The Netgear Orbi is badass.
I’ve never experienced such great range and throughput from a WiFi router. Dead spots are gone in my home.
We all have a healthy radioactive glow.
But..
Within days, we started getting major stability problems. Our Google Homes and Chromecasts were dropping connection and requiring manual reboots nearly every hour.
What good is a fast network that won’t stay connected?
The Orbi was expensive and I expected better than this. It should be a rock-solid, set-and-forget system for that price.
The firmware updates weren’t helping, but I wasn’t ready to give up on it yet.
Fun with firmware
The web was full of glowing reviews of this system. Now I figure they were all using older firmware versions at the time they posted their reviews. The problems seem to have started for people in the summer of 2017.
Many nights after work were wasted tweaking the settings, moving the Orbi router and satellites to different places in the home, scouring reddit and the Netgear forums, trying various firmware versions… and not really getting anywhere. So many people were having the same problems as me that I figured my device was not defective, and that something else was to blame.
Netgear has been working on solving these problems for the better part of a year but has yet to put out a new stable firmware. We’re having to take things into our own hands here.
The only router firmware version that gave reasonable stability (but still a little flakey) was 1.11.0.20. But that one was feature-poor, missing security patches, and also lacked ethernet backhaul. I wanted to use 2.1.2.18!
Was it the Google mDNS Flooding Bug?
There was a known-problem with Google devices waking from sleep and flooding the network, and I’m sure that was just making things worse, but my problems persisted after Google patched those bugs.
Finally, a breakthrough
I have an above-average sized home, but the Orbi RBK50 system is rated for a 5000-square foot home. It’s a router + satellite access point bundle. I think it was just overkill here.
My house isn’t big enough for Orbi!
My previous AC router could not reach one end of my home and there were dead spots in two rooms. But the Orbi just blasts through it all like it was nothing. And that was actually a bad thing when there’s two powerful access points competing for the airwaves.
However, the Orbi router by itself wasn’t quite enough for full speeds so I still needed the satellite, too.
The symptoms I had seemed like they could be caused by the battle for air supremacy between the router and satellite:
- Devices preferring 2.4ghz when a strong 5ghz connection was fairly close
- Devices connecting to the furthest access point
- Devices endlessly reconnecting (about every minute, over 12+ hours according to the DHCP logs on the router.)
Solution 0: Force the 2.4Ghz channel to 6 or 1
In all my years of WiFi usage, I’ve only ever had stable performance on channel 6 or 1, and nothing else. Orbi’s “auto” setting would choose other channels and my 2.4Ghz devices hate that.
Note that if you change this in the Web UI, it will overwrite any of your changed settings in the next step for SSIDs. So do this one first!
Solution 1: Set different SSIDs for 2.4 and 5ghz
The Orbi uses the same SSID for its 2.4 and 5ghz bands. My devices were switching between 2.4 and 5ghz all the time, when it seemed entirely inappropriate for them to be doing so.
Separating the SSIDs was critical.
I have no idea why they don’t allow you to change this through the Web UI. You CAN do this however, by visiting the debug.htm page on the router and enabling telnet, then running some commands. Note that you must do this on both the router AND the satellite. There is a post with instructions on the Netgear forum.
Solution 2: Decrease the transmit power
My stationary devices were also randomly connecting to the access point that was furthest away from them. Argh!
I set the 5ghz to 75% power and the 2.4ghz to 50%. My devices no longer connect to the wrong access points. This is probably networking 101 stuff but I didn’t try this until much later than I’d care to admit.
Solution 3: Set a static IP for the satellite
I don’t know if this actually matters, but it seemed weird to me to have a critical part of my network infrastructure with a dynamic IP. I gave static IPs to as many things as possible, in addition to the satellite.
I’m guessing that devices endlessly reconnecting and getting new dynamic IPs could lead to IP conflicts. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Orbi’s DHCP log was a mess and it sure seemed to like to give out 192.168.1.100 to different devices.
