NETGEAR - Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System (RBK50, RBK53, etc.)

I have those as well and see almost no reason to upgrade. Sure i can get slightly faster speeds maybe but in 4 years ive never had to even reboot them. Flawless performance 

I have those as well and see almost no reason to upgrade. Sure i can get slightly faster speeds maybe but in 4 years ive never had to even reboot them. Flawless performance 

I have the same setup as you except one satellite and have no issues at all. I probably will avoid the new models but I have been using mine for 4 yrs and it has been very good

I have the same setup as you except one satellite and have no issues at all. I probably will avoid the new models but I have been using mine for 4 yrs and it has been very good

Luckily I returned that heap of shit and got every cent of my money back. I then left a horrific review on Netgear's website. Does this system truly have all the capabilities the 970 claims to have, the increased speed between devices on your LAN, WIFI7 perks like the 6 gHz radio, a dedicated 5 gHz backhaul, etc? My use case is I wanna do wireless PCVR and I want that intranet speed poppin' 😭. I have an orbi system now that is flawless that I got from Costco a while back. It just doesn't have the WiFi 7 stuff and increased inter device bandwidth. I'm glad you posted this though cuz I didn't even know what to buy to have a good mesh network. Their website is not the greatest for recommending the things you would need.

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 can only speak for myself, but I've had minimal issues with with the RBR50 + two RBS50 since 2017. I've turned down the WiFi radios and the response has been better on my iPhone 15.

I can only speak for myself, but I've had minimal issues with with the RBR50 + two RBS50 since 2017. I've turned down the WiFi radios and the response has been better on my iPhone 15.

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

My RBR50 and 4 satellites have been bulletproof since I bought them. (They are all refurbished rbr50’s and I just flashed the satellite firmware onto 4 of them). Sounds like the newer stuff is garbage.

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

I have the RBK53 system using wireless backhaul which is 6 years old now. I’ve been concerned about the price of netgear products and the hiding of functionality behind subscriptions. But my main concern is around iot devices and splitting out the 2.4ghz channel which seems to be getting more difficult. I know this is easily done with the ubiquity products, and I’m wondering if the Dream Router 7 and 2 Express 7’s would be the easiest mesh replacement?

Hi. I have this scenario: 1) Orbi RBR50 - Router (in lower level of house attached to Modem. 2) Orbi RBS50 - satellite upstairs on main level in living room. 3) Orbi RB50Y - outdoor satellite about 20-25 feet from (2) satellite (this is under our patio roof about 10-12 feet off the ground.) 4) I just built/moved in to my outdoor shed (office) which is 35 feet from (3) outdoor Orbi. Signal is very week in shed/office. I am getting Speedtest results of a dismal 12-15 MBS. Can anyone help me troubleshoot or offer suggestions? ATTACHED is a diagram if it helps. TYIA! https://preview.redd.it/fov4wg7cfdme1.png?width=1878&format=png&auto=webp&s=411e9cf69f1e74879ccc9091d7bca7e09f421d21

I did exactly this. I had rbr50 and 4 rbs satellites. I now have 6 “LN1301”. Huge improvement in speed and reliability especially with WiFi calling. I was getting about 350 and now my full 600.

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

I recently did a moderate upgrade going from an Orbi RBR50 which was solid to a Orbi RBR750P. Speeds are better, but ever now and then it just factory resets. It is painfully slow to setup these Orbi’s. Next time it happens I am switching to something else.

Also same

I too have the same setup and has been great for many years, don’t feel the need to jump yet for newer tech that’s come out since

I too have the same setup and has been great for many years, don’t feel the need to jump yet for newer tech that’s come out since

I'm in a similar situation but looking to stay under $1K. Have considered the Orbi 770 (BE11000, $799 right now), also looking at the TP-Link Deco BE11000 ($399 from Costco). My RBR50 system has been OK, but would like to make better use of my 1G service. The insight on the 770 vs 970 is great; a little confusing that they're still promoting the 850 (AX6000) which is priced the same as the 770 (BE11000).

I recently upgraded from the Rbr50 to the Rbk750 Orbi Higher speeds and just as strong signal with only 1 satellite as opposed to 2 on the old Orbi setup Changing to the new system took all of ten minutes to complete

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

One of my 2 rbs50 satellites died like a month after warranty expired. I still upgraded my Orbi system tho cause it was still decent. I was always curious about Google nest mesh or eero but for some reason never pulled that trigger, I dunno.

I mean, I've never had those issues with other orbi products

I have RBR50s that mostly work well for WiFi. Legecy WiFi devices don’t really know what to do with them (Xbox 360, old pcs) so it’s a gamble getting those to work. The web interface won’t load anymore and lord knows if I have the password anymore. If memory serves you have to have a netgear.com account to login. Fortunately I’m just using them as bridges and none of the router/firewall stuff. On the day they die I will throw them out and get something other than Orbi. Solid 5/10 from me

I'm also debating on moving to orbi 970, currently have a RBK53 as well.

