NETGEAR - Orbi 970 Series

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

I got the orbi 973 and had no issues. I'm beta tester maybe better firmware..ofc all wired since wireless is for mobile only.

I just had my Orbi 972 units crash for a 3rd time this month and in the middle of an important meeting. I am so done with the product. I just ordered a Firewalla Gold Pro and 2 AP 7 units. Goodbye forever Netgear. You suck.

Not gonna lie. Netgear lifer but not anymore! Switched from 970s to Deco BE95! Unbelievable experience. Dedicated WiFi 6E/7 SSID. 4-5 GBPS download on WiFi 7 devices!!!! I’m speechless. Zero drops for 2 weeks and no iPhone WiFi issues. It just works! Amazing speeds! Any questions, just let me know and I’ll share my experiences or expertise.

You must have gotten a dud. Deco BE95 system. Simply amazing. Had it for 12 weeks now. Zero drops. 5800 sq ft home. ISP 6 Gig up and Down. Wired backhaul. 121 connected devices. Wired devices that can handle multi gig speeds - 6 GIG WiFi 7 - 2.5-4.3 GIG WiFi 6E - 1.8-2.4 GIG WiFi 6 - 1.1-1.6 GIG WiFi 5 - 600 mbps - 900 mbps WiFi 2.4 - 200-500 mbps The consistency, reliability and speed blow every simple competitor out of the water in my experience! Amazing system and have tried them all! Eero Max 7, Orbi 970s, Asus ZenWifi

I have the Orbi 970 3 pack. How do you set it up so only home devices connect to the 2.4ghz band?

I went from the RBR50’s to the Orbi 97* series as well with three satellites and have had no issues either. It works as well as the older RBR50’s with the added bonus that wireless is basically faster than gigabit even with a wireless backhaul ( which is why I got this ). The two major changes with the new network was ( as you ) creating a separate 2.4 ghz IoT network and the other thing was Orbi doesn’t like spaces in the wireless network name anymore so we ended up having to rename our network. Once we did that everything seems fine.

Have a 971 and 970 set up in my house 3400~/sqft. After the most recent firmware update, it’s been pretty damn stable. 50iah devices across tv’s, laptops, pc’s, game systems, iot devices, cameras. It did take some time to find the right placement for the satellite, and go through the firmware updates. Trial and error is frustrating but when it’s humming, it’s great. Hell I can get to my neighbors house a hundred feet away and still connect.

Have a 971 and 970 set up in my house 3400~/sqft. After the most recent firmware update, it’s been pretty damn stable. 50iah devices across tv’s, laptops, pc’s, game systems, iot devices, cameras. It did take some time to find the right placement for the satellite, and go through the firmware updates. Trial and error is frustrating but when it’s humming, it’s great. Hell I can get to my neighbors house a hundred feet away and still connect.

I went from the 750s (Router + 2 sats) to the 970s (same setup) with 0 issues. I only upgraded because the 750s WAN maxes out at 1Gbit and my new connection is 1.6Gbit. I gave the 750s to a friend who's had no issues either. It's a shame the OP is having problems, but they've either got a faulty build or there are local issues causing the problems.

I never tested older system but I am using 970 right now. You can always buy a 3 pack of 770 from best buy and and test it out. I tested 770 and then went with two pack of 970 because I dont have large space so three pack was overkill but since I am using wireless Mesh i went with 970 for quad band in the end.

Speedwise 770 worked fine for me. I di dhave issues with new iphones disconnecting but that happened with 970 as well until they pushed out new firmware and I relocated my satellites. Looks like 853 had better antennas compared to 770 and that might be the cause for range issues. 770 is considered an affordable Wifi 7 option so some compromise is to be expected I guess.

If you can afford it then go with 970. I tried the both the systems with my 1gb connection and 970 does seem faster with better coverage all around. 4th band for dedicated backhaul does very well. 970 does come with better antennas so that will always matter. Initially I was using wired backhaul but it seems to break my upload speeds with my Moca adaptor. I have switched to wireless backhaul now with not much loss of overall network speed.