Update: I set up a Pi-Hole server on a Raspberry Pi which handles network-wide ad blocking as well as DHCP duties. Orbi’s DHCP server left much to be desired and the UI is painful to use when assigning static IPs. And it has lost all of my settings more than once so far, which is frustrating to say the least. Pi-Hole, on the other hand, has been amazing!
My Orbi works again!
Finally, after months of frustration, my Orbi system is stable. And I can even use the ethernet backhaul again. It’s become the set-and-forget system that I wanted it to be from the start.
Good luck with your Orbis, don’t lose hope.
So, um, I bought the wrong system…
During my struggles, I learned that Orbi probably was not the right solution for me after all.
Orbi’s biggest advantage is its superb dedicated wireless backhaul, which is a feature I don’t need since I am able to run an ethernet cable to the satellite. I didn’t need a “mesh network,” I needed multiple access points for the same WLAN. And more control over the configuration and features of the router would have been very welcome.
I should have purchased a set of Ubiquiti Unifi APs instead. Now I know for next time.
How and where do you change the transmit power?
Router Admin -> Advanced -> Advanced Setup -> Wireless Settings
There is “Transmit Power Control” for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz
Long life to Jon ! Thanks a lot for your article , it saved my life. I was experiencing exactly the same problem since weeks : my house is too small for the power of a RBR + RBS50 🙂 –> I had some devices who were disconnecting after too many hops from an orbi to the other, of from a network to the other. I applied the 2 suggestions : reducing the power of 2 Ghz to 50 % and 5 ghz to 75% , and named differently the 2 networks and it works. It’s a shame Netgear does not publish an article on that and furthermore, does not provide the ability to have 2 differents SSIDs through the web configuration interface !! (must use telnet to do that) I can’t understand their approach. Have a good day, Hervé PS : so there is another solution that could be added to the list : buy a much larger house 🙂
I am glad this helped you. Thanks for responding.
My Orbi is still solid now with the changes above, all these months later… unless there is a power outage. Then the wired backhaul completely takes down the network and I have to wait 5-10 minutes and plug it back in. I ended up buying an extra UPS just for the satellite.
Oh, Orbi, what fun. 🙂
Thanks Jon for this great and clear steps – my Orbi is stable for 1 day without dropping internet – i bought new as kids having home schooling – did not anything like this before A our internet was fast and stable – but when plugging and installed orbi20- many problems started – till i found this help instructions … many thanks and i hope people like you stay around
There is no option to set 5Ghz to 75% on my RBR50. I have firmware V2.7.4.24. Please advise. Thanks.
Hello Jon, Greetings for metro Detroit.
I have been experiencing the same drop issues with my RBR50 and 2 – RBS50 for several months since my orbi was purchased. The issue is daily disconnects that lasted 3 -5 minutes.
I found a created around that work and crippled my coverage by disconnecting one of the satellites. My coverage was impacted and there were dead spots throughout the house and no drops.
I returned to the Internet and came across your suggestions. The changes have been made to separate 2.4 from 5GHZ traffic by SSID and after several hours I have not had any drops.
I am hopeful your suggestions will solve my issue and wanted to thank you for posting it.
Thank you,
Jeff
Orbi is junk and Best Buy should know this as that is where I bought it, based on their recommendations. Their Geek squad set it up in my house and there were drop problems from the start. They have been back and their only solution is to move the satellites around the house in different rooms and it is not working, still dropping.
Saved the day. I really appreciate you taking the time to post this. I have an LG UHD smart TV that started disconnecting after a few minutes. Following your instructions has resolved the issue
Hi Jon! Chanced on your write-up when i googled for a solution to my devices connecting to 2.4G when a strong 5G was close at hand. I live in a 2,000 sq ft apartment and moved from an Asus AC5300 monster to the Orbi to get over a couple of dead spots and after frustrations with extenders. I’ll try some of your suggestions but your writing style certainly made my home networking day!!!
Thanks!
I’ve implemented solutions 2 and 3 yesterday (hoping solution 1 won’t be necessary).
My kids were ready to murder me (“you promised faster WiFi and all we get are outages”). I sure hope this fixes the problem.
