NETGEAR Orbi 6 Mesh Triband WiFi System (RBK762S) – Router
NETGEAR Orbi 6 Mesh Triband WiFi System (RBK762S) – Router with 1 Satellite Extender, WiFi 6 AX5400 up to 5.4 Gbps | Coverage up to 5,000sq ft and up to 75 devices
I have now had this for over a year. And it’s been a very frustrating year. I’ve stuck with it because of how much I paid for it, but it is a source of frustration. This router is really fast and stable until it isn’t. About once every 24 hours, it stops working. I mean, it is on, but devices connected to it via WiFi just lose connection to the internet. Sometimes it just a happens seemingly at random, other times starting a download can trigger it. I’ve been on a video call at the same time my wife is on another video call and everything flows, then I start updating an app and everything stops. Only a reboot of the router gets the internet connection back. I have updated the firmware and nothing has changed. Save yourselves the hassle and the expense, and go get something else.
I purchased the router + 1 satellite to replace my existing BT Whole Home setup of Smart Hub + 3 satellites.
I was concerned moving to just 2 units would limit the signal strength and speeds throughout my 5 bed detached property but I was unimpressed with the speeds I was getting when not close to the Smart Hub.
I cannot be more delighted with this product – with just 2 units I’m seeing stable connection throughout my home and garden with consistent speeds of 450-600mbps in most rooms and at the end of my garden still 150mbps.
I was considering the 2 satallite package or the next model up (RBK853) but I’m so pleased with this (Paid 299) and it’s more than adeqate for my house and approximately 35 devices connected.
Summary
Before
Kit – Openreach ONT + BT Smart Hub 2 + 3 Discs
Package – BT Fibre 900
Speeds
– 300mbps down / 50mbps up max over WiFi close to the main router
– 45-80mbps down /20mbps up on average in the rest of the house
– Poor / no connection in the garden
Now
Kit – Openreach ONT + Orbi Router + 1 Satellite (no need to use Smart Hub 2)
Package – BT Fibre 900
Speeds
– 720mbps down / 70-98mbps up max over WiFi close to the main router
– 450mbps down /55-65mbps up on average in the rest of the house
– 150mbps down /25-30mbps up at the end of the garden
Top Tips
Connect directly to the ONT
Retain your existing SSID and Password
Router + 1 Satellite is good enough for most houses
I tried a few mesh options but none worked seamlessly without drop-offs. These absolutely do the job but if you’re in an old house with thicker walls, you really need to over-do the number of satellites. We’ve three over 340sq m and there’s a real need for a fourth. They’re easy to set up and the app is really clear to use. There can be some rogue choices by other kit – one of our Ring cameras which is literally two metres from a satellite often randomly switches to another one much further away and hammers its own signal in the process. If there were a way to force kit to use a certain satellite, it would be perfect but otherwise it’s as close as you can get with a mesh setup.
Very easy to configure and fixed my wifi range problem. I can now get wifi in the garden and the garage which was never possible with my ISP’s basic uni
I hsve had this product for nearly two years now and it has been nothing but excellenet in operation and reliability. I purchased it to improve wifi coverage in my house which is a Victoian mid terrace with an extension at the back of the house. Coverage here had been non existent from my exsiting Virgin Media hub (which is notorious for providing poor reception).
I had a initial issue trying to get my Sky Q mini boxes to connect via the Orbi hub, but found this was an issue with the mini box iteself and not the Orbi system. Once I used the ethernet connections instead of wifi, all worked flawlessley.
I am considering purchasing an addiitonal satlellite so that I can extend coverage to the top of the garden from my utility room at the end of the house.
Would definitely recommend Orbi for those wanting upgrade their existing wifi to a mesh network.
This is my second Orbi system (upgrade from the excellent RBR50 to RBR760).
This provides superb WIFI coverage and speed to make the most of full fibre connection..
Setup is made much easier using the free App WIFIsweetspots to help position the Orbi’s for Best coverage & speed.
Having used power line adaptors to extend my network across the house for the past 15 years which sort of did the job but would occasionally be glitchy I decided to go for the Orbi mesh system.
My initial concerns that it would not be able to cover the area I need with a stable Wi-Fi we’re totally unfounded and now it has been active for a month I am happy to write a review.
Simply put it does exactly what it says – I now, for the first time have one seamless Wi-Fi network across my entire property (including outbuildings) with no dead spots.
Connection speeds are phenomenal – if anything my actual broadband speed is now the only limiting factor.
Very easy to set-up with the app and satellite placement was fairly simple it is definitely worth trying a few spots to get the best out of the system.
Switching from BT halo 3+ to these made a noticeable difference in performance and WiFi 6 speeds up downloads noticeably. Wish there were more ethernets though
The dream – is fast, solid, stable WI-FI in every room, with not much messing about during setup, and no need to switch from network to network. You are thinking to yourself “I want to just go up and down stairs, out to the shed, down the garden and in the garage on my WI-FI network. I Just want to connect and not think about it” – Well YES, this product will do that.
