i would like to get this working as it should

[FURRYe38]

Doe this collision happen if you directly connect the satellites directly the Orbi router?

Something is happenging between the switch as the orbi?

Have you power cycled the switch OFF for 30 seconds then back on?

These Orbi's are working for others with switches...Seems to be a configuration issue of some sort.

Last resort would be to factory reset the Orbi router and set it up from scratch.

[walkerx]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Doe this collision happen if you directly connect the satellites directly the Orbi router?

Something is happenging between the switch as the orbi?

Have you power cycled the switch OFF for 30 seconds then back on?

These Orbi's are working for others with switches...Seems to be a configuration issue of some sort.

Last resort would be to factory reset the Orbi router and set it up from scratch.

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the collision was being caused by the main orbi when using both the wan and connecting via lan interface - but this worked previously - i've now finally got the satellites linked back up to the main orbi in the interface - powering them all off and back on again never worked, using the sync button never worked, but what finally did was pulled out the network cable on sat1 then let it connect via wifi, then when it was showing as disconnected, clicked the remove button then it got picked up and went blue, plugged wire back in and now showing as wired, done the same for sat2, so now both showing with backhaul good

next is to get the mobile app working, as still won't detect the orbi when connected via wifi through the satellites

[FURRYe38]

Ok, figured that the sats would need to be removed and re-added...

So for now you only have the WAN port connected from the Orbi to the switch? Satellites connected to the directly to the Orbi or to the switch?

 Maybe something is causing the satellites to loose sync, even on wired connection and causes this collision to happen. Even if you power cycle them they don't respond correctly until they are removed and re-added. Very similar to what happend to me...

[walkerx]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Ok, figured that the sats would need to be removed and re-added...

So for now you only have the WAN port connected from the Orbi to the switch? Satellites connected to the directly to the Orbi or to the switch?

 Maybe something is causing the satellites to loose sync, even on wired connection and causes this collision to happen. Even if you power cycle them they don't respond correctly until they are removed and re-added. Very similar to what happend to me...

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yeh, only the wan on the orbi router is connected to switch, then the satellites connected to the switch. they seem to be now ok. i'm not sure if something happened just prior to weekend or over weekend as i couldn't connect to my alarm system and constant dropouts on wifi - saying there was an issue with the dns resolver on my network.

i changed these settings first to use opendns and google then fallback to sky and was experiencing same problems, as it was on wired network as well as wifi i then thought it might have been my server which it wasn't (still powered off|), then pfsense and it unable to resolve dns. i then replaced that with the sky q hub (which i hate as it auto updates and changes mean a full reboot which causes dslam to think fault on line and drop speeds).

As that was showing same issues slowly tried everything else i could think off, but usually resolve quite quickly, but this had me baffled.

i'm going to see how it performs over next few days and check again when back home again. if ok will switch back to my pfsense configuration as gives me more control of network, plus it has all my devices configured with reserved addresses.

i can also see the orbi and satellites via app when on main orbi, so need to check again when connected via satellites to determine why that not working.

[FURRYe38]

Ok, you have a complex set up there. I would hate to have to troubleshoot that.

Hope it keeps working.

[walkerx]

yeh

surprising how many devices i have connected, which is reason for pfsense as that has everything nicely configured and lets me control my network better than the sky routers.

the trouble is with sky, they don't use standard configuration for their network, so can't just plug 3rd party routers in and hope to work as 90%+ would fail.

[FURRYe38]

Souns like fun. hehe. 

[Pfredd]

In AP mode, don't you normally connect the ORBI to your switch via one of the LAN ports?

[FURRYe38]

Orbi seems to desire the WAN port. Even though others have said the LAN port works as well. The top LED behavior changes though when the LAN port is used.

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@Pfredd wrote:

In AP mode, don't you normally connect the ORBI to your switch via one of the LAN ports?

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[walkerx]

ideally you use the wan port when setting up as an access point, this gives you a bit more configuration options (good for blocking wifi access to certain devices, allows ntp connection, easier if using vlans, also you can enable dhcp on the ap so devices connecting are in a specific ip range different to main dhcp range)

you can also use a lan port, if do this way you will lose a port, it's best to then set the wan to a static ip outside of your network to prevent logs filling with errors, you will also loose ntp time on unit and can't use dhcp settings, etc