I have had similar experience with Eero units and sold them eventually. Got Orbi 970 after initial hiccups have resolved most of the issues. Working well now

I am awaiting QuantumFiber 2.5 Gig install next week and have purchased the 970 with 2 satellites for my 3200 sq ft 2 level home. The dedicated wireless back haul on the 970 is extremely fast. I have CAT 5e wired throughout this house, presently used with Xfinity (no pods), as well as Orbi RBR 50 w/ 2 satellites. I do not believe the older 5e wiring in this house is serviceable for required speeds and will not use it for back haul (though I’m sure I’ll try it). Cat 5 may be even slower. I’m following this thread

So first off everyone should understand the only Apple product with WiFI7 is the iPhone 16(s). Not even the M4 Max MBP. Which does support 6E, and that should be plenty for most people...many of whom don't even have a 6E router yet. WiFi 7 really isn't a thing yet. HAVING SAID THAT. I do have the Orbi 970 - Black Edition :) - with 50 devices connected to a router on the ground floor and a satellite upstairs, wired backhaul. Works well enough, aside from a far corner dead zone where no one really spends time. I get 900+ up/down in good spots, others dip below 500. Plenty for me. Or it would be if I was ever upstairs. I spend most of my time in the basement, which is my workshop/studio. The signal penetration down there from the Orbi 970 is almost nonexistent. I really need music playing to get in the zone to work, and my Homepods and iPhone 15 won't connect 90% of the time. If they do, I get 20 mins of streaming XM and it cuts. My M4 Max has a terrible time even finding the SSIDs, and only gets like 100 up/down anyway. # This Router/Sat Duo was $1700. Took like 5 setup attempts to get them to talk. No one in our house even has a WiFi 7 device but I didn't pay for them so whatever. But you can imagine how frustrating it is to work for 20 mins, then spend 5 minutes trying to reconnect the music. Untenable. So I stopped at Best Buy right after Christmas and spotted the Nighthawk RS200 on sale for like $150. A tad cheaper than another $850 satellite eh? I really wasn't sure how well it would integrate - couldn't find many cases of anyone with an Orbi Mesh network + another router in AP mode. But I went for it, plugged into a CAT6e jack I had already run to the shop years ago. *^(Side Note: I previously had an Airport Extreme here but had to ditch it because Apple never updated their Airports past SMB1 file sharing. I also have a Lenovo Yoga (mostly used as a CNC workstation)* *and Windows won't touch that with a stick. I know you can force it to but...yeah no thanks. Even without the Airport though, I didn't have such terrible coverage in the basement.)* Nighthawk was setup and rolling in minutes, dishing out max speed wired and wireless. Which should be expected, it's right next to me. But that's not the interesting part. I get those same speeds and full coverage EVERYWHERE in the house, even where the Orbis can't reach. And the Orbi Sat is ALSO right next to me, on the desk in my bedroom. Make that make sense. \-- *Reminder --* Orbi 970 is Quad-Band, claiming **27gbps** speed, 360º coverage across 3,300sqft (per unit), using **TWELVE** amplified radios (per unit). **10gig** ETH for backhaul, with a dedicated band for wireless backhaul as well. Not an RF expert, but I guess one could argue that that 360º is on the horizontal plane, but that's definitely not how Netgear depicts it. The RS200 is the lowest in their lineup of 6 different Nighthawk WiFI7 routers. It's Dual-Band, with **2.5gig** ports and **6.5gbps** speed. Same 360º coverage across 2,500sqft, with **FOUR** amplified radios. It has a tad-bit slower processor, 1/8 the Flash memory and the same 2GB RAM. Same WPA3 encryption as the Orbi. Same warranty, and same year of free Netgear Armor (whatever that's worth). And it seems to have more features on the back end interface...email logs/alerts, Readyshare, Protection Engine (?). The apps are literally identical with different color schemes. I'm not a gamer so I never really considered a Nighthawk. They basically advertise them as a specialty product for game latency or whatever, but I freaking love it. For $150. Not the $2300 it would be for an Orbi 970 router + 2 satellites. I mean, wow.

I switched from two Orbi 970 to a Netgear RS700 and omg. The RS700 is a beast and I don’t need a mesh anymore

I dropped off my orbi 970 at UPS today to be returned in favor of my new UniFi stack. It’s no comparison.