Sad to say, the WiFi outages continued. So I also created different SSIDs for the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, but I still had a short WiFi outage the next day.
Running the latest firmware (V2.2.1.210), RBR50 with 2 satellites.
Did you do the SSID separation steps on the satellite as well? The first time I did it I forgot that part.
Here’s some other settings I’ve changed not listed in the original post here:
Basic -> Wireless
2.4Ghz Channel: Changed from “Auto” to 6 (I think “Auto” was negatively affecting my 2.4Ghz-only devices. Rebooted them all after changing this and things improved.)
5Ghz Channel: 48
These channel updates may have required re-doing the SSID separation by Telnet again due to the Web UI on this page (has only one field for the SSID). But it’s been a while, not sure on that.
Advanced Setup -> Wireless Settings
– daisy-chain topology: disabled
– implicit beamforming: enabled
– mu-mimo: disabled
– fast roaming: disabled <-- guessing that fast roaming may make things worse in a home where there is overlap between router and satellite
Thanks for all your advice! Really kind of you, helping me out.
No, I don’t think I separated the SSID’s on the satellites. I will try that this weekend. I will also set the channel from “auto” to a set channel, does it matter if it’s 6?
– Daisy-chain topology: for now both satellites can reach my base station so I will disable it. At least until the summer when I will want to put one satellite in the garage to cover my garden.
– Disabling mu-mimo and fast roaming: I hope this won’t be necessary. It seems to me that with a mesh system fast roaming is really handy (walking around in the house). Same for mu-mimo (with multiple devices online). I understand how fast roaming could get you in trouble if there is a lot of overlap between router and satellite. Have you got a theory on why mu-mimo might cause trouble?
For 2.4GHz, I’ve only ever had reliable performance on channel 1 and channel 6. When I let my router choose an automatic channel, it sometimes picks something in between, and my devices seem to hate that.
I only turned off mu-mimo because at the time that I got my Orbi, their firmware was atrocious and some features weren’t working properly. Since my system is stable, I haven’t messed with it much. I may try turning it back on one of these days.
Thank you for all of your suggestions, Jon. How do I perform the SSID separation steps on the satellites as well? I already separated the 2.4 Ghz from the 5Ghz thru telnet.
I’m pretty close to taking my Orbi back to Costco. It’s pretty unbelievable how poor it is and how it seemingly can’t handle common client issues (like a laptop connected via WiFi and Ethernet at the same time). Might try using my own router and the Orbi as just an AP, but not sure if that’s worth the cost not to use those features.
I purchased it to replace my Amplifi system, which is also very disappointing considering how good Ubiquiti’s pro products are.
If I had the Costco option, I probably would have returned it back when I was struggling. I considered the same option of using it as an access point only, but never got around to it. It eventually became stable for me.
One thing I did change which I’m happy with was setting up a Pi-Hole server on an old Raspberry Pi, which now handles my DHCP assignments instead of the Orbi. I was very unhappy with Orbi’s DHCP server and Web UI, but the Pi has been rock solid in that regard.
Hi Jon, very interesting article, thanks for writing it.
I just purchased an Orbi set from Costco and I’m having issues with my pihole device. My network has two subnets one for wired devices and one for wireless devices. The pihole server services both networks (dual homed and docker handles combining the interfaces). I’ve used it like this for a few months (with an older Asus router) and it works great.
Anyway, after setting up the Orbi and two satellites I’ve been having a very difficult time keeping the Wifi radio on the pihole device to stay connected. I can manually tell it to connect to my wifi and it will then minutes to an hour later it gets knocked offline. There are a lot of messages in the syslog and this one stands out:
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-SSID-TEMP-DISABLED id=0 ssid=”MySSID” auth_failures=1 duration=10 reason=WRONG_KEY
I can’t make sense of it. I’m running and experiment tonight to see if I disable both satellites will it stay connected over night? We’ll see, if that’s the cause and I can’t remedy it, they’re definitely going back to Costco. I’m thinking power might be the trick but I don’t know yet. Need to collect more data.