Its fast, and once its working (read on) its really solid, sometimes my devices choose a weird base point to join, so for example, a printer in my office (next to an access point) has decided to connect to the living room base point which is a long way away … it works its just odd? Can I change the default base station for a device ? No.
I do like the guest network settings, so if you have a cafe, or B&B and you want to use EPOS and “private” devices such as laptops, tablets, Sonos speakers for example, then the private network is perfect. Then you can simply create another “guest” network with a different password and give different access to people.
The setup was great – (but there is a down side so read on) – This system uses a wizard to set you up, it works and it took the pain out of it. BUT. a big BUT… If you want to play Jazz with it, like fiddle with settings, or do some pro setup of your network then you are going to be disappointed. It does it one way and that it… It works perfectly (mostly) but it’s very restricted.
Something that is REALLY GOOD, is the switch handling – So I have a load of devices, like Philips Hue, Smartthings, Hive heating, NAS storage boxes, Sonos devices, and the all need a base station type connections somewhere. With a Cable to a router somewhere. So buy a cheap Netgear (or whatever) un-managed switch like “NETGEAR 8 Port Gigabit Network Switch GS108 25 on Amazon” and just plug everything in, then connect it to a single Ethernet port on the ORBI base station – and wow wow wow it just all works. If you want to tinker and play jazz (read on) you can’t – it works but there is no controls you to touch – that might sound like heaven or hell depending on your skill level !
It is very restricted to “home users” with kids… The safety settings, and internet restrictions are powerful but pointless if you just trust your family or want “normal” internet. I turned on Parental controls by accident, and when I tried to turn it off I managed to lock everyone (including myself) out of the internet. Support gave me nothing useful (using my phone 3g to access) so in the end I did a hardware reset to factory setting and started all over again. Painful day that was….
Not sure I like the Rewards feature of the parental controls – granting “internet time rewards” for good behaviour sound like a house I would not like to grow up in…. but I am old and have no children so I will let you be the judge of this feature.
Here is the BIG negative. – Netgear I expected better. – This system is basically only compatible with itself. There are lots and lots of NETGEAR ORBI models and kits, too many to count, and basically they all do the same thing – some faster, some with more concurrent connections, newer models with more whizzy stuff but in principal all doing the same job. EACH SYSTEM IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE OTHER – RBK752, RBK762 base stations and extension points will not work with other Netgear Obi systems – you have to have the exact model from a look up table on Netgears website to extend the system. That has got to be deliberate !
I only found out this when I purchased an extra pair of satellite range extenders which looked identical but were not compatible – I Had to return them. BAD NEWS – I could not buy single or even (at the time) double satellites that were compatible with my existing ORBI system- even though it was pretty new, so after only 9 months, even though nothing was faulty with them at all, I had to but this system again NEW because it was the only way to get my hands on compatible satellites to extend the range. BOOoo Netgear.
For a system that is supposed to be fully extendable, and totally “capable” of connecting everything together, that’s is job at the end of the day, I fail to see why NETGEAR have chosen to build in incompatibility into their systems with no way to join or extend freely from the range.
With the benefit of hind site – I should have just paid a lot less for a mesh network, I don’t know how much better this is for the money, but I help a friend set up a DecoAX3000 the other day and it was brilliant, at a quarter of the cost. I don’t expect that to last a lifetime but I can buy one every two years for a decade for the price of the ORBI !
Easy to setup and use. Great signal strength for me in a tricky location. This does exactly what I wanted it to do.
Only one gripe for me – it emits a blue light and I can’t find a way to switch this off. In a bedroom you might find this kind of annoying.
I’ve spent 1,000 on this and for the life of me can’t get it to work properly. I’ve had it for over 90 days so Netgear won’t help unless I pay for their support package. What a crappy system!
I have used multiple wireless mesh over the past few months, eero, Tenda, Asus And none of them do the job that netgear do! having the backhaul network allows me to utilise the full speed of my connection across my whole house… The only downside… I could afford the 3 pack at the time, but I will be ordering that soon!
I bought this mesh system to replace my powerline WiFi range extenders when they stopped working after a firmware update. The mesh system means my phone no longer needs to switch from the main router to the powerline network as I move around my house since every node of the mesh is on the same network. The speed and reliability have been great so far.
Having heard very positive things about the speed of Orbi WiFi 6 systems, I ordered this to supplement a Tenda wi-if mesh system that was in operation already. The difficulty I had with that system that while great for general use around the house, it was topping out at 120-130 mbps and was struggling to get 60 in my home office. This was mainly due to a couple of quirks of the home build effectively creating an accidental faraday cage around my workspace.
Enter Orbi.
Setup was really simple – plug in, switch on, let the wizard do all the connections, change passwords and network names etc. there were a couple of steps I had to repeat as the wizard seems quicker than the routers but no real drama.
Result? Consistent 400Mbps in the office, basically the same speed as at the modem.
The control app is typically netgear in that it has plenty of options but is typically over complicated and hides a few critical items down sub menu rabbit holes. Traffic metering for example, and device connection is a bit all over the place.
