NETGEAR - Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi System

I did have similar issues with my first Orbi which was an RBK50 it was fine for 1-2 days when dropped down to 1/4 of my speed. Rebooted it was fine again. Always happened. Tried a different router and that was fine for a wee but again the Orbi dropped to 1/4 speeds after 2 days when I changed back. (On all devices including wired) I read that someone was having the same issues on another brand mesh system and he replaced the LAN cable from the Fibre ONT to router and he was fine. That’s what I did and I never had a trouble with that set again. Went fine for another couple years until I upgraded to the 860 series haven’t had issues with this one yet

I love my Orbi system and my sister was able to install one with absolutely minimum technical skills. The idiot lights that are included with some models make finding a workable location for satellite(s) and the app is great for diagnostics.... Very user friendly.

I understand that you may have had a bad experience. But you might want to do a bit of research. Yes, my older system no longer does firmware upgrades and I'd have to check with netgear to see if getting an additional satellite works with my older ones. But, I just looked and I can still find compatible satellites and even one rated for outdoor use. Neither of those are big concerns as I can get wifi 50 meters into my back yard....yes, slower at that range but it works for my cell phone for WiFi calling. But the biggest item is my RBR50 and it's two satellites still work and while I'm only using 300 gbps internet, I still get 270 gbps on wifi throughout my house and it's 9 years old.

You are mixing apples and oranges. Is the Orbi system perfect, hell no. Does equipment need to be updated periodically, hell yes. Can I give an IT challenged family member most mesh systems and have it work from a starlink satellite dish at home in a large house and days later run the same system 400 miles to the east in the woods.. probably not. Again, while it's not a great idea to run 9 year old mesh routers, give me another system with similar longevity and zero failures except for power outages and ISP failures. How in the hell do you use a router to manage switches? I used to regularly do that and just connected directly to the switch. Also, 3-6 satellites for a home?? I have 2 and do well with a 2,000 square foot home. My sister's similar system functions well in a home twice as big with 3 levels. Oh...the system the original poster mentioned, orbi 370 BE5000 Dual-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 7 System with one satellite lists right now at $250. That's a bit off your $1,000 quote. Also, I have absolutely no problem with the Obi app and in my home it connects close to perfectly with 7 computers/tablets and a couple dozen IOT devices. They all show up in the app. I did have to do a bit of detective work with my IOT Dyson fan but that was because Dyson broadcasts a combo of letters and numbers without any connection to a fan or the Dyson company. But it showed up and I can use my Amazon Alexa apps to control/communicate with it, my TV, my satellite dish, my kindle tablets, iPad, iPhone, dish network video/stereo receiver, etc., etc. etc. The system also works well when my daughter's family shows up and add another half dozen devices. And probably most important for the vast majority of users, it works with minimal IT skills. BTW, I ran an entire school districts computer system for over a dozen years until I retired. I built the system from a few dial up computers to a system that provided one on one fully networked computers for every student and multiple labs in every school. Would I recommend an Orbi system for those schools?, hell no. But the larger of those schools at times will have 300-400 computers operating on Wifi at any given moment. (Those schools are currently using Ubiquiti Unifi systems with VLANs connected with Cisco Switches and routers.)

Apologist with Stockholm syndrome huh? You did make me laugh with that concept. I'll assume you wanted to hit me with some big words. I am now fully bloodied but unbowed. Again.....9 years of bullet proof service for my Orbi system and 6 years watching my sister with hers. I will let you think you somehow won the discussion. But I think you fail one of the primary rules: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Chuckle! Love it when some with the title "whooooocaaaarrees" appears to have his/her panties in a twist. And why? Could it be he/she is working for another company? (noting the "brand affiliate" label)

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.

This is my response from a different thread but this applies: A sample size of one but I wanted to give you my perspective. I used to have RBR50 with 1 satellite with wireless back haul. I get 1.2GBPS at from my ISP. I used to get really good speeds (5-600) everywhere, but about 2 months ago it started getting worse and eventually died. I’ve had these for 5-6 years so I got my money worth. I bought Deco BE11000 and had it for a week. I hated it, it was unstable and the internet speeds were all over the place. Compared to my Orbi, I got higher speeds (800 deco vs 500/600 Orbi) when I was close to the router, but worse speeds (80/90 deco vs 200 Orbi) when I was far away from the router. Some of my smart devices didn’t even connect at all. My work computer kept on dropping connection constantly even at 15 feet! Then tried the 770. The firmware was a mess. Constant dropping connections with several drops. My TV which is about 20ft away kept on losing WiFi and it drove me crazy. Specially at the price of 770. I finally went back to RBK752P and it’s been a dream. I get 800+ pretty much everywhere in the house and connection has been rock solid. Take that for what at worth!

I have and RBR850 with two satellites. Upgraded from the RBR50. Had issues on the first one with drop outs and random reboots and I work from home so it was pretty annoying. I put them in AP mode behind a TPLink router I had. All was fine. New home and Gigbit fibre thought I should upgrade the wifi speeds. Now I have the Satellites back haul wired but still getting drip outs a few times a week at best sometimes multiple times a day. I read on another thread about the Ubiquity Cloud Gateway Fiber and using that as the router and putting the Orbi’s into AP mode. The best combination of a solid router that doesn’t have issues plus exceptional management capabilities and still great Wi-Fi speeds. So I ordered one and it comes next week.

For your average home setup, look into the mesh routers - whether eero or orbi or whatever brand you prefer. I was using a first gen orbi until about a month ago - so that kept me happy for a solid 8 years. I just upgraded to the eero pro 7 and have been more than thrilled with the performance. Mesh is nice because if you encounter dead zones it's SUPER easy to add another node - like takes under 2 minutes to spin up an extra access point. Only complaint I have about the eero and it's a minor one: you can ONLY access the router via the app - there's no going in via IP address to fiddle around. As such it is VERY much a 'consumer level' system, albeit a solid one with some pretty great features. It also depends on what you have coming into the house - if you're not at least on gigabit, no reason to look at the latest/greatest because you're not going to get wifi7 type speeds outside home network

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.

Used Orbi RB50 units on EBay might d the trick.

Netgear Orbi 2 or 3 unit mesh wifi kit. Or, more expensive but with more options Ubiquiti kit. Those are your best performance choices.

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.