As long as there is no downtime, I’m a happy camper. I had the Orbi RBK50 before which gave me better speeds but it couldn’t stay consistent for the life of it. Always had random dropouts and rebooting the router and satellites takes like 3-4 mins. Have you tried going down to 3 instead of 4 nodes? I’ve heard people say they get better performance, but just curious how you fared based on your testing.

I had an rbk53 set up for a few years got a few new devices that support WiFi 6 and 6e and the fact the rbk was WiFi 5 bothered me. My Internet is only 350mb I swapped to a deco xe75 which I am happy with I'm able to max out my download now which I wasn't with the orbi. Though I feel like if I had faster Internet this deco set up wouldn't be able to keep up due to the conditions of where the satellites have to be set up there is only an average connection between the satellites.

I got the same thing and got 600+Mbps over wifi. Never had an issue. Never need more speed

Look into Voxel firmware if you still want to keep using your current setup. I'm using Voxel for my RBR50 and 2 RBS50's and it's great. The firmware is updated regularly and is quite easy to install. Just pay attention to the steps. I mean you could brick your router if something goes wrong but there are ways to unbrick it so don't worry too much about it. Forgot to mention it's free but consider donating a few bucks to the guy in appreciation for what he does

Look into Voxel firmware if you still want to keep using your current setup. I'm using Voxel for my RBR50 and 2 RBS50's and it's great. The firmware is updated regularly and is quite easy to install. Just pay attention to the steps. I mean you could brick your router if something goes wrong but there are ways to unbrick it so don't worry too much about it. Forgot to mention it's free but consider donating a few bucks to the guy in appreciation for what he does

I'm still rocking my 3 pack of RBR50, but I have hardwired backhaul set up to each satellite, and an ethernet jack in every room, so the reality is the wifi speeds don't matter too much for me, as anything I need to have very high speed for I just hardwire.

This is a very interesting discussion. I have what I guess is an ancient Orbi RBR50 with one satellite all daisy chained to powered switches to provide Ethernet to 3 AppleTV’s, one MAC and one Samsung smart TV. The Orbi used to be behind an Ancient Arris Spectrum router set to bridge mode. Spectrum just replaced with a new modem and WiFi7 router. That modem can’t be set to bridge mode so my old Orbi is plugged into the modem. I can barely follow the discussion! Can someone recommend some good reading to me on setting up a robust home network? I have very little disruption in my HomeKit, but maybe just lucky and I don’t know how secure the front end is and if so what would be the right way to button it up. I use VPN when on Mac, but nothing is set on the Orbi. Thanks in advance

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.

My rbr50 and 2 satellites continue to rock along. Only use as an AP though.

I want to upgrade from an RBR50 setup (+2 sats). I have been using them with wireless backhaul. I have around 75 devices connected with probably 40 of them being smart devices and Ring cameras. The house is big enough to use mesh. I believe I can set up wired backhaul but I am only cat5 (not e). Right now I have a gigabit unmanaged switch to the house ethernet ports, but most devices use wifi. We have gigabit internet but that may increase to 2+ in the next few years. I am looking to upgrade and am researching the wifi7 mesh systems. I can't tell what the practical differences are between the 770 and the 970, other than the 2.5 vs 10 WAN ports. Also, would I benefit from a dedicated IoT channel? Does it allow for you to control those devices via the main SSID? Any thoughts or advice? Thanks,

I have rbk53 about just as long as you i have 1gig fiber and i get 900+ not gonna change its awesome

How fast is your internet connection? If it’s not maxing out the WiFi speed of the RBK50, upgrading your WiFi router will make no difference for you.

I had an RBK50 mesh setup until the router died a few months ago. I maxed out at a little over 300 mbps with it, so upgrading to WiFi 6 would likely improve your WiFi connection speeds. If you currently have only a single RBK50, you’d probably only need the single Linksys router to upgrade. If you’re using Orbi satellites along with the main router, you may need to buy more than 1 of the Linksys routers and bridge them together to cover all of your house/apartment.

I wouldn’t waste your money on that, I don’t see it as being better than what you have. Ignore the headline figure of AC1200, it’s marketing rubbish that they get by adding the 2.4 and 5GHz speeds together - your stuff will use one or the other but not both at the same time. At best the 5GHz offers 867 Mbps but under ideal circumstances and reality will probably be very different. I have an Orbi WiFi 5 setup and the most I get is 500Mbps over WiF and it’s an AC3000 setup, almost 3x faster than what you are looking at.

I have Orbi, and I’m very happy with it. I got the 2-pack from Costco. The cheaper base router and one satellite covers my 2400 sf two story plus the garage and yard. The 3-pack might be overkill. I have fiber internet and my WiFi is more than 900 mbps up and down.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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