Netgear Orbi Firmware 1.12.0.18 issues

[sm00thpapa]

I just can't figure out why it's giving my SONOS speaker and Amazon Echo the same IP address. I can release and renew the WAN IP address but not local devices. The Web GUI is very laggy.

 

[RogerSC]

I'm just not seeing what you guys see. I've had Orbi running since I reviewed it and it has been trouble free. It runs in AP mode and we don't stream with it. Just web browsing and email for iPad and Android tablet and phones

Things are looking fine here as well on the latest firmware, Orbi in AP mode. Just got a new feature installed in our house that has an accompanying slow internet client for monitoring purposes. So that's going on 2.4GHz. Also noticed that the Orbi 2.4GHz. wireless signal is now 20MHz. wide. So great wireless, and no problems at the moment, there you go.

I do stream with the Orbi, that works fine, too *smile*.

 

[RogerSC]

I just can't figure out why it's giving my SONOS speaker and Amazon Echo the same IP address. I can release and renew the WAN IP address but not local devices. The Web GUI is very laggy.

If you power-cycle a client, it may get a new IP address. Have you tried that? Or you could reserve DHCP addresses for the SONOS and Echo via their MAC addresses. But that does sound broken. Do both the SONOS and Echo work? If so, it could be more a display problem than an IP address problem...like the table entries in the displayed list aren't being fully updated for some reason?

 

[sm00thpapa]

If you power-cycle a client, it may get a new IP address. Have you tried that? Or you could reserve DHCP addresses for the SONOS and Echo via their MAC addresses. But that does sound broken. Do both the SONOS and Echo work? If so, it could be more a display problem than an IP address problem...like the table entries in the displayed list aren't being fully updated for some reason?

I think it is a display issue as both devices work with no issues. The wifi is great it's the web GUI that is having issues.

 

[spinkick]

Anyone having galaxy s8 issues with connectivity to orbi? All my other devices seem ok, but the s8 keeps getting disconnected; the backhaul is really awesome.

 

[chamberc]

Anyone having galaxy s8 issues with connectivity to orbi? All my other devices seem ok, but the s8 keeps getting disconnected; the backhaul is really awesome.

Yes, on most people's 8/8+. Take a look at Netgear's forums... massive problems, but not just limited to the S8, although I will admit that is where I see the problem the most.

 

[spinkick]

Yes, on most people's 8/8+. Take a look at Netgear's forums... massive problems, but not just limited to the S8, although I will admit that is where I see the problem the most.

Yep, looks like the "fix" right now is to connect them to the guest network. I wonder why this is a fix, I wonder if the guest network doesnt get some features applied.

 

[Hydro]

Yep, looks like the "fix" right now is to connect them to the guest network. I wonder why this is a fix, I wonder if the guest network doesnt get some features applied.

If you lurk on any support forums for just about any other mesh-type router, you'll see that the S8 is having problems on all of them - it seems most likely to be a Samsung issue.

 

[RogerSC]

Yep, looks like the "fix" right now is to connect them to the guest network. I wonder why this is a fix, I wonder if the guest network doesnt get some features applied.

Yes, connecting the S8 to the guest network isn't a fix, it's a work-around that gets your phone on the internet but not onto your local network with your other devices. Hopefully Samsung will get on top of this, since it is a popular phone.

 

[spinkick]

The new s8 update is out as of yesterday and resolves this. I wonder what had to be changed?

 

[njweb]

I'm just not seeing what you guys see. I've had Orbi running since I reviewed it and it has been trouble free. It runs in AP mode and we don't stream with it. Just web browsing and email for iPad and Android tablet and phones

I have my Orbi in 'router' mode and working great for me on the same (latest) firmware.
Think I now, finally, have my semi-long term solution in place, consisting of a Motorola MB8600 DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem and an Orbi AC3000 wifi system (1 router + 2 satellites).

Been connected to my work VDI all day today and on other days a few weeks ago without any issues (not a single disconnect). I also use a Windows and mobile app that would notify me of any disconnect, however brief (unlike web surfing where you could temporarily be disconnected and not even notice it, unless you happen to be changing / loading pages or watching a video clip during the exact time frame of the disconnect).

