Voxel Custom firmware build for Orbi RBK50/RBK53 (RBR50, RBS50) v. 9.2.5.2.18SF-HW & v. 9.2.5.2.18.1SF-HW

[Movcpm]

Well, I agree to use your suggested changes (p. 1). For the next release. Thank you. But cannot promise currently any help like split vpn tunnel. Orbi is used extremely intensively for a work and school now. Cannot do any experiments now. Maybe later, sorry...

Voxel.

Voxel,
Thank you very much for the response. I am going to read the work by R. Gerrits and Kamoj's addon and see if I can make it work or at least make some progress. I will keep you informed. Once again thank you for everything you do for us. I know your time is valuable - so I made a contribution under Jonathan@M******.com
Yours - Movcpm

 

[Vipz]

I'm currently still running the V9.2.5.1.17 firmware but am seeing an issue where my download speeds on all wireless devices drops to around 45 mbps max regardless of device. Previously it happened after about 20 days of uptime. This time, it happened with just about 6 days of uptime.

Rebooting the Orbi corrects this problem. However, before I do that or even upgrade to this newer V9.2.5.1.18 firmware, I was wondering if @Voxel or any of the other experienced users had any suggestions on things I can check, processes I can try and try and restart manually, or logs I can analyze that may provide some hints about what's causing the slowdown.

For context - when things are working fine, the download speeds are ~ 490 mbps.

Running 'top' shows the following, which seems mostly 'normal' to me:

Mem: 187200K used, 320100K free, 23232K shrd, 7896K buff, 37372K cached
CPU: 16.8% usr 28.8% sys 0.0% nic 47.0% idle 0.0% io 1.6% irq 5.6% sirq
Load average: 3.35 3.01 2.05 2/222 11226

Thanks.

 

[mith_y2k]

I'm currently still running the V9.2.5.1.17 firmware but am seeing an issue where my download speeds on all wireless devices drops to around 45 mbps max regardless of device. Previously it happened after about 20 days of uptime. This time, it happened with just about 6 days of uptime.

Rebooting the Orbi corrects this problem. However, before I do that or even upgrade to this newer V9.2.5.1.18 firmware, I was wondering if @Voxel or any of the other experienced users had any suggestions on things I can check, processes I can try and try and restart manually, or logs I can analyze that may provide some hints about what's causing the slowdown.

For context - when things are working fine, the download speeds are ~ 490 mbps.

I don’t think this is happening to me, but happy to help. Can we agree on a testing standard? Which Orbi do you have (v1 or 2?)? Are you connected to the router or a satellite? Ethernet or wireless backhaul? Are you using Speedtest or something else?

I’ll replicate your test as close as possible and report.


Happy

 

[Vipz]

I don’t think this is happening to me, but happy to help. Can we agree on a testing standard? Which Orbi do you have (v1 or 2?)? Are you connected to the router or a satellite? Ethernet or wireless backhaul? Are you using Speedtest or something else?

I’ll replicate your test as close as possible and report.


Happy

Thanks for offering to help mith_y2k. Wrt the questions you asked, here's the info I have:

Orbi Version: I checked on the label under the RBR50 and there's nothing that reads V2, so I'm assuming mine's the V1.

Backhaul: Wireless

Speed test method: Using Speedtest app (tested on native app on Win10 PC and Macbook Pro as well as on using App on mobile devices)

Connected to router or satellite: My config consists of the RBR50 and two satellites (let's call 'em Sat-1 and Sat-2). Currently the problem is only happening when I connect to the RBR50 wirelessly. Tests while connected to Sat-1 or Sat-2 show speeds that are mostly normal. Just redid the tests as I started to compose this message.. and here are the results:

• Sat-1 : about 230Mbps (wireless)
• Sat-2 : about 450 Mbps (wireless)
• RBR50 about 40 Mbps when testing via wireless device. About 400 Mbps testing with wired device (Win10 PC).

Any way to restart whatever process handles the wifi connection on the RBR50 without rebooting the whole thing?

 

[fourty6and2]

Will let know know if I get it working. Thanks

not sure if this helps, but here’s the process I used to recovery from a soft brick.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/c...-v-9-2-5-1-13-1sf-hw.62987/page-2#post-569555

 

[digital10]

I'm currently still running the V9.2.5.1.17 firmware but am seeing an issue where my download speeds on all wireless devices drops to around 45 mbps max regardless of device. Previously it happened after about 20 days of uptime. This time, it happened with just about 6 days of uptime.

Rebooting the Orbi corrects this problem. However, before I do that or even upgrade to this newer V9.2.5.1.18 firmware, I was wondering if @Voxel or any of the other experienced users had any suggestions on things I can check, processes I can try and try and restart manually, or logs I can analyze that may provide some hints about what's causing the slowdown.

For context - when things are working fine, the download speeds are ~ 490 mbps.

Running 'top' shows the following, which seems mostly 'normal' to me:

Mem: 187200K used, 320100K free, 23232K shrd, 7896K buff, 37372K cached
CPU: 16.8% usr 28.8% sys 0.0% nic 47.0% idle 0.0% io 1.6% irq 5.6% sirq
Load average: 3.35 3.01 2.05 2/222 11226

Thanks.