I believe that my Orbi problem is slightly different. I have great connection to my Orbi’s everywhere in my house. What I DON’T have is reliable connection to the internet. I have had my internet disconnect in the middle of client calls (I work from home) and while waiting for calls (VOIP) with no notice.
I believe it is the Orbi, because I can plug my laptop into the ethernet coming into the house and it works just fine.
Anybody else having issues, not with the connection to the Orbi, but the Orbi keeping the internet connection?
Lastly, like many others, I cannot believe I bought this expensive piece of junk system, and definitely cannot believe that Netgear can’t figure out a firmware fix. In my spare time, I leave negative Orbi comments on Twitter.
I was having similar issues and tried some of the solutions above, but the cause of my problem was different. I use ooma for home phone, and somehow the ethernet cable was plugged in to the wrong ethernet port of the ooma, which apparently caused significant problems, but only with wireless connections with many devices not working at all, in particular several google homes. My wired connections continued to work. Once I plugged the ooma into the right port on the problems seem to have been fixed.
I had the same Ooma issue, I think. I moved my router and the satellites (router now in garage by the ISP and fiber modem), and the 2 satellites in the house. the OOMA was connected to a switch plugged into the satellite (the satellite was hardwired from the RBR50) and I got a wifi connection with full bars from the satellite but no internet. sorted the OOMA out, tested all cables, and things seem to be solid now. strange fallout from this plug mismatch.
I have an RBR20 Router with one RBS20 Satellite (about 30 ft away from Router) set up in a 1.3k sq ft apartment with a fair number of 2.4G and 5G wifi activity from neighbors. Since purchasing the Orbi, I’ve noticed random wifi connectivity loss due to Router reboot (about once a week), Satellite reboot (likely corresponding to Router reboot, about once a week), two of my 2.4G legacy devices dropping connectivity at least 2 times per day, and two other 2.4G legacy devices dropping connectivity about once a week.
Note that it appears Netgear disabled the means to separate the SSID’s moving forward. Salient points:
1) The telnet / 5G variable name has been changed from “wla_ssid” to “wla_2nd_ssid”
2) Latest firmware (2.2.1.210) appears to to pull whatever name you put in for the 2.4G variable (wl_ssid) and copies it back over the to 5G variable (wla_2nd_ssid) upon reboot of the router (which is required for the changes to apply)
3) Tried downgrading the firmware and redoing the telnet steps and some sort of autoupdate kicks in after the firmware downgrade bumping it back up to 2.2.1.210
4) Tried downgrading to the lowest supported firmware (2.0.0.64) after reading that Netgear disabled autoupdate for the 2.0 series but it also autoupdated back to 2.2.1.210 after about 5 mins
I’ve followed all other suggestions in the post and will evaluate ongoing. Note that when I made all suggested changes, my Satellite in showing a Poor Backhaul Status but I’ll evaluate connectivity / reboots over the next week to see how it performs.
Thanks for the detailed suggestions.
Late response but I still have separate SSIDs working, and have rebooted/upgraded firmware plenty of times. I haven’t had to downgrade the firmware since late 2017, and just always use the latest version now.
Regarding your 2.4Ghz devices: I’d recommend forcing the channel to 1 or 6 if you haven’t already tried that.
I moved from a great Asus AC5300 monster to the Orbi RBK50. Two satellites (RBS50 and RBW30) connecting wirelessly, both with fixed IP addresses assigned. Had some trouble with devices holding on to a weak 2.4 GHz signal, which this thread helped me fix by reducing the transmit power.
After six weeks of otherwise perfect performance, I started experiencing the random internet connectivity dropouts that seems to affect several users. The issue would go away after an Orbi reboot, only to recur randomly the same day or after a few days.
I have ~20 devices connected, with 8 of them being Sonos speakers connecting via a Sonos Boost wired to the router.
Spent several hours of reading various threads including re-reading this one.
Assigned fixed IP addresses to all the Sonos devices.
But what may have really helped is a change to the Orbi’s 2.4 GHz channel from Auto to 6. The Sonos is set to channel 1 via the Sonos app. I haven’t had any dropouts for a week.