 

[RogerSC]

I have my Orbi in 'router' mode and working great for me on the same (latest) firmware.
Think I now, finally, have my semi-long term solution in place, consisting of a Motorola MB8600 DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem and an Orbi AC3000 wifi system (1 router + 2 satellites).

Been connected to my work VDI all day today and on other days a few weeks ago without any issues (not a single disconnect). I also use a Windows and mobile app that would notify me any disconnect, however brief (unlike web surfing where you could temporarily be disconnected and not even notice it, unless you are changing / loading pages or watching a video clip during the exact time frame of the disconnect).

I've heard that DOCSIS 3.1 has features that deal with bufferbloat. Does your ISP support the new features in DOCSIS 3.1? Do you see any difference with bufferbloat using DOCSIS 3.1?

Thanks!

 

[njweb]

I've heard that DOCSIS 3.1 has features that deal with bufferbloat. Does your ISP support the new features in DOCSIS 3.1? Do you see any difference with bufferbloat using DOCSIS 3.1?

Thanks!

Good question. I have Comcast Internet; not sure if my (local) CMTS supports these new features (yet). Maybe someone else can chime in (at least for Comcast as a whole, in case their entire system does not support the new features to reduce bufferbloat, let alone the local CMTS).

 

[ikjadoon]

I'm just not seeing what you guys see. I've had Orbi running since I reviewed it and it has been trouble free. It runs in AP mode and we don't stream with it. Just web browsing and email for iPad and Android tablet and phones

I think either all our homes have some unusual interference (i.e., that didn't affect my venerable Linksys E4200), there are some hardware QA issues far upstream, or the software isn't ironed out. Noting that the Orbi is a first-gen product (i.e., dedicated 5GHz band for backhaul) and hardware replacements aren't fixing the issues, I imagine it's software.

It's been selling in huge quantities, so a corner case bug (e.g. affecting 5% of users) turns into "thousands" of users with problems (where a smaller product might only hit a few hundred). My other pet hypothesis is that the bug is actually more prevalent than 5%, but because smaller locations will have significant cover overlap in the Router and Satellite (i.e., most people survived on one router before their Orbi pair/triple) most clients just end up connecting to the Router anyways, thus masking any problems with the backhaul or satellite.

And, right. Constant connections (i.e., streaming, VOIP, network data transfer) seem to catch the brunt.

I was slightly tempted to buy the Orbi again with v.1.12, as when it works, good golly, it works like a dream. But, the recent issues have tempered my enthusiasm--I'm having flashbacks to my old issues.

I have my Orbi in 'router' mode and working great for me on the same (latest) firmware.
Think I now, finally, have my semi-long term solution in place, consisting of a Motorola MB8600 DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem and an Orbi AC3000 wifi system (1 router + 2 satellites).

Been connected to my work VDI all day today and on other days a few weeks ago without any issues (not a single disconnect). I also use a Windows and mobile app that would notify me of any disconnect, however brief (unlike web surfing where you could temporarily be disconnected and not even notice it, unless you happen to be changing / loading pages or watching a video clip during the exact time frame of the disconnect).

Out of curiosity, do you observe similar ~99%-100% uptime when you're too far to connect to the Router and are only tethered to a Satellite?

 

[RogerSC]

Not njweb, but similar experience. Acts the same whether I'm connected to the router unit or satellite unit with a cell phone or tablet, 100% reliable. That was the case on v1.12 and is also the case with the new v2.0 Beta test firmware.

 

[aaz]

...
Out of curiosity, do you observe similar ~99%-100% uptime when you're too far to connect to the Router and are only tethered to a Satellite?

I can confirm that running both 1.12 firmware and now 2.0, I have a solid connection through the satellites as well as through the router. Tested running RDP to a work machine which previously was very sensitive to any minor dropout it would drop the session. Running sessions across many days - connection remains solid.

The issue for me was something to do with UPnP (Which netgear still has not fixed - and yes I am blaming netgear even though it appears to be one of my devices on the network causing the issue - no matter how badly something is behaving the router should not drop everything else) When I turned UPnP off, the dropout issue disappeared and has not come back.