Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
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Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

donawalt
Virtuoso

RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

Hi all, I have noticed twice now in the last 10 days that in the morning, the internet gets a little slow - upon a quick look, I see the "blue" color on the nearby satellite RBS850, I assume indicative of a restart. I have seen this on 2 of the 3 satellites in the house, the other satellite and router are further away - they may be restarting or not.

 

Anyway - why would they be restarting on their own? There have been no power glitches in the house. What I know:

 

  • I checked the individual web sites of the satellites - there is not much info there, but they look clean;
  • there is no firmware update on any RBR/RBS, nor has there been recently. I have been on 3.2.18.1_1.4.14 since a day or two after it came out;
  • the RBR log only has DHCP messages in it - but that's all it ever has (even if I manually restart the router, there are no other log messages - worthless! everything is checked to add to the log);
  • backhaul status of all RBRs is "Good" and green. 
  • speeds are fine.

Why do you think this is happening? Anything I should do? Thanks!

Message 1 of 14
hkoppp
Star

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

3.2.18.1_1.4.14

 

latest update is trash tahts all

 

waiting on a fix from me too..

 

Message 2 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

Has a power OFF of the units along with the ISP modem/ont for 1 minute then back ON been prerformed? 


@donawalt wrote:

Hi all, I have noticed twice now in the last 10 days that in the morning, the internet gets a little slow - upon a quick look, I see the "blue" color on the nearby satellite RBS850, I assume indicative of a restart. I have seen this on 2 of the 3 satellites in the house, the other satellite and router are further away - they may be restarting or not.

 

Anyway - why would they be restarting on their own? There have been no power glitches in the house. What I know:

 

  • I checked the individual web sites of the satellites - there is not much info there, but they look clean;
  • there is no firmware update on any RBR/RBS, nor has there been recently. I have been on 3.2.18.1_1.4.14 since a day or two after it came out;
  • the RBR log only has DHCP messages in it - but that's all it ever has (even if I manually restart the router, there are no other log messages - worthless! everything is checked to add to the log);
  • backhaul status of all RBRs is "Good" and green. 
  • speeds are fine.

Why do you think this is happening? Anything I should do? Thanks!


 

Message 3 of 14
donawalt
Virtuoso

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

No not recently - is that just a cleanout of the RBS/RBR, like a power cycle of a Windows computer when things start acting up?

Message 4 of 14
donawalt
Virtuoso

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

I did a power cycle - powered down the satellites one at a time, then the RBR, then the modem. I wated > 1 minute, then powered on the modem, when it was up powered up the RBR, then one by one going further away powered up the RBS's one at a time. About 2 hours later I happened to noitce one of the RBS's restarting. 

 

Just now, I went into the Orbi app, and one of the RBS's (a different one) was offline. I just power cycled it. 

 

Should I go back to the prior version of the firmware? This is very unreliable.

Message 5 of 14
hkoppp
Star

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

it will happen daily

 

i tried reverting old firmware the router automatically updates it back to latest firmware stupidiest invention ever

Message 6 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

Might try a factory reset on the one RBS and re-sync. 

What happens if you swap RBS locations, does the one RBS still restart? IF it does, possible could be just a faulty RBS. 

How was the FW updated on the system? via Orbi app or auto update or manually?

 


@donawalt wrote:

I did a power cycle - powered down the satellites one at a time, then the RBR, then the modem. I wated > 1 minute, then powered on the modem, when it was up powered up the RBR, then one by one going further away powered up the RBS's one at a time. About 2 hours later I happened to noitce one of the RBS's restarting. 

 

Just now, I went into the Orbi app, and one of the RBS's (a different one) was offline. I just power cycled it. 

 

Should I go back to the prior version of the firmware? This is very unreliable.


 

Message 7 of 14
donawalt
Virtuoso

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

This continues. Unfortunately due to the incomplete log tracking I can't actually see a record of restarts. As far as I can tell I have not seen the RBS850 on the 1st floor do it, the second floor RBS shows blue, the third floor RBS shows magenta, then a minute or two later it goes to blue. I check the RBR, and it appears fine.

 

Are these satellites actually power recycling or is something else going on - like a backhaul/sync problem? Are there other ways that the lights will show like a restart? I have never seen backhaul status anything other than "Good", as it is now (this just happened again - trashes the internet connection until it gets through its restart.) The topology is that the 1st and 2nd floor RBS are talking to the RBR850 in rthe basement, and RBS on the third floor is connected to the 1st floor RBS.