I’m using an Orbi 970 and connection is solid with no issues

I’ve been using my 970 router since last July, and all my Apple devices have been running smoothly without any issues. Even my WiFi 7 iPhones are connected to the router using MLO without any problems. I haven’t experienced any drop connections on any of my three HomePods. HomeKit has been reliable and stable for me. One thing I can note about WiFi 7 is that it offers a stronger signal compared to WiFi 6E. With my Logitech Circle View cameras, I used to experience occasional drop connections when connected to a WiFi 6E router. However, since switching to the Orbi 970, I haven’t had a single drop connection. I hope you’re able to identify the cause of your issues and resolve them.

I have had my Orbi Wifi 7 (970 Series) since shortly after it was released in November 2023. I have almost all apple devices and run over 60 home devices (bulbs, doors, TV's, etc.) In my time with the Orbi, I have had no real issues despite the initial setup which needed a firmware update as I powered it up for the first time. I am sorry to hear you are having issues, but I would suggest you exchange your Router to where you purchased it. I have had great support form Netgear in the past, for my previous two routers, so I would encourage you to not give up on the system. The one thing I setup at the beginning was a separate network for my Home Devices that used the 2.4ghz band to include cameras, lights, and HomePods. Since doing this about 1.5 years ago, I have had no issues unless I added another device and put it on a the 2.4ghz network by accident. I hope you find some resolution for your issues.

I use a ORBI RBE971 WIFI7 one of the first sold in my country in Europe. We are a full apple household with HomePods, iPhones, MacBooks and so on. I don’t encounter any problems with ORBIs RBE971 WIFI7 router at all. Not in the IOT network or any other network. I do not know what u are talking about. Maybe u just got a bad device in the first hand. Ever tried there support that is very very very helpful? Or tried to simple replace the router u are using?

No why should I? What u wrote is just wrong.

Guess what. I have over 100 IOT devices and +50 in my main network :0. I am more or less maxed out on supported devices. But I think all the commends against u are showing that what ever u have is a u problem, sry.

Pls don’t get a Orbi mesh network anymore… they where great years ago but nowerdays… u can read my post that I have in this sub if u wanna.

Haha nice one. Every provider router has better coverage then the 970.

I have the wifi 7 orbit 970 with no issues

I have the 970 with 2 satellites, and tons of Apple gear. No real issues to speak of.

I have used the orbi WIFI 7 970 , eero max wifi 7, TP link 11000 wifi 7 and Asus be30000. Every single unit from all of the different brands are plagued with massive issues. Constant drops, devices refusing to connect, disconnects, range issues and instability between router and satellites. It's so bad that I returned every single one I used and picked up an eero 6E. I have had 0 issues on 6E. In my opinion wifi 7 is nowhere near ready for primetime and is an utter joke. To sum this up avoid wifi 7 like a plague (at least for now)

I have the BE9500 from previously netgear orbi 971 after it started boot looping, but I’m happier with the TP-Link.

I purchased the Orbi 970 router + 1 satellite system last April (so a little over a year ago.) The price was definitely steep, but overall no issues once the satellite unit got connected. In my previous house (over 3,000 sq/ft), it actually gave me FULL coverage where we needed it. Now I've downsized to a condo (993 sq/ft), and am still waiting for cable to be run to my unit, but with just the router set up for now on LAN, it's definitely a bit slower than it had been. Hopefully setting up the satellite once cable is in will fix that. I'm very used to Netgear's web interface, so configuration is pretty straightforward.

Just comparing apples to apples - can you do a wired back haul on the E7s like you can the orbi satellites? I have hated the 970 so I’m ready to switch if it can do all the things the orbi can do.

Finally giving up on Orbi 970–what is the best/most reliable WiFi 7 mesh? Loved my prior generation Orbi, was as reliable as any network I ever had. The 970 has been a huge headache. Blazing speeds when it works, but my wife and I have constant drops and issues with our recent model iPhones. I’ve tried moving placement, buying another satellite, taking two out, nothing has been reliable. Shame because the speed is awesome when it works. What is my best replacement option? I have Verizon 2GB fiber into my home, which actually tests at 2.5GB. Roughly 6,000 sq feet I’d like to cover; I will have the main unit in the basement by the ONT, a first satellite hardwired back haul up on the third floor, and a third satellite full wireless on the other side of the house first floor. Money is no object — I can’t put a price on reliable wifi these days. I was leaning BE85, which seems to get good reviews, although now I’m reading this and BE95 are the same Qualcomm chipsets as in my Orbi. Last thing I want is to spend this money and repeat the issues I was having if they’re caused by Qualcomm. Asus BQ16 seems to get great reviews, though I’m seeing some reports of bugs and headaches there too — mainly with the IoT 2.4Ghz, which issue it sounds like is easily resolved with some minor setup tweaks, so it doesn’t sound concerning and I’m sort of leaning this way. Anything else I should be looking at?

