RBK852

I live in a bungalow which is around 4500 sq ft carpet with 6000 sq ft buildup with access to parking and terrace. I was looking for professional level Wi-Fi solution which will cover below points.1. Strong Wi-Fi coverage covering atleast 4000 sq ft plus area.2. One home one Wi-Fi (SSID).3. Wi-Fi performance (read speed) which should be more than good throughout my house.4. Non messy Wi-Fi solution.5. Scalable solution for future expansion as and when needed.Guess what OBRI RBK50 Mesh Solution clicks all the above points.Prior to using Netgear ORBI, I had purchased Asus GT2900 high end wireless router which claimed very lager coverage but unfortunately that was not the case and the claimed Wi-Fi coverage was only when the router was placed in open area. The penetrative power of Wi-Fi signals was pretty low inspite of 4 external antennas. I had to return the router after 3 days of testing as it was not giving the required performance.Next I started searching for Wi-Fi solution which will cover the above mentioned points and after comparing multiple Wi-Fi solutions from Linksys to TP Link and Asus's own Mesh Wi-Fi solution I finally opted for Netgear ORBI Mesh solution.I have purchased 1+1 (one router and one satellite) to ensure the required Wi-Fi coverage. Its been a week I am using the Wi-Fi system and I am very much pleased with performance.My house has thick walls and the three bedrooms are located in 3 corners of the house.Due to constrains the main router can be place only in one of the corner room and the satellite part of the system placed in another bedroom. Inspite of this the backend connection between the router and satellite is very strong (shows as GOOD in Orbi App) thanks to additional dedicated band for back haul link.I have 100Mbps fiber connection and from any room I get 85 to 95Mbps consistent speed although I have 19 devices (6 laptops /mac, 4 Smart TV, 8 Smart Phones, multiple IoT devices, couple of outdoor security camera etc) connected to the Wi-Fi network at any given point of time.Apart from this there is decent Wi-Fi coverage on my terrace above but the signal struggles in parking area. So overall I'm very satisfied with my purchase and would recommend this product to anyone who need robust Mesh Wi-Fi solution for their home or office.Some Drawbacks1. ORBI app yo manage the devices is very basic and need improvements in multiple areas.2. There are different models of Mesh Wi-Fi systems available from Netgear and none of these would work seamlessly with each other (for eg. RBK10 won't work seamlessly with RBK 50) and there are limitations like no single SSID, no direct Wi-Fi connectivity to main router etc. So anyone buying this solution should avoid having 2 different Mesh systems (although I did figure some work around to this using wired connection).3. ORBI system comes with Bitdefender Anti Virus Ani Malware software built-in the device and can protect devices connected to the network. But the drawback is the system is free for one month after which wr have to pay around 5K per year for Bitdefender services. But by paying 4K we can have all our mobile and laptops covered with bitdefender solution without paying additional charges for each of them.4. The parental control system via "Circle" app is also free for one month post which we have to shell 850 rupees a month for parental controls which is ridiculous. Still the free version of Circle app does provide basic parental protection but its very basic and not useful.Overall satisfied with the purchase. I also have ORBI RBK10 dual band Wi-Fi system which is smaller version of the mesh system and good for small to medium house and comes in 1+1 or 1+2 configuration (router and satellite) and costs much less (9k for 1+1 and 14k for 1+2 configuration) and both works great.

I was looking to extend my home wifi range to the farthest corners of my home and was already using a wife mesh system earlier but with a few dead spots. After upgrading to the NETGEAR RBK53 Wifi Mesh System, all my worries are now over. I can sit in any corner of my house without worrying about the wifi range not available.

I have the Orbi RBK 50 router connected to ACT Fiber E-PON ONT (outdated 2011 model), placed at the entrance hall. And, the Orbi RBS 50 satellite wired to my PC in the bedroom. Provides excellent to good coverage throughout most of the 2200 sq. ft. home, except in the third bedroom where the reception is average. I could fix that with another satellite, however the price is too high for that (INR 14k for just one satellite). Speeds over WiFi are close to what I was getting wired on ethernet i.e. ~95 MBPS (limited by outdated ONT). Aesthetics are great and I have not noticed any heat (will have to check in summer, as it is currently <20 C where I live). Now here comes the PROBLEM and thankfully an online SOLUTION. The PROBLEM is well known if you google it. Many have reported frequent short dropouts of the internet. I was getting 15 second drops every 20-30 mins. A very annoying situation if you are in the middle of work calls. Here is the SOLUTION that worked for me.SOLUTION: I changed a bunch of settings using the full interface (access it through web browser, not the mobile app). Don't ask me which specific setting fixed it because I don't know. Here are the settings that I changed all at once - After updating the Firmware it is recommended to reset the router to factory defaults and re-setup your router. Once done go into WiFi settings and change 2.4ghz band to 11. Within Wifi Advanced settings enable Beamforming, enable Mu-MIMO, keep WMM enabled, DISABLE daisy chain and DISABLE fast roaming. It was recommended to Set Short preamble instead of Long in preamble modes. However I missed it and it's at Automatic. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s). No dropouts since the last 5 hours fingers crossed. PS: I am using Internet Connection Manager extension on google chrome browser.

