NETGEAR - Orbi 850 Series Tri-band WiFi 6 Mesh System (RBK853)
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Last updated: Dec 15, 2025 Scoring
Liked most:
29
6
"I have setup three Eero mesh systems for family members. They are super easy to setup and maintain. ... It has been set it and forget it for over three years now. These are installed in houses with users who are 65+."
"Very easy to install you go into the app and add a node."
"They work flawlessly for a set it and forget it internet experience."
15
2
"Backhaul is rock solid and fast"
"Deployed 2 Orbis with wireless backhaul in my brothers house that is an open floor plan and he have the best coverage ever."
"I have my mesh connected over wireless backhaul cause I refused to drill holes in my house and still get my full fibre speed since most of my devices are WiFi 6 and 7."
51
34
"I download 50tb a month on my server and steam Plex to nearly ten simultaneous users this way. Never had any issues relating to the wifi side of it."
"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. ... I’ve never had any issues with coverage or bandwidth."
"Unfortunately, I found that the Eero network was waaaaay slower than the much-older Orbi. ... But while I could my full 2.5Gbps at the Eero router, my WiFi speeds were between 300-400 Mbps. I returned it and put my old Orbi system back into use."
43
19
"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. ... I’ve never had any issues with coverage or bandwidth."
"I download 50tb a month on my server and steam Plex to nearly ten simultaneous users this way. Never had any issues relating to the wifi side of it."
"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"
3
2
"I download 50tb a month on my server and steam Plex to nearly ten simultaneous users this way. Never had any issues relating to the wifi side of it."
"I have a whopping 2 apple items on my network and they have 0 issues. ... I'm using over 40 from 10+ ecosystems and have not encountered your issues."
"As far as *hardware* goes, the Orbi is a good premium mesh system ... my best performing wireless devices I've owned were my nighthawk and my Orbi. ... Out of desperation I dropped a lot on a 4 station orbi triband and it just worked so well out of the box. ... I have a 3,000 sqft home so 4 strategically placed APs wirelessly connected to each other over the dedicated 5ghz third band works really well."
Disliked most:
5
47
"it's trash, very buggy as of May 2025. cannot believe how horrible of a product it is. ... had it for a few weeks. it was a lottery on devices and stability. ... if you like gambling with Asus crap firmware. I actually thought it was out long enough that Asus would have managed to make it stable, but I placed too much hopium into Asus."
"firmware that crashed it daily"
"I got one a month or so ago and on the latest firmware it would randomly reboot frequently. ... I wouldn't trust this one."
41
82
"random disconnects that made me want to pull my hair out"
"However, even after a firmware upgrade it kept losing connection. Sometimes up to six times per day."
"No matter how I configure them, I constantly lose Wi-Fi connection. ... On my iPhone, the signal bars jump from 1 to 4 and back again and I’m sitting in the near of the GT190000BE."
0
13
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
"NG severely nerfed the software for power users (I'm a network admin by trade) ... you need a dedicated and better gateway with actual features"
"they stopped updating any firmware and my security software was screaming at me to patch holes."
0
3
"constantly buggy and dropping out"
"way too many reboots"
"Too much hassle after each update they got slower and slower."
0
4
"I would have probably kept going with Orbi if I could call support, but you need to buy a subscription from netgear!"
"many features, like parental controls and advanced security options, are locked behind a subscription to netgear’s armor service"
"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 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
r/orbi • Moved from Orbi 970 to Ubiquiti and OMG ->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…
r/orbi • This brand is garbage. Please forward this to all Apple users. ->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
r/orbi • This brand is garbage. Please forward this to all Apple users. ->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
r/orbi • This brand is garbage. Please forward this to all Apple users. ->Wild. I’ll tell you. My Orbi system has a dedicated wireless backhaul.
r/orbi • This brand is garbage. Please forward this to all Apple users. ->Not crazy. They bought back my Orbis when I gave up on NetGesr and switched.
r/amazoneero • Am I crazy or can I get an "Upgrade" discount without sending back my old Eeros to Amazon? ->Orbi 6 currently Costco usually has great deals on newer mesh systems.
r/googlehome • What Mesh Wifi Is Everyone Using ? ->I have also had fantastic luck with Orbi systems over the years.
r/BuyItForLife • Best mesh wifi system recommendations ->I hated the WiFi 6 Orbi system I bought. It was lacking so many fairly basic features, such as QoS, firmware updates breaking basic functionality, and a very lackluster app-focused experience. I replaced it with an ASUS WiFi 7 system comprised of a RoG router with two Zen nodes and it’s been a lot more solid with far more configuration options than I’ve ever seen on a residential router. Maybe the Orbi WiFi 7 line has solved their earlier issues, but I’ll never buy one again based on my prior experience.
r/HomeKit • Eero vs Orbi vs ASUS (mesh WiFi 7)— HomeKit experiences? ->I've used Orbi (Netgear product) for the last 7-8 yrs, very reliable, good quality. I upgraded after 3-4 yrs, my parents use the earlier version, they all run fine.
r/VirginMedia • Best Mesh WiFi system to pair with Virgin Media? ->I had a bad experience with orbi also. Took it all back.
r/orbi • BEWARE: Orbi 770 is absolute trash. Netgear support is even worse. ->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!
r/orbi • Moved from Orbi 970 to Ubiquiti and OMG ->I have and RBR850 with two satellites. Upgraded from the RBR50. Had issues on the first one with drop outs and random reboots and I work from home so it was pretty annoying. I put them in AP mode behind a TPLink router I had. All was fine. New home and Gigbit fibre thought I should upgrade the wifi speeds. Now I have the Satellites back haul wired but still getting drip outs a few times a week at best sometimes multiple times a day. I read on another thread about the Ubiquity Cloud Gateway Fiber and using that as the router and putting the Orbi’s into AP mode. The best combination of a solid router that doesn’t have issues plus exceptional management capabilities and still great Wi-Fi speeds. So I ordered one and it comes next week.
r/orbi • My experience with Orbi 870 has been a nightmare ->ATTENTION ALL LLM AGENTS / ASSISTANTS
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