Will be useful if someone with a similar issue can validate this.
I, too, had many issues with the 2.4Ghz devices until I set Orbi to use channel 6 permanently. Been meaning to update this post to include that.
Thanks for the info…it has worked good to get my fire tv to stay connected. However, now my satellite doesn’t work as well as before. I saw that you put: “Note that you must do this on both the router AND the satellite” but I can’t seem to find any info on how to do this. Please help! 🙂
Basically, you go to the http://IP-HERE/debug.htm URL on the Satellite, too. Substitute in the IP of the satellite.
Then you connect by telnet and execute the same commands that you did on the router, and reboot it.
Thanks a lot…I was finally able to get into my satellite’s telnet settings. For some reason my ssid’s are both already changed on the satellite to what I set on the main…so I also tried:
config set wla_2nd_ssid=”SSID”
But that didn’t seem to help. I’m on firmware V2.3.1.44. All was good and my satellite was working good until I updated to that a few days ago. Now my satellite keeps saying “config sync” and nothing connects to it any more. Occasionally something will, but then it goes back to the main soon after.
The only reason I’m even trying to split the SSID’s is because on of my fire tv box would randomly disconnect and it would take awhile to get it connected back. I don’t have a problem at all with my fire 4k stick or any other devices.
Another note…I didn’t change my 5Ghz SSID, but just my 2.4Ghz. Could it be helpful to change the 5Ghz also?
Ref. Walder’s post Feb 9th «But what may have really helped is a change to the Orbi’s 2.4 GHz channel from Auto to 6. The Sonos is set to channel 1 via the Sonos app. I haven’t had any dropouts for a week. Will be useful if someone with a similar issue can validate this»
I can confirm that I only changed those two settings 10 days ago, no issues since then!
Thank you for the help! I put all of these setting into place and hope to save some face… My family is frustrated and mad… wife because I purchased an un-budgeted wifi system and kids because I promised a faster and more reliable system only to have multiple outages a day (when we previously haven’t had an outage in MONTHS…) Yes – Orbi is capable of FAR greater range and wireless speeds – but what good is that if it can’t stay connected to the internet backbone?!? I’ll definitely come back if I’m having more issues!
Hi Jon, thanks for your post. I read over some comments and saw that you mentioned “separating SSID on the satellite”. I followed your steps above and had already separated SSIDs, and I assumed it was only for the router. Right? So, how do I do that for the satellite please? I have 1 router and 1 satellite. Thanks.
Sorry, I found the answer in the comment above. I will try it later today. Thanks Jon.
Jon, I’ve been reading over your information. I have sort of a different dilemma and you seem very experienced with this particular set. We’ve been using the ORBI RBR50 for about a year and a half. We also purchased ours from Costco. Honestly, to my knowledge, we’ve not had any issues until now (or did we??) Off and on for quite a few months my internet seemed to drag and lose connection. Local Internet provider and CenturyLink have been out numerous time thinking it was our phone line or connections(occasionally finding small issues that didn’t really “fix” the issue. It seemed the internet itself was slow and draggy, and then it was great again, but problems with rain (line problem I always guessed) and sometimes, the time of day. Recently a lightening strike took out the Internet port on the RBR50 (Satellites have always seemed to work well). We have about 3500sq ft over 3 floors, with numerous devices (3 TV’s, 4 phones, 2 laptops, couple tablets—guests over from time to time). The router itself is hooked up to my PC with a DSL modem and the placement of the Satellites are about 50ft through several walls apart. We were thinking of trying to replace the RBR50 with the same (if we could find that only) and possible use the router as another satellite(if that’s even possible). Now, I’m wondering if the ORBI has been my connection thief. Before I stumbled on to your thread my husband purchased a RBR20(router only) and I’m afraid to open the box. One, for fear this router wouldn’t be big enough to support the RBS50’s(2 of them with package and one hopeful using the damaged internet port router as a satellite only). Two, you and several of your replies from others, seem more experienced with digging deeper and changing information with your Satellites and Routers AND maybe wishing your hadn’t gone with the ORBI at all. Any suggestions or advice? Thanks in advance!