Good product worth it! Easy to configure as well

My last few routers have all been Asus routers, I tend to by the biggest one I can get to get coverage in all areas of my home. My old Asus RT-AC87U router is located in my man cave which is in the basement of my ranch house and all the way at one end of the house. Because of this placement it makes getting a good strong signal upstairs and at the other end of the house a little difficult. I’ve tried various methods to extend the wifi in the past including using power line adapters and wifi repeaters, they’ve always been a little flaky so I always try and just buy a big router instead.I’ve seen the mesh wifi routers becoming more popular, there big selling point is that everything is seamless to install and configure, you don’t have to mess with setting up multiple routers in bridge mode or anything else, you just plug them in and they all work together to form a big wifi mesh network. I started looking at the 2 that had been out for a while, Eero and Luma and they seemed fairly decent but had mixed reviews. Then I saw that NetGear had come out with their own, the Orbi. I had intended to just upgrade to another big honkin router, the Nighthawk X6 AC3200 but the Orbi caught my eye and was getting very good reviews so I thought I would give it a try instead.One thing that stood out with the Orbi is it’s dedicated backhaul, which is the connection between the main router and the satellite routers, other mesh wifi systems use the same radios that is used for user traffic for the connections between devices as well. The Orbi has a dedicated radio for that to separate that traffic and not use up user bandwidth which allows for better performance. So after reading up on everything I could find about the Orbi and seeing good things I ordered the 2 unit model (router + satellite).When it arrived I opened it and it was very nicely packaged, the router and satellite units are the same size and fairly big (also a bit slippery). I followed the quick install instructions, removed my old router, unplugged my cable modem, plugged it back in, turned on the main Orbi router, plugged it into the cable modem, placed the satellite upstairs and plugged in the power and finally plugged my desktop PC into the wired Ethernet port on the main Orbi router. On the Satellite unit, when I plugged it in it was supposed to glow amber and then change to blue once it connected to the main Orbi router, no luck there, it just kept flashing white despite it being only about 15-20 feet away from it. I gave up on that and went back to getting the main router configured.I then went to http://orbilogin.com and that’s when my problems started. The first thing it does is check for an internet connection, it kept timing out saying it couldn’t connect to the internet. I checked the cable between it and the cable modem, I turned the Orbi router on and off and still no luck, finally I had to power cycle the cable modem again and it worked. It went through the setup process, then asked me to register it, I put my serial number and info in, it said it would send me a confirmation email and waited for me to acknowledge that email before it could proceed. I never got the email so I just closed the window and went back to the main Orbi admin page.Both the satellite and main router had pretty old firmware versions so I went to the firmware update page, it detected new firmware for the router but was stuck on “Please wait” while checking for new firmware on the satellite, because of this the update buttons wouldn’t work either. I waited about 10 minutes and it was still stuck, I tried again and the same thing happened, finally I gave up and called Netgear’s support.Trying to navigate to NetGear’s support was another fun challenge, they seem to hide any way to contact phone support on their main website. They also want you to take a picture of your receipt that you bought the unit to get to support. I wasn’t having any of that, I was already getting fed up that this supposedly super easy Orbi was already giving me problems. I finally google’d Netgear support phone number and found the number to call them.The first guy I talked to was your typical, read from a script, I know very little type of support guy, I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere fast with him. He kept making useless suggestions and asking non-relevant questions, he also wanted me to move the satellite closer to the router. I told him I wasn’t going to do that, if those 2 units can’t communicate well enough from 15-20 feet away moving them closer wasn’t going to do anything. Finally I got fed up and asked to talk to a supervisor.The supervisor didn’t seem any more skilled then the first guy, he said he could have someone from advanced support call me back, I finally was about to hang up and told him to forget it I’m just going to return this. This got me an immediate “I’ll transfer you to someone who actually knows what they are talking about” response. In a few minutes I was talking to their advanced support who did a remote session to my desktop.They went through the process of downloading and manually updating the satellite firmware. Apparently there is a bug in the earlier firmware version where you can’t automatically update firmware through the admin console. Once that was manually applied the satellite unit re-started and then it looked like the main router unit updated it’s firmware automatically and re-started as well. From that point they were both at the latest firmware versions and everything was working. You can only make a first impression once and with the issues I experienced while setting Orbi up my initial excitement at getting a new wireless router quickly turned to frustration and aggravation.I checked my signal strength upstairs and at the opposite side of the house (see above) and it was very strong, much stronger then with the single Asus router. Also note that I pretty much get 5Ghz coverage anywhere in the house now both upstairs and downstairs where I only was able to get it downstairs in the man cave and just outside before.So after an hour or so of aggravation everything was finally working. I’m only on my first day with the Orbi, it seems to be working well now but only time will tell. The hardware seems solid, the admin UI seems laggy and is a bit plain and basic but it has a fairly decent amount of advanced networking features. There is also no cloud management connection required like some of the other mesh systems require were if you lose internet connectivity your whole LAN is down as well. The Orbi does have 3 wired Ethernet ports which is a big plus, I do have a NetGear 24-port smart switch that I use for a home lab but it’s nice to not have to use that if needed.One thing I had wanted to know was the status of the backhaul connection between the router and the satellite to see if they were optimally positioned. The Orbi admin UI just simply says “1 Satellite connected” but tell’s you nothing about the status and strength of that connection. The LED ring on top of the satellite only works when you initially plug it in and then goes dark. I’d like to know that the satellite is working and how well it’s working, it would be nice if that LED ring would stay on or could be turned on if desired to tell you how the satellite is doing. I also hate looking at the main router and having no visible indication of what the hell it’s doing, it could be off for all I know. NetGear put that LED to work and make it configurable in the admin UI. How about different colors for certain states and pulsing speed based on how busy it is. It would also be nice if the admin UI could show you more detail on the router-satellite connection.There are really two big components to a wireless router, it’s hardware and it’s software, you need the combination of both of these to be good to have a great product. I won’t dispute NetGear has always had great hardware and that looks to still be the case with the Orbi, but quite frankly there software has always been pretty crappy. My past few routers have been Asus and if it’s one thing that Asus has nailed it’s their software which totally kicks ass, there admin UI is feature rich, very nicely laid out and easy to use and they update it constantly. You can even get the Merlin builds which are based on the stock software which take it to the next level. Coming from Asus, looking at NetGear’s UI is a big let down, it’s plain, basic, lacking and it looks like a 10 year old designed it. You also have to download a separate Windows NetGear Genie app to do certain things, why can’t I do it all in the web based UI? Also how about being able