Adding satellites is easy however and with 1 base and 2 satellites I’ve seen vastly increased performance across a 2300 sq ft home.
Overall definitely worth it if you are happy with the cost of entry
Got this set up as my Virgin wifi kept dropping out, even after they sent out a new router. The signal would randomly drop out on my Samsung S22 and Tab A8.
This has fixed all problems and on WiFi I now get 246 mbps in every room of my house. Which has walls over 600mm thick and is 250 sqm in footprint.
Yes the Orbs are a bit big and need to be plugged in. But I haven’t had a drop out or and issue in a month since it was Installed.
Drop outs on the Virgin router were around 10 to 12 a day.
Plus I now have strong WiFi at the bottom of the garden some 12m away, which I didn’t have before.
Would highly recommend
I have been using a single non-meshed WiFi previously and this is game changer. With the ultra fast AX4200 I now get coverage everywhere in the house, Garden and in the garden shed/office. The Security of this mesh system is unparalleled too the Armor software already blocked quite a lot of external malware attacks which I wasn’t even aware of previously. Very good product but it comes with its higher price but you get what you pay. Premium technology.
The set up was straight forward. I did have one issue. You have the option to use your old Wi-Fi name and password, this would have been helpful as I have a number of devices through out the home. The devices were stuck trying to get to the old gateway of the previous Wi-Fi set up. I resent the hub and satellite back to factory settings and set up with the new Orbi name. All worked fine, easy to set devices to the new Wi-Fi name. Now we don’t experience drop outs or speed issues. Well worth the purchase.
Having been used to Apple routers and their ease of installation and use, it was with a fair measure of trepidation and resignation that I opened the Orbi package for installation. Imagine my surprise when the entire installation happened in a jiffy with no issues whatsoever. The Orbi app was great. Connection to my provider was also smooth. And when I connected the satellite in another room with an Ethernet cable, recognition was immediate and seamless. Speed were amazing. Guest wireless setup was also simple. No meaningless questions on the setup were asked. In short an ‘apple’ like experience!! As go from room to room the handoff has been seamless and speeds amazing. Highly recommend this product.
After much research I decided to opt for this system. It’s a breeze to set up, has a great app but more importantly it works really well.
Before I had a BT whole home system, over the years it was very troublesome with auto updates messing things up. The final straw was when two of the satellites stopped working and the main one had to be constantly rebooted.
With the new netgear Orbi whilst setting it up I changed the password and name to the same as the BT unit it replace. That meant all my equipment logged straight into it, brilliant! As I’ve a lot of gear! Solar panels, alarm, Tesla Powerwall, and a number of other things. Can’t recommend Netgear Orbi mesh enough.
Previously we had two different access points using isp router and a power line adapter with wifi. The connectivity was patchy – some areas of the house there was no wifi – where there was wifi the speeds were well below the 76Gbps coming into the house. The “Customers” (wife and son) were constantly complaining about it so in the end I bit the bullet and bought this Orbi 753 Mesh WiFi setup in the black Friday deal. It took about 20mins in total to set it up using the instructions on the phone app. Now we have one access point name all over the house – 74Gbps all over the house – Rock solid performance all over the house. Superb. I bought these particular ones on the back of another review which pointed out I probably didn’t need to go for the latest top of the range model as my requirements are not that high and I’m glad I took that advice. These are more than enough and at a fraction of the cost 439 as opposed to 1699. Really happy with this purchase.
Well after my trusty Google Wifi finally gave up the Ghost, after much research, I settled on Netgear.
Setup. Easy to do, plug in the Router version, connect to your Modem (Virgin in my case) and switch on. The app takes you through, the initial setup, firmware updates if needed and then adds the satellites. Took about 25 minutes from start to finish
Config. This is probably where the app lets you down a touch, however, in true Netgear fashion you have a web browser interface which is awesome. So any peculiar config, firewall rules, static IP, or port forwarding I would use the web browser over the app.
Stability. Rock solid, couple of reboots after Virgin dropped, outside of that solid as rock!
Recommended, so much, I ended up buying the Quad band version!
Bought this to replace the ISP delivered Eero as I could not get a wifi speed more than 300-400mbit even within 1 meter of the eero 6 router.
With this Orbi I can sit 5 meters away and get 500mbit speeds even outside through a brick wall i get over 300mbit.
This Orbi also have 3 1gbit ethernet ports as well which is just what I need.
The Orbi satellites are easy to set up just need to keep them close to the main router when adding them at first.
Quality is very good and feels solid.
The Orbi can be set up either through an App or through the web browser.
there is no manual delivered with this but it was easy enough to download it as a PDF from the website.
Replaced a brand new Nest WiFi Pro 6 with this. The Orbi has better range, is easier to set up (remarkably), has more flexible configuration and actually provides accurate network and device information, unlike the kit it is replacing. Now I have a functional, reliable mesh network from Netgear and all I’m waiting for is Google to give me my money back for their kit. Definitely recommend and I really should have bought Orbi in the first place. Only criticism is the subscription parental controls, additional security services and support after the initial 90 days, but I don’t need the first and can manage without the second and third so not a problem for me.
