NETGEAR - Orbi AC2200 Tri-band WiFi Router

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.

Netgear switches - great Netgear Pro AV - great Netgear consumer Orbi - total shit

I moved from a Netgear Nighthawk router and extender to an Orbi network... Well worth it to me.

Had an ORBI for many years, its had numerous minor issues over the years but it finally stopped functioing a month or two ago and I go myself an Archer AX10, quite happy with setup and no issues so far.

I love the Synology management features but I have found their range and signal strength is horrible compared to other mesh systems and I have a lot of hiccups with Apple devices that I didn’t have on the Orbi. I just didn’t like paying for parental controls so I switched. Now that my kids are older, I’m considering going back to Orbi or trying out Eero.

It depends on what you want. I have a Nether Mesh system that I disabled the router function on and use a home built pFSense unit running on a micro pc with multiple LAN ports. I don’t get full functionality out of it and I intend to learn more about it. Works great. The NetGear Orbi series is a good base to learn from

If you are going to depend on WIFI mesh is a great choice. Main with one remote with 1700 ft is probably great but one with two even better. You don't necessarily need all the newest wifi whistles and bells but the user interface on the newer mesh systems is a huge help. My orbi system has all kinds of things like idiot lights that while I don't need them still are nice.

The wireless backhaul is nothing to sniff at on the better domestic mesh systems. I've got a higher end orbi system, and move an absolute boatload of data around, with more than 50 attached devices on the network, and it holds up very, very well. Your average home user will be well served by a Deco mesh.

Since I've had Sonos gear in my house, I've run three mesh wifi routers: a Netgear Orbi, a Tp-Link XE-75 Pro and now a Eero 6E. By far the Eero has been the easiest, most stable and most reliable of the bunch. The TP-Link was absolute garbage and nothing but a headache for the 6 months I had it.

Orbi’s are rock solid. Either way Costco usually has deals for them plus you got Black Friday coming up