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.

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 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.

Wow I am you!!!! I literally upgraded from RBR50 with 2 satellites. To Dream Routers 7 and 3 APs with injectors a month ago. I will say I was not expecting the cost, which is equivalent to the cost of 990. Facts on what everyone else said. Just leave NetGear alone.

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 can send you my Orbi wifi router.  I lost its mesh network buddy somehow in the house move.  So had to buy a new one.  It's great, no complaints. Probably 4 years old?   Netgear Orbit RBR50v2 DM me your address if interested.  

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 only have experience with the older rbk53, but it has been rock solid for me for years. I've been thinking about going for a newer orbi mesh considering mine only supports wifi5 but i've read nothing but bad things about newer stuff, both expensive and unstable.

Same, had issues with Orbi for years. I had the 852 a d the RBR50 before that, but upgraded to the Dream Router 7. Instantly my speed went up 50%. Plus actually having 2.5gbps ports is amazing. I absolutely love the features on the app.

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.

971 user here. Had the RBR50 running for years and decided to upgrade to these expensive tubes of garbage. I could have learned to play banjo or do oil painting in the amount of time I’ve spent upgrading firmware, resetting devices, reserving IPs, changing settings- changing recommended settings, changing them back - researching. Good lord. And they still drop connections and calls and my iOS devices generally don’t work on them. But aside from that they are ok. They haven’t blown up or sprayed toxic gas in the house yet. So that’s a positive.

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

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

Go Orbi won’t regret it

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

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.

Most all All-in-one designed kind of combo units I find are pretty much all just funk, each and every one has its severe limitations either by intended design or un-intended design flaws as in the such along with that same kind of lack of support and is not open-source to allow any form of community input towards fixing any kind of issue they have past that 1-800 support number that directs only to un-knowledgeable sales team staff at the very best trying to sell more broken gear they have no clew how to "fix." For the router half of that question, I run pfSense bare metal, it is far far more capable of a router with superior business management filtering controls(parental controls) and much much more, and without subscription costs to use them. That wires straight into my 10Gb sfp managed L3 switch for my LAN backbone. My current ISP connection is only 300Mb and 2.5Gb max at the modem's port so any router with any ports faster than a 1Gb or 2.5Gb are entirely not needed for 10Gb LAN experience and at this time an entire waste to spend money on. pfSense configurations can always be migrated over to new/better hardware whenever comes the time and need for it or for just a 10Gb ISP upgrade, many pfSense routers can just have their NIC cards upgraded to 10Gb NICs in a matter of minutes on the same hardware depending on what one has, much cheaper and easier down the road than replacing your entire network as a whole each round. Then the second half of your question, mesh/WIFI. For this, currently have been running Orbi RBK53 setup in AP only mode on Voxel firmware and each is connected to APC battery backup units as is the rest of my entire network, rock stable with zero reboots for several years now and no performance drops either. My WIFI has been great but upgrades are underway soon to be swapping in Grandstream indoor/outdoor GWN7664ELR access points once I am finished running POE and fiber to each for link aggregation, they are "wireless backhaul"/mesh capable also when and where needed but with these I can set just one AP on mesh backhaul if it is so absolutely needed for one specific location like outdoors or something but I highly prefer a solid wired backhaul to ensure both latency and linespeed connection rates reach each corner of the ranch equally. I live in a cellular data dead zone and WIFI calling/VoIP/SMS related end device features do not play well when latency spike occur which is un-avoidable at all when using a "pure" mesh WIFI and dropping phone calls if you move a few inches, wired backhaul I can roam from edge to edge of my ranch while being on-call remoted in servicing a regional hospital without any of the erratic issues with pure mesh wireless backhaul.