I ditched my Orbi 970. Finally gave up. It was horrible. Bought a Ubiquiti system this week and will never look back. It’s absolutely awesome. Worlds better than anything else I’ve tried.

I got so tired of about a year of trying to get my Orbi 7 mesh to work properly, to not constantly drop my wife’s iPhone and mine, to not constantly have odd issues with things like smart TVs and treadmills not being able to connect consistently. I finally had it, and after some reading picked up a Ubiquiti Dream Router 7 along with a switch and two E7 access points. It’s a commercial grade system that should cost way more than I spent on the Orbi stuff, and yet it’s somehow cheaper. Like, a lot cheaper. Speeds are way better than with the Orbi. Coverage better. And so far, I am not seeing any annoying iPhone drops. And the smart TV and treadmill that kept disconnecting seem to be working great. I wish someone had grabbed me by the neck and forced me to do this a year ago. Lesson learned. Just wanted to share this here for others like me who dealt with nothing but headaches with the 970. Good luck to folks here. I’m out. 👍

Dream Router 7 - $279 (absolutely a steal) 2 of the E7 Access Points - $998 2.5Gb Flex POE switch - $214 2 Ethernet POE injectors - $80 Total: about $1600 I am pretty sure I spent more than that on my Orbi 970 setup + additional satellite I still have one “dead zone” in my house that old construction and plaster and brick is blocking a good signal too. That said, Orbi just used to randomly drop our devices in this room. Now everything works but I’m not getting the insane speed test speeds I get elsewhere. So I probably don’t have to actually do anything about it, but well, this forum is all about overkill.

My Orbo970 system was overpriced junk. Fast, but we all use iPhones in my house and it just doesn’t know how to deal with them. Recently switched to a UniFi system and no trouble at all with iPhone handoffs on their wifi7 APs. Best decision ever.

With all these bad reports about Orbi, in my case my 970 router and two extenders have worked flawlessly since I got them. In my situation I am able to hardwire the backhaul on one of the satellites and use the wireless backhaul on the other extender. With proper placement I’m getting near wired speed on the extender with the wireless backhaul. I considered Ubiquiti but I’m not able to run Ethernet cabling all over my home for the access points so in my case the Netgear solution was better. I agree, the control and monitoring of the Orbi is very limited. I wish they had something more fun with more control but Orbi is a residential general consumer system so I guess Netgear feels a complex control system is not needed.

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

The 770 870 and 970 are all just hot garbage. The firmware is absolutely atrocious. I had a customer want the 770 for there home I said ok but there not very reliable at the moment they wanted it anyway. It took 3 days and they got fed up with it then they decided they wanted the 373 series and lone behold it actually worked better than the higher end models and hasn’t been a problem for them go figure. I actually installed another 373 series a week ago for a friend of mine and that one is also very solid. My only conclusion is it’s something in the firmware of the true wifi 7 models that have 6ghz band. The 373 doesn’t have the 6ghz band but as a dual band system it performs well from what I have seen so far.

UniFi is the way to go I have clients with Orbi and when they work there great and have extensive wifi coverage but firmwares are the problem and they can’t seem to get a handle on correcting that problem as the latest .15 firmware for the wifi 6 and 6E models has been an absolute nightmare and the firmware for the wifi 7 models especially the 970 has been atrocious. I have had to roll back firmware on a lot of peoples orbi systems lately and turn off the auto update option for them so the system stays semi stable. UniFi releases firmware quite regularly and once you get it setup it’s basically done and just works. You can get a complete UniFi system for under what the new wifi 7 Orbi systems cost as long as you know what you need from UniFi. If you do go with UniFi I suggest buying directly from them as I have heard 3rd party retailers like Amazon while there authorized retailers the RMA process can be a bit more of a task than if you buy directly from UniFi.

I own the Orbi 970 (1 base + 2 satellites) with zero issues whatsoever.