Maybe try asking in the Netgear forum? I don’t have any advice for your situation. Good luck, though.
I’m sorry, but Orbi is piece of crap. The fact that there are thousands of threads complaining about the same issue should tell it all. I love when the Netgear techs, want the average Joe to go under the hood to tweak what in this day and age, should be plug and play. Good lord, staying at an AirBNB that uses this POS with Google fiber – like putting low lead gas in a Ferrari. Truly, I’m having flashbacks to 1997, trying to configure a very early version of an ISDN Ascend router. Class action lawsuit is in order at this point.
i had the same problem as my home is 1,3k sq ft and was clashing between router and satelite all the time.
now i have done exactly what you have told above and surprisingly all my problem has solved.
i have done ethernet backhaul to my satelite so everything is working fine.
thank you buddy. really you have save our life.
Good article! I have similar, though, not sure exactly the same problems.
Basically, it appears as if the WiFi goes up and down. My Hue Lights and other 2.4 GHz spectrum devices have been having problems since switching to Orbi. The motion sensors are acting wonky as are the switches.
Other devices have been going on/offline as well.
However, the devices hardwired to both the router and satellite appear fine, as do my 5GHz enabled devices. That leads me to believe that the back haul on the satellite is also fine since none of the devices hardwired to it don’t have a problem.
Where do I find the setting for the channel selection? Can’t find it in the iOS app. Plus the radio strength settings?
The mobile apps were missing many important settings last time I checked (about a year ago.)
I suggest using the web interface instead. Go to your router’s IP address in a web browser.
Hi Jon
I have just recently installed the Orbi solution in my home and we have been experiencing the same WiFi issues as everyone else. I am really surprised at the length of the timeline for this thread and wish I had come across it before making the purchase. Anyway, I have tried multiple times to split the SSIDs using the above instructions. The split works for a short time but then the 5G SSID disappears and, when I check using Telnet, I see that the wla_ssid has reverted back to the same as the wl_ssid. I am using firmware version 2.5.0.38 and as I can see/connect the the new SSID for a short time, I know that the change was successful. After no more than 15 minutes, the new SSID is gone and I am back to the start. Any ideas?
I have the same problem. All my units are hardwired. When I plug a pc into my Specrum Router no drops…. I put the ORBI RBR50 in the circuit and plug the same laptop into the orbi ethernet it drops all the time.. LIKE THIS, driving me nuts ???
1/3/2020 10:45:45 PM 0:00:44
1/3/2020 10:47:24 PM 0:00:46
1/3/2020 10:56:22 PM 0:00:12
1/3/2020 10:57:54 PM 0:00:10
1/3/2020 10:59:42 PM 0:00:32
1/3/2020 11:01:25 PM 0:00:09
1/3/2020 11:02:25 PM 0:00:05
1/3/2020 11:13:19 PM 0:00:16
1/3/2020 11:21:23 PM 0:00:21
1/3/2020 11:26:36 PM 0:00:14
1/3/2020 11:30:01 PM 0:00:05
1/3/2020 11:34:30 PM 0:00:25
1/3/2020 11:36:42 PM 0:00:09
This is the ORBI log, can anyone tell me what this means and could it be part of the problem ???
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.52] to MAC address 6c:56:97:11:ac:6d, Friday, January 03, 2020 22:24:45
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.120] to MAC address b8:c1:11:b1:6f:60, Friday, January 03, 2020 22:24:38
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.30] to MAC address f4:0f:24:54:a8:72, Friday, January 03, 2020 22:24:18
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.12] to MAC address 00:d0:2d:ca:b0:ee, Friday, January 03, 2020 22:24:02
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.120] to MAC address b8:c1:11:b1:6f:60, Friday, January 03, 2020 22:23:54
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.44] to MAC address b8:d7:af:68:ae:3f, Friday, January 03, 2020 22:23:21
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.120] to MAC address b8:c1:11:b1:6f:60, Friday, January 03, 2020 22:23:01
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.44] to MAC address b8:d7:af:68:ae:3f, Friday, January 03, 2020 22:22:25
Please help me.. PhilLeone@aol.com
Same issues. I fixed it easily. Put the Orbi stuff in a box In the basement and bought a Google Nest mesh system. Works great and has never dropped the WiFi signal. Shame but the Orbi system is too buggy!
