NETGEAR - Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System (RBK50, RBK53, etc.)
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Reddit Reviews:
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Based on 1 year's data from Feb 24, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
18
4
"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. ... I’ve never had any issues with coverage or bandwidth."
"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 ;)"
"Deployed 2 Orbis with wireless backhaul in my brothers house that is an open floor plan and he have the best coverage ever."
28
12
"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. ... I’ve never had any issues with coverage or bandwidth."
"I download 50tb a month on my server and steam Plex to nearly ten simultaneous users this way. Never had any issues relating to the wifi side of it."
"in 4 years ive never had to even reboot them ... Flawless performance"
4
5
"If you want good enough, simple outta the box, then Orbi mesh is great. ... It’s been dead simple to administer."
"the mesh works so much better, both in coverage, speed, and ease of use."
"the mesh works so much better, both in coverage, speed, and ease of use."
4
2
"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."
"My 50 series Orbis do still run great and rock stable 866Mb wifi at each satellite with CAT-6a wired backhaul."
"works flawlessly ... The key with the Orbi is running the backhaul on its own vlan."
5
1
"after about 6-8 months of continual firmware upgrade was WONDERFUL and blindly fast 880 on a 1GB , symmetric up/down . Rock solid unflappable."
"the mesh works so much better, both in coverage, speed, and ease of use."
"the mesh works so much better, both in coverage, speed, and ease of use."
Disliked most:
0
10
"they stopped updating any firmware and my security software was screaming at me to patch holes."
"NG severely nerfed the software for power users (I'm a network admin by trade) ... you need a dedicated and better gateway with actual features"
"I used to have Orbi and the web interface is a joke."
0
4
"I will say I was not expecting the cost, which is equivalent to the cost of 990."
"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."
"I’ve been concerned about the price of netgear products"
6
13
"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."
"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'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"
1
7
"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."
"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'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"
0
3
"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."
"I would have probably kept going with Orbi if I could call support, but you need to buy a subscription from netgear!"
"their support was absolutely horrible"
Actually-Yo-Momma 1.0I 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
Amazing-External9546 1.0I love my Orbi system and my sister was able to install one with absolutely minimum technical skills. The idiot lights that are included with some models make finding a workable location for satellite(s) and the app is great for diagnostics.... Very user friendly.
I understand that you may have had a bad experience. But you might want to do a bit of research. Yes, my older system no longer does firmware upgrades and I'd have to check with netgear to see if getting an additional satellite works with my older ones. But, I just looked and I can still find compatible satellites and even one rated for outdoor use. Neither of those are big concerns as I can get wifi 50 meters into my back yard....yes, slower at that range but it works for my cell phone for WiFi calling. But the biggest item is my RBR50 and it's two satellites still work and while I'm only using 300 gbps internet, I still get 270 gbps on wifi throughout my house and it's 9 years old.
Apologist with Stockholm syndrome huh? You did make me laugh with that concept. I'll assume you wanted to hit me with some big words. I am now fully bloodied but unbowed. Again.....9 years of bullet proof service for my Orbi system and 6 years watching my sister with hers. I will let you think you somehow won the discussion. But I think you fail one of the primary rules: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Asstastic73 1.0I 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
AstralElement 1.0I’m using 4 Eero Pro 7s and they are great, much faster than my old Orbi RBR50s. A lot of people say, though, that if you’re going for the Pro 7s, you might as well go for the MAXs for a significant performance boost. I just couldn’t justify the cost.
Azza_from_AKL 1.0I did have similar issues with my first Orbi which was an RBK50 it was fine for 1-2 days when dropped down to 1/4 of my speed. Rebooted it was fine again. Always happened. Tried a different router and that was fine for a wee but again the Orbi dropped to 1/4 speeds after 2 days when I changed back. (On all devices including wired) I read that someone was having the same issues on another brand mesh system and he replaced the LAN cable from the Fibre ONT to router and he was fine. That’s what I did and I never had a trouble with that set again. Went fine for another couple years until I upgraded to the 860 series haven’t had issues with this one yet
Bloosqr1 1.0I 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.
bookertdub 1.0I 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.
Comfortable_Bother52 1.0I have and RBR850 with two satellites. Upgraded from the RBR50. Had issues on the first one with drop outs and random reboots and I work from home so it was pretty annoying. I put them in AP mode behind a TPLink router I had. All was fine. New home and Gigbit fibre thought I should upgrade the wifi speeds. Now I have the Satellites back haul wired but still getting drip outs a few times a week at best sometimes multiple times a day. I read on another thread about the Ubiquity Cloud Gateway Fiber and using that as the router and putting the Orbi’s into AP mode. The best combination of a solid router that doesn’t have issues plus exceptional management capabilities and still great Wi-Fi speeds. So I ordered one and it comes next week.
corradizo 1.0My 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.
d3rong 1.0I 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?
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