If you’re heavy on Apple devices then WiFi 7 won’t be coming for a while and you should be okay with a WiFi 6E router for the next 5 years. However, if you want to go forward with you can look at Ubiquiti CG Fibre and U7 or UX7 AP. The router should be future proof and allow you upgrade your AP nodes based on which band you want. If you want a different mesh brand then you can look between Deco (best on budget), Asus Zenwifi BT10 (tri-band) / BQ16 (quad-band) or Orbi 770 / 870 / 970. This are the top 3 brands with top mesh systems and best coverage. Nevertheless, your bandwidth and devices should decide your choice (added with budget) Honorable mention will be Eero Max 7 but it’s barely customizable and you have to do things the Eero way

I use only apple products and had almost zero problems with the 970. That said, it is massively overpriced and I happily exchanged it for Firewalla AP7’s.

I'm debating between the Orbi 973 and the BQ16 series (this one at Best Buy https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-zenwifi-be30000-wifi-7-quad-band-mesh-router-3-pack-white/6578392.p?skuId=6578392). Then I need to convince my wife that I need to spend the money to upgrade our WiFi6 system that is under a year old.

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 switched from Orbi to Unifi after I got the purple light of death one too many times. The hardest part about Unifi isn't the admin, it's figuring out what equipment you need. You can go (relatively) cheap or really really expensive. For a top of the line Orbi 970, you can get a really good Unifi setup. A lot will depend on your specific needs and available space. The nice thing is, if something needs to be upgraded, you can generally just upgrade that one part and keep on going. Since I switched 6 months ago, I haven't had a single day of downtime. It just works. My only advice would be to hold off on the Unifi Wifi 7 stuff for now.

I have orbi 970s that work fantastic. They pulled multi-gig throughput over wireless backhaul and now I have them wired with 10g backhaul.

I did exactly the same had two orbi970s for two weeks it was beyond awful. Went back to Asus with a rog router and two zen nodes. It has been excellent

I had the Orbi 970 (with two satellites) for two years, and it was a horrible experience. Everything on the router was so restricted. The WiFi kept dropping randomly, or it would be connected but have no internet. Every night around 9 p.m., for some reason, the internet would completely go out for 15–20 minutes. Last Friday, I switched over to a Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro with three UniFi U7 Pro Max access points. Not only is this setup WAY cheaper, but it also works so much better, and the customization options feel endless. I honestly feel dumb for not switching over way sooner (I thought it would be a pain to migrate everything), and even dumber for not skipping the Orbi 970 entirely. Since switching to UniFi, I’ve had ZERO WiFi drops and my internet hasn’t disconnected once, which you can actually see easily and conveniently on the dashboard.

When Ubiquiti’s products show up in YouTube “reviews”, Ubiquiti makes every YouTuber sign a contract where Ubiquiti gets to stipulate contents of the “review” video and demand changes to the video before it can published. That’s a sure sign that you’re a shit company, so I will not buy their garbage. On the other hand, I’ve owned an Orbi 970 for about a year, and the only issues I had were WiFi 7 iOS devices disconnecting, and that was fixed many months ago by a Netgear firmware update for the 970.

I’m about to ditch my Orbi 970 since iOS devices will not stay connected, and it’s been 6 months since Netgear has released a firmware update for it. I have a relative that has the same issue with an Orbi 970 in a different part of the country with a different ISP, so it’s not just my particular 970 unit that has the issue. It seems Netgear either does not know how to fix the issue or doesn’t care. I’m outside the tiny amount of time Netgear allows for buyers of their $2k product to create a support ticket, and their support forums are useless, as no Netgear employees monitor them, and the weirdos given control of their support forums lock and/or delete any posts pointing out issues after responding with useless information. I would not buy a TP-Link product though, due to the company’s ties to the Chinese government. The best alternatives to Netgear for WiFi 7 currently seem to be Asus’ ZenWiFi 7 BQ16 mesh WiFi, Amazon’s Eero Pro 7 or Eero Max 7 mesh WiFi 7, or if you have networking knowledge, Ubiquiti’s WiFi 7 access points along with 1 of its cloud routers. Ubiquiti has not yet released a mesh WiFi 7 product. For a typical consumer that wants ease of use, the Eero products seems the best and is what I’ll likely switch to soon. I’ll likely buy the Eero Max 7 and then sell the Orbi 970 I currently own. I too have corporate IT networking experience, but I’d rather my job not follow me home. I just want a mesh WiFi 7 product that consistently works, and the Orbi WiFi 7 products are not it.

