Voxel Custom firmware build for Orbi RBK50/RBK53 (RBR50, RBS50) v. 9.2.5.1.33SF-HW & v. 9.2.5.1.34SF-HW

[digital10]

Will wait for someone to measure this experiment for us, how significantly better performance you get out of the Orbi in AP mode vs Router.

meanwhile, whats a good router to use with Orbi?

 

[superczar]

Will wait for someone to measure this experiment for us, how significantly better performance you get out of the Orbi in AP mode vs Router.

meanwhile, whats a good router to use with Orbi?

I personally use the Ubqiuiti ER-X - as I needed something that supports gbe and dual WAN.
While it was a little tricky to setup initially, it has been extremely reliable since.

 

[digital10]

so I got an r7000 that I can use as router and make the Orbi in AP mode, but how can I measure the performance of Orbi as router+Wireless Wifi vs AP mode only?

I personally use the Ubqiuiti ER-X - as I needed something that supports gbe and dual WAN.
While it was a little tricky to setup initially, it has been extremely reliable since.

does it have web interface?
can you setup stuff like specifying outgoing DNS and give dedicated IP address to wach device? does it have PoE?

 

[Voxel]

how significantly better performance you get out of the Orbi in AP mode vs Router.

Look. AP mode vs router mode, right, the device is loaded less a bit in AP mode. But if you disable these strange for me NG's stuffs (well, how to name them...) "cookies" such as Armor, Cloud, Circle etc. your ORBI in router mode will be freed to act exactly as a router. Its primary goal. That's all. You will get the same performance in the router mode vs AP mode. Just do not waste your money buying other gadgets. I think so. IMO.

P.S.
The only disadvantage of ORBI now (again IMO) is impossibility to split 2.5GHz and 5GHz SSIDs keeping stability of connection.

Voxel.

 

[superczar]

so I got an r7000 that I can use as router and make the Orbi in AP mode, but how can I measure the performance of Orbi as router+Wireless Wifi vs AP mode only?


does it have web interface?
can you setup stuff like specifying outgoing DNS and give dedicated IP address to wach device? does it have PoE?

It does have a web interface that is sufficient for most config tasks.
If yours is a especially complicated setup then some finagling on the CLI may be needed but not otherwise.

Outgoing DNS and fixed IP addresses - yes
PoE - my model doesn’t but i think there is a PoE variant as well

 

[superczar]

Look. AP mode vs router mode, right, the device is loaded less a bit in AP mode. But if you disable these strange for me NG's stuffs (well, how to name them...) "cookies" such as Armor, Cloud, Circle etc. your ORBI in router mode will be freed to act exactly as a router. Its primary goal. That's all. You will get the same performance in the router mode vs AP mode. Just do not waste your money buying other gadgets. I think so. IMO.

P.S.
The only disadvantage of ORBI now (again IMO) is impossibility to split 2.5GHz and 5GHz SSIDs keeping stability of connection.

Voxel.

I switched Orbi to Router mode out of curiosity
Internet performance on devices seemed to about the same but after 24 hours, I flipped it back to AP
It seemed to be causing some random issues - mostly LAN-LAN communication related

e.g. devices that I had disabled from Internet access (IP cameras ) were not showing up on LAN NVR either
Harmony hub devices were also acting flakey and were taking longer to respond

I do acknowledge this is circumstantial/ anecdotal evidence but things are back to normal since I flipped back to AP mode so that is how I will leave it

 

[superczar]

So the LAN-LAN comm issue seems to have started in AP mode also after a power cycle today

Let me explain a bit

192.168.5.1 - Router (ER-X)
192.168.5.5 - RBS20
192.168.5.6 - RBS50 (Voxel)
192.168.5.7 - RBR50 (Voxel)

Both satellites are on wireless backhaul, no daisy chain

Now let's say I have a wired device at 192.168.5.64 (let's call it D1)
Ping from router , RBS20 and RBR50 to D1 work just fine
However ping from RBS50 to D1 won't work. Any devices connected to RBS50 cannot see D1 either
The RBS50 (as well as devices connected to it) can however access the internet just fine .

The ARP entries on all devices seem fine with no corrupt entries either.
It's almost as if devices on RBS50 are on a different subnet altogether (which they of course aren't)

The issue is not specific to voxel. In fact this randomly occuring issue was my primary reason to move to voxel in the first place.
Any suggestions on troubleshooting would be welcome

 

[CrimpOn]

I missed what D1 is wired to (ER-X, RBR50, RBS50, RBS20)?

 

[Skippy Bosco]

It is probably not a good idea to have a mix of Voxel and non Voxel in your environment. I'd encourage you to run as close to the same level of firmware across your router and satellite as possible.

