NETGEAR - Orbi 850 Series Tri-band WiFi 6 Mesh System (RBK853)

I use a Netgear Orbi system and they work great. I have a lot of Nest products and they work flawlessly: https://amzn.to/3AGPCbO

I have an Orbi RBS850 system now that i have had for years and it has worked great. 1 router with 2 satellites. I need to expand the wifi coverage in our house as we added an addition. I looked on line and I can buy used satellites to add to my system as Orbi has stopped supporting the product. So I was just going to buy a new Orbi 970 system to upgrade as I am assuming that it is better performance than my current system. But I just saw this post. I went on line and looked at the Ubiquiti products. From what I can see their products are not tailored to the home user. I had no idea what I would need. This is what I am looking to do with replacing the current Orbi system. The internet comes into the house in the basement - so router would go in basement. I currently have 2 satellites throughout my house and would like to replace them to extend my wireless coverage. I do not have hardwired connections back to the router from these satellites- they work solely off wifi. So I need the new system to work this way as well. Does the Ubiquiti system work like this or do I need a hardwire run to the router? I also need to be able to run an ethernet cable from a satellite point to my PC as it is currently hardwired to the Orbi satellite and the PC does not have a wireless card in it. If I wanted to try the Ubiquiti system what would I need or should I just stick with Orbi as my old system has worked well so the new Orbi system should be an upgrade for me? Thank you!

My ORBI 50 series worked flawlessly, until lightning got it. Then I bought an 850 and it's been great also. Running three satellites with it. Connected to a Netgear CM-2000 modem.

Without any stats to back this up, it feels like there are far more posts about issues with 7xx series routers than any other. I vaguely recall it was cheaper than the 850 when I upgraded a couple of years back - choosing the latter. I’m sure there will be folks out there running 7xx’s quite happily, but, it feels like a poor relation in terms of posts here. Just out of interest OP, did you start using the Home Assistant agent from the outset or just when you noted performance issues? Not sure if this would be adding load to and already loaded cpu. You can see cpu demand adhoc from the orbilogin.com/debug.htm page, but, this also adds load to the cpu so, I’m kinda with @furrynutz here, return it if you can and I’ll add, see if you can stretch to an 8xx, which has been excellent in my experience and been subjected to a pretty big hammering in our household.

Without any stats to back this up, it feels like there are far more posts about issues with 7xx series routers than any other. I vaguely recall it was cheaper than the 850 when I upgraded a couple of years back - choosing the latter. I’m sure there will be folks out there running 7xx’s quite happily, but, it feels like a poor relation in terms of posts here. Just out of interest OP, did you start using the Home Assistant agent from the outset or just when you noted performance issues? Not sure if this would be adding load to and already loaded cpu. You can see cpu demand adhoc from the orbilogin.com/debug.htm page, but, this also adds load to the cpu so, I’m kinda with @furrynutz here, return it if you can and I’ll add, see if you can stretch to an 8xx, which has been excellent in my experience and been subjected to a pretty big hammering in our household.

I sed Eero since Gen 1 but wanted a defined guest network. Worked great until I started to mix generations and some devices would link to the latest generation even though signal strength was the weakest. Transitioned to NG Orbi. I was using an Orbi 853 system and wanted VLANs for segregation. The Orbi Guest network results in essentially invisible devices. It was fast and dependable but became finicky as my client/device count increased. I transitioned to an TP-Link Omada system running in router mode. A bit slower than NG Orbi but experience has become better due to dependability and ability to configure VLAN's. Also less costly than an Orbi upgrade. My opinion, look at TPL Omada with an OC200 controller and switches which either align with your ISP speed or device capability. My plan is to wait for the pending/future Firewalla AP/Switch availability and transition again. Recently received my FWG Pro and cleaning up the NG Orbi connections/hardware before transiting.

What is the size of the home in Sq Feet? Do you have Wifi 7 or 6Ghz supporting devices? You could theoretically get up to 2.5Gb speed over wifi on the 850 series. But would need more 4x4 supporting devices.

Id keep with the 850 series. It's a solid system on v.21 FW and works well. If it's still working for your needs, hold off for now. BE WiFi is still maturing and seeing various wifi issues across different router Mfrs and device Mfrs, like Samsung and Apple with there latest wifi 7 devices.

