Looking for Wifi6 Mesh - No Orbi!

[John_88]

Some RT-AX86U routers had this issue very recently. Some folks had to RMA the routers.

RT-AX86U bricked after update Version 3.0.0.4.386.48377

Need help guys. Tonight my asus app presented me an update Version 3.0.0.4.386.48377 for my main router AX86U and my Ethernet backhaul connected router AX82U. My other ethernet backhaul connected router AX86S did not needed to update So via the Asus app i started the update and forgot about it...

www.snbforums.com

This is bad too, but should not legitimate the bad firmware quaility at netgear. To be honest, for that pricy hardware this quality is not acceptable.

 

[Tech9]

I can't diagnose your problem by guessing. Everyone's Wi-Fi environment is different. All you can do is play with settings and position. Newer models consumer routers are usually rushed to the market to beat the competition. First users are the actual beta testers. This testing and adjusting process may continue for years. Sometimes problems remain unsolved for the life of the product. The grass is not much greener on the other side of the fence.

 

[John_88]

I can't diagnose your problem by guessing. Everyone's Wi-Fi environment is different. All you can do is play with settings and position. Newer models consumer routers are usually rushed to the market to beat the competition. First users are the actual beta testers. This testing and adjusting process may continue for years. Sometimes problems remain unsolved for the life of the product. The grass is not much greener on the other side of the fence.

I thank you all for this productive discussion and many inputs. The AX86U may be a good wifi-router, but not in my environment and maybe not just as single router. My problem is, that I can't build a "wired" network with wired accesspoint. At the moment I don't want to open all walls to wire my house, so I am reliant on a wireless backhaul which is sometimes pain in the as*. But for the moment I can live with the fact, that these orbis deliver at least 100mBit to every edge, so I can use and enjoy my internetaccess everywhere. I would love to exchange the orbis for any other brand with a nice firmware and good tools and functions. But it looks like there is no competitor with significant better products for my usecase.My first thought was, that my RBK753 (3 accesspoints) can be exchanged for good and strong Asus ET12 (2 accesspoints). But a test with the AX86U showed me, that I really need 3 APs, because I need to "overwrite" the bad noise-level from foreign wifis on my terrace. Maybe it's also my walls or the window-glass. This is selfish, but I need a stable wifi on my terrace and in my wifes office. So I just produce more noise-level with my rbk753... Using 3 AX86U would reduce the bandwith below my acutal bandwith with an unsure outcome for reliability and throughput.

Thank you guys again, I learned a lot about wifi and I am impressed by your helpfulness and kindness with a new user of your board. This should not be the end of this thread, I am still open for advices and discussions. I just want to say thank you for that much input

 

[tgl]

I cannot explain this, but why is the orbi backhaul connection flawless from edge to edge?

Keep in mind that the backhaul connection is being made between two routers that have got bigger, better, and more antennas than just about any client device you might have. It's not that surprising if they can hold a signal where a client can't.

Having said that, I do agree with the point that you can have "too much" WiFi service. If a client doesn't see meaningfully different signal levels from two of your access points, it's a crapshoot which one it's going to connect to, and the access points can't do very much about that other than kick the client off (which translates to worse not better service).

 

[tgl]

Newer models consumer routers are usually rushed to the market to beat the competition. First users are the actual beta testers. This testing and adjusting process may continue for years. Sometimes problems remain unsolved for the life of the product. The grass is not much greener on the other side of the fence.

Sad but true --- all of the AX-class APs I've had have had bugs of one size or another. Despite that, Netgear deserve singling out for their policy of pushing out forced updates with no user choice and no option to revert to a prior version. That's a pretty dumb choice if you're not dealing with 100% rock solid code, which they should know darn well they are not.

 

[Tech9]

policy of pushing out forced updates

This is coming to all consumer routers. Custom firmware is also dying out.

 

[tgl]

This is coming to all consumer routers.

Not if we refuse to buy them.