The installation is a simple as can be. Download app and follow the instructions. Also, the system seems robust and the transmitter and remote units both reboot perfectly after power interruptions.
I’m slightly disappointed by the power output / range of the remote unit, but it does just about what I need it to do, so I’m a very happy, if not totally ecstatic, buyer.
Having returned the lower spec setup because parental controls were not supported, I paid 500 pounds for the three unit setup. Installation is simple and quick, our max broadband speed of 350mbps is now possible in every room in the house.
Then you find out that parental control ‘isn’t’ included and, after taking out a months trail, you have to pay a yearly subscription fee. Okay, bit miffed, but pay it and guess what. It doesn’t work. Add my child’s devices to her profile, set a bedtime period and it simply doesn’t work. Plus, you can’t do any parental control on the router itself, you can ‘only’ use their phone app.
A web search found numerous others with the same issue, some saying that bedtimes don’t work in the trial period but do when your subscription kicks in. Check my subscription and Netgear make it start ‘after’ your 30 day trail, not from the day you pay. Whether it will actually work remains to be seen.
Registered for support and submitted a ticket about this. Netgear’s response is to give you a phone number to call which is, of course, only open during working hours when I am at work myself and, if you don’t contact them within 48 hours, your ticket is closed automatically. A great way to be able to publish fantastic support performance. Look, 99 percent of support requests are closed in 2 days.~
So I am now left having to manually block and unblock my child’s devices until my trial ends and ‘then’ have to see if it actually works or not. Very very disappointed in a system that costs 500. Very very very disappointed in Netgear’s levels of support.
In summary, great solution to wifi coverage in your house, but parental control does not work well at all.
Initially I had problems with it dropping off the internet. They are now solved. Now it is connected as an access point it has performed faultlessly.
The units are very well built, look good, are silent in operation.
I am not networking savvy. I’ve learned that I, like many others, have a modem/router. The modem part connects to the internet and the router part provides your wired/wireless network. It has four sockets for cable connection to PC’s etc. and an aerial which transmits your wifi network.
I have for 5 years had an early mesh system which recently needed frequent reboots. This provided wifi in the house along with the integral wifi from the router part of my modem/router. This elderly mesh system simply connected to a local area network socket (LAN) on my router. All used the same wifi network name (SSID)
I unplugged the elderly mesh and connected the Orbi Router and satellites. Set up went well, all devices connected. A duplication of my previous configuration. Then it dropped off the internet. Several times.
Computer savvy friend to the rescue. It seems that I had connected two routers in a line. Each would issue each device with an IP Address (Internet Protocol). (No different to previous five years?)
The solution is there, on Google. How to connect an Orbi Mesh system to a modem/router. The Orbi has to be set up as an ACCESS POINT. This entails logging in to your Orbi/Netgear account on a phone, tablet or computer connected to the Orbi wifi network. Follow the guidance on Google, select Access Point after several screens. Switch off the wifi generated by your modem/router.
Perfect.
I feel strongly that this information should be clearly stated by Netgear giving two distinctly different methods of connection. For this reason, four stars.
Having recently moved in to our new house, the location the BT router has to go in is rather bizzare. Due to this, the signal is blocked heavily and it’s not a big house either.
Having done some research, this felt like the best option. Granted it’s not cheap but it appeared to be the easiest to install and manage. I’ve always been shy delving into routers, mesh systems and the like, so I must admit I wasn’t sure how successful this would be.
To my surprise and credit to Netgear, it was extremely easy to install; just follow the steps exactly as they request them. I did have some teething issues but hands up, this was my fault for trying to skip steps.
Not only has my signal improved to better than before, with the satellites, we’re getting this same speed throughout the house!
Amazing kit and I’m kicking myself for not buying sooner!
It’s widely known that the hubs supplied by Virgin Media are not great at strong stable wifi signals. I even had the new pods, which my opinion is they caused more issues than solved. I finally made the decision to buy a mesh network system and definitely it has helped a lot. Wifi signal stability and coverage is noticeably better and while the router and 2 satellites cannot push out the maximum speed of the broadband coming in to the house, it does pretty well. I have a 1gb line, and the house has 300mb on the first and second floor. Ground floor has anywhere between 500-800. Ethernet from the Netgear hub throws out a whooping 800mb. This is about 30-40% better than the Hub4 and stability is unquestionable. I looked into this further and this particular Netgear model doesn’t have a 160mhz channel (I think because it is used for something called a backbone – not sure exactly but something to do with router/satellite workings). I feed an ethernet cable to the first floor that runs a separate router (one that has 160mhz). When it configured this router to 80mhz, max speed was about 300-400mb. At 160mhz, it doubled. Personally, I’m not so hung up on the speed rather 1) the stability 2) coverage and 3) getting what you pay for is definitely key.
I’d been using a Netgear Orbi system for about six years, and decided I wanted to upgrade to the newer wi-fi 6 version. I work from home, and I don’t like trusting computing hardware as old as my existing system, and I wanted to take advantage of the faster speeds and better handling of multiple devices. While there was a bit of a setup issue, Netgear support helped me sort it out quickly.
