NETGEAR - Orbi Outdoor Satellite (RBS50Y)

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.

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.

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

Horrible install process. It can take hours to find one satellite (sometimes never). I’ve installed dozens of Orbi systems and I finally gave up.

Got fed up with eero. Went to NETGEAR orbi for 3 years. Got fed up. Back on eero

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.

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.

Mesh itself is fine if you have enough of an unpopulated airspace so that the backhaul isn't competing with a whole apartment complexes wireless interference. I will say though that all of the one's I've tried have had absolute garbage software and die after a year or two. I've had Asus XD5's, Netgear Orbis, and a TP-Link setup. I just bought 3 Eero's just because I haven't had a chance for them to die on me yet. The Asus was my previous mesh set up and it worked fine until it just stopped handing out DHCP on wireless. Factory resets and firmware downgrades didn't change anything. If I had the time, I would go on ebay and get some more enterprise grade gear. Cisco WLCs and Aironet APs have lasted forever when I install them at work. Just a bit more complex to wire and setup at home.

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.