I just upgraded my RBK50 to the 850. Can’t say I really needed it aside from my number of devices was increasing steadily over the years. Upgrading was easy except for the satellite. The router upgraded itself before the satellite and as such caused problems. Would advise updating the satellite first if able then the router. Wish netgear’s setup process mentioned or directed it to be done this way. If you are unlucky like me and the router updates first…connect the satellite to the router via Ethernet, then find the satellite as one of the connected devices to the router and you’ll be able to update it that way. Annoying but works.

Most mesh systems take a few days to adjust and will move channels until it finds the best scenario. Netgear orbi’s do this as well as the eero systems. But once there fully optimized they should be set it and forget it and just work. Speed fluctuations are normal but I did find the eero did have less speed than my netgear with identical locations and settings. So I reset the eero from scratch and then the speed was where it needed to be. I believe it has something to do with firmware as I get the feeling the updates don’t always go well with some older firmware lingering after the upgrade. Reset seems to clear it out

Here’s the deal with the netgear systems the last update rolled out on all systems 7 8 and 9 series has a bug that spikes the cpu at 100 and causes clients to drop off and system to either reboot on not respond. I witnessed first hand with the 963b and the 853 at my vacation home. Only solution was to downgrade the firmware back to the previous release and then reset the whole system. Netgear is aware of this and still has not released a new firmware to fix it. Also after resetting the system you have to turn auto update off or you will be doing the same song and dance again. I know you returned your system so this is more for those who are still having issues.

You aren't being entirely coherent. I have had 0 issues with 3 different orbi systems. 852, 962, and 353 (beta tested this system). I have a whopping 2 apple items on my network and they have 0 issues. My point is in all my years it's apple products trying to use non-apple "things" that have issues. Not sure if it's because of the apple infrastructure not playing nice outside of "Apple" or it's Apple users not knowing how to use the more prevalent non-apple stuff. I'm thinking it's a combo.

RBR850 works fantastic. All satellites connected to cat6. 600Mbps on wifi from an iPhone.

Your title says this brand sucks. I’m pointing out that the brand does not suck. The Orbi model I have works flawlessly.

Sounds like OP already made the switch, but I can provide my specific experience for the benefit of others. I ran the RBK852 config for the past three years and it was absolutely rock stable. Never had any issues with it despite a house full of devices and multiple 4k streaming TVs. I was itching to try Wi-Fi 7 though as my Pixel 9 Pro comes with it. As luck would have it, I was gifted the Orbi 770 for Christmas. I ran benchmarking speed tests all over my house and yard with each setup. I'm on 1 gig fiber internet. To start, the 850 does have better max range. In most locations (short and medium distances) there's not much difference on the download speed, but at farther distances the 850 performed better. For example, on my outside patio I would get 40mbps with the 850 and 18 Mbps with the 770. Where the 770 really shines is in the consistency of both upload and download performance. With the 850 I would get something like 500mbps down and 300 Mbps up. With the 770 I get 480 down and 450 up. Imperceptibly less down performance, but way better up performance. I saw this pattern in every location around my house with the 770. I was nervous about the 770 using MLO for back haul instead of a dedicated channel like the 850, but the back haul works perfect. Satellite performance just has the same range limitations as the router, no fault of the back haul. I'm keeping the 770. I like knowing that my future devices will be on the newer 7 standard. For my house I don't need the absolute most amount of range. I just need solid performance within the walls and the 770 does that great.

Last year i replaced my Amplifi HD mesh system with an Orbi 850. The Orbi has been a huge improvement, but that's probably to be expected since the amplifi we as several years old.

