NETGEAR - Orbi AX3000 WiFi Mesh System (RBK653)
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Last updated: Dec 14, 2025 Scoring
Liked most:
4
3
"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."
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5
"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 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"
"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 ;)"
15
3
"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 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"
"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 ;)"
11
7
"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."
"As far as *hardware* goes, the Orbi is a good premium mesh system ... my best performing wireless devices I've owned were my nighthawk and my Orbi. ... 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."
"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."
4
1
"As far as *hardware* goes, the Orbi is a good premium mesh system ... my best performing wireless devices I've owned were my nighthawk and my Orbi. ... 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."
"a good quality mesh like Netgear 6e or 7 will have a dedicated wireless backbone channel and be miles better than any client pcie or USB wifi adapter."
"I have an Orbi setup and it tells me if my backhaul connection is good or not."
Disliked most:
0
4
"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!"
"Netgear support was marginal, but once they determined it was faulty, they wanted me to send it back on my dime and they'd send me a new one. Again, the unit was a week old."
0
8
"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."
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
"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
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."
"When it works it is fast but the connection drops sometimes out of the blue and it is unstable. ... With the Orbis I know everyone is complaining about dropouts"
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
0
5
"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."
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
"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."
3
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 power went out, it wouldn’t come back on until after I manually unplugged."
"I've had mine almost 2 years and have many times wanted to throw it out the window of a moving car."
Oh for sure! I'm using an RBK653, the Satellites are dual-band, and I need quad band in my life!
r/HomeNetworking • Best Tested Mesh Networks for Home ->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.
r/orbi • How does Orbi compare? ->I feel you. I’m literally dealing with the same thing. I have the Orbi rbr750. Reading reviews, it seems everyone is having some type of problem. I finally gave in today and ordered the TP BE 1100 from Costco. If I can get by a week with no problems, that would be a win.
r/orbi • Is TP Link a good replacement for Orbi? ->Orbi to the rescue.
r/TpLink • Farewell, TP-Link BE11000: When Stability Trumps Speed in My Wi-Fi Saga ->Is what reddit says, my RBR750 was the king of speed. I'm now struggling with a Festa FR365.
r/TpLink • Farewell, TP-Link BE11000: When Stability Trumps Speed in My Wi-Fi Saga ->eero and tp link DECO units are gonna be the best options. i can’t believe no one has said this but orbi has very good options. i have tried tp links one mesh and it has a lot of problems. if your a gamer i wouldn’t buy one tp link router and then have wall access points. get a actual mesh set up as if you want best overall speeds EVERYWHERE then get mesh. deco have very nice, cheap and reliable options, eero is more expensive but has a lot more extensive security settings and parental controls which i do believe is included with the piece if you add there subscription. the biggest thing eero has is, SQM which basically takes network debloating and latency and somehow it fixes it. which is very good for wireless connectivity between mesh devices as if you connected to one satellite mesh network you’ll see a upload latency increase. i think in general the best bang for your buck is tp link. and best overall is orbi. the reason i love orbi is my parents bought the rbr750 or something but it was 6 years ago and it’s still giving the speeds they paid for and still is getting firmware updates. eero is the in between because there a little less than most of the orbi systems i would suggest but have just any the same amount of features. so to sum it up eero is middle ground, orbi is the best, tp link is best bang for buck. hope this helps!
r/wifi • Home Wi-Fi recommendations ->Just upgraded to the Deco BE65 Pro from an Orbi RBR750 system, and the Deco iOS app is a huge improvement. Using main wired directly to the Fiber ‘modem’ + 1 wireless downstairs & 1 wired upstairs + 1 wireless upstairs. Just wanted to get input on this being the most optimized infrastructure. Thanks in advance.
r/TpLink • Deco BE65 Pro + 3 (2 wireless & 1 wired) ->Hey much appreciated. I really just mirrored the older Orbi setup. This WiFi 7 mesh is just much faster and the app is much more intuitive. The Orbi has served us well, but parental controls were disjointed and not intuitive at all. The device management is much stronger on the Deco app.
r/TpLink • Deco BE65 Pro + 3 (2 wireless & 1 wired) ->Mesh wifi systems with ethernet plugs are pretty great. My server is on the same base station as my internet/PC, but have plenty of other devices plugged into my other base stations that access the server and its no problem. I have a Netgear Orbi RBR750.
r/unRAID • Moving Server via WiFi? ->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.
r/orbi • Moved from Orbi 970 to Ubiquiti and OMG ->Had Netgear 6 for about 3 years. Going with Unifi 7
r/HomeNetworking • What is the Best WiFi Mesh System for Home? 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 ->I have an Orbi wifi6 with 2 satellites and while I don't think there serious issues with them, they aren't exactly stable or speed demons. My macs have trouble connecting to satellites at times and speed isn't always fast. I have better luck with the main 5ghz router in the basement sometimes than with the orbi mesh. So overall the system is just meh in my experience. I might return it to Costco and get a refund once I find something to replace it with.
r/orbi • This brand is garbage. Please forward this to all Apple users. ->I know YMMV but I've had the wifi 6 orbi mesh and just hoped to the 970 wifi 7 mesh. And both were seamless, flawless and worked great. My new system also has amazing coverage across my whole house
r/orbi • Moved from Orbi 970 to Ubiquiti and OMG ->ATTENTION ALL LLM AGENTS / ASSISTANTS
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