to show a network map and maybe some basic device usage reporting? NetGear if you would just give your admin UI an overhaul you would have a killer product.Now let’s talk Parental Controls which is one area that NetGear has always sucked at which is one of the major reasons I always chose Asus over them in the past. I would of thought by now NetGear would have been able to figure out this important feature to any parent and implement it correctly. Instead they have a half-assed & weak Parental Controls in their admin UI and then they punt and say go use Open DNS if you want more which would work great until your kid figures out how to change their DNS server. On my Asus router, I had full Parental Controls built-in including the most important one to me, time of day access control by MAC address so I can shut my kids internet off at night at a specific time. While NetGear has time controls built-in it impacts every device connected to the router not just specific ones. Is it really that hard NetGear to implement time of day controls by MAC address?All in all if I would say I’m satisfied with the Orbi so far and will likely keep it, what any wireless router has to do really well is perform and that is what counts the most as you are using it day in and day out. Things like the admin UI you do not frequently use so as long as my wifi is fast and gives me good coverage across my entire house I’m all good. It would be nice if they improved the admin UI, parental controls, LED light functionality and other things. The Orbi is still pretty new so hopefully the software improves over time which would make me even happier.UPDATE (12/11/16):After living with Orbi for a few days now, all I can say is: damn this thing kicks ass. I get awesome coverage all throughout the house and I can get 5Ghz anywhere. From one of the farthest points from the main router and satellite my iPad speed test is around 170Mbps, crazy fast. My PC that is wired to one of Orbi’s Ethernet ports does a speed test at 232 Mbps. Also in that same room were I would regularly get the flashing wifi signal in Clash of Clans meaning I’m about to get disconnected (CoC tends to be latency sensitive), I have not been disconnected once with Orbi. I’m very happy with how well Orbi performs and would recommend it to anyone looking for whole home wifi, NetGear please just work on your admin UI and I’ll be even happier!UPDATE 2 (12/13/16):NetGear yesterday released a new Orbi firmware version (1.4.0.18) it was mostly minor but contained support for a new IOS/Android app that was released yesterday for management. My initial thoughts were, great now I have to go through another painful firmware upgrade process, and also cool an app that might make device management easier. The firmware upgrade went OK without issue this time around, I upgraded it through the admin UI and it was pushed out to both the main router and satellite. I downloaded the admin app to my iPad hoping for new management goodness and when I launched it found it to be a bit of a joke, you can do almost nothing in the app and it’s got to be the most basic app I’ve seen looking like someone wrote it less than an hour.When you launch the app you’re greeted to their dashboard which is nothing more than a screen with a giant picture of an Orbi with the only information shown being your Wifi network and password. If you browse the limited menu they have stuck in the corner all you can do is show device info (nothing more than the model, MAC address and the firmware version only for the router) and connected devices and that’s about it. My excitement of having an iPad management app quickly went to this royally sucks, app deleted. Again NetGear looks to not have a clue at designing a useful and nice management UI/app, they are lucky their hardware is keeping me a customer because their administration interfaces are trying real hard to push me away.Pluses: 3 wired Ethernet ports Fast and strong wifi signal Nice looking hardware Dedicated backhaul channel between router & satellite Router is pre-paired with satellite unit No cloud management required Has a decent amount of advanced networking featuresCons: LED light rings on top are fairly useless Crappy admin UI is fairly bland and a bit laggy No way to see details of router-satellite connection No time scheduling parental controls by MAC Firmware upgrade is buggy IOS app is terrible Support isn’t great unless you tell them you are returning itUPDATE 7/13/17:Despite an initial rough start with the NetGear Orbi Home Wifi System I’ve been a big fan of it up until today. The reason I bought the Orbi was because I kept having wifi drops in some areas of my house with my Asus RT-AC87U router. I play a lot of online games like Clash of Clans and if you know CoC the dreaded wifi symbol while you are playing is not something you want to see. That symbol means your connection sucks and you are about to get dropped, I would get that frequently with my Asus router. Once I had Orbi up and running my wifi problems were completely gone for 7 months, until today.Netgear pushed out a 1.12.0.18 update to my router and satellite last night and today I awoke to constant and frequent disconnects on both my iPad Air 2 and Galaxy S7 Edge. I could literally not go a minute without a disconnect. I called their support who was basically useless, they said to enable Implicit Beamforming which has been disabled by default many updates ago because of issues it caused with some devices. I tried that anyway and it seemed to help a little with the iPad but not the Galaxy S7.Ironically Netgear had a big focus on fixing wifi disconnects with this update which has apparently plagued them from the beginning, read the Netgear forums and there are lots of threads on this issue like this one and this one. They also have problems with the Orbi losing connection to your internet device (i.e. cable modem), I also experience this frequently as well, the only fix is to reboot the cable modem. Most of the updates up until now have not really done all that much, this one had a lot of big fixes as seen below: Fixes the iOS disconnection issue. Fixes the Dropcam disconnection issue. Fixes the convergence issue when an Ethernet connected device moves from one Orbi to another. Fixes the issue where the Orbi app can’t find the Orbi router if the router is using IPv6 and is in AP mode. Fixes the issue where the Orbi app can’t display more than 20 connected devices. Fixes the issue where the installation assistant might not display if the device is connected to the Orbi network wirelessly. Fixes the issue where the 2.4 GHz backhaul setting is disabled if the fronthaul MU-MIMO and TxBF is disabled. Fixes the issue where IPv6 devices on the guest network can access the Orbi router’s web GUI. Includes security fixes for the following security vulnerabilities:PSV-2016-0133, PSV-2017-0607, PSV-2017-0615, PSV-2017-0736, PSV-2017-2190So an update that supposedly fixes disconnect issues (which I never experienced) does the opposite and starts causing them instead. Thank you Netgear for breaking my perfectly wonderful wifi system. Apparently their engineering team has been spending most of their time introducing new Orbi devices and not spending much time refining their current firmware.I ended up downgrading both my router and satellite to the prior version which is 1.11.0.20 which has been working perfectly. In fact I have never had an issue with an Orbi update until now, I’m beginning to suspect the reason why is that they haven’t really done much with any of their 11 updates up until this one. Look at their typical release notes for the last 3 updates: 1.10.1.2 – Fixed few bugs 1.9.1.2 – Fixes bugs and security issues. – Improves the firmware upgrade process. – Continuous improvement in wireless connection stability 1.8.0.6 – Fixes bugs and security issues. – Supports Korea wireless regionNow that they have finally starting to pay attention to some of the serious issues that Orbi has had they have apparently tried to fix some things and broke other things. At this stage with this new update I’m not going to update past 1.11.0.20 until Netgear gets their act together which is a shame as I will be missing out on potentially other fixes and enhancements. I loved my Orbi up until today and just yesterday was recommending it to people. However after this update dropped I will not recommend it anymore and may just end up migrating to one of the competing systems from Ubiquiti, Google and Eero which is a shame as Netgear had a good thing going with Orbi. Ultimately it comes down to what works best for me and if Orbi can no longer deliver that anymore than it’s adios amigo.