I think that statement really applies to all Orbi and most other mesh wifi/router combo setups in general as well. Real access points are much cheaper and have many more and actually "working" features especially if combined with a good firewall appliance as a router, pfSense even has its own PiHole-like package called pfBlockerNG that can do most all the same as PiHole but with added functionality having IP firewall controls as well which can also either compliment or replace your current PiHole however you desire. Wireless mesh networks started off as a nice "idea" but when bound within the current regulations and airspace allocated by the FCC it is more purely only a gimmick to help push initial product sales and additional support contracts to those whom fall for them, same as their alleged "parental controls" features that realistically don't function at all on networked devices/PCs newer than 1995. Pure wireless mesh is literally more fable than its ever worth to invest in, at least in the present time anyways until more bands/channels one day become available to utilize by the general public, no matter which way you look at it speeds will always drop off more and more and latency only goes higher and higher the further you are down the chain away from the main master node with each additional wireless hop, the only question is by how much. Also, with more than 3-4 wireless end-devices using them, airtime allowance goes to complete utter hell on all Orbi setups since all nodes use the same backhaul channels as well as the same primary WIFI channels creating a highly congested very large ring topology where only one single end device can communicate on the wireless network on that same channel at any given second in time which is also divided by the number of wireless mesh APs or Satellites you have on top of that equation at the same time as well, and....the furthest wireless device with the weakest signal also will affect the rest of the entire wireless network as a whole the most in this kind of setup causing excess latency to all other devices even if they're just inches away from satellites or RBR as they each wait for the single wireless token/beacon to communicate. Regular access points can in theory much better handle pure wireless mesh mode because of being able to set specific channels for each AP to use for each wireless SSID and each wireless backhaul SSID individually which will segregate that single large ring topology down into multiple smaller rings and smaller broadcast-domains linked together which is much more efficient for wireless networks with many devices. Wired backhaul is always the way to go in my books to ensure maximum speed reaches ALL access points at all ends of my ranch as well as it freeing up additional wireless channels to be used on more access points when/where needed which access points can do but Orbi's and alike cannot. It also replaces the congested wireless backhaul "ring topology" itself with a much faster ASIC switched "star topology" to further maximize the amount of individual wireless devices and APs/satellites that are able to communicate back to the network at the same time. Its literally most of the reason why a "slow" 36Mb wireless connection link-speed on an enterprise wireless network like hospitals have at my work often perform faster, consistently stable and with less latency compared to most any common home user's experience with various $2000 WIFI 7/6 pure wireless mesh network setups that try to boast 5-10Gbps+ kind of wifi speeds. Another reason I'm migrating to access points is POE. Many of the issues I've had with Orbis in the past were often power outage/fluctuation related matters that causes any digital electronics to go haywire or just simply get fried, when it happens to your network gear that just causes that many more issues. Simplest solution was adding battery backup UPS units to all network gear. Using my 5 pack of RBK50 series Orbis cost me the price of adding a UPS to each and now with 5 UPS units with aged failing batteries for each just a few years later. Migrating over to indoor/outdoor GWN7664ELR POE access points I now have my entire wireless network and 10Gb LAN powered at one central point at my network rack all behind one single battery backup UPS unit with one single much longer lasting, much less costly and easier to replace 100AH LiFePO4 battery in place of my former several 7AH lead acid batteries.

My RBK50 system was rock solid but EOL, my RBK653 is OK, but if the router loses power all he'll breaks loose, I have to factory reset everything and set it all back up. This includes anytime a firmware upgrade happens. I'm probably going with an Eero Max 7 system when I save enough money to go WiFi7.

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

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 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,

Same. my original Orbi from precovid was garbage performance originally, but after about 6-8 months of continual firmware upgrade was WONDERFUL and blindly fast 880 on a 1GB , symmetric up/down . Rock solid unflappable. But, they stopped updating any firmware and my security software was screaming at me to patch holes. So I researched and almost no one can deal with the new Netgear stuff you and others mention here. So, I went with a pair of Asus ROG GT6's... Stable but otherwise disappointing performance. fantastic tweaking software, but despite this, just 'meh' overall. highly asymmetric performance: fast-ish – still only slightly faster than HALF of what the 5 year old Netgear got on the download. And it's horrible on the upload. So seriously disappointed in Asus. Everyone seems to think Ubiquiti is the best (within reason) and I'm going to sell my Asus Stuff and try that too. Thanks for your info.

I went from an old Orbi RB system to the 770 and have loved it! Sorry to hear so many haven’t. But so far it’s been great for me all around.

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've used orbi 5ghz 4 nodes in 7500sqf home for years and worked great. I was able to use MOCA since the house got coaxial wired to all rooms. I've downsized and recently bought Asus axe7800 3-pack at bestbuy. Just grab 2 sets and you got a router and 5 nodes to mess around with.

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.

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.

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!

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'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.

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!

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

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

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.