I’m in a big, old house with thick walls, and with this new system, I get higher speeds and better range. The range in my garden is noticeably better, and the coverage in the furthest rooms is faster and more reliable.
I’ve had the RBK752 for about a month now, and my experience has been less than perfect. First off, Netgear Orbis are really designed for the plug-in-and-play crowd. After a simple setup, the router is essentially good to go. If you are technically minded, the “advanced settings” in the web interface may infuriate you for its simplicity – you are not able to configure much or find much information here. For novices and network gurus alike, if you’re after a product with manufacturer support, look elsewhere. Product support is non-existent from Netgear after the initial 90 days from registering the product. After which, you need to sign up for “ProSupport”. So if you have any problems after an update or some gremlins with your particular unit, prepare to fight tooth and nail to get any support from Netgear directly (going through Amazon support may be your better bet for receiving any meaningful support).
In regards to the system itself. How does it perform? Overall – fine. The signal strength from the unit is superb, the 2 units cover the same area as 3 Google Nest Router devices. Furthermore, the dedicated wireless backhaul performs great! However, reliability and performance are problematic, largely due to the Netgear Armor service. Whilst I support protection like this being integrated into home routers, manufacturers need to ensure that the router’s processing power is sufficient so as not to bottleneck the performance and degrade the experience for a household that uses the internet for real-time applications (video streaming, video calls, gaming, etc). The busier the network, the more problems occur… and it truly doesn’t need much to start seeing performance crumble in our experience with 2 heavy internet users. My personal advice? If performance and reliability matter to you, ensure that your devices are protected and turn off Netgear Armor from day 1.
Would I recommend the Netgear Orbi RBK752? If you are looking for a wire-free mesh system, the Netgear Orbis are great. However, if you are looking for something a bit more configurable for your inner-network geek, there are better consumer options elsewhere.
This product is simply amazingly. It’s easy to set-up and does exactly as advertised, fast internet everywhere inside and out . On top of that their support is top class – I had and account query. NETGEAR support staff were knowledge and super helpful. Well done NETGEAR !!
Setup – very clear and easy to follow instructions. TBH the orbi simply installed itself. All I did was plug it in, connect the Orbi to my internet router (one cable), register my details and after performing an automated firmware update and auto detection of Orbi satellites the mesh network was ready to rock and roll. Took about 15 to 20 minutes for the auto installation. This is very helpful as I have zero IT knowledge.
ORBI App – Very easy to setup, clean interface, helpful information and very easy to use. Has not failed on my yet. 5 stars easily.
Product – the ORBI Router and satellites are on the big side, but they work so extremely well I am more than happy to live with their size. In fact I have hidden them within a wardrobe and behind a display unit and they still work amazingly well. I get full blown internet at the back of my 100ft garden.
Overall – extremally happy with the product and NETGEAR support. Seriously just this equipment if you have a solid, fast internet throughout your house both inside and out.
I recently purchased an Orbi RBK352 system (1 x base unit & 1 satellite) as a Christmas present for my daughter. I had previously done some research as to the best systems on the market and Which had given this Orbi system a 90% top rating. The router in her house is on the opposite side to her office, where the wifi is absolutely woeful. As I’m going to be installing this on Christmas Eve, I thought I’d try it out in my own house first, just to make sure there were no ‘hidden’ issues. My daughter and husband aren’t really ‘techie’ so I’ll just be setting it up in ‘Access Point’ mode. It really is plug and play. I setup the base unit first – the instructions were clear and took a couple of minutes to change the mode. I then connected the base unit to my BT HomeHub6. Using the Orbi app on my smartphone, I checked the connection. I had internet (150Mbps) and my wifi connection was 856Mbps. Perfect! I now took the satellite and set it up in my loft, which is about as far away as you can get from my router. I plugged it in and synced it with the base unit – it took a couple of minutes to connect. Reception brilliant! The wifi in my own house isn’t that good but now it’s great. So I’m keeping it! I’ve just had to go out and buy another Orbi system for my daughter’s Christmas present. I work in IT, and for my own house, I wanted to use the base unit in ‘router’ mode to replace my BTHomeHub6. That’s where I came across a few ‘issues’. Whilst it is possible to replace the BTHomeHub with a separate modem (expensive – and not an option for me), it took quite a few Google searches to find out how best to leave the BTHomeHub6 in place as a primary router and setup the Orbi base unit as a secondary router. A more knowledgeable IT friend of mine explained that I just needed to setup the Orbi on a separate subnet and everything would work fine, which it did. There was no information on the Netgear site to help me regarding this issue. This is a great piece of kit which I highly recommend.
