Orbi 960 Series Quad-band WiFi 6E Mesh 3-Pack (RBKE963)

I currently have a Orbi 960 mesh set up with a 2 gig down and a 1 gig up connection. Unfortunately my house is not able to get wired easily, I got quotes from several electricians and IT folks and it would be a mess and not worth it. Would upgrading to WiFi 7, say a Orbi 970 or Asus Zenwifi 16 pro help at all ensure the satellites get closer to the full speed in paying for. The main node is getting pretty close to that but the satellites drop off. Just don’t want to upgrade and not see a good improvement in speed. Thank for everyone’s input.

Orbi mesh 6e model RBRE963E with satellites. I've used it with Sonic since it was released in late 2021 and it has been reliable. Pricey, but I understand Netgear has released less expensive Orbi mesh routers in recent years.

If your phone is dropping off WiFi it's probably due to weak signal. Upgrading to WiFi 7 won't necessarily improve signal range. What you might need are APs or a "Mesh" system with better antennas to improve your signal. These are the models my network planning software indicate have the best signal range (> 29dBm signal): * Eero 6, Pro 6, Pro 6E, 7 (not the Max 7 or Pro 7) * TP-Link Deco BE63, BE65 Pro * Netgear Orbi RBE770, RBE771, RBE973, RBKE963, RBR850, RBS850 There might be additional, newer models that also put out > 29dBm. My network planning software doesn't list every consumer-level mesh system, and mesh system manufacturers don't specify power levels in their specs. Ironically, these are all "Mesh" systems; standalone APs put out around 20-24dBm. Each 3dBm results in twice the signal strength, so the difference in range between 23 and 29dBm can be considerable. To get > 29dBm from an AP you'd have to step up to an audience-level AP that would cost over $500 each. It doesn't matter whether you use APs or a "Mesh" system with wired Ethernet backhaul. I put "Mesh" in quotes because, according to standards, that only applies to nodes interconnected via WiFi. But consumer brands have hijacked the term to describe both wireless backhaul and support for seamless roaming (802.11k/v/r). Anyway, APs tend to be more expensive than Mesh systems, and most require a controller (on the same brand router or dedicated appliance, or running on a Win/Mac/Linux or cloud system) to support seamless roaming. The only benefit of using an AP vs Mesh system is support for multiple, user-defined VLANs/SSIDs instead of the standard two or three VLANs that can't be modified (main and guest, sometimes also an IOT network).

Empirically, this is not true. Unless you go with an UniFi LR or highly directional Audience APs, all major brand APs put out between 20-23dBm. However, there are certain models of Eero, Deco and MicroTik APs that put out up to 31dBm. * The U6-LR and U7-LR are higher at 26 dBm, and the UniFi E7-Audience provides 30 dBm. * Some Netgear devices provide 30dBm (RBE770, RBE771, RBE973, RBKE963, RBR850, RBS850, WAX625, WAX630E, WBE718, WBE758) * The Amazon Eero 6, Eero Pro 6, Eero Pro 6E, and Eero 7 (but not Eero Pro 7???) do 31 dBm * TP-Link Archer AX90 (AX6600) and Deco BE63, BE65 Pro are rated at 30 dBm * Several MicroTik devices put out between 27 - 30 dBm Standalone APs typically provide better coverage for two reasons: 1.) being ceiling mounted, they are above common obstacles such as furniture, appliances and people, 2.) They concentrate signal down and out, maximizing the benefit of being on the ceiling.

Switched from netgate pfsense to firewalla gold plus. It has just enough levers and knobs to keep my happy and all the tools I need to support the family from anywhere. Wireguard works flawless when I'm away from home. I'm using netgear orbi 963 (6E) in AP mode behind that. Pretty stable setup even with the mesh.

For the Orbi 970 under WiFi 7, speeds are decent, but sadly not as good as I would like. With an Intel BE200, and copying files from my NAS, speeds mainly stay in the 3.9Gbps range on my laptop (same room as the AP, and a distance of around 8ft) PS, the Orbi 870 uses the same client side WiFi radios as the 970, but lacks the dedicated backhaul radio, but since it has many spatial streams, it can still provide a 2 stream client device with over 2Gbps over a wireless backhaul. Also the MLO link between the satellite units will only utilize the 5GHz and 6GHz band, and the 2.4GHz band is intentionally excluded from the MLO (causes too many issues in dense/ congested areas, and sadly they do not make that a user controllable option). PS, if your house has coax, you should also consider going with MoCA, and do a 2.5GbE backhaul. With 802.11ax and 2 streams at 160MHz channel width, both the 5GHz and 6GHz band can offer 1.9-2Gbps pretty reliably, and often you can turn an old WiFi router into an AP, while you likely will not get all of the usual roaming assists, modern client devices are pretty good about self directed roaming. This can ultimately allow for a lower cost, especially if throughput needs are not uniform. For example, if setting up an AP in the bedroom, and will mainly relax in bed and enjoy some anime, odds are that getting 1.2-1.5Gbps will not be much of an issue. Then in the home office or any other location where you are likely doing more work, a 320MHz channel width connection would become useful when you are backing up to your NAS https://preview.redd.it/qsnemntn6fug1.jpeg?width=1477&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c95519523ce734d1a30a7801ecba386b77a827d

What are the primary building materials of the interior walls? and if it is an older home, do you know if any rooms ended up with additional insulation e.g., some will put insulation in the bathroom walls as well as some bedrooms to dampen some noise, and in the case of some older homes, they may have used foil backed insulation (it was like that for the bathroom and and 1 of the walls separating a bedroom and the living room of my house that was built in the 1950s). (PS similar issues can happen with some decorations as well, e.g., a large mirror mounted to a wall. Due that insulation, it impacted where i needed to place APs within the house to improve coverage and throughput, I currently use a wired backhaul, but the positioning heavily impacted the wireless backhaul as well when testing. Depending on the construction, your current Orbi 960 may also benefit from different placement if you have any of those construction challenges.

It largely depends on the antenna configuration as well as the RF frontend. For example, it is not uncommon to see a WiFi client with a negative gain antenna, and lower receiver sensitivity compared to a decent AP that doesn't need to compromise on antenna design or RF components to achieve lower power draw as well as fit a the aesthetics and form factor of the client device. In suboptimal cases like that, the AP with better antennas and better receiver sensitivity can handle a weaker transmitter of the client device, while the AP having a higher transmit power can allow the client device to maintain a higher PHY rate, especially for the downloads. This is especially the case for home networks where users are typically trying to cover a lot more space with fewer APs. In many smartphones, you will often see a -3 to -5 dBi antenna, along with a 17-20dBm transmit power. On many laptops, you will often have a better WiFi radio, and antenna, but you run into other challenges of cable loss, where the wire leading to the antenna can easily cause 2-3 dBi of loss. With that in mind, it is still common for APs (at least on the 5GHz band, to deliver 25-30dBm, especially in non-DFS channels. While you will always run into diminishing returns and eventually even cause issues, e.g., 30dBm will sometimes reduce throughput when a client is within 1-2ft of the AP, if their WiFi radio is more prone to receiver overload, when done right, the AP will be able to transmit at a higher power level to overcome some of the receive deficiencies of the client device, while also being able to handle weaker transmissions from the client device rather than hoping that client device makers no longer compromise on the antenna and other RF frontend components to meet other design goals.