both the asus zenwifi xt9 and the netgear orbi 850 series are excellent tri-band wifi 6 systems, but they each have their pros and cons depending on your specific needs. since you’re prioritizing ease of setup, great performance, and reliability in a 3500 sq. ft. 2-story brick house, here’s how they compare: the asus zenwifi xt9 is a strong contender for someone who isn’t super tech-savvy but still wants robust performance. it’s generally easier to set up, thanks to the asus app, and it includes lifetime access to asus’s ai-protection (built-in security and parental controls), which is a nice bonus without ongoing subscription fees. asus routers also tend to be more flexible with settings, which could be useful down the road if you want to tweak things or expand the system. its range and speed are excellent for a home of your size, especially with only one satellite. the netgear orbi 850 series is another great choice but leans toward a “set it and forget it” approach. it’s incredibly reliable and performs well in larger homes with its strong signal propagation through walls and floors. however, its app setup can sometimes feel clunky, and many features, like parental controls and advanced security options, are locked behind a subscription to netgear’s armor service. while its performance is slightly better at long distances, that $100 premium may not be worth it unless you really need the extra reach. for your situation—a brick house with 500mbps internet (possibly gigabit later)—the asus zenwifi xt9 is probably the better fit. it’s easier to use, has fewer hidden costs, and delivers more than enough speed and range for your current and future needs. the orbi is great, but it feels more at home in very large spaces or homes with heavier network demands. since cost isn’t a big concern for you, the zenwifi xt9 offers the best balance of performance, features, and simplicity without locking you into subscriptions. go with the xt9—it’s a win.

If you don't want VLAN, the Orbi system is pretty seamless, but pricey... wi-fi for idiots. I have the 850 series and at 20 feet from any of my wirelessly connected satellites, through walls, I still get well over 400-600mbps on my 500mpbs fiber service. I have 2 satellites operating currently, along with the base AP broadcaster wired to the FW Gold SE. The series of units find each other easily and never seem to cut out. If I have a power outage they reconnect the mesh on their own flawlessly when power returns. I did try to add a Netgear Extender EX7700 that I had to the mesh network and it would drop a signal for a split second every 15 minutes, so I no longer use... My TV would have "Internet Lost" message pop up every 15 minutes, but continue to play on. It got annoying.

this is a very interesting thread, as I have an RBS850 and have been noticing drops as I moved into a new home. we have 100+ devices, 4000 sq foot and the RBS850 with a mother and two child nodes. everything is wired via ethernet and gets pushed through my Aruba S2500 24 port POE switch. we moved into this new build in July, and ive had very strange network drops (my iPhone 16 pro can't consistently stay connected) and had to go through and restart the entire network and had to move the child nodes around to get consistent signal. ive been told about ubiquity stuff for a while, but always had the same opinion "doesn't seem like an easy thing to set up and manage", but looking at this thread it seems like that may not be the truth. thinking that I may get a few E7s and the UDR7 over the summer and see how it handles things - I love the speed of the orbit system, but hate the inconsistency of the connection. thanks for this!

My experience: The Orbi 850 has a better range, but the stability is much better with the Orbi 770, especially with iPhones not dropping anymore. Additionally, the design is sleeker, faster Ethernet ports (although less), you can use all WiFi channels (no channel is reserved for wireless backhaul although you might not use it), it got virtual patching, and WiFi 7, of course. I am happy with my change to Orbi 770.

Your current router struggles to keep up with all those devices and your house. For a 1 Gig Fios plan and multiple gadgets, you’ll want something strong and reliable that covers the basement and upstairs well. I’d recommend checking out mesh WiFi systems like the NETGEAR Orbi AX 6000 or the Syrotech WiFi 6 Mesh Router. Both are adept at handling lots of devices at once and spreading a solid signal throughout a big home. They’re easy to set up and keep your connection steady, even under heavy use. Definitely a big upgrade from older routers and perfect for gaming, streaming, and working without annoying dropouts. If you want something simpler but still powerful, the TP-Link Archer AXE75 is also a solid standalone router with strong coverage and fast speeds.

I had so many problems with my orbi setup. Both wired and wireless backhaul. System stability was about 3 days between reboots by the time I left it.

I’ll give you a fourth “possible” - Bug riddled firmware. This was the final straw for their dog shit firmware update for me. Keep in mind this wasn’t the first shit firmware they had put out. ***13th May 2022*** >[Orbi RBK85x and RBK75x Series Mesh WiFi 6 Systems](https://status.netgear.com/orbi?start_date=2022-05-15) >We are aware of an issue affecting the Orbi RBK85x and RBK75x Series Mesh WiFi 6 Systems. Some customers can no longer access or manage their Orbi systems through the Orbi app or the web user interface. A factory reset ***usually*** resolves this issue. ***We are working to understand the root cause and identify an alternative recovery method that doesn’t require a factory reset.*** They didn’t meaningfully figure it out. They left a lot of people in a fucked state for a long time.