Having moved in to a large bungalow and got a new broadband provider we couldn’t get wifi coverage for the whole house. Even areas with coverage would drop out and left us unable to use our Sonos, SkyQ and mobile devices. Sky even supplied a booster which was a waste of time. I was sceptical of the Orbi especially with the high cost but thought I would just return them if it didn’t do the job. There are three Ethernet ports on each Orbi which is very handy for things like out Hue hub which can only be wired. I set one in the lounge plugged into the router with the provider wifi switched off, one midway in the house and the other in the far bedroom with my sons gaming pc plugged in and everything ran great. This pc originally kept dropping packets and I couldn’t cope with the continual ‘Dad it’s dropped off again’. After connecting all mobile devices we consistently got 62Mb p/s at the mobile devices which I have never had in any house I have had. The app has great functionality with useful information. I now have zero wifi complaints from the family and all our devices are running fast with great connection speed so I would highly recommend the Orbi’s.
I bought this Orbi WiFi 6 system to upgrade my Google WiFi mesh network because I noticed that WiFi speeds were only half as fast upstairs, where my partner works. The price of 700 for the top of the range 852s felt far too expensive but the sale price for the 752s of 325 on Amazon was much more reasonable and realistic. The router and satellite arrived well packaged and the instructions seemed simple enough: download the Orbi app and follow the instructions. However I found in practice there were three set-up challenges: First It was a pain getting Orbi to work with my Virgin Media Hub 3 in model only mode. I checked the Virgin router with an ethernet cable to my laptop to ensure there was internet access through port 1 and there was. I checked that Orbi was set to DHCP and it was. But half way though the set-up process the Orbi said it no longer had internet access. Fortunately I read online about rebooting the Virgin Hub and then reconnecting the Orbi when restarted and this seemed to work. Firmware updates were then unnecessarily slow and it stalled three times with the result that I had to restart the process. Secondly and bizarrely I had major difficulties setting a strong password for my Orbi account. I tried multiple combinations of letter, numbers, symbols etc per the Orbi instructions but they wouldn’t work and there was no error message that explained why. Still I eventually found a slightly shorter combination which it accepted. It then prompted me to plug in the satellite device but had problems initially locating it through the app – even though I was stood only a few feet away from it. Anyhow it eventually detected the satellite and following the reboot of the VM Hub followed by a reboot of the Orbi router it started working perfectly. I replicated my old network name (SSID) and password to allow existing devices connect seamlessly. After it settled in I’ve noticed range is considerably better – by at least 20-30 feet – and speed is 50% faster upstairs with almost the same broadband speed as downstairs. Connection speed is regularly at 370 Mbps download – the maximum for my current broadband. So blistering fast strong connection, which is ultimately what I wanted them for. My only other comment is that they are rather large and blob/fin-like relative to the much sleeker and less obstrusive Google WiFi points. Much harder to hide or blend into a room. But clearly that’s the price for a more powerful piece of kit. So great result in the end… but I hope I don’t have to reinstall these for a long time!
We have a fibre connexion which runs to a router in an outbuilding, on the edge of our property. Cat 6 cables run from this to the house, one of them via switches in another outbuilding. WiFi has been from half a dozen old routers configured as WAPs dotted about the house and outbuildings.
As Network Administrator I’ve been fairly happy with the setup. In my study I can get download speeds over 700Mb/s even though some of the cabling is old Cat 5 stuff. The family, however, have been grumbling about slow and intermittent WiFi, so I decided to bite the bullet and install a MESH system.
450 seems like a very great deal of money for three WAPs but they do appear to work. We now have one WiFi SSID that covers most of the house with fast internet access.
The system is clearly aimed at people who don’t want to have to fiddle with settings and it expects that it will be the only WiFi, controlling all connexions between your router and your devices. I managed to get it working even though the controlling app, which I dislike intensely, claims not to be able to see the two satellites which connect to the rest of my network through cables.
Using a web browser to connect to the satellites reveals a fairly useless interface which provides some minimal information and no options for configuration. I still haven’t managed to connect to the main unit from my browser, even though I can see it on the network and read its MAC and IP addresses.
The system claims to offer a host of “security” features which are provided on a one month trial basis – Netgear obviously hopes that customers will subscribe to these at the end of the free trial and continue to pay for evermore. Since the daft app cannot even recognize that the satellites are connected and working with the right credentials, I really don’t trust it as a source of security. Besides which, there are still devices on my home network which bypass the Orbi and connect directly to the main router and it is obvious that Orbi cannot control them at all.
Now that we have the Orbi system installed, the rest of the family is content that they have fast WiFi all over the main part of the house, so it has achieved what I wanted. I should, however, prefer something that I could configure myself and I feel that the app is simply a mechanism for extracting more money from worried users.
It has a two year warranty, I believe. Only time will tell if I have to try to claim on it: at 450 one would hope that it proves to be reliable. Then again, at 450 I’d expect the app to recognize that the satellites are connected and working, and it doesn’t.
[EDIT and update]
After another day of fighting with the system, running up and down ladders, pressing “sync” buttons and staring at das blinken Licht, waiting for it to turn blue, I eventually connected to the main unit and have got to the bottom of the issue. The firmware on the main unit is rubbish.
To try to keep a track of what’s going on on the network, I gave the real router, the one that does the DHCP, the mac addresses of the Orbi and its satellites and assigned them specific ip addresses. That’s when I discovered that the Orbi thinks it knows better and chooses it’s own ip address and network settings despite this.