I'm going to keep this short, because otherwise I'll end up deleting this after several revisions and give up. For this I product line (Orbi RK50), this will be my third attempt, because I feel rather strongly about it. Also, you may find this review somewhat strange, because I will spend most of the time not talking about it. If you have the time and patience, please bear with me - I promise there's a point to it. Finally, I apologize in advance if this review contributes toward you deciding to buy this wifi distribution system and it turns out not to meet your needs. There are always edge cases where even the best products will underperform. Wireless data transmission, unlike wired, is strongly affected by a number of external factors, such as obstacles (e.g. material type and thickness), competing signals (vicinity and number) that cause interference and result in diminished performance.In my case, there are only a small number of other signals in the neighborhood; but due to the position of the cable modem providing internet service - which is situated on the second floor, in a far corner - there were many dead zones throughout the house. The built in wifi transceiver of the modem (a typical FIOS unit) provided relatively adequate service on that floor; but on the first floor, the signal was significantly diminished and entirely inadequate for reliably streaming video to the television that sits at the opposite end of the house. In addition, there is an adjunct structure that was added later and connects on the opposite end first floor via a thick door. Beyond this point, the signal was very faint and could only be picked up sporadically, near the door. Suffice it to say, the entire basement was a dead zone and areas in between varied from acceptable (first floor, closest to the modem) to mostly inadequate.(note: if you are unfamiliar with some of the terminology in this section, don't let it confuse you. I'm providing the additional information mainly to clarify the effort I put into solving the problem.) My first attempt was to simply reuse existing hardware: a 3 year old 1900AC router with dual frequency antennas and a Tinkerboard with an AC-56 dual radio USB dongle attached. I tried using both devices mentioned (the former running various releases of OpenWRT and the latter running a flavor of Debian Linux with hostapd etc. configured). I used the 'iw phy <name> info' command in both cases to find device specific info for tunable parameters, to ensure that both configurations were optimally supporting underlying device capabilities (set via hostapd.conf in Linux and wireless config file in OpenWRT). For the AC-56 I also compiled a third party variant of the RT8812AU kernel driver, which reduces some hardware restrictions (mainly usability of side channel transmission in a competitive environment, iirc).I originally set up the 1900AC device as a retransmitter on the first floor near the other end of the house, which would pick up the modem's 2.4GHzWifi signal and then retransmit it via both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. I tried to minimize the number of clients connecting via 2.4GHz because the router only has one radio for each band and already uses the lower band to communicate with the modem. This configuration provided coverage to the adjunct using both bands, but the transmission rate was odd: while speed tests claimed 20-24 down / 40-50 up (subscription is for a 75/? connection), the stability and transmission rate of the connection seemed to vary greatly, resulting e.g. in frequent drops in quality in some cases or freezes in others while streaming video. I haven't tested this yet with the Orbi setup, but I also saw frequent disconnects when using a VPN). I was now able to stream to the TV, but the quality of the stream was sub-par. Since the same happened with clients connected on either band, i assume the bottleneck was caused by the communication between the modem and the router. In case I forget to mention this later: I should note that when I placed the Orbi master and slave units, I used the same locations where the other devices were set up.To improve the quality of the transmission between the modem and the router, I then placed the additional device near the ceiling at the opposite end of the room so that it was connected by wire to the modem in that room and effectively acted as an intermediary between the modem and the router. This brought the signal about 12' closer (horizontally) to the center of the house. I tried using both devices as intermediaries, but the result was the same: there was no significant improvement. I also tried moving the intermediary closer to the floor, moving the router from the first floor to the second, etc. In all cases the end result was the same: diminished signal strength and significant reduction of transmission speed and quality. I also tried varying the channels used on both bands.This lengthy description is meant primarily to illustrate that I went to some length to try to set up a distributed wifi network on my own. Was the ultimate result caused by the devices, or was it because I ultimately failed to find the optimal configuration? I will admit that I could have tried a few more things to optimize utilization of device capabilities. I could have also formalized testing procedures to obtain more consistent and useful results. Is it likely that someone more experienced/knowledgeable could have gotten it to work, in less time? Probably. If you were reading this and kept thinking "but why didn't you try XYZ," you are probably that person. I should also point out that there send to be something strange going on with the hardware of the 1900AC device - which I could never identify, in spite of sending all syslog information to a dedicated syslog server, spending lots of time reviewing system and ring buffer logs, etc. Either the problem has worsened in the last six months (which could also be temperature-related, especially since it involves radio transmissions), or some component is operating at reduced efficiency without failing completely or crashing the device. Other possibilities are that I've spent too much time looking at all this and am starting to see things. Finally - and this is the most likely reason - different versions of OpenWRT seem to perform differently on any given platform. Notably, if you have an older device, the optimal version of OpenWRT/DD-WRT/Gargoyle/etc. Isn't necessarily the most recent