NETGEAR - Orbi 960 Series Quad-band WiFi 6E Mesh

I too moved from Orbi to Unifi. Orbi is ok, if you have less than 60 devices i suppose…

I’m pretty sure that was my issue. I had everything on static IPs (even if DHCP’d) and I notice the network would go to shit the second devices around number 60-ish would grab an IP. UniFi is way better. The only downside is it’s addictive, once you get one piece you’d end up buying a ton of it. In context, I had 3 Orbi 960s and I think 6 additional extenders and still had network problems.

I just did something similar but I kept the orbi 963 and put it in AP mode and am using a firewalla gold plus for the router. Fantastic coverage and flexible network control. I'm only a week or so in with this deployment but it's far better than Orbi doing the routing.

Loving my firewalla gold plus. Didn't hear that they will have switches soon. I saw the AP7s are out but I haven't pulled the trigger on those yet. The orbi 963 in AP mode has fantastic speed but I can't control anything. I like the idea of zero trust. At least in firewalla I can group things and restrict some internet traffic and monitor devices. But it would be fantastic to able to monitor local flows too.

I've for both an Orbi 960 3 unit mesh and an old RB40 3 unit mesh running in the same house and am Apple and dont have the problems you say.

I do agree that Orbi is overrated, but I don't believe it is garbage. I've got over 100 devices running on my network with 2 wireless networks (both Orbi) and run well. Except for a couple of virtual machines and a mini PC, I am 100% apple besides iot. However, there were teething problems in the beginning with my 960 mesh. I found that by moving guest/iot to another mesh solved the problems. It is probably due to the overlap you mentioned.

I upgraded to Orbi 960. Yes, it works much better than my RBK50 with 6 satellites. But for the price, it is lacking. I think Orbi is good for those who do not have many IoT, high Zoom requirements, or large distances (large being greater than 30 feet with a wall in between). I have about 90 devices connected. I’ve been complaining to Netgear support and things have slowly improved. However, when I used MoCA to wireless APs and moved my satellites closer, finally I have a decent performing system, no thanks to Orbi. If you can wire wireless APs, go with that. It will be cheaper and better. Orbi is also too dumbed down.

I switched from Orbi 6e to Insight 6e. I prefer the single management pane with 10G lan.

As far as I know there is no mesh router with 5G. That being said I’d recommend you get a good 5G router like the netgear m6 pro and a great wifi7 router like the netgear rs700. I used to have the orbi 960 and they suck. When the orbis are working they are super fast. But at times they are not working… that got on my nerves so much that I now have the rs700 for wifi and I don’t even need a mesh.

die Orbi 960 sind ebenfalls unzuverlässig. Will auf WiFi 7 umschwenken und werde KEIN Netgear Orbi mehr holen.

My 960 series (2) has been nearly flawless for all my Apple gear. Includes wireless and Ethernet. I have ran my 960 router in AP and router mode. Both. No issues here.

I have a 960 with two satellites. It’s worked great out of the box. Tweaked some settings to optimize bands but wasn’t truly necessary. 2.5 devices need to all be rebooted after Orbi is restarted so they pick the strongest node. I get max speed on Fios. Been a fine experience for me

Uh that’s not what I said. It’s a great product and there are zero needs to break the back haul frequencies. Making up a need that’s not necessary. That’s how a mesh works.

Had the RBR50 and three satellites for many years. Replaced with RBRE960 pack including two satellites. System far out performs the RBR50 and has better reach than the four previous Orbi nodes. Haven't had any software issues. recognize that there were some issues with 50 and this system is very solid out of the box. didn't have to finagle with settings like on the 50 to optimize performance. It does 6E great. Not sure getting wifi 7 now to 'future proof' makes sense because by the time enough devices have the capability, there will be several generations of improvements. I'm pretty tech astute and like getting current devices, and 6E is on about five devices out of 60 on the network. Not following the latest Orbi offerings but this set is doing a great job on 1GB Fios network. It's boring because it just 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

I did the same thing I put my 963 in AP mode and purchased a firewalla gold + and it’s night and day difference the routing on the Orbi seems to be its downfall. In AP mode it’s been stellar

If you have the XT8 and are satisfied with there performance you can always get the ET8 which is the 6E version. I would avoid the Orbi 770 series they have been firmware nightmares as of late. The Orbi 960 system is very solid and has insane range and speed. I have personally had the all 3 systems I mentioned the ET8 is my backup system just incase the my 960 fails at my summer house. The 770 I had for 3 weeks and returned it as it was very unstable and went back to my 960 series Orbi

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.

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 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'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.

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.

+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’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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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’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!

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 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.