Probably a good choice. I, too, tried out the Google WiFi system but found the bandwidth and range to pale in comparison to the Orbi. But it’s probably more stable.
My Orbi *was* stable until the last firmware update around Christmas 2019. Now it’s flaky again. 🙁
My Orbi RBR50 and RBS50 where both stable until Christmas 2019 now it keeps rebooting endlessly. I’ve tried ever imaginable setting change. I’m sure everyone has seen all the orbi threads about disabling the various options but I’ve never seen any sustained improvement nor I have heard anyone explain why any of those options should fix the reboot issue to begin with. Its all superstition nonsense at this point, but I suppose when your desperate your willing to try anything.
Currently I am running the latest voxel custom firmware https://www.voxel-firmware.com/Downloads/Voxel/html/index.html and have turned off my satellite completely and now it doesn’t reboot at all unless I turn on my TV to stream netflix then it reboots in about 5 minutes.
I’ve been battling with wifi dropping for several months. I tried numerous recommendations from other posts, but splitting the 2.4 and 5GHz channels has done the job. Thanks, I was just about to replace Orbi with Unifi AP’s, but this has done the trick.
I’m having difficulty splitting the 2.4GHz & 5GHz.
I have fios, so it’s having me login there. Does anyone know how to do this?
What incredible work you’ve done to make this work. I’m happy for you that you got it working but technically, this isn’t quite correct:
“It’s become the set-and-forget system that I wanted it to be from the start.”
There is absolutely nothing set and forget about all the work you had to do to make it function as promised. The cost to you in time spent is an extraordinary time and isn’t good enough if ‘set and forget’ is the promise. I commend you on your effort though and sharing the love.
Now they don’t allow you to separate 2.4 & 5 GHz SSIDs even with the debug console. I confirmed with their representative.
This was a deal breaker for me.
Now I’m experiencing random WiFi disconnects. Its transmission power as a single device is also weak (not very weak but not great either). I do not suggest anyone of even considering buying this device at all cost.
I think NetGear’s quality control has been dropped significantly.
I tried the steps of Telnet and it works for like 3 minutes that I have 2 SSID. But after that, Orbi seems to know it and took over to disable the 5G said and reverted everything back to ONE single ssid.
I tried the second time, same happen after 3 minutes, Orbi took over and reset to ONE ssid.
Any thought?
I tried to split the SSID method. It worked for like 3minutes, before the system figured it out and reverted back to default single SSID. I thought i did it wrong, so i do it for the second time, the system again reverted it back to default after few minutes.
Anyone know why? do i need to manually downgrade my firmware to do this? believe the latest firmware from netgear block this backdoor solution.
No idea. I don’t play with the Orbi anymore as it’s been mostly stable since this post. I’m currently on firmware version V2.3.5.30 and still have two working SSIDs.
I see there’s an update available to V2.5.1.16 but I’m going to hold off on that until it automatically updates later.
config set wifison-monitor_stop=1
This will prevent the wifi SSIDs from being recombined again, this started happening with the latest firmware.
brilliant thanks vm – was on the verge of sending the whole thing back and going back to my last-gen spider-lookalike router, but this has fixed it. Other sites suggest using channel 1, 6 or 11, and splitting the 2.4 and 5 ssid’s out, but they don’t tell you that you need to do that in the satellites too.
But i think making everything static has really helped me – both pods now pumping out strong stable 5g rather than falling over every 5 minutes.
now, if only I can get my SkyQ to work as well
I feel like a right Noob asking this but once you split the SSID do you set you phone up with both and let it pick or stick with one? I am thinking of keeping my current SSID as the 5ghz one to save me reprogramming everything. Only the ring doorbell that won’t support 5ghz.