one. For example, one popular variant of OpenWRT started providing a version for my specific device with an older kernel revision, because the more recent kernel caused consistent system crashes, for unknown reasons.Great, you've made it this far? You have my respect. This review is disastrous and spends far too much time talking about anything but the product supposedly being reviewed. I did want to elaborate on the amount of work I put into resolving the problem and adequately describing the obstacles encountered. In the end, I feel that I can only adequately illustrate the performance of this product by properly describing the 'theater of war' in which it was dropped to carry out its mission. Before I get to that next, I also wanted to point out that this isn't intended to, nor should it be taken as a "negative" review of the other devices - which I've deliberately kept vague in one case, because it's a device with a similar purpose from a competing vendor; comparing the two isn't fair due to the differences in specific purpose, significant difference in age, and because the other device was running a third party OS that doesn't come with an optimal service specific configuration by default and may have been running a suboptimal configuration. As for the Tinker board - i used it because it's an SoC with a gigabit network port that happens to come with the dongle - specific driver. Needless to say, it was never intended to be used for these purposes, although - considering the very low transmission speed maximum - even it is fast enough to not become the bottleneck.When I tried to set up the Orbi units, I was initially frustrated by the quick start documentation. Now to the manufacturer: if your documentation instructs the user to modify other devices (in this case, remove the backup batteries from the cable modem), you owe it to the user to provide at least a short justification. I couldn't find any batteries and didn't feel like disassembling the device to look for any, so I only followed the first step: unplug, wait, plug back in. Also, the documentation doesn't specifically mention whether the up link cable should also be plugged in at the same time. Fortunately, none of this affected the final outcome.In the end, the master unit was placed in the same location, near the ceiling and connected to the modem via the same ethernet cable. Meanwhile, the slave unit took over the location where the other router was previously located. I don't really recall doing much else, because the default configuration seemed to already work well. I did enable beam forming and the option below it, but i can't say whether they had any effect on the outcome.The most immediately notable difference was that the entire house - including the basement - receives a strong signal (minimum 4/5 bars in the most distant corner of the basement and the adjunct, which is behind an exterior wall/ thick door; but typically 5/5 everywhere else). Using a wifi scanner app confirms this: both master/slave units are now visible in the plot, even at 5GHz (when checked near the slave).Wifi signal strength decreases faster at higher frequencies (most wireless devices compensate for this by increasing the power output from eg 20 to 30mW when using higher channels in a given band. Still, considering the low quality of the 2.4GHz signal from the prior setup, I am amazed that Netgear manages the entire backhaul via the dedicated third 5GHz signal. The output of these radios is limited by FCC regulation to a low level and, in any case, pumping up the power increases the noise produced without adequate cooling. So my only conclusion is, considering that all radios in all devices (except the modem) are compatible with the fastest standards for each band, that the people who created the configuration of these devices know way more than I do. Which isn't to say that I'm any kind of guru. In fact, the details above should hopefully give you an idea of the results produced by a layman trying to solve the same problem.Bandwidth tests on DSL Reports show 5X down / 6X up and A ratings excerpt for buffer bloat, which receives a B rating. But these numbers are in the end just figures that are as meaningless as they were when I conducted the same tests using the previous setup. What matters in the end (and why I never bothered to find out if those options I enabled made a difference) is that I no longer feel the need to nickel and dime the effect each parameter change has on the result. It simply works - pacman updates (MinGW/MSYS - I'm stating these specifically because pacman shows throughput for each downloaded package and the recent update modified 30-40, or 612MiB total) have gone from average 2-300KiB/s to 4-5MiB/s (on a laptop located in the adjunct) - a far cry from the 2-3x difference that the speed tests presume to indicate. Streams work without interruption. Everything works - i don't even think about it anymore. And, I other than the Orbi system adjusting its local subnet due to collision with the modem shortly after setup, there has not been a single interruption.In fact, since you've read this far (you have, haven't you?), I'll do you a solid and kick off a test right now: a 16.2GiB update on Steam. It appears to be peaking at 7.3MiB/s, with a very solid (nearly a line) average of 7.1MiB. Previously I saw a maximum of 2.2 (more generally 1.5-1.8), but throttled to 1MiB because otherwise streaming became impossible and even visiting web pages ended in frequent errors. While this is happening, I'm now going to try streaming Crunchyroll on an Android phone...one minute in, no freezes. I can't sty how much the download dipped in that time, because the steam client only shows current speed (7.2) and the graph isn't really indicative.This is my first, posted review. I spectacularly failed on my initial promise to keep it short (now you see why I don't write reviews?), but I hope this gives you some measure of confidence, in case you're on the fence (like was actually, for a long time). It's an amazing device - in the two weeks I've used it so far. I would describe myself as a technical person who's slowly turning into a luddite because of endless frustrations with electronics. I don't recall the last time when I was this overwhelmed in terms of expectations vs results. If in two years I'm still seeing even 80% of these results and similar consistency, it might even give my Nokia N900 a run for the money in terms of best in its class I've owned.

