Orbi MR 2.1 Update 3/23/18

I'd been on 2.1.2.18 and have been stable (unlike some other people) for many weeks - ever since its release. Decided to give this beta a try. Upgrade went smoothly and so far all seems fine. 

Wow, Thanks for the details Sir. I wish others would post like this. LOL. 

So one item you may not know about, and you'll need to check. You maybe on the right track and we've seen a few others have this issue, you need to check ALL of your switches. From the looks, they maybe all managed. If they are, then these do and will have adverse effects on the Orbi systems. Others have posted about this as well. I have asked them about there switches only to find out that there managed. Seems there is either an issue with managed switches or a combination of managed switches and STP features on them. I've asked those uses to remove these switches from the mix and test directly with the Orbi router and Satellite to confirm the problem is there or not. Reports the problem goes away. I've asked users to find a NON-managed switch to test and see if the problem still continues or not. Most have reported the use of NON-Managed switches have resolved there problem. I believe only one users reported that his problem continued. Been a while though. 

I have several NON-manged switches in my configuration. Two of which are right in between my router and 1 satellite. An HP and a NG. I have not seen any issues with this configuration or operation on wired back haul using these NON-Manged switches. It does take a few minutes for the Satellite and router to complete the wired back haul configuration after I connect the cable which is something Ive notice so reason why I ask users to give 5 minutes before doing anything on the network and let the system complete the configuration. It does work. 

Seems that you have tested the system with out the switches and you want this to work. I would check with any cUI onfigurations with in the managed switches to see if there is any thing that you can either disable or enable to help the Orbi system work with your managed switches. There maybe some UI settings that need to be reviewed and tested. Nobody else has reported back on if they've found any configuration with there managed switches to help them work with the Orbi system. I would also check to see if IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet could be a factor. Something maybe NG support or one of the forum moderators may know more about. 

I have asked others about this and still waiting on feed back. 

For now, I'll I can recommend is to use non managed switches or use wireless back haul for now, or unless you can find a manage switch configuration there to help out. Something you could contact there switch support and ask. I presume someone who deals in NG switches may be able to help on this. 

You've done alot and great post. 

Please let us know if you continue this and find out anything. 

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JazPlayer1 wrote:

I spent the afternoon yesterday upgrading my RBR50 + 3 Satellites to v2.1.3.4 from 2.1.2.18. I am encouraged to hear others are able to get ethernet backhaul working since I have a large house with poor wireless signal propogation characteristics. When connecting a RBS50 with ethernet after the upgrade/factory reset, my wired workstation would almost immediately be disconnected from the RBR50. When able to reconnect to the RBR50, the RBR50 would either show as not connected or connected via wi-fi backhaul. In either case the network became very unstable with an ethernet connected RBS50.

 

One thing I may try after reading bbunge's post is to connect the RBS directly to the RBR ethernet port. I am currently trying to connect all my devices through a Netgear GS series network (see below). From previous experience with TiVo Mini's, I was only able to get stable connections between the TiVo Bolt and Mini's when all were directly connected to the RBR50. This leads me to believe (unfortunately without any wireshark evidence) that the RBR50 suffers from spanning tree issues (BPDU broadcast storms and the like) when connecting to their brethren Netgear switches. I'd like to hear from anyone who has had similar issues and especially evidence to share. Read on for my upgrade experence. 

 

 

Home Network

GS116v2 - Great Room Main - RBR50
GS108E - Family Room - RBS50
GS108Ev3 - Office 1 
GS105Ev2 - Office 2
GS105Ev2 - Bed Room 2 - RBS50

Bed Room 2 - RBS50

Issues with Orbi:

Auto update breaks my network on a regular basis without notice

No way to disable auto update (had to turn off via CLI)

RBSs fail during auto update requiring manual intervention

RBSs randomly loose wi-fi backhaul connections to RBR (think red, amber, blue in the middle of the night)

Ethernet backhaul works with some firmware versions and not others

Devices randomly disconnected from wi-fi

My users (wife and kids) constant complaints about disconnects and slow speeds

 

Upgrade to v2.1.3.4 from 2.1.2.18:

Upgraded (3) RBS50s firmware one at a time and then performed factory reset on each

Updated RBS device names on config page. 

RBSs reconnected to RBR and network stable

Turned off RBSs and other devices around home

Upgraded RBR50 firmware

Network stable and no RBS connected

Then gulp factory reset

Ran through RBR setup routine after factory reset:

WAN auto setup good (auto detect etc)

(Used defaults - disable IGMP proxy, MTU, NAT secured) - dont recall seeing Disable SIP ALG option previously

Wi-fi auto setup good (SSID, PW etc)

(Used defaults 2.4Ghz auto, 5Ghz chan 48)

Then RBS discovery setup step: 

(thinking they should have taken you through LAN setup first)

Started up (1) RBS with ethernet. Lost connection to RBR. Network unstable. 

Disconnected RBS and reconnected to RBR. Back in WAN setup mode. Network stable. 

Back in RBS discovery setup mode:

Started up (2) RBSs with wi-fi. Sync complete and setup routine finished. 

(this step took awhile and eventually had to bring a remote RBS into same room as RBR)

Network stable but one RBS is not showing as connected satellite on attached device display

Ran through manual sync process (press button add) and now (2) RBSs showing as connected satellites. Network stable. 

Completed other setups not carried over after factory reset:

LAN - Config DHCP Pool Address Range: 2-100 (Have static IPs in range 101-2xx)

Guest wi-fi (SSID, PW etc) - Backhaul Daisy Chain enabled by default

Did not enable as before - Implicit Beamforming, MU-MIMO, Fast Roaming (want to measure user complaints first) ;p

UPnP enabled by default, IPv6 disabled by default

Connect 3rd RBS50:

Started up 3rd RBS with ethernet. Lost connection to RBR. Network unstable. 

A few careful RBR and RBS reboots and retrys later (this takes alot of time):

RBS did finally show up as connected device (not satellite) but connection type was 5G. Network unstable. 

I give up: Disconnected RBS and reconnected to RBR via wi-fi backhaul. 

Network stable but RBS is not showing as connected satellite on attached device display. 

Ran through manual sync process (press button add) and now (3) RBSs showing as connected satellites. Network stable. 

Attached Devices:

However the RBR did not detect the correct device model and names for the RBSs

One RBR did not show up as a connected satellite but as a connected device. 

Manually updated the device model and names for all the RBSs. 

Eventually after another RBR reboot all the RBS's showed up as connected satellites. Network stable. 

Began bringing all other devices back up on the network. 

Updated device model, name and type (everything is a network device to Orbi)

Noted only one static device shows up on connected device list; GS108Ev3, Firmware Version 2.00.12

 

 

 

I am done for now but will try ethernet again when I have another afternoon to kill. 

 

JP1!

 

 

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