It works unless you have an iPhone that is WiFi 7 capable, which is a disaster. It used to be flaky, dropping connection to my iPhone 16 Pro every few days. Starting a few weeks ago, I’m lucky if my iPhone stays connected for an hour, and I had to disable WiFi calling on the iPhone, otherwise calls dropped constantly. It’s the same for other people and the person I know that also has an Orbi 970 and 2 WiFi 7 iPhones in their house. We both have 10G Ethernet networks with the satellites connected to a Netgear unmanaged 10G switch, so all Orbi devices have a 10G wired backhaul connection. I’ve tried all the suggested nonsense to fix the issue. None of the suggested settings changes have any effect. I’m about to order an Eero Max 7 router and with 2 satellites. I’ve owned and used Orbi products since the original Orbi model was released and never had issues like this. The Orbi WiFi 7 products have been terrible for me.

We have been using RBE971 for a couple years and RBE850 before that. We have had ZERO problems. It works perfectly! We have about 200 devices, lots of homekit lights/security devices. About 16 homekit secure video cameras, don’t ask. We work remote, have 1gig down/up. Incredible access speeds everywhere. In the processes of installing 10gb backhaul wired network. Everything is great. Sorry to hear about your problems. Just wanted to add this cause not all apple users are having problems.

I switched from flagship Orbi to mid to high range TP and never looked back. TP just works.

Orbi Wi-Fi 7 products perform incredibly well compared to older Netgear products I’ve had. Downsides are they’re expensive, physically big and unless you have a complex house layout, they may be overkill.

I have an Orbi Wifi 7 Mesh and it works well for me. Might want to think twice about TP Link. The government is considering a ban. [https://www.wired.com/story/tp-link-router-ban-investigation/](https://www.wired.com/story/tp-link-router-ban-investigation/)

Yep I got mine in October. 0 issues unless j forget to do a firmware update. I to connected all my slower devices to my LOT 2.4ghz only network. Works exactly the way it's supposed to

I have an orbi wifi 7 mesh system, it's not cheap but it works extremely well

Run away from orbi. I got the WiFi 7 and I hate it. Stops for no reason. Latency spikes. Needs rebooting (potentially DHCP issue). Weirdly crap firmware that doesn’t even confirm to its own documentation.

In the process of ditching my 50 series Orbis now for similar outdoor expansion reasons. Bottom line, hardwired is always better and more stable unless a specific device has firmware or hardware issues like the new WIFI 7 Orbi series all have. Swapping all of my Orbi units with Grandstream's outdoor/indoor GWN7664ELR AX6000 wall/pole mount access points instead which have dual 2.5Gb ports for a redundant 5Gb lagg fiber optic & POE backhaul. My 50 series Orbis do still run great and rock stable 866Mb wifi at each satellite with CAT-6a wired backhaul. Netgear's current options could never accommodate the outdoors well for full bandwidth AND signal coverage even in their top tier models, wireless backhaul on any brand is trash if you have more than one room or any walls or floors in your house or trees outside between each node, slower and slower each node down the chain. The RBS50Y would be an entirely different contender if only it had a wired-backhaul port. Been using my Orbis in AP only mode with pfSense as my router for years now so migrating to more reliable simple access points was just one step away.

Not crazy. They bought back my Orbis when I gave up on NetGesr and switched.

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 have also had fantastic luck with Orbi systems over the years.

I had a bad experience with orbi also. Took it all back.

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 have an e7 and another wifi7 AP that I don’t care to remember its name, and I went back to using my old orbi mesh system. It was nothing but headaches with the ubiquity WiFi. If I were you I’d try a decent Deco mesh system. Ive set a few of those up at clients and they are very nice and super long range. If it don’t work good you can always return it :)

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.

Eero. I've historically had good luck with Eero. After Amazon bought them and it was time to upgrade, I switched over to Netgear Orbi. Awful mistake. It made me appreciate Eero that much more. I picked up the Eero Pro 7 on the Prime day sale, despite being an Amazon company now. So far so good. Performance has been great. I'm not a fan of TP-Link personally since they don't have the best security track record.

Orbi is rough to configure and keep running. Many complaints on this sub that everytime they push a firmware update connections break. I've had mine almost 2 years and have many times wanted to throw it out the window of a moving car.

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.

