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Forum Discussion
Orbi RBR50 and Slow WiFi Problems with iOS Devices
I’ve been experience a very strange problem with slow WiFi speeds on my iOS devices for a few months now and was wondering if anyone might be able to point me to something to try to fix it.
It seems that the problem started when I updated our iPhones and iPads to iOS 11 and has been ongoing ever since. I have spoken with Apple about the issue, but nothing we’ve tried has helped. Things like turning Airplane mode on and off, resetting network settings, re-setting up the iPad/iPhone as a new device, etc.
Here’s what happens. When home, the iOS devices act normally and have a good connection to the Orbi system and get full Internet speed (150 Mbps for my service) all over the house. If we then take the iOS devices out of the house and connect to another WiFi network, such as at work, all is still well. The problem starts when we return home. They connect to the WiFi network just fine, but if I perform a speed test, they will show anywhere from about 1 Mbps to about 25 Mbps connections and will not get any better throughput. Also, while this is happening, if you try to use an application that accesses the Internet, it will experience long delays in accessing the information every few minutes. Once the delay is over, everything works as expected, but at the low, and sometimes very low, connection speeds. No amount of fiddling with the iOS devices will correct the situation; however, through the process of elimination I found that restarting the Orbi router gets everything back to working as expected.
I can’t for the life of me figure out what could potentially be causing this odd behavior, but would appreciate any insight that someone may have and would be willing to share. This is becoming more and more annoying as time goes on.
76 Replies
Oh, I forgot to mention that while the iOS devices are suffering the slow access seeds and occasional delays in accessing the Internet, all of the Macs and PCs on the network connect just fine and get a full speed 150 Mbps Internet connection.
In the advanced wireless settings of orbi try unchecking the box that says Enable 20/40 MHz Coexistence I know this has improved performance for some IOS devices.
DarrenM
DarrenmM, thanks for getting back to me!
For some reason or another, after a recent reboot, things seem to be working normally again. This is after three months or so of issues. At any rate, one thing that appears to have eliminated the Internet access stalls is I made a change to my DNS servers. I previously had a Mac Mini server as primary DNS server and my NAS server as secondary. Switching these seems to have resolved the stalls. I haven’t had time yet to troubleshoot the Mac Mini, but will see if I can find a problem with the DNS server app on it.
So, for now, I’m kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop and the access speed slowdown issue to occur again. Hopefully it won’t, but since I haven’t changed anything that should have impacted it, I’m thinking it will rear it’s ugly head again at some point.
this is a known issue documented in this post: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/What-you-can-expect-with-your-Orbi-system/m-p/1503034#M23257
good luck - so far the only solution seems to be putting a smart outlet / timer on your satellite(s) to reboot them once every 24 hours (I'm not joking) or rolling back the firmware (but I still see people saying they experience the same issues on the older firmware)
see this guy: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-satellite-dropping-connection/m-p/1512445#M24230
Don't listen to the netgear shills on these forums that blame the user and give you the same bs about trying to disable beamforming/mimo or moving the satellites closer to the router. Waste of time until netgear releases a fix.
Thanks for the links to the other threads. Most of those problems sound different from what I’ve been experiencing. My system only seems to slow down throughput on iOS devices only. Other items continue to work as usual when this happens. It’s quite odd.
Time will tell if things will improve or not.
Well, more time has passed and I’ve been able to learn a bit more about what is happening with my setup.
It appears that the Orbi router itself is stable and reliable; however, the satellites are very unstable and don’t appear to run correctly for even a full 24 hours. I found this out as I had an iPhone having connection issues and an iPad that wasn’t. I decided to see who was connected to what and found that the working iPad was connected directly to the router, while the iPhone was on one of the satellites. The iPhone would connect to the Internet, but experienced slow throughput and some connection dropouts. It did not, however have any problems communicating on the internal network. The backhaul showed it was functioning normally on the 5 GHz band, but whatever is causing problems appears to on affect the Internet connection.
I rebooted the satellite and verified that I was connected through it and everything worked well for the rest of the evening. When I tried things again this afternoon, the satellite was again causing problems. So, if Netgear can work out the problem with the satellites, I think we could have a good fast system, but until then, it’s causing nothing but headaches.