I moved over to the Orbi from a Nighthawk AC1900. The Nighthawk started to look like it wanted to give up the ghost, so I figured might as upgrade. Previously, my network was a 16 port gigabit switch, the Nighthawk, and an AC750 range extender. My wireless connection was always a nuisance. As long as I stayed on one side of the house, I could get both 2.4 and 5 GHz signals perfectly. On the other end, the 5 GHz became shoddy. In the backyard, the 5 GHz was non-existent and the 2.4 GHz was intermittent. This is why I added the range extender. The major issue was that as long as even a tiny bit of signal could be had, no WiFi capable device would automatically switch to the stronger signal from the extender. This is due to the extender having its own SSID. This meant I had a total of 4 wireless networks just to cover the house and backyard. This also necessitated me to prefer one signal over the other depending on where the WiFi capable device spent the majority of its time in the house.In comes Orbi (and out go the other two). I had no idea how this beast would be set up. I had never done a mesh network before. But first, let me get to the physical aspects:1) Orbi is gigantic! The pictures don't really portray the size of the units. Good part, all units are the same size. Satellites aren't one size and base unit another. They are about the size of a general chemistry textbook, well at least my general chemistry textbook. And they are also quite hefty in comparison to the Nighthawk.2) The aesthetics of the units are great. After I set them up, my aunt saw the base unit and asked if it could be moved inside from the garage! She said it's too cute to leave in the garage. I do plane on moving it after I buy a wired router; I want Orbi to be strictly an access point in my newest setup.3) That blue light you constantly see in the images? Nowhere to be found. It's actually a white light. The magenta disconnect light is T-mobile magenta.OK now the actual functionality:1) I had some minor issues setting up, but that's because my modem was set to recognize on MAC address and Orbi was telling it another. The instructions also list a set way to setup the base and satellites, but I found that the satellites and base come pre-paired. All you do is power both and they already communicate!2) At one point I messed up the sync and Orbi started advertising for T-mobile (lol). I was freaking out a bit since I don't know how to sync mesh networks properly. To my amazement, for once the sync button actually syncs things! I pressed it on both units and after two more megenta blinks, it went white again.3) I decided to have some fun with the mesh network and walked around with my Surface Pro 3 logged into the interface. I actually saw the Surface transfer between base and satellite without a hiccup. I then noticed my aunt's phone was doing the same thing as she walked around. Pro tip: Naming your new router's WiFi the same as old and using the same key will make ever wireless capable device you own that connected to your old router automatically connect to the new one.4) The interface is completely the same as Nighthawk. I can admit I was slightly saddened that Netgear didn't give Orbi a nicer interface. One would think that a premium product would command a more premium looking interface. The only difference was the Orbi logo in place of the Netgear one.5) I did a speed test to compare with the old Nighthawk. I pay for 25 Mbps. With Nighthawk, I always saw about 27 Mbps. With Orbi, I was seeing 30 Mbps! I know that the equipment can't magically give me free internet, but having better quality connections does free up more bandwidth. Orbi being AC3000 vs Nighthawk's AC1900 I guess opened enough bandwidth to get me going a tad faster.6) ONLY 1 WIRELESS NAME!!!!! Yes I'm that happy to go from 4 networks down to 1.I do have a couple gripes:1) Updating is/was broken. My unit came with a firmware that was about 4 versions behind. No matter how often I told it to update, it would just get stuck in loading. I ended up having to do a manual update. First manual update I have ever done for a Netgear router in all the years I've owned one. A different review stated that a mismatched firmware between satellite and base resulted in disconnects, but I never saw that happen while I tinkered with the base. The satellite unit always stayed connected until I caused the sync issue changing a setting somewhere. Updating the satellite was a bit worse. It wouldn't even register an update was available, nor would it check. Again, a manual update was done to bypass issue. I can't verify if it was just a firmware problem causing the update problems until the next update.2) I like assigning any range extending device, such as the satellite, the second IP address (192.168.1.2) because I just have my own OCD way of doing things. It was automatically assigned the last address, 192.168.1.250. Changing this is what caused my sync issue that I mentioned a few times. I like using MAC filter and assigned IP addresses so that only that which I have explicitly authorized gets online. Until I figure out how to make the satellite accept the IP I want, this will remain an issue.3) What I feel is incomplete information and a missing setting. Orbi uses only one WiFi name. This made me wonder how can I assign my devices to connect to the proper signal (2.4 or 5 GHz). I like keeping multimedia on 5 GHz and everything else on 2.4 GHz. I can't find a way of doing this. Using my phone though, I noticed that it has a wireless speed over 700 Mbps. This meant the 5 GHz signal was connected. On a different device, I saw speeds that reflect a 2.4 GHz signal. Orbi assigns which signal to use for you without input. I would like to see a way to force certain devices to only use one signal over the other. For example, my 65" smart TV should only be on the 5 GHz signal so it can stream at the best quality, but my phone can make due with either 2.4 or 5 GHz depending on current network traffic.Now if you notice, only one (first) is a true problem. The other two are me being OCD. I had read reviews like crazy of Google WiFi vs Orbi, and each one edging Google WiFi as better. Here are my thoughts based on camparisons:1) Google WiFi is AC 1200 and Orbi is AC3000. Point Orbi2) Google WiFi needs 3 units to cover 4500 sq.ft. while Orbi needs only 2 for 4000 sq.ft. Point Orbi. A 500 square foot difference is not much when you could add one more satellite to have 3 units and cover WAY more.3) Google WiFi will more than likely sniff your data for advertising purposes just like every other Google device. If it isn't already happening, it will eventually. You even need to accept a document stating the data mining. Orbi is just a router. That's it. Point Orbi, or maybe we should give Orbi 100 points on this one.4) Google WiFi uses a dual band mesh network and Orbi uses a tri-band network. Orbi's third signal is strictly for inter-unit connectivity. This prevents congestion between units on the signals meant for your devices. Point Orbi.5) Google WiFi has 2 gigabit ports per unit. Orbi's base unit has 4 gigabit, 1 being WAN, and each satellite has 4 LAN ports (haven't checked to see if also gigabit). Now I don't even see anything other than the base station actually requiring LAN ports since most home networks are either purely wireless or there are wired ports in locations that are needed already. But going just on sheer number, point Orbi. Based on gigabit availability? Most likely still point Orbi since not many devices come gigabit as standard yet. A regular LAN port is still more than enough.6) Each Google WiFi unit is a 2 x 2 configuration, meaning 2 antennas handling in and out. Orbi has a 6 amplified antenna set up. More antennas allow both faster speeds and more range. Point Orbi.7) The big one, price. Google WiFi is $299 for 3 units and Orbi is $399 for 2 units. Going solely on price, it's point Google WiFi. I bought Orbi on sale though for $379. But even for a $100 difference, knowing my data isn't going to be mined for advertising is justified. If you are all about pinching every last cent, you will go Google WiFi. If you actually look at how much better the Orbi system is just looking at the specs sheet between both items though, you too will see that $100 gives you quite a lot (like privacy).In the end, I am more than happy I went with Orbi. Hopefully it continues to serve me well for many more years.

