Netgear Orbi discussion thread

[RogerSC]

Found this on the netgear community forum and thought it may be of interest:

http://192.168.1.1/debug.htm

Some 'hidden' options - including 'Enable advanced view of Attached Devices page' which displays which device is connected to which satellite.

Seen that one before, that's the page that Netgear has you use to get a log to send to them to help diagnose problems *smile*. I do see that there's an "Enable telnet" setting that actually does work. I like that. Probably keep this one around just for that. The advanced view of the "Attached Devices" page that you can enable is also more interesting.

 

[sfx2000]

I have that checked, and for me it would normally use 20MHz. channel width on 2.4GHz., since our 2.4GHz. band is so crowded. Have noticed that despite this setting it is using 40MHz. channel, so doesn't look like there's currently a way to be polite on 2.4GHz. I use it so rarely, hardly every look at it, just to see that it's working. I wouldn't mind being able to turn it off altogether, I'd be happy with that *smile*. This looks like a support inquiry to Netgear, shouldn't be using 40MHz. channel with 20/40MHz. coexistence enabled.

The bigger deal is how to disable VHT mode in 2.4GHz - there are legacy devices that do not play well there... and this can impact adjacent WLAN's as well, depending on the age of the adjacent WLAN's chipset.

(VHT mode is not standard for 2.4GHz - 802.11n was the end of the line there)

 

[djc6]

So, issue with my Orbi. I have an iPad 2, iPad 3 both running iOS 9.3.5. They will likely never get upgraded past that, iOS 10 doesn't support them.

Anyways, both devices get like 18Mbps down and 32Mbps up (odd that upload is 2x faster download) approximately 10 feet from one of the satellites. I checked that they were connected to that satellite via 5Ghz 802.11n by using 'Net Analyzer' app.

My wife's iPad mini 4 and my iPhone 6S+ - both are 8011.ac devices - in the same location get about 310bps down and 32Mbps up - I have the 300/30 package from Cox Communications. My laptop (MacBook Pro Retina 15" ~2013) also gets 300Mbps+ in the same location.

Any ideas?

 

[pete y testing]

didnt you just ask exactly the same question in the negear orbi forum ?

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Or...-everything-else-super-fast/m-p/1167008#M1008

i cant help you as i dont run any apple gear but it does sound device related

 

[djc6]

didnt you just ask exactly the same question in the negear orbi forum ?

I asked here in the Orbi discussion thread and also on the Netgear community - any reason I can't? The venn diagram of Orbi owners on both forums probably doesn't overlap completely.

i cant help you as i dont run any apple gear but it does sound device related

Then why respond?

 

[sfx2000]

So, issue with my Orbi. I have an iPad 2, iPad 3 both running iOS 9.3.5. They will likely never get upgraded past that, iOS 10 doesn't support them.

Anyways, both devices get like 18Mbps down and 32Mbps up

The A5's in the iPad2/3 are IO bound at the end of the day... similar to the iPad Mini 1st Gen - there's a reason why folks call that group the "iPad Zombie" - and likely for the best that 9.3.5 was the end of the line for the A5 there... same goes for the Iphone 4S to some degree.

iPad 4 and the iPhone 5 are A6, and they're better at things, the A7 chips are much better, and the current A8/A9 chips don't have much of a problem - even with the iPod Touch 6th Gen (running A8 with a single stream 11ac chip)

 

[L&LD]

Wow! Genius! Is this the first to use MU-MIMO for backhaul and 4x4 config?
This is the best use of MU-MIMO if you ask me.
The problem with MU-MIMO are moving clients and the bandwidth seems overkill for clients.
I used to ignore MU-MIMO and Wi-Fi mesh but this one is genius. It makes sense!

Sorry, you're totally off base with (all) of your assumptions above.

MU-MIMO requires more than a single client to work, and, it requires clients with less antennae/streams than the router has.

The Orbi discussed here is not a mesh design at all. Even if it presents itself like that to users that don't delve into the details of how it works.

 

[djc6]

The A5's in the iPad2/3 are IO bound at the end of the day...

I hooked back up my TL-WR1043ND v2 N300 class, 2.4Ghz router and my iPads were able to get speeds 2x faster - 40Mbps down.

Curiously, when I use the Orbi both are pegged at almost exactly 20Mbps down like something is limiting it. The speed graph is a perfectly flat line that I've observed nowhere else. But why are they so much faster at uploading?

 

[pete y testing]

I hooked back up my TL-WR1043ND v2 N300 class, 2.4Ghz router and my iPads were able to get speeds 2x faster - 40Mbps down.

they are connecting at 2.4 gig on the tp link

they are connecting to the 5 gig on the orbi

try forcing the clients to connect to 2.4 gig , not sure if you can do this on apple devices but you can on android by telling them to only connect to 2.4gig in the wifi settings

 

[djc6]

try forcing the clients to connect to 2.4 gig

The iPads have far fewer settings than even the meager few on the Orbi There aren't any Wi-Fi settings other than picking the SSID to join.

 

[djc6]

you can on android by telling them to only connect to 2.4gig in the wifi settings

I was curious about this, so I grabbed my Nexus 7 (2013 2nd gen). It seems to prefer 2.4Ghz on the Orbi if I let it choose on its own - seeing 50/32 on speedtest.net. If I force 5Ghz connection on the client side, I saw 100/32 !

 

[PhoenixV]

Question about my new Orbi - after the initial install and successful sync with satellite the led's on top of both units turned off. Then I did the firmware upgrade and all went as expected, but now led on router is off, led on sattelite remains on steady blue. It stays on and doesn't go off. Orbi seems to work fine, is this expected behavior?

 

[pete y testing]

led on sattelite remains on steady blue. It stays on and doesn't go off. Orbi seems to work fine, is this expected behavior?

try just power cycling the sat as this seems to fix it as well

 

[PhoenixV]

try just power cycling the sat as this seems to fix it as well

Yes I've done that, any other ideas. It's not really a big deal, just thought it was either an added feature of the new firmware or a weird bug....

 

[pete y testing]

or a weird bug....

prob a bug somewhere , i will report it for you

 

[PhoenixV]

prob a bug somewhere , i will report it for you

Thanks. I just tried a power cycle again and the result is the same. I wonder if reloading the firmware is worthwhile? Also perhaps you know, does the TX power auto adjust down if the units are too close and the RF is too strong? If not perhaps a "connection quality" screen indicating placement or power adjustments could be incorporated (similar to the type of screen found in the Linksys RE7000) would be helpful for "ideal" placement?

 

[pete y testing]

does the TX power auto adjust down if the units are too close and the RF is too strong?

not auto , you can set the router power down manually though , but in reality you should tran and get the router and sat far enough apart to avoid too much overlap , its why for most a single router and sat is prob enough by far '

"ideal" placement?

yup dont disagree , however cant see it happening , you can however use something like inssider to do a site survey and figure out that overlap

 

[pege63]

This is a good reading
And a info video
Its not about the product but about "know how" to.

 

[PhoenixV]

This is a good reading
And a info video
Its not about the product but about "know how" to.

Page63: Thanks I'll check these out!

pete y testing: thanks for the information and help as I'm actually trying to assess the minimum distance between router & sattelite

 

[pete y testing]

minimum distance between router & sattelite

in my testing the optimum distance is about 12 to 15 meters a a wall or so away