I want to thank everyone for the feedback but none of the suggestions worked for me.
But all is not lost. This morning I continued to focus on the MacBook Pro since all other devices were working just fine. I was sucessful in fixing the problem with long delays or no response to websites. After several tries the fix ened up being a curupt wifi module. I corrected it by the following steps.
Click om the apple menu and select system prefference then network
Click on advance and selecte the wifi module and click on the - button and apply
Close the network menu and reboot your computer
After reboot go back to networks and click on advance nd click on the + button
From the menu select wifi and click apply
Next reconnect to your network and you should be up and running.
I hope this helps you becuase it saved me taking out the ORBI system
Glad you figured it out. Thanks for letting us know what the issue was and how you fixed it.
Enjoy the Orbi now.
sloya1wrote:I want to thank everyone for the feedback but none of the suggestions worked for me.
But all is not lost. This morning I continued to focus on the MacBook Pro since all other devices were working just fine. I was sucessful in fixing the problem with long delays or no response to websites. After several tries the fix ened up being a curupt wifi module. I corrected it by the following steps.
Click om the apple menu and select system prefference then network
Click on advance and selecte the wifi module and click on the - button and apply
Close the network menu and reboot your computer
After reboot go back to networks and click on advance nd click on the + button
From the menu select wifi and click apply
Next reconnect to your network and you should be up and running.
I hope this helps you becuase it saved me taking out the ORBI system
Also might not be fully a NG problem, rather Apple issue as well if your using any form of 11.x.x iOS:
https://www.gottabemobile.com/ios-11-problems-5-things-you-need-to-know/
https://www.techradar.com/how-to/ios-11-problems-how-to-fix-them
Its very possible that IOS is contributing to this Orbi connection issue. My router & satellites are running V2.1.4.10, its also possible that the number of connected devices plays a role in this, it would explain why some systems dont experience issues. My home is fully wired with CAT5e so I have a lot of wired connections as well as wi-fi, my connection count is >50 devices including 2 satallites. Post the number of connections on your systems, lets see if there is a relationship.
I am running right around 50 devices depending on what’s turned on at the time. About 8 of them are wired.
The problems I’m experiencing under V2.1.4.10 are impacting all devices now, not just the iOS devices. You go to access the Internet and it is either dead or very slow. Connecting directly to the cable modem shows no problem with the incoming connection and it is working well, but the Orbis are not. Now, it’s necessary to restart all of the Orbis to get a good working connection again.
The majority of my systems are recent and take advantage of MU-MIMO and other features that many are recommending be turned off. I don’t want to cripple my network because Netgear can’t get their act together.
I grew too weary with the Orbi’s problems yesterday, so I took them out and replaced them all with a Linksys Velop system, which is up and running now. If it makes it for a couple of weeks without incident, I’ll probably keep it and try to dispose of the Orbis.
Mines 20 devices and 1 satellite.
Mixed of wired and wireless, 5 iPhones, 1 iPad, 3 cameras and 2 NEST controllers...6 PCs and two game consoles 3 printers. Dish Hopper and 3 Joeys.
Good Luck.
Same with my iPhone 6sP, iphone 5c, iPad Mini, ATV, iMac 2008, Mac Book Pro 2008 and a iPhone 4S. Has been working since day 1 with my 40 series system.
Hi All;
Thanks for the wealth of discussion in this topic. I'm facing similar issues albeit very particular to a certain model of iPhone. I have found a solution that seems to work so far and am testing it for a few days to assess if it's a permanent solution. Do note that my Orbi system is a certified refurbished set from Amazon.
Current setup:
Fiber Broadband (ONT Modem) -> Orbi RBK50 Router => Orbi RBS50 Satellite
Wired Devices:
1. Synology NAS DS1518
Wireless Devices:
1. iPhone 8
2. iPhone 7
3. iPad Pro 9.7
4. HP Elitebook
5. Samsung Galaxy S9+
6. Samsung Chromebook Pro
7. 3 units of LG Smart TVs
8. HP Wireless Printer
==
All of my network devices work happily with the Orbi with the exception of the iPhone 8, which exhibits the intermittent & laggy symptoms discussed in this thread and many others. My suspicion was initially that the iPhone 8 had a buggy wireless antenna and had the iPhone RMAed since it's under warranty. However, to my surprise, even the new iPhone 8 exhibited the same symptoms.
