NETGEAR - Orbi Outdoor Satellite (RBS50Y)

Not crazy. They bought back my Orbis when I gave up on NetGesr and switched.

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

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.

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.

Cheers man. I currently have an old Orbii system that works well for mesh, but the range can be a bit hit and miss. In terms of running cables, I can't run cable unfortunately because house owner won't allow it.

Damn… I’ve got the RBR20, 2 RBS50Y, 1 RBW30, 2 RBS20, and 1 RBS50 unit all full green connections covering ~0.9 acres, pool house, and 2 stories plus basement. My internet is 217d/24u. My WiFi never drops out or overloads and I’ve it now for ~5 years. I can honestly say mesh is the best idea ever (when it’s implemented correctly I suppose). Of course I didn’t start with 1 main and 6 satellites. That slowly grew. And trying to find older units that are compatible nowadays is nigh impossible (without *paying* for it). My main unit is 1/3 of the way across my first floor, one foot off the floor. A 20 is in the middle of the entire house, seven feet off the floor. The other 20 is on the second floor, eight feet off the floor. The mini 30 unit is in the middle of the basement plugged into an outlet in the ceiling. Two outdoor units connect to each other through the main, and the pool house 50 unit connects to the outdoor (that’s main to outdoor 1 to outdoor 2 to poolhouse, and the connection is flawless). So don’t let anyone tell you about maximum number or stringed connections. I have three satellites in sequence, and six total satellites.

Thanks for this - I want to echo my sentiments with the setup and appreciate the time you took to write this up. I'm hoping to add another satellite to get some range to my outside porch. It was one of the fastest, smoothest, and hassle free setups I've ever head. The app itself is also just a bit more together than the Netgear Orbi series which I've used for years. I have a number of different smart home devices and I was able to get everything up and running without delay. Still testing out the range/speed but current anecdotal after about an hour is that it's providing more stability and speed than my previous Orbi which also wasn't cheap at all. I'll be trying to return or sell the orbi now and won't be going back.

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

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.