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 run an orbi 970 with three satellites. In general it has been flawless. Spectrum internet on the other hand…

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.

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 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 just made the move from that one to the Netgear Orbi 970 and it's been flawless. Expensive but has the new Wifi7 and 6E stuff too.

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.

Ich habe die Orbi 970 gekauft und bereue es, die sind einfach nur unzuverlässig. Der Satellit ist öfters mal für 10 Minuten einfach weg, und wenn man Kabel am Satelliten anschließt hat man nur 150 MBit während per WiFi locker 1 GBit möglich ist... Klar meine Unit kann einfach defekt sein, aber ich werd's erstmal zurückschicken

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.

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.

I work from home and game a little bit on my PS5. I just upgraded to the 970. Wireless back haul and pretty happy with the MLO results. I’m an analytics executive and work with large data sets and heavy teams/zoom calls. Don’t have an issue with how consistently I’m getting 1gbps+ wirelessly.

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.

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

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.

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.

I guess it depends on your ISP speeds as well. I've got 2 GBIT down- and upload and even think about upgrading to 8 GBIT soon. So I've gotten the Orbi 970 with 1 satellite (SO PRICY!!!) and I couldn't be happier with it. I have perfect internet (wifi) everywhere in the house and the 970 solved an issue for me, that being my house only has cat6 ethernet cables in the walls and theyre stuck so I cant replace them wiith cat6a. So what I did was put the satellite right next to my deskptop and connect the 10GB port to my desktop with a short cat7 cable and I'm getting the full 2GBIT down- and upload speeds.

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 actually paid through the nose and moved to the Orbi WiFi 7. It seems you can expect around 500 mbps with the AX4200 Linksys router. It’ll be nearly impossible to beat the $15 price, even if you buy 2 and spend $30.

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.

My experience with the Orbi 7 mesh router wasn’t entirely positive. I wouldn’t recommend it to others.

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/)

I just replaced my Orbi seven mesh system for an EERO max seven. Same experience. Once you have reliable Wi-Fi, it’s hard to understand how we tolerated the Orbi for so long. I really wanted to make it work! Good luck with it!

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

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.

TP link is a very cheap chinese brand I do not suggest. What are the chances of getting an electrician out to do more data points around your home so that a few more points are wired? If not go with a mesh system that has a third band just for the mesh system. Ive used 6 pucks with Netgears Orbi (admittly the higher end one). Also the Eero Pro 6e (specificcally the 6e) ive used with 7 pucks in a large space and it worked great. Eero and Netgear both JUST do wifi so they seem to do it very well. If you want an EASY to use app similar with googles go the Eero pro 6e. Also what about reducing the number of pucks? so go down to 6 and see if the coverage stays similar? this would make the packets "Jump" less between devices. Id even try this with your current setup. By the time you end up buying another 10 you could have got an electrician out for $150 to back hall a few up

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

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'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.

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.