It depends on what you want to do. I’m not familiar with the TP link systems you mentioned but I use an Orbi system with a primary and a couple of secondary AP’s. The secondary’s have a dual radio link to the primary and all full duplex (send and receive at the same time - unlike wifi) and have a mini switch built in to connect wired devices.  This gives our Apple TV’s and PC’s better performance. It also depends on your home construction. If possible you want to just have 5Ghz, so having multiple access points around the home is beneficial. The furthest room away from the primary is the “throne room” in the master bathroom. I get awesome signal and because of that, three units are not excessive for a 2,000ish sqft house ;)

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

I switched from eero to Orbi back when Amazon bought eero. Nothing but odd behaviors and frustrations with my Orbi’s. Switched back to eero’s last year — rock solid. Both were/are configured in bridge mode. Eero’s just work.

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 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.

https://www.synology.com/products/routers They not bundle like others but they support mesh. And yes Orbi mesh, my other neighbour using it, not bad, just no VLAN.

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 currently have an Orbi with 2 APs downstairs and 2 upstairs. Occassional dropouts but rare so its doable.

Have orbi before and so many problems with homekit but since changed to eero been working perfectly fine

Netgear orbi is fantastic, but it's not cheap

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 gave up on orbi a year or so ago after running them for a couple of years. I switched to eero (despite resisting due to not liking that they're Amazon-owned) and they've been a dream. No issues, no interruptions, no speed degradation at all.

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.

We use a Netgear Orbi base station and two satellites and it works pretty well. I was looking on eBay to pick up a third satellite to extend the signal out into the garage.

Wifi range extenders are the devil. They literally cut your speeds in half. Best thing to do is to get the Starlink Mesh units or a mesh wifi system such as the netgear Orbis.

my comment may have come off as overly critical, wasn't really meant to be. I was trying to say that as far as *hardware* goes, the Orbi is a good premium mesh system and it was overall a good choice on your part, but yeah, the software fucking blows and you need a dedicated and better gateway with actual features. I didn't mean a whole ubiquiti system from soup to nuts, I just meant getting one of their gateways to attach to your Orbi in AP mode. But I don't even have ubiquiti, I went with the first Firewalla gold years ago. Once I realized NG severely nerfed the software for power users (I'm a network admin by trade), I got a dedicated gateway. I thought about the dream machine for just the gateway portion to pair with the Orbi, but Firewalla had better parental control reviews than the dream machine at the time. it's been great and rock solid since 2020. Firewalla continuously update it with new advanced features too. I bought it for around $400 at the time and it's only got 1Gb ports but that's fine enough for me as my ISP doesn't even get past 850Mbps. Now they are up to 3 different versions of the Gold and the bottom one (gold SE model) is what they released to replace the original model. It now has 2x2.5Gb and 2x1Gb ports and goes for $479. Price went up but I Still think it's a value. The other two--"plus" and "pro" models are too expensive imo. As far as Orbi overall Ive had my issues with Netgear over the years (fuck Arlo), but my best performing wireless devices I've owned were my nighthawk and my Orbi. I've had Asus, Linksys, tp link etc etc. Around 2019 I wanted to go mesh and bought several different systems without breaking the bank and they all sucked in one way or another. The Google stuff wasn't fast enough, the newly released eero wifi 6 had weird stability issues, Asus wouldn't allow AP handoff properly, etc etc. As you mentioned, at the time, ubiquiti required the APs to be hardwired so I passed on it. 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.

If WIFI, go Netgear Orbi. It's set and forget and just works, quite awesomely. If you can go wired, definitely run CAT 6 cabling, preferably "plenum", which is fire resistant. Good luck!

I had a 4 story with a central staircase, all concrete with infloor heating, so very thick floors. I ended up putting mesh units right by the stairwell on each floor to get full coverage and it worked decently. This was 8 years ago and were orbi units, you’ll probably get better results with newer mesh APs.

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

We have the same thing. The people we bought our house from said don't even dream of having WiFi here it's impossible. Well, we made the impossible, possible. We have internet coming in to our flagstone basement, and use a MESH system to have excellent WiFi throughout our house. We have an Orbi system it goes through all the layers and delivers full (5 bars) connection throughout our over 3500 sq ft 1730 home.