I know YMMV but I've had the wifi 6 orbi mesh and just hoped to the 970 wifi 7 mesh. And both were seamless, flawless and worked great. My new system also has amazing coverage across my whole house

Orbi 6 currently Costco usually has great deals on newer mesh systems.

Can someone please recommend a wifi 7 mesh system that really works. I have netgear orbi wifi 6E. When it works it is fast but the connection drops sometimes out of the blue and it is unstable. I hate that. It was the same with Orbi Wifi 6 that I had previously. So I am reluctant to go for the Orbi WiFi 7 system, pay again premium price and get beta hardware and software.

For what it’s worth and I’m no expert by any means. We had a house we built with every room hardwired for CAT5 and I had a router switch to make all ports active so I could hardwire as much as possible. We moved and bought a 14 year old home that had only coax cable in basement and family room. My realtor told me to look at a mesh system because it was gonna cost thousands to get it like our previous home. I bought a Netgear Orbi wifi6 system from Costco and haven’t looked back. You have a couple hardwired ports in the back of the main router and satellites so you can still hardwire stuff. We consistently get speeds close to 900mbps. We have the main router in family room with one satellite upstairs and one in basement. We get awesome coverage and over 27 devices connected, appliances, ring, garage etc and never experience any lags. Our house is 3499sq ft

I had a WiFi 6 Orbi set up. It worked for about a week and then the mesh point died. The problem was that it died silently. It said it was working but nothing would connect to it. Netgear support was marginal, but once they determined it was faulty, they wanted me to send it back on my dime and they'd send me a new one. Again, the unit was a week old. I returned it and went back to using (already old) Airport Extremes for another year. I had 3 around the house and they started needing to be rebooted regularly. Given their age I couldn't complain at all but I replaced them with Amplifi Aliens. Those have been rock solid. I'll never buy Netgear products again.

iPhone 16 pro max here. I have no problems other then sometimes I may have to disable wifi and then turn it back on, on my phone. I noticed the 15 pro max was getting 1600Mbps and my iPhone 16 pro max gets 1300Mbps. Both phones are 2x2 mimo Maybe your mesh is not good… I don’t know you didn’t really do anything other then complain…

2 networks plus guest network. Network 1- 2.4/5/6ghz Or 6ghz Network 2- 2.4ghz Or 5ghz Or 2.4/5ghz Guest network… 2.4/5ghz Or 6ghz network Or 2.4/5/6ghz

Oops my bad, 2 networks plus guest network. Network 1- 2.4/5/6ghz Or 6ghz Network 2- 2.4ghz Or 5ghz Or 2.4/5ghz Guest network… 2.4/5ghz Or 6ghz network Or 2.4/5/6ghz

Wild. I’ll tell you. My Orbi system has a dedicated wireless backhaul.

I have used the Netgear Orbi from costco to cover 2 houses next to each other, each about 2000sq ft and it works great. Simply place 2 of the 3 access points in one house, and the 3rd in the other (as close as you can get it to the main one) and you will have a good signal. We have over 30 devices on it and I can stream 4k with no issues. I was previously using Google’s mesh wifi as well but the Orbi is a better product.

I’d give the Orbi mesh a shot. I noticed the signal was stronger than my google mesh wifi I had before

I agree with your thoughts on UniFi, that’s what I have, works great, but significantly more complicated setup than others. However, I do not agree on NETGEAR/Orbi. Yes, they are easy to setup and fast, but NETGEAR is so slow and unresponsive to security vulnerabilities that I would never recommend them. I say this as a former Orbi user, had multiple issues with the router itself getting hacked even with strong passwords and most features disabled.

I use an Orbi system, set in access point mode. Prior to the firewalla, the was good but not great at managing all of the traffic and would have a lot of drops in connectivity. Since the friewalla and setting the orbi to AP mode, my network has been performing great. Still have some fine tuning to do as far as total network set up (I have a switch as well for my hardwired devices), but I would recommend the Orbi mesh system.

