Orbi RBR20 Mesh WiFi Router (AC2200)

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.

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.

I've had several meshes, all using wireless backhaul. First I had the Netgear Orbi mesh (wifi-5) that worked well for a few months, then Netgear made firmware upgrades mandatory, and put out some really bad firmware. Went to eero (wifi-5) after that, and that one never did work well for me. It worked, but not as well as I thought that it should have. I tried the eero Pro 6 mesh (wifi-6), and that was never stable. After that it was the Asus ZenWiFi AX (wifi-6), which worked really well here. The mesh that I'm using now, the ZenWiFi BT10 (wifi-7) is also working really well...the wireless MLO backhaul is very fast and has been stable. About as close to wired backhaul as I've seen, the speed at the remote node is very close to my ISP's provisioned speed. The latest firmware for the BT10 mesh has been great, but it took a few versions to get the degree of stability that I want. So, for me, yes, there have been ups and downs, but the Asus ZenWiFi meshes have been the best that I've had. Both have worked great with wireless backhaul, which is what I need. And have been stable and have provided whole house wireless coverage.

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.

I hated the WiFi 6 Orbi system I bought. It was lacking so many fairly basic features, such as QoS, firmware updates breaking basic functionality, and a very lackluster app-focused experience.  I replaced it with an ASUS WiFi 7 system comprised of a RoG router with two Zen nodes and it’s been a lot more solid with far more configuration options than I’ve ever seen on a residential router.  Maybe the Orbi WiFi 7 line has solved their earlier issues, but I’ll never buy one again based on my prior experience. 

I’ve used before netgear Orbi mesh WiFi 6 router with two satellites. Worked well. Expensive but I guess was worth. Still use it now in the apartment but with one satellite in the bedroom only just in case