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

As others have mentioned, UniFi doesn’t support a dedicated wireless backhaul, but you might be willing to make that trade off (cut bandwidth in half when mesh hopping) like I recently did. I went from a Netgear Orbi system which had a dedicated wireless backhaul to a UniFi Dream Router + U6 Extender (no wireless backhaul). I traded the backhaul for much more control over my network (VLANs, multiple SSIDs, etc.). Even with half the bandwidth over a mesh hop, I still have plenty of bandwidth for my needs. Also, my house is 2,500 sq. ft. and the U6 Extender is borderline unnecessary. You might be fine with just the UDR if you place it in a central location. Hope that helps!

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'm faaaar from a network expert, but I have used both WIFI extenders (few different tp-link ones) and mesh. I can tell you, it's night and day difference for my setup, the mesh works so much better, both in coverage, speed, and ease of use. I have an Orbi setup I got from Costco on black friday a few years ago, it's a couple gen old now, but still works fantastic.

Orbi to the rescue.

Go Orbi won’t regret it

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.

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.

Get a managed switch, turn on igmp snooping. If you have a lot of iot multicast devices like chromecast etc, it overwhelms and crashes these devices. 16pro max here with 4 orbi.

I agree, had my orbi for 4 years it is one of the worst routers I used. My neighbor that I helped with his orbi router is equally terrible.

I have been using a UDM Pro with RBK852 system in AP mode since 2020 and it works great. Orbi in AP mode works much better in my experience but you also have to make some changes with the security for older devices. You may also need to change the channels depending on how dense of a Wi-Fi environment you’re in.

This item worked reasonably well with occasional drop outs.It was at one point the best technology for me to get a fair signal through my 3 story house. But The ORBI mesh system I now use is 1000% better. Not cheap but it works brilliantly.

I had Netgear (with an external firewall and generic access points) before they acquired Orbi, then tried Orbi which did not have enough info/options. Then went to at least 4 different types of AX Asus units for the longest time (10+ years with plenty of options and info but started to become unstable), then recently switched to Gryphon AX due to the need for parental controls for kids. I am thinking of going to Unifi next in a year or 2, as I miss the options/info that Asus provided, and get more with Unifi.

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

tp link makes a good mesh system as long as you get a triband system.. you might want to look at an Orbi system they cost more but they work and are very reliable. Just disable the wifi on your att modem and hook up the system and get a couple of satellites for a house this large, and you will have speedy wifi in the whole house top to bottom...

just keep the Orbi as your mesh and use it in bridge mode. If you want to do everything through firewalla buy their AP7s

Orbis have wireless back haul too. And with the firewalla AP7s it's VqLAN, not Vlan.  Small difference.  I had orbis for a long time before my firewalla and then as my wifi with my firewalla. They aren't bad. 

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!

Still rocking my very old Orbi. Works fantastic as a mesh system.

You could always put the orbi in AP mode and use a different router.

Look it up in your owners manual. It will explain it better than I can. I have run my Orbi system this way for YEARS and it is rock solid.

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.

you need to tell us what kind of - internet service/speed - number of users - number of devices - budget but in general r/orbi is what i set up many with not impressed with eero, but depends on model been using/recommending mesh for over a decade now

I just use an orbi router with two satellites. The router and satellites each have ether net ports. Spread the satellites to the floors the other two stories. There may be better mesh systems for your application, but this works for me.

I used to ride on orbi, always had problems. Moved to eero maybe 4 years ago now, and i havent had a single issues.. its been 100% rock solid perfect. I hope y’all do yourselves a favor and upgrade during Black Friday sales

There is many variables to your question and I don’t think there a simple answer. Hardwired device and APs will provide the best coverage but if you can do that then you are looking as some type of wireless backhaul. How well it performance will depend on your environment and use. If your house is an open floor plan with a few users surfing the web and watching a few videos it will most likely be fine. if you have multiple gamers and have thick walls(plaster and brick) they will most likely be unhappy with the performance and latency using WiF. I personally have 5 hardwired APs in my house which has plaster walls/ceilings, and multiple fireplaces(consider brick) and a few corners that have poor coverage. Deployed 2 Orbis with wireless backhaul in my brothers house that is an open floor plan and he have the best coverage ever. Best situtio is try make your house and see where the dead spots are. if you can move APs do that and retest. There are a few free scanners out there to help. Hamina is pretty detailed and has a light version that is free.

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.