 

The CM1200 modem is not reporting any errors - signals etc. are very clean. Nothing in the log other than "Notice" log entries.

 

This all just started about a week or so ago after running fine for a month or two. This feels like some sort of mesh sync issue or software/firmware problem to me, I have power cycled everything including modem, for over a minute then back on - I do not want to go to the hassle of a factory reset if that's just a guess of something that might help - imho this is a problem and there is no reason it won't come back at some point - do I do factory resets with this router every time this problem occurs?

Message 8 of 14
donawalt
Virtuoso

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

This probalem has gotten much worse. I have not changed a single setting, so no corruption there. Comcast to the modem tests great through the Orbi app. SNR, RSSI etc are good walking around the house with my Mac. CM1200 modem signals, power etc. are good. I turned off LAG. I have power cycled everything in order, mutliple times (modem, then router, then 3 staellites one by one). I have tried moving satellites. Many times I can't even get a web page to come up in my office on the third floor, but 20 feet from the RBR it's fine. The attached devices show all 3 satellites as 'Good'. On restart satellites are always BLUE.

 

I really think this is software - some how the mesh, the sync, something is getting messed up - or a firmware bug as suggested here. I notice too, devices are connected to the wrong RBR/S's - an iPad on the 3rd floor connected to the 1st floor satellite bypassing two other satellites; 2nd floor devices connected to the router 2 floors away - and they stay that way, I even tried many times turning off WiFi  on the device and turning it back on, in an attempt to let it connect to a closer proximitiy Orbi device - but it does not. That makes no sense.

 

This Orbi system has been the highest maintenance system I have ever bought! I have had it since January I think, and I seldom get more than 3 weeks or so of good reliable service before problems hit. And problems come and go, so it does run great for awhile. But I have had it. I bought the Google system just now. I had version 1 for years and it was rock solid, if not the absolute highest performing system on the market, and the people in the next block have the latest version, and say it's run perfectly for 3 months. Even if it's a little slower, or doesn't support LAG, I don't care. Yesterday and today I have been getting about 10 Mbps D/L speed on a 1.2GB Comcast plan.

Message 9 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

What happens if you turn OFF two of the RBS and just run 1 RBS? 

Has a factory reset been performed since this problem started? 

 

 

Message 10 of 14
Bonacci
Star

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

Thanks for the tip, will look into the Google system also. I too experience the RBK85x to be a great step backwards for the Orbi productline. It's so unreliable and therefor too high maintenance.  

Message 11 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

Any progress on this? 

What happens if you swap RBS locations, does the one RBS still restart? IF it does, possible could be just a faulty RBS. 

How was the FW updated on the system? via Orbi app or auto update or manually?

Might try a factory reset on the one RBS and re-sync. 


@donawalt wrote:

I did a power cycle - powered down the satellites one at a time, then the RBR, then the modem. I wated > 1 minute, then powered on the modem, when it was up powered up the RBR, then one by one going further away powered up the RBS's one at a time. About 2 hours later I happened to noitce one of the RBS's restarting. 

 

Just now, I went into the Orbi app, and one of the RBS's (a different one) was offline. I just power cycled it. 

 

Should I go back to the prior version of the firmware? This is very unreliable.


 

Message 12 of 14
donawalt
Virtuoso

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

Thanks for all your help @FURRYe38 but I have moved on. You were very helpful to me on many occasions where things were not working right.

 

I took out the Orbi and installed a Google Net WiFi and 3 satellites (they call them routers also), so far it has been flawless in 4 days. It's a little slower in peak measured speed, but speeds on devices where they sit are stable and have comparable speeds. I actually put the 4 Google devices in the samemplaces as I had the RBS/RBR devices. I kept the Orbi around, in case there is some reason to go back I can just plug everything back in. I want to ensure the Google works as well as it has started out to.

 

I appreciate all your help. I don't think it's my place to debug the mesh/sync software for Netgear. Their hardware is amazingly good, but the software/firmware leaves a lot to be desired in reliability.

 

Message 13 of 14
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBR850/RBS850 satellites restarting?

Understand. Something to contact NG support about if you feel the need to. 

 

Good Luck. 

Message 14 of 14
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