With the Omni “router” in AP mode, one cannot use the “Advanced” settings to set the thing’s ip address. In “Router” mode it refuses to accept an ip address in the same subnetwork as the “WAN” connexion. But, there is a way around this. As one switches the device from “Router” to “AP” mode, there is an option to set the ip address and that address can be on the existing network.
The firmware on the base unit can recognize the satellites when they connect wirelessly but when the satellites are plugged into the network they disappear from the main unit’s list of connected devices. However, connecting to the satellites directly (by typing their ip addresses into the browser) shows that they have acquired the same login password as the main unit, have acquired the right SSID, and are allowing connexions from devices around the house.
Why don’t they simply have a configuration menu that lets the user set the main unit’s address easily, and then allows one to type in the addresses of the satellites? All of this over-simplification is well and good, but it makes life difficult for people who don’t have absolutely standard set-ups.
Right now, the web interface of the main Orbi is showing no satellites: the app can see one; both are actually working properly. Garbage software. Pretty good WiFi coverage.
Moved into a new build house, order BT’s new 1GB “Infinity” broadband. Received their smart hub and was excited to see this life changing broadband…. to be met with a feeling of being totally conned! The fibre comes into the house under the stairs, and while that hub would reach the corners of the house, I was working at around 15Mbs on the device…meh!
I did a lot of research and while I was initially a bit apprehensive about the cost, the research and some advice from a tech-savvy friend (and trusting Amazon to look after me if this didnt work out) – I was convinced to make the purchase.
Not quite plug-and-play… the set-up app didnt really do the job and I had to go in via laptop to get things working. However, it was WELL worth the effort!
My old Surface Pro is showing 600Mbs in my home office… and I suspect that is the device limiting the speed. We’re streaming 4k downstairs, gaming upstairs with around 45 devices total connected, and not a single glitch. Hard to get across in a review how much this just “works”…. its like the way we always imagined wifi would be “one day”.
Genuinely, seems expensive when you buy… but you very quickly forget about the price when everything just works seamlessly and without any buffering. Amazing.
I tried 3 other popular brand meshes and they simply performed poorly or didn’t work. This is my 4th mesh in 3 weeks (yes!) before being satisfied it works wonderfully. I have a 600mbps broadband and a relatively small flat, but have some black spots due to the layout / construction. The other meshes were either maxing out at 100-150mbps, or unstable.
Orbi has been a good performer, I can get about 550mbps from the main router, and about 250 from a satellite. Slightly disappointing the satellites don’t perform as well given its got a dedicated backhaul as well, but at least it’s a stable connection. Could also be my positioning and other conditions.
The stability is really good. It was easy to setup. One peculiar issue I had with the other meshes was that sometimes Spotify connect would not work and hence could not play Spotify media my Yahama AV receiver. Not had an issue with the Orbi and everything seems to work wonderfully.
My config is such I’m using a mixture of wired and wireless devices, with a wired NAS on the satellite, which performs equally well. Also compared to other meshes, Orbi has a web interface in addition to the mobile app, which is great as you can tweak a lot more settings. The other meshes were a bit limited on what you can change.
One downside, 300+ for a set of 3 routers. It’s a lot of money for a small piece of kit (not even commercial grade), but I suppose everyone has joined the bandwagon and charging the same amount.
5.0 out of 5 stars Good performance, slightly pricey
My ISP had provided me with a new modem/router hub for when I moved into a new house. But the house was built with solid internal walls – no hollow partition walls to be found!
I considered the various extenders/boosters on the market, but reviews all seemed to say that they only work to extend the range of the signal they receive, so if the signal’s degraded then it merely passes that on – oh, and for good measure, when connected to the extender you’ll be needing to connect to the SSID for that, which would be different to that of the router (so roaming in the house sounded like being a pain).
So what about a mesh then?
Long story short, my sister-in-law in Canada recommended Orbi from their experiences there, and a cursory read of reviews suggested they’re good, so in a nuthouse, that’s why I tried them first.
I went for the 2 satellite option because the router is at one end of the house, and there are 3 thick walls between there and the other end. So the router’s downstairs, one satellite is downstairs 2 walls in, and the other is upstairs in the middle of the house. Actually, I’d started with the downstairs satellite right at the other end of the house (ie 3 walls in), but the signal proved too weakened & so I relocated it.
Oh, and also because it’s a router only, and was replacing the ISP-provided modem/router hub, I decided to source a BT Openreach modem from a popular auction site to sit in front of the Orbi router.
And of course you get to use the same SSID regardless of which Orbi you’re connected to! However, I did note that at least one of my devices (a relatively old wireless printer), when placed in the center of the house, could actually see all 3 Orbis, and also each of the 2.4 & 5GHz networks on it, and decided this a security issue & refused to connect to any of them! I resolved this by relocating it to one end of the building where it could only see one & then it was happy (of course this is an issue with the device, not the Orbi system).