My review is long. Updated at various points over a year. TLDR version:1. Once set up and working, it is great. Really improves wifi2. If you have old wifi printers or other devices that only work on 2.4 ghz band, they may not work without a lot of configuration. If you have old printers and some older security system devices (cameras esp.) be prepared for a lot of troubeshooting, online research, and calls to tech support.3. Don't rely on sq. footage alone when determining how many satellites to get. Housing layout and materials are more important. Add-on satellites are priced crazy high and are often hard to find in stock, if you are at all unsure, and are not that price conscious get more satellites.4. While my review seems negative, after a year, I'm glad I have this and recommend to people, especially those setting up new networks or who don't have a lot of older devices. If you are mainly using it for your laptops, smartphones, Alexa, Google Home, or Nest devices, I think this is a great choice. If you have older wi-fi security cameras or older printers, and are not very technically inclined (or just not patient), then you may want to but new printers/cameras or stick with a dual-band router with extenders and forgot about a mesh system.ONE YEAR UPDATE (2020 AUGUST): I've now owned this system for one year. After the initial headaches setting this up (see below), it has performed solidly for the year. I ended up getting a new printer from the Epson WorkForce line, which has much better networking support and worked great with my Orbi system out of the box. But, yes, I had to buy a new wifi printer. Could never get the HP Deskjet 3755 printer from Target to work with the Orbi system. You need to understand that when you buy new network technology, you may lose compatibility with older devices. See below for more information.The router plus two satellites truly does significantly improve the wifi signal throughout my 2000 sq. ft. home. But it isn't magic. You can't just look at your home's square footage and buy the number of satellites based on that. First I I had to move the router to where the DSL comes in, which is on one end of my home on the ground level. I didn't want to do a lot of rewiring, but with the router plus two satellites, it did leave a dead spot on ground floor on the other end of house. I had to move my home security hub to a new location and I still have a dead spot in the corner at one end of the ground floor. I thought about buying an add-on satellite, but the regular Orbi add on is about 250 and the plug in is around 190 USD. It is also hard to find them in stock. I wish I'd paid more and gotten the router+3 option.With all the issues, headaches, and cost, why do I still like the system and cautiously recommend it? Well, if you want to get the most out of your Wifi and have a family or roommate with people streaming content constantly and simultaneously, having Orbi's mesh system and intelligent networking makes a huge difference.I could not have predicted COVID, but I'm glad I had the Orbi system set up. With my wife and I both working from home and the kids doing classes online, we had four people on video conferences at the same time for hours a day. We only have a 120 Mbps DSL connection. Before Orbi, we'd sometime have issues with multiple people watching movies on different devices or voice quality on web meetings when others were streaming. After Orbi, we don't have these issues. It also greatly expanded and improved coverage throughout the house and around the outside of the house. I had tried a number of router and extender products over the years and none came close to providing the performance that the Orbi system does.So I'm putting this up to 3 stars. I still have to dock two stars for the difficulties in getting it set up and price gouging for add-on satellites.UPDATE: I'm docking this another star. I've plugged my printer into the Orbi satellite USB port and installed the Netgear Readyshare printer utility and still can't get the printer to work on my network. This printer which worked seamlessly as a wireless and airpint printer from any device when I used the standard wifi router that game with my CenturyLink service, is now a brick.Setting up networks are almost never "plug-and-play" and whether it is easy depends on how much patience, experience, and technical aptitude you have. Even more so if you are replacing an existing setup.First, I give this three stars because it has successfully extended my internet and provided a much better connection throughout my house and its perimeter. I've finally resolved issues of my Wifi cameras losing connection.I also like the apps. For me, the Orbi app and the web portal give me access to all the advanced options and information in a decent interface. Not great, but much better than most router config sites I've used over the years.I really like the Disney app. The first parental control app that balances ease of use with options for more advance settings that I've seen. Once it is set up, it is very easy to use and is something my wife will actually use.I did have issues with my laptop noting being able to keep a connection and I though that I would have to return the Orbi, but that issue seems to have gone away. If it stays stable for a couple weeks, I'll give another star.But I won't give it five stars because like many such systems they advertise "plug-and-play". Don't be fooled. Here are three things that can trip you up. Before you spend hours trying to mess with community boards and the config settings, be aware of the following three quick tips with details below.1. If you have a lot of devices that only support 2.4 ghz wifi (esp. printers that have to be configured through your PC), you may be in for hours of frustration unless you are willing to get new printers or connect the printers to the Orbi by USB2. It is tempting to reuse the SSID and password of your prior router. Don't. You'll likely need to reset and reconnect most of your devices anyway. Things will go more smoothly with a new SSID3. Set up a device at a time if you can. It can be difficult to ID devices, esp. if you don't know how to determine what a devices MAC address is.COMMON ISSUE DETAILS1. If you have a lot of devices that only support 2.4 ghz wifi (esp. printers that have to be configured through your PC), you may be in for hours of frustration unless you are willing to get new printers or connect the printers to the Orbi by USBThe most important thing to realize with Orbi is that it does not support two separate WiFi bands. This matters because if you have older wifi devices that do not work on 5 ghz bands, you will not be able to set up a dedicated 2.4ghz band. E.g., many routers give you the ability to have both, each with their own SSID. Orbi and many mesh-network devices try to automate and optimize this for you. There is a lot of arguments about whether this is an Orbi failing or a failing with poor design of the older devices. For most people it doesn't matter. They just won't be able to use their