I've had an Orbi router for years, and while frustrating, it's worked okay. It finally crapped out on me and is stuck on, but without the ability to access its interface, so I'm looking into a new setup. The network diagram is mostly correct, but omits ioe stuff like garage doors, thermostats, lights, etc. I'm looking to purchase unifi's cloud gateway ultra, but could use some insight into access points, as I'm unfamiliar with the market and have been using Orbi's mesh satellites as quasi APs. I'd like 3 or so APs, but I have a rental house next door that I've been providing wifi as a free utility (my guest network) via Orbi's satellite. It's not wired, so am also looking for thoughts/recommendations on a device that I can put in their house that extends my network.

I also have an Orbi setup, but I can’t justify their prices anymore. Don’t see a lot of professional reviews for the model shown from Costco. User reviews seem pretty decent, though limited.

Same here. Orbi was pain in the ass. Netgear told me to factory reset after every firmware update. It took over one hour every time…They write it in every forum thread. They never fixed their firmware. This was an awful experience. Never netgear again. And you cant configure anything that matters with orbi. For example the router and ALL Satellites are alwayw on the same wifi channels. You cant so anything about it.

I use Orbi. But only recommended models with a dedicated backhaul

I do this with Netgear Orbi. I have a router running in bridge mode and 2 satellites with a wired backhaul. Great coverage and works flawlessly. The key with the Orbi is running the backhaul on its own vlan. I use 5 port Netgear or TP-link Mansged switches. I get them on sale for 25.00.

Hey man your cable organization looks great, can you link me to that thing on the wall? I just set up a similarly sized network at my house. I tried mesh at the previous house, granted it was Netgear Orbis, but I had a pretty bad experience. Using a single Asus router worked better then two mesh access points. If you already have wired ethernet in your house, just use access points. Mesh is strictly worse in every way, only used as a last resort if you can't wire ethernet (but you can). My current network is AT&T modem Nokia BGW320-505 in ip passthrough mode to a Unifi cloud gateway ultra, connected to two unifi switches (usw-pro-max-16 and the POE version). Those connect everything and power the two access points (U7-Pro). I'm sure pretty much any vendor has a similar solution.

+1 to this, I had Orbis and they never worked well. Both my Asus router and Unifi APs have worked far better

I've had good experiences with Netgear Orbi and with TP-Link Deco mesh systems. I'm currently on a Deco BE22000 WiFi 7 3-Pack mesh and it works very well, some teething pains when it first came out that were fixed via firmware but that's about it. I get well over 1Gbps via on WiFi 6E and 7 devices. My past Mesh was an Orbi and that worked great for 5 years or so. Primarily consider the speed of your internet connection and try to look for a mesh that can make use of that bandwidth. Generally speaking a WiFi 6E mesh should do the job and considering your layout, a 3-unit mesh would be ideal specially if you can connect them via ethernet cable for backhaul.

My Orbi system works reasonably well except for IoT stuff. I've basically given up on that. We're moving soon and I plan to install a Ubiquiti set up. We have one in a vacation home and it is bulletproof. Everything just works.

I had one of these briefly and it worked well for me. Ended up moving to a new place that already had the wifi stuff installed, so I stopped using the Orbi, but it gave good, reliable coverage while I was using it.

I’ve tried Orbi and Linksys mesh systems and wouldn’t buy them again. Orbi was the absolute worst. Firmware updates would regularly break HomeKit. Linksys was better but still not great. Eero is largely reported as reliable but has almost no customization or configuration. Maybe that doesn’t matter to you but lots of people complain about not being able to change channels and many other basic settings. Synology gets no love because everyone looks at their NAS but overlooks their networking gear. SRM is very easy to use and offers a lot of more advanced features without the mess that is Ubiquity. You can mix and match the units as needed but are very solid.

I had nothing but problems with my Orbis. Dropped packets, dropped connections, and way too many reboots. I agree with OP, these are garbage. Went to Ubiquiti, never looked back.