I’ve had it in place for a month, and our experiences are generally very favourable:
– I’ve had to reboot each of the satellites once each (on different occasions) after they’d seemed to lose touch with the router (with no explanation), but other than that have been rock-solid – hence a star off for “stability”
– I remember I had issues with installation using the app & only managed to complete it successfully by connecting to the web management page & the same has gone for ongoing management/maintenance – I’ve found it’s best done with a combination, as each provides different sets of information (sorry, I can’t remember details) – so that’s one star off for “easy to install”.
– Cost: well, it seems some similar-sounding mesh systems are in the 900+ bracket, so on the face of it 270 for this seems quite reasonable. However, it’s a lot compared to sub-100 extender-type solutions, and of course I’ve only bought it because the “free” offering from my ISP wasn’t up to it. So in absolute terms, it would appear to be good value, but in relative terms it seems a lot for something that I should have been getting for free (not that my ISP, or probably any ISP for that matter, would agree!). So I’ve lopped a star off for that.
I picked these up on a Prime Day deal. I was working previously with the TaoTronics AC3000 mesh WiFi. It wasgood. For the price, very good. But it struggled across a 3 story house through thick doors, walls etc. I went looking for wifi 6 mesh, with wider frequencies that would (I hoped) get around this.
Enter the Orbi. Three monolithic spaceships set up around my house. First the negatives: setup is fiddly. You must do things EXACTLY in order of the app. Want to turn on the satellites later? Tough. Don’t know where to position the satellites? Also tough. Unless you follow the steps precisely, the setup will crash. Secondly, the units themselves are quite large and the plugs are quite deep.
If this sounds like nitpicking, it’s because it is. These are the only downsides, other than the crippling cost. The units in fairness need to be big though, to house the giant aerials pumping WiFi around your home. The reception is flawless. Strong signal everywhere, no dead spots, reach and speed far exceeding my old WiFi 5 set up. And once set up, the app is a dream to use.
So – if you have the money, and need to blanket a complex space in signal, these Orbis will not disappoint. Just remember to follow the instructions.
So, the only reason I’ve given this product 4 out of 5 stars is because it’s so expensive.
Apart from that, this device has solved so many problems. I am so happy with it. I have a lot of internet enabled devices in my smart home. My old router wasn’t coping. Facetime was breaking up. Devices were losing connections. Streaming services were stop/start/stop/start.
Enter Orbi …
You put your old router into modem mode (Consult your ISP for details on this), connect your Orbi to your router (now acting as a modem), and follow the setup procedure in the app. It’s actually quite a simple setup procedure. I had it all up and running in no time.
Now I’m getting maximum speed from everywhere, including the bathroom. All of my devices are connected, working and responding quickly and reliably. Facetime is high quality, stable and clear.
The only issue I’ve had is with a network drive which sometimes doesn’t seem to respond. I’m still investigating that.
At one point I tried to get tech support using chat on the app. I got in the queue and then it told me some time later, moving down the queue, that support was not available. So thumbs down for that.
The system seems stable. I’ve only had it 2 days and not really had any problem with it. But, it has only been 2 days, so I’ve taken a star off for stability just in case.
So, in conclusion, my advice is … take a deep breath, pay the money (As a general piece of advice, I would say never buy anything on credit. Save up for it. Don’t get yourself into debt on credit cards, overdrafts etc), get the Orbi and enjoy trouble free WiFi.
I have been weighing up which mesh to get for too long, being frustrated with my poor WiFi signal at home all this time. I should have just got this orbi mesh system. I use it with a 200Mbps Virgin broadband service in UK. I used to get 200Mbps in the same room as the virgin Hub 3 router. This dropped to 100 in the next bedroom room and 10-30 downstairs. Back part of the house was hopeless. Back garden – don’t even bother, always had to switch to mobile data. After installing this Orbi mesh, I get 200-217Mbps across the whole of the house and 150-100Mbps in the back garden. I have also utilised all the ports on the orbi hub and that works without fault. Since having orbi mesh for 2 weeks my WiFi has NEVER dropped out, I’ve streamed Netflix, WiFi, sky programmes simultaneously across the house and all work flawlessly.
Update 25/01/2022 – still going strong, had an issue with my work laptop not connecting to the network however that was an easy fix with Netgear support helping me out, all I had to do was turn off wifi6 on the mesh network then my work laptop connected fine.
I have the main router upstairs and two satellite nodes downstairs, one of the nodes has the sky box plugged in via cat6 cable and this offers very stable streaming with no drop outs for all the services on the sky box (prime, YouTube, Netflix, Disney etc). This is where this product is better than most simple mesh networks as the data ports on both satellites offer strong wired connections, even though the mesh is wireless magic! No idea how the wired connection is so strong even though the mesh connection is only over WiFi.
This mesh handles two of us WFH both on video calls simultaneously.
The app allows you to see what devices are connected to each node. You can also turn these connections on and off.
Almost a year later and I would still recommend this product to anyone having issues with their broadband provided routers.
5.0 out of 5 stars If you have virgin hub 3 - get the orbi. PERFECT WiFi throughout. No drop outs.
This covers the whole house much better than my previous tp link archer c6 in most respects (archer could only cover the whole house if