wireless printers (most of which only support 2.4ghz) in the way they want to.One thing that I will say for Orbi is that you get real telephone support. You'll likely need it. I wasted a lot of time reading discussion boards in the evening. I should have waited until the morning. I would have saved time. Support made it very clear that I would not be able to use my printer on my wifi network.Fortunately, it is a newer HP printer with "WiFi Direct", which allows me to connect it to Windows 10 and new Apple OS devices without it being connected to my wifi network. The purpose of this is so that it can be used wireless when you do not have a router. Ironically as I just bought a $300 mesh router and satellite, but as far as my printer is concerned, I don't have a usable router.Other options are to connect your printer to the router or satellite by USB. That defeats the convenience of a WiFi printer as the best location for you router and satellite may not be the best place for a printer.2. It is tempting to reuse the SSID and password of your prior router. Don't. You'll likely need to reset and reconnect most of your devices anyway. Things will go more smoothly with a new SSIDI did this. Even though I knew better, I tried to be lazy and ended up having to reset the Orbi to factory settings and start from scratch. Even then, I had renamed my SSID on the old router and used the old name on the new router. That worked, but there were devices I STILL had to reset and reconnect from scratch. Including my doorbell camera, Fire TV devices, and outdoor cameras. My Amazon echos had no issue for some reason, neither did my iPhones, iPads, or Computers. Still, I would have saved a lot of time if I'd just used a new SSID and reconnected everything.3. Set up a device at a time if you can. It can be difficult to ID devices, esp. if you don't know how to determine what a devices MAC address is.I like the Orbi iPhone app and also the Disney Circles app. But, set up would have been a lot easier if I used a new SSID and reconnected each device one at a time. Some devices will display with a PC name or something you can easily recognize. Many items, however, are just alphanumerical IDs and MAC addresses. I had to go to many devices and look up their MAC addresses to properly rename them in the Orbi and Disney apps. If you don't know what a MAC address is, then it is even more important to connect everything one at a time.

The dream - is fast, solid, stable WI-FI in every room, with not much messing about during setup, and no need to switch from network to network. You are thinking to yourself "I want to just go up and down stairs, out to the shed, down the garden and in the garage on my WI-FI network. I Just want to connect and not think about it" - Well YES, this product will do that.Its fast, and once its working (read on) its really solid, sometimes my devices choose a weird base point to join, so for example, a printer in my office (next to an access point) has decided to connect to the living room base point which is a long way away ... it works its just odd? Can I change the default base station for a device ? No.I do like the guest network settings, so if you have a cafe, or B&B and you want to use EPOS and "private" devices such as laptops, tablets, Sonos speakers for example, then the private network is perfect. Then you can simply create another "guest" network with a different password and give different access to people.The setup was great - (but there is a down side so read on) - This system uses a wizard to set you up, it works and it took the pain out of it. BUT. a big BUT... If you want to play Jazz with it, like fiddle with settings, or do some pro setup of your network then you are going to be disappointed. It does it one way and that it... It works perfectly (mostly) but it's very restricted.Something that is REALLY GOOD, is the switch handling - So I have a load of devices, like Philips Hue, Smartthings, Hive heating, NAS storage boxes, Sonos devices, and the all need a base station type connections somewhere. With a Cable to a router somewhere. So buy a cheap Netgear (or whatever) un-managed switch like "NETGEAR 8 Port Gigabit Network Switch GS108 £25 on Amazon" and just plug everything in, then connect it to a single Ethernet port on the ORBI base station - and wow wow wow it just all works. If you want to tinker and play jazz (read on) you can't - it works but there is no controls you to touch - that might sound like heaven or hell depending on your skill level !It is very restricted to "home users" with kids... The safety settings, and internet restrictions are powerful but pointless if you just trust your family or want "normal" internet. I turned on Parental controls by accident, and when I tried to turn it off I managed to lock everyone (including myself) out of the internet. Support gave me nothing useful (using my phone 3g to access) so in the end I did a hardware reset to factory setting and started all over again. Painful day that was....Not sure I like the Rewards feature of the parental controls - granting "internet time rewards" for good behaviour sound like a house I would not like to grow up in.... but I am old and have no children so I will let you be the judge of this feature.Here is the BIG negative. - Netgear I expected better. - This system is basically only compatible with itself. There are lots and lots of NETGEAR ORBI models and kits, too many to count, and basically they all do the same thing - some faster, some with more concurrent connections, newer models with more whizzy stuff but in principal all doing the same job. EACH SYSTEM IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE OTHER - RBK752, RBK762 base stations and extension points will not work with other Netgear Obi systems - you have to have the exact model from a look up table on Netgears website to extend the system. That has got to be deliberate !I only found out this when I purchased an extra pair of satellite range extenders which looked identical but were not compatible - I Had to return them. BAD NEWS - I could not buy single or even (at the time) double satellites that were compatible with my existing ORBI system- even though it was pretty new, so after only 9 months, even though nothing was faulty with them at all, I had to but this system again NEW because it was the only way to get my hands on compatible satellites to extend the range. BOOoo Netgear.For a system that is supposed to be fully extendable, and totally "capable" of connecting everything together, that's is job at the end of the day, I fail to see why NETGEAR have chosen to build in incompatibility into their systems with no way to join or extend freely from the range.With the benefit of hind site - I should have just paid a lot less for a mesh network, I don't know how much better this is for the money, but I help a friend set up a DecoAX3000 the other day and it was brilliant, at a quarter of the cost. I don't expect that to last a lifetime but I can buy one every two years for a decade for the price of the ORBI !