I get this sometimes even with stock firmware. Solution was to reboot 1 of the following:
1-ISP device/router
2-Orbi
3-the client(laptop,phone,tablet)

 

[Vipz]

I get this sometimes even with stock firmware. Solution was to reboot 1 of the following:
1-ISP device/router
2-Orbi
3-the client(laptop,phone,tablet)

Hi digital10,

I've already established that the problem lies with the Orbi. I'm aware that rebooting it will correct the problem. I was trying to find a surgical approach to resolving the problem (i.e. perhaps restarting some process or service instead of a full reboot). Also, trying to get some ideas on what logs to analyze or things to look for such as high cpu usage or mem usage on some process or repeated errors of some sort in a log that may provide a hint about what causes the router to get into this state.

I've posted a subsequent reply (here) with further details of my config & results observed at the RBR50 as well as the satellites across both wired/wireless connection from different devices.

Thanks

 

[theoak]

@Vips:

Are you losing your 5Ghz band with everything moving to your 2.5Ghz band?

If you experience the drop on all wireless clients, using a laptop (Windows based at least), you should be able to check what band it is connected to.

 

[Vipz]

@Vips:

Are you losing your 5Ghz band with everything moving to your 2.5Ghz band?

If you experience the drop on all wireless clients, using a laptop (Windows based at least), you should be able to check what band it is connected to.

On the 'attached devices' page in the web GUI, it still showed each of the devices that I was testing from to be connected to the 5Ghz band. Assuming this is correctly reflecting the reality, it doesn't appear that they are falling back to 2.4 Ghz. However, I will check again from the laptop when I test again.

Sadly, we lost power overnight due to storms and everything rebooted so of-course things are humming along right now at full speed!

I'd still like to gather as many other steps/options to troubleshoot this issue so I'm ready when it happens again in a few days.

 

[mith_y2k]

Thanks for offering to help mith_y2k.

I took a benchmark yesterday with the router uptime at 16 days. I'll take another today, then restart and take benchmark again. I do think when you have a fresh start you'll have less devices connected and a less full wireless, but I don't know how much that affects your bandwidth.

How many devices do you have connected to the router and are you sure there isn't one that is hogging your wireless network?

 

[Vipz]

I took a benchmark yesterday with the router uptime at 16 days. I'll take another today, then restart and take benchmark again. I do think when you have a fresh start you'll have less devices connected and a less full wireless, but I don't know how much that affects your bandwidth.

How many devices do you have connected to the router and are you sure there isn't one that is hogging your wireless network?

What's the bandwidth from your service provider? If it's 50Mbps or less, then I doubt you'll ever see any difference or issues before or after the reboot. In my case, I didn't notice the issue either until I moved to a carrier that offers > 50Mbps (my current expected bandwidth from the carrier is 400Mbps).

I mentioned uptimes to highlight the fact that the problem occurs at odd times.. sometimes, I can go 15-20 days w/o any issues and other times, maybe just 4-5 days before issues start to occur. However, others that I've spoken with that have the same problem also indicated that in their case, it was usually after a few days (2 days to a week) before they started to see the problem.

I have some 32 devices connected to my network. I'm also sure that nothing is hogging the bandwidth. Speedtests as well as extended downloads from the other devices (in my case Sat-1 & Sat-2) easily hit the near 400 Mbps even when the main RBR50 is capping out at around 40 Mbps. Thus, problem is indeed localized in this regard.

 

[mith_y2k]

What's the bandwidth from your service provider?

I have 1Gb although as reported elsewhere by others I never get the full bandwidth from Orbi, but even on the speed test in the Web UI or from a Mac on ethernet.

My benchmark from last night is 200Mbit download on 5G from a non optimal spot.

If I remember correctly your context is that a wired devices and a wireless device connected to a satellite all get better performance than a wireless device on 5G to router. Is that right?

IMHO a new wireless chip will solve this

 

[Vipz]

I have 1Gb although as reported elsewhere by others I never get the full bandwidth from Orbi, but even on the speed test in the Web UI or from a Mac on ethernet.

My benchmark from last night is 200Mbit download on 5G from a non optimal spot.

If I remember correctly your context is that a wired devices and a wireless device connected to a satellite all get better performance than a wireless device on 5G to router. Is that right?

IMHO a new wireless chip will solve this

In my case, when the problem starts to occur -- both wired and wireless connections to the satellites works perfectly, as does a wired connection to the main router. Wireless performance on the main router (once the router starts to perform badly) is bad regardless of 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz.

With your 1Gb connection, I suspect that if your Orbi does start to experience the problem I'm seeing, then you'll see a drop down to about 40 mbps on all your wireless connections (regardless of 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz). Thus, if you're still seeing sub 200 Mbps speedtest results, then I suggest not rebooting yet and waiting to see at what point (if at all) you do run into the problem. Maybe run test in a few days again and compare results then.

I didn't quite understand your comment about a new wireless chip and where you were implying a new one would help (i.e. in router or devices). Could you elaborate?