To confirm, your ER-X is plugged into the WAN port of the Orbi router?

 

[superczar]

It is probably not a good idea to have a mix of Voxel and non Voxel in your environment. I'd encourage you to run as close to the same level of firmware across your router and satellite as possible.

To confirm, your ER-X is plugged into the WAN port of the Orbi router?

Yes, it is plugged to the WAN port.

To re-clarify, The problem is not voxel. It's just that I had hoped that Voxel would fix it.
It's also something other users with 2sat+1 router setup have reported (added some links to bottom)

The issue originally started over a year ago when I added a 2nd satellite (i.e. not factory paired) .
Things work fine for many days till they suddenly go wonky, typically after a power outage and a reboot.

Switching off the 2nd Sat fixes it immediately.
My best guess at the moment is that something goes off in the backhaul routing tables during the satellite sync.

When this issue occurs, All devices can find an upstream route to the Internet just fine.
However wired devices or devices connecting to RBR50 cannot see devices connected to RBS50 while devices connected to RBS50 can see some devices on wired network or RBS50 but not all.

Eventually what works is resetting the 2nd sat and re-syncing it to the RBR.
I do have the option of running a wire to the 2nd Sat - if this occurs again, I will give that a try

Other user reports:

Orbi loosing part of the network NOT Internet

I have strange disconnection problems that it is not loosing Internet access. But I am losing part of my LAN that is connected to one satellite. I have 2 satellite and 1 Orbi router set up. All parts of the network could access Internet and no issues as far as I could tell. However...

community.netgear.com

Serious Satellite Connectivity Bug

This is not intermittent or difficult to reproduce. I consistently am unable to connect to devices on my Orbi network. I have seen this problem 15-20 times over about 2 weeks and I have power cycled, reset, and re-paired the satellites 5 times each in various orders. I have an RBR50 with two...

community.netgear.com

Devices attached to satellites unable to talk to each other

For the last few weeks I've noticed issues where devices on my network aren't able to reliably talk to each other. Specifically I have a NAS and a server PC attached via Ethernet to a satellite in the basement, and my laptop connected to either an upstairs satellite or the main router via WiFi...

community.netgear.com

 

[mith_y2k]

For what it’s worth any time I’ve had an unexpected reboot such as after power outage I always needed to turn everything off, then router on, then one sat, then the other. This takes a little extra time for all clients to adjust and hop on the closest sat, but resolved lag and poor connection. I never had routing issues as described above, though

 

[cdysthe]

I have an RBR50 and one satellite RBS50. If I install Voxel's FW on the router, how do I handle the satellite? I have used Voxel's FW in the bast but only of single router networks.

 

[CrimpOn]

Voxel provides firmware for both router and satellite. Perform a manual install using the appropriate firmware for each.

 

[digital10]

I have an RBR50 and one satellite RBS50. If I install Voxel's FW on the router, how do I handle the satellite? I have used Voxel's FW in the bast but only of single router networks.

its recommended you install firmware on satellite first then main router

 

[gpz1100]

Anything for the lbr20?

 

[CrimpOn]

Voxel doesn't have an LBR20. And.... the LBR20 is a very different machine than the RBR50 that he does have.
So, "no".

 

[Voxel]

Anything for the lbr20?

It is interesting for me. But I do not have a lot of various devices...

Voxel.

 

[gpz1100]

Thanks. I wish netgear would enable more functions by default. Seems like most of their consumer gear is very dumbed down.

 

[hazarjast]

It is interesting for me. But I do not have a lot of various devices...

Voxel.

I would be happy to ship you an LBR20 for dev work if you were interested in porting your firmware to it. I know there is a lot of interest in getting better firmware on the device from those in the rural community who rely on LTE for internet access. I work with many folks who use the LBR20 as their main source of Internet who would benefit greatly from your firmware. I believe it is using very similar Qualcomm quad core SoC as others in the Orbi line and it has already UART pins for easy serial console access.

 

[Voxel]

I would be happy to ship you an LBR20 for dev work if you were interested in porting your firmware to it. I know there is a lot of interest in getting better firmware on the device from those in the rural community who rely on LTE for internet access. I work with many folks who use the LBR20 as their main source of Internet who would benefit greatly from your firmware. I believe it is using very similar Qualcomm quad core SoC as others in the Orbi line and it has already UART pins for easy serial console access.

Thank you. I am interested of course. Because I have to use LTE as well (one of my place).

But do you realize that if you ship me this gadget it means that it will be left with me forever because firmware releases require periodic maintenance and updates?

Voxel.