Orbi 970 Series Quad-band WiFi 7 Mesh 3-Pack, Black Edition (RBE973SB)

I have had the orbi 973 system since it came out ... Absolutely love it ... I did have one issue with the router last year and netgear replaced it... I installed a fan on it and never had a problem since. I did purchase a 800 series orbi about 3 years ago and returned it, nothing but problems . This 973 orbi is the best.. Before this orbi 973 I had the Asus et12 that is also a great router but only wifi 6E not 7 Routers and wifi are very difficult today .... I have lots (45 plus) of devices on the orbi 973, no problems at all....

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.

From an attenuation standpoint, the 6GHz band, especially the lower channels have a negligible difference compared to signals in the 5gHz band with much of it being in the 5.8GHz range. The main reason for the poor 6GHz range, is the extremely low transmit power. With AFC, an AP can allow for a higher transmit power, but it is still bound by the PSD restrictions. The end result is compared to the 5GHz band. Overall, the heavy restrictions on transmit power for both AP and client devices, essentially means that you need multiple APs for good 6GHz coverage, even for smaller homes. https://preview.redd.it/svqo3ck65fug1.png?width=700&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b5d8c8a21355ced8bd5a64e348d00fba9f949e8

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.

I think they're overpriced and never understood the hype, but I'm only recommending things that anyone can go to the nearest store and buy. I've rarely seen them have issues in customer homes, but that was a while back (I used to be a field technician for an ISP). I've used Netgear in the past with no issues. I currently use TP-Link and only have a Netgear switch. I don't have favorites- as long as it works, it stays.

With Wifi 7, they also have quad band routers, have you thought about that? Netgear Orbi RBE973S, TP-Link Deco B95 (I have this one, it's been pretty good but overall like Orbi better), Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro

i use Netgear Orbi 970 i love it.

Was mentioned over on the community forums that enabling WPA3 only on the 970 seemed to solve the newer iPhone generation issue of connections. [https://community.netgear.com/discussions/en-home-orbi-be/i-finally-found-a-solution-to-fixing-the-orbi970-iphone-wifi-disconnecting-issue/2458460](https://community.netgear.com/discussions/en-home-orbi-be/i-finally-found-a-solution-to-fixing-the-orbi970-iphone-wifi-disconnecting-issue/2458460) Something you could try and see if this helps what you're seeing.

When I bought my own house, I ran into the problem, that the main stream fancy brands had nothing in their product portfolio, that would meet my requirements (2.5 GBit fiber connection and I wanted a 2.5 Gbit network in my house). Ended up with Netgear Orbi 970 with 3 Satellites (192 m² house, one satellite is in my garage). Yes, it is expensive as hell, but it outperforms everything I've used by miles. When I build my new computer and hadn't connected the network cable and was running on WLAN only, I still had 2.2 GBit/s download speed, which was insane. Gaming with that setup is a dream.