 

[Tech9]

How many people refused to buy new routers because of firm region change and transmit power regulations in place? Auto firmware update is going to be a requirement soon, like non-removable antennas in Wi-Fi 6E equipment. For all products on the market, not for specific manufacturers only. Asuswrt-Merlin project may have some life left, but for other 3rd party firmware the newest compatible hardware was manufactured around 2017.

 

[thiggins]

why is the orbi backhaul connection flawless from edge to edge?

The Orbi backhaul radio in the RBK-753 is four stream; the client-connect radios are two stream. More streams generally means more receive gain, which extends effective range.

 

[John_88]

The Orbi backhaul radio in the RBK-753 is four stream; the client-connect radios are two stream. More streams generally means more receive gain, which extends effective range.

I still have some questions about the orbi-system which the support didn't answer...

1. I can adjust the signal-strength on the router (rbr). Does this affect the signal-strength of the satellites too? Or are the satellites always at 100%?
2. Does an adjustment of the signal-strength affect the signal-strength of the backhaul?

I could test this, but with powercycling the whole system and reconnect of all devices I need at least about 30 minutes. Because all neighbours have their systems to "auto" a powercycle lead sometimes to a channel-carousel...

 

[thiggins]

I still have some questions about the orbi-system which the support didn't answer...

1. I can adjust the signal-strength on the router (rbr). Does this affect the signal-strength of the satellites too? Or are the satellites always at 100%?
2. Does an adjustment of the signal-strength affect the signal-strength of the backhaul?

I could test this, but with powercycling the whole system and reconnect of all devices I need at least about 30 minutes. Because all neighbours have their systems to "auto" a powercycle lead sometimes to a channel-carousel...

1) Don't know.
2) No.

 

[alarinn]

I own the Orbi 6 Pro and I would steer clear of it. I'm trying all of the available FW and I still have major issues with losing internet connection. For instance, I've been down for most of the day from 17 disconnects. Re-establishing a connection takes many steps and a bit of luck and the last time I gave up. It seems if the modem birps, the Orbi can't reconnect automatically and even with turning off and then on, software reboot, etc. failed to get back on (perma magenta light). I added back my Nighthawk R7000 and no more issues. Too bad I can't create a mesh system with my R7000.

 

[muusicman]

I have an Orbi and i too have issues. Are they no good or something?

My issue:
I’m on my 2nd Orbi Mesh Unit. Same model… I have the Orbi RBK 852. It comes with 1 RBR 850 Router and 1 RBS 850 Satellite. I bought my first one in 2020. I had just got rid of my terrible DSL! It was the only internet option up to that point in my town. I live is a very small rural town. When I first got the Orbi units I had SpaceX Starlink Satelite internet. It wasn’t the most stable so I just assumed it was something to do with the fact that it was satellite internet, which it very well could have been. In 2023 a small fiber optic company finally put their fiber in my town. I jumped right on it. I was one of the first to order I’m sure as well as one of the first in my neighborhood to get hooked up. At first it was wonderful! First couple of months were awesome and the speed was lightning fast! After a few months however I started noticing some issues. The speed got a bit slower on both my wired and wireless devices than they had been at the beginning. Also, my ping went up. When first installed I was getting like 950 down and 940 up on my wired desktop with a ping of 3. Now I’m getting slightly less download and upload numbers and a slightly higher ping. Same goes for Wi-Fi. I also notice that when I’m streaming video through a service that from time to time the picture goes really fuzzy. Also, the streams take longer to load and clear in now. I don’t know what to do.

 

[sfx2000]

Asuswrt-Merlin project may have some life left, but for other 3rd party firmware the newest compatible hardware was manufactured around 2017.

Not accurate - there's a huge amount of recent work on both Mediatek and Qualcomm 11ax platforms over at OpenWRT - and this directly feeding back into Project Purple (carrier BSP's) and upstream to the linux mainline and vendor SDK's..

 

[glens]

Yeah, gl-inet has evidently been not "sitting on their hands" in that regard, as one example.

 

[Tech9]

I don’t know what to do.

Replace it with something else?

There was no need to bump 2-years old thread. You could start your own instead.

 

[sfx2000]

Synology does an ok version of mesh with their WiFi6 devices...