I like the Orbi. Just got that set at my local Costco for $200

I picked up the BE1100 last time it was on sale at Costco. My old Netgear Orbi main router crapped out after 5 years. The main reason is the 2.5gbe ports. I run them with a wired backhaul. I live in a pretty congested wifi area about 5 strong signals not including mine. After optimizing the channels (unfortunately you can't manually pick) the speed with wired backhaul has been amazing. I have 2 wifi 7 devices that can max out my 1gb isp, though they aren't battery optimized so they drain the mobile battery like crazy. The signals are strong on all my 40 devices. Pro tip: any devices that's stationary and don't move, I would select them and turn off the mesh connection. This way it locks them to a single node. This prevents hunting wifi signals between nodes if they overlap too much (that single dropping and connecting) After doing that the network has been solid since I bought it.

I used Netgear Orbi mesh Wi-Fi for 2 years and had issues only once. Now my setup is different and I’m hard wired via Ethernet to one of the satellites which, in turn, is hard wired to the modem. No issues as well.

MoCa is just Ethernet over coax. You can get gig speeds with them now. You're better off keeping Fios for your internet. Then find all the coax cables in your apartment and put them and only them together on a splitter. Then get however many MoCa adapters you need and connect them to the coax jacks in your rooms. Then connect whatever to the Ethernet. You can throw your wifi adapters on them and keep wifi. You can put a small switch at each one and use a wired connection for what you can and wifi for the rest. That said, does your mesh connection give you a status of everything? I have an Orbi setup and it tells me if my backhaul connection is good or not.

I bought 6 of TP-Link’s newest Deco WiFi 7 mesh access points, as well as 4 of their Deco outdoor units. I just tested them last night at my other house from my neighbor’s house to mine (their house is 200’ away and brick). I plugged one indoor Deco into their modem, then put one of the outdoor units 60’ away from their house, then another one 60’ further, then one on my back porch, and then one more indoor Deco in my house which is also brick. All of the APs had full signal strength and I got 657mbps speeds at these huge distances. Just the one Deco WiFi 7 I put inside my house was providing full signal strength throughout my entire house and even in my garage. I currently have a Netgear Orbi system that can’t even do that with 3 APs. I’m hoping when I go back to my other house tomorrow and install all of these new Deco units they will be strong enough to fully bathe the indoor and outdoor with WiFi signal. Supposedly 3 of them can do up to 10,000 square feet and I bought 6 of them, plus the four outdoor units. Everything seamlessly connected together and it scanned for interference on each channel and set them to the best for each band. If this works I’ll be happy. If not I will just ship them back to Amazon. They are expensive (~$350/unit) but if they work they’ll be worth it.

Not sure about WiFi 7 devices in particular, but just checked and I have 58 devices currently connected to my current Orbi mesh system.

I purchased my Orbi setup last year from Costco during a sale they were running. I’m not sure if I’ll go back to an Orbi system if I find an alternative system that is future-proof and reasonable on the price.

Very spotty connections. Might be a signal penetration issue. My workspace is hardwired and things like that. Once I’m on the third floor, the signal is weaker.

I had such a terrible experience with Orbi's I swore I'd never buy another Netgear product again!

I was one of many with a bricked base unit. Tried the telnet approach, alternate firmware, etc, etc. I don't recall all of the details but eventually I gave up. I've had a much better experience with Asus.

I had the same issue when I moved into my current home. I bought the Netgear Orbi mesh system with three satellites and it’s worked brilliantly for me

My experience with a very expensive orbi system a couple of years ago convinced me to never buy another netgear product. Switched to ubiqui and it was game changing

I've used Orbi and eero meshes and the only times I've ever seen latency (let alone jitter) higher than 5-10ms within the network, a reboot fixed it (the Orbi was particularly bad like this). This level of latency is not what I would consider normal on a well-behaving mesh.

I've been using Netgear Orbi (1 base and 4 satellites) with firewalla as the router. I would not recommend Orbi. firewalla has been flawless though. 

Unfortunately I had an orbi and I learned what all these terms meant while troubleshooting! Now I have a different mesh network and it just works and I didn’t have to learn anything or do any troubleshooting. Why should you spend so much on an Orbi and yet have to do so much extra work and then pay Netgear for the privilege of using customer support? Quit while you’re behind and move on to a better system.