Workaround - Alternative Wireless Repeater
I had a suspicion that the wireless connectivity between the Orbi & the iPhone was somehow not working out and decided to isolate that. I tested the iPhone 8 at a different location on both 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz with no problems. I then installed a wireless repeater in my home network that connects to the Orbi via a wireless backhaul. Interestingly, the connection improved but was still flaky. I decided to isolate the next logical layer, which is the router stack.
Current Solution - Alternative Router
I then dusted off my previous Luma router, configured the Orbi in AP mode and my current setup is as follows:
Fiber Broadband (ONT Modem) -> Luma Router -> Orbi RBK50 (AP Mode) => Orbi RBS50 Satellite
At the time of writing this post, all of my devices on the network are happily getting along. I'm going to monitor the situation for at least a week and report back here if it is stable as a permanent solution.
However, this does not shed any light on the root cause of the issue. I'm not sure if my refurbished set is still faulty per se, but the behaviour specific to the iPhone 8 is baffling.
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).Also Advanced Wireless Settings both 2.4GHz and 5GHz changed CTS/RTS Threshold to 2307.
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-RBR40-RBS40-V2-1-4-16-mesh-network-drops-connection-to/m-p/1601598/highlight/true#M35230
I changed the CTR/RTS threshold values for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (2341 and 2345 respectively), changed preamble modes to long preamble, and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only.I would try the above suggestions in router mode however...
imranar wrote:
Hi All;
Thanks for the wealth of discussion in this topic. I'm facing similar issues albeit very particular to a certain model of iPhone. I have found a solution that seems to work so far and am testing it for a few days to assess if it's a permanent solution. Do note that my Orbi system is a certified refurbished set from Amazon.
Current setup:
Fiber Broadband (ONT Modem) -> Orbi RBK50 Router => Orbi RBS50 Satellite
Wired Devices:
1. Synology NAS DS1518
Wireless Devices:
1. iPhone 8
2. iPhone 7
3. iPad Pro 9.7
4. HP Elitebook
5. Samsung Galaxy S9+
6. Samsung Chromebook Pro
7. 3 units of LG Smart TVs
8. HP Wireless Printer
==
All of my network devices work happily with the Orbi with the exception of the iPhone 8, which exhibits the intermittent & laggy symptoms discussed in this thread and many others. My suspicion was initially that the iPhone 8 had a buggy wireless antenna and had the iPhone RMAed since it's under warranty. However, to my surprise, even the new iPhone 8 exhibited the same symptoms.
Workaround - Alternative Wireless Repeater
I had a suspicion that the wireless connectivity between the Orbi & the iPhone was somehow not working out and decided to isolate that. I tested the iPhone 8 at a different location on both 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz with no problems. I then installed a wireless repeater in my home network that connects to the Orbi via a wireless backhaul. Interestingly, the connection improved but was still flaky. I decided to isolate the next logical layer, which is the router stack.
Current Solution - Alternative Router
I then dusted off my previous Luma router, configured the Orbi in AP mode and my current setup is as follows:
Fiber Broadband (ONT Modem) -> Luma Router -> Orbi RBK50 (AP Mode) => Orbi RBS50 Satellite
At the time of writing this post, all of my devices on the network are happily getting along. I'm going to monitor the situation for at least a week and report back here if it is stable as a permanent solution.
However, this does not shed any light on the root cause of the issue. I'm not sure if my refurbished set is still faulty per se, but the behaviour specific to the iPhone 8 is baffling.
FURRYe38: Thank you for sharing the fine-tuned settings and the cross-references. I will definitely give them a go once I finish with my controlled exercise here that's been running for about 48 hours.
Point to note though, all those settings recommended are specifically for the wireless connectivity. Even now, while running in AP mode, I have not made any changes from the default settings and only changed the router role. Everything is running buttery smooth!
My suspicion is that there is a bug or incompatibility between how the Netgear OS performs routing for specifically iOS. I neither have facts nor data to support this theory, but I'm trying to piece a picture together with some research.
I'll keep this post updated on my findings from this exercise and of my research