 

[mith_y2k]

I'll DM you with some details and let's get back to everyone if we can find more information

 

[brbbX]

This is what I do: in file /etc/net-lan replace the line with

option dns $($CONFIG get lan_ipaddr)

with your own DNS, you can also put a second DNS external just in case

option dns 192.168.x.x
option dns 8.8.8.8

. You can make a copy of this file, and overwrite it on every reboot with an script.

Thank you for this.
I've been trying to do it and I successfully edit the net-lan file, but in order to apply the changes I reboot and then it's lost on reboot.
I suppose that's why you said you need a script to overwrite it on reboot.
I'm very unfamiliar with this, so would you mind telling me where to place such script and the content of the script itself?

Sorry for the noob questions

edit: I was able to restart the service via telnet and the options work, however I'm still losing them at reboot. I understand I might need a USB stick to be able to keep the changes? If so, where should I put the script to be run on boot on the USB?

Edit2: it's working! I've put a USB drive with a folder overlay and put the net-Lan file on the /overlay/etc/init.d/ directory. It wasn't booting. Then I remembered to chmod +x the file and it's working as it should. I'm so happy!

 

[mith_y2k]

SCP is working by default since the very first release. I am using it very often. No special actions to enable it.

What problems? SCP on ORBI or SCP on remote client to/from ORBI?

Finally had a minute on my personal laptop to try once more and answer your questions. I am trying to SCP from my computer TO the Orbi. This is what I'm getting:

Laptop:tmp andrea$ scp testfile.txt root@192.168.1.1:
ash: scp: not found
lost connection

Interestingly, when I'm connected to the Orbi via SSH and I try "which scp" it does find it in /usr/bin/scp

 

[kalpik]

Finally had a minute on my personal laptop to try once more and answer your questions. I am trying to SCP from my computer TO the Orbi. This is what I'm getting:

Laptop:tmp andrea$ scp testfile.txt root@192.168.1.1:
ash: scp: not found
lost connection

Interestingly, when I'm connected to the Orbi via SSH and I try "which scp" it does find it in /usr/bin/scp

This basically means your LAPTOP doesn't have SCP installed.

 

[mith_y2k]

This basically means your LAPTOP doesn't have SCP installed.

While I am 99% sure I used SCP before I did think of that and thought maybe the recent macOS upgrade removed it for some reason.

Laptop:tmp andrea$ scp
usage: scp [-346BCpqrTv] [-c cipher] [-F ssh_config] [-i identity_file]
            [-J destination] [-l limit] [-o ssh_option] [-P port]
            [-S program] source ... target
Laptop:tmp andrea$ which scp
/usr/bin/scp

 

[Skippy Bosco]

Hi digital10,

I've already established that the problem lies with the Orbi. I'm aware that rebooting it will correct the problem. I was trying to find a surgical approach to resolving the problem (i.e. perhaps restarting some process or service instead of a full reboot). Also, trying to get some ideas on what logs to analyze or things to look for such as high cpu usage or mem usage on some process or repeated errors of some sort in a log that may provide a hint about what causes the router to get into this state.

I've posted a subsequent reply (here) with further details of my config & results observed at the RBR50 as well as the satellites across both wired/wireless connection from different devices.

Thanks

You've established that rebooting Orbi solves the problem. Orbi is a possible symptom, but potentially not the cause.

Here is something to test, next time it happens, reboot your internet modem and not your Orbi and see what happens.

I'd also look at your network devices in your environment as that is often a contributor to the issue. Sonos and some smart TVs have known to cause issues as have wired computers with poorly optimized or old drivers.

 

[Vipz]

You've established that rebooting Orbi solves the problem. Orbi is a possible symptom, but potentially not the cause.

Here is something to test, next time it happens, reboot your internet modem and not your Orbi and see what happens.

I'd also look at your network devices in your environment as that is often a contributor to the issue. Sonos and some smart TVs have known to cause issues as have wired computers with poorly optimized or old drivers.

Hi Skippy Bosco,

Thanks for your feedback!

Practically speaking, if wired connections to the RBR50 as well as all connections to the Sat-1 & Sat-2 are easily able to hit the 400+ MBps speeds, and it's only the wireless connections to the RBR50 that are experiencing problems, then it would appear that the cable modem is doing its job correctly and rebooting it really ought not to change anything. However, when I had started troubleshooting initially and was in the process of localizing the problem, I'd started first by rebooting the cable modem and it did not help. Following this, I ended up categorically re-running the test from different devices, each connected to a different Orbi device (i.e. RBR50 vs. the satellites) and observed that problems were localized to one Orbi device typically (either the RBR50 or one of the satellites). Rebooting the offending device always fixes the problem. While I've seen this problem occur in the past with the satellites as well, more recently (past 2-3 months) it's always been the RBR50 that experiences the issues.

Good point about offending devices that may be contributing to the problem.. I did see on the Netgear forums that people with some Samsung Smart TV's and Wifi Sensors indicated that they saw typical problems go away when they removed these devices from their network. I've tried doing this at time of problem occurrence by powering down suspect devices and waiting a few hours to see if things improve -- they didn't I've also left some of those devices that I suspected out of the network for now by wiping their Wifi settings so they don't connect to the network.