I would have probably kept going with Orbi if I could call support, but you need to buy a subscription from netgear! Dodged the bullet

I've tried Orbi several times over the last few hardware generations and it had been the same shitty experience for me each time. It seemed there was always something up with it, and the parental control options were junk.

I was a happy Orbi owner for a year until one day it after a firmware update all went to hell. This was compounded by DHCP issues with 30+ IoT items trying to connect all at once. I think if I restarted the router, they'd find an active SSID on a satellite, connect, fail DHCP (router is rebooting) and nothing would work. The Orbi is fine, but if Mesh network is the choice, I'd steer to something else (TP Link was my next consideration). I decided to bite the bullet and start punching 2 story holes on columns to send cat 6 everywhere instead. Like others have said OP, both the router (main) and satellites should have the same number of bands (tri-band) to get a decent wireless backhaul. I was able to use moonlight to game stream (single player) over the trip band Orbi equipment, so I know it's fast enough. Many mesh router brands, Netgear included, will sell a "kit" where the satellites are only dual band. I'm not sure why, but they do and it sucks. Don't do that. Edit: I also tried Eero before Orbi, ended up immediately returning it. They had some issues that ONLY blocked Netflix. It was maddening. I'm a tinkerer, so it wasn't due to incompetence on setup or DNS or anything like that. Both Eero support and I were baffled. I figured a $700 Eero system that can't stream Netflix is too offensive to keep messing with. That's why I'd try Asus or TP link next if I hadn't given up on mesh.

We're on the same page. I used it as an "Ethernet access point" for some non-wireless equipment and it worked great. I think my use case (my specific devices across the board) is the issue. If it continued to work as it did, I never would have bothered with cat 6, switches, drywall work, etc. I think mesh is a great compromise for folks who can't cover a home with a single all-in-one. I asked too much of it with cheap IoT devices from various suppliers, QNAP NAS, home cameras, and the usual personal devices. I'd happily give my ORBI system to family if my RBS350 satellites didn't brick themselves with the update to v7 firmware on all non-RBS350 devices. It's sitting here bundled up on my desk until I figure out what to do with it all. My FIL is trying to get WiFi in his man-cave in his backyard, so the RBR(S)750 may find another life. It was an easy kit to use and had some parental features I'll miss.

Orbi to the rescue.

I had a similar experience but with Netgear Orbi. They gave me so many problems and their support was absolutely horrible. Once I switched to Eero I was delighted. My only wish is that Eero Plus should be cheaper, half price if that.

I have used Linksys Velop, Netgear Orbi, and currently on a Unifi system. While I will always recommend Unifi I know some people just want a simple plug and play system. Linksys Velop was my first Mesh system it greatly boosted my HomeKit setup and made it super reliable. The only issue is my wired backhaul keep dropping from 1 Gbe to 100 MB which I saw a huge decrease in performance from my video doorbell at the time. The parental controls were lackluster. But overall this is what got me on my journey of making the network solid. Moved to Texas and was tired of the Linksys issue so went out and got the Orbi system. I was eye this before I got the Velop but was hoping the Linksys was going to add HomeKit Secure Router to the Velop. But that didn’t turn out and Apple drop the feature altogether. Got a decent deal on Orbi and was very impressed with the performance with my small HomeKit setup. I was renting and keep my devices to a few items that the owner had already installed; like a Ring doorbell and two stickup cams (used HomeBridge), two Ecobees, two Apple TVs, and two HomePods. Finally moved into my new house and went all out with Unifi and I saw why there was so much hype. If family members ask what I would recommend. I will say go with Unifi but if you want something simple out of the box go with Orbi.

This.....also screw the subscription based support and parental controls. I purely use my Orbi system as access points now to compliment a Ubiquiti setup.

Same here. Only caveat is (unless you have the Pro), you cannot do VLAN with Orbi. But rock solid signal, and excellent wireless back haul.

TP-Link Deco BE33000 user here - I can’t compare this to other WiFi 7 devices, but I will compare it to my previous mesh networks. I have found that Netgear Orbi seems to be easier to manage all around. If i didn’t get a steal for my Deco BE33000, I would get rid of it and buy the Orbi (still might do that). Hope that helps.

I tried two Orbi systems (quite awhile back to be fair) and found both to be an unstable, unreliable disaster, with constant satellite disconnects and endless reboots and resets required. System would not correct itself and re-establish the mess automatically like others I have used. Maybe it's improved since then, but personally, I would not use it again. Google Nest, TP-Link, and Eero were all much better. Stability and reliability IMO are even more important than raw performance.

I’ve installed hundreds of netgear Orbi products zero issues some systems are covering 15,000 square feet.

TP Link Deco definitely requires an app and an account and although there is a web interface, it can't do much. Nice gear, but not acceptable under your policy. Netgear Orbi may have required me to install an app and get an account to get it setup (I didn't try to get around it.) But the web interface is full fat and I've never opened the app since installing.

I personally have a Orbi system in my house (using a wired backhaul) and it is terrible - would not recommend

I had a set of very expensive netgear Orbi which I put up with for a couple of years. They were horrendous and I vowed never again. I switched over to the Deco BE11000 units and LOVE them - they just work and they’re always stable and blazing fast. It is sad to hear that you’ve had trouble with your decos - that’s just not the experience I’ve had.

I LOVE my Deco mesh system. I have base + 5 satellites and they work flawlessly and are easy to configure. The Deco replaced a crappy and very expensive Netgear Orbi which was absolute crap for me - constantly buggy and dropping out. If the power went out, it wouldn’t come back on until after I manually unplugged. The wired backhaul would constantly drop too - so in the end, I threw them out!

My Orbi system kept constantly crashing and rebooting. Connection between mesh units would drop then come back. Because 90 days had passed, Netgear would not provide any support unless I paid. I had it during CV lockdown and it would reboot in the middle of conference calls. I returned for another ORBI system, and same performance. Returned that system ... thank goodness for Costco's return policy, I also told the return agent the issues I had and that NG would not provide support (for a $500 system!) Have been very happy with Eero Pro 6 since. Unfortunately, they don't sell that system at Costco.

Unifi stuff is not very difficult to set up. It’s pretty plug and play. If you WANT to get into the weeds , sure you can do that too. And it’s much easier to troubleshoot if something goes wrong. I used to have Orbi and the web interface is a joke.

I used orbi for several years. Never had problem. Switch to Deco for several months. The speed is good but there is one problem. It took about 5 minutes for my TVs to connect to the wifi every time I turned on the TVs. Didnt have this problem with Orbi before.

I got rid of my Orbi system and switched back to eero. Won’t make the mistake of buying Netgear again. I’ve always regretted.

Personally, we got rid of our Orbi’s. Too much hassle after each update they got slower and slower.

I bought an Orbi when it came out to cover some dead spots in my house. All my streaming video stuttered. I wasted days troubleshooting this issue. I went back to my old router for a couple of years then I moved to a Netgear RAXe500 recently and finally was able to coverall the dead spots in my (3100sf) house and get the performance I was looking for.

If you want good enough, simple outta the box, then Orbi mesh is great. I have a 2 story 2350sf house. I have an Orbi with the master AP upstairs in the hall covering all the bedrooms rooms. Downstairs I have 2 Orbi Client APs on either end of the house covering all the downstairs, garage, and outside. The master Orbi router is in pass through mode. In the wiring closet where the 1gb WAN comes in I have a unify UCG Ultra Cloud Gateway Router. That has 4 ports. 1 port goes to the Orbi master router in the upstairs hall way to provide WiFi. 1 port goes to the living room where it’s plugged into the Apple TV 4K Ethernet to provide streaming TV to the main TV without hogging up Wifi bandwidth. 1 port goes to the master bedroom TV to provide streaming TV without WiFi. 1 port goes to my office where I gave a switch for the laser printer, computers, NAS, etc. It’s been dead simple to administer. I’ve never had any issues with coverage or bandwidth.

I'm on eero in... 6 households (parents, siblings, etc). Some have 1st gen that are still working (no updates) and some have Max 7. It's still the easiest and best I've used. Velop drove me mad, Orbi was ok but sometimes unstable and an eyesore. Asus XT something (I forgot) I used for 3 days and returned due to frequent lost of wifi. I'm a power user and I now ended using pfsense for the router aspect because I needed somethings on the firewall side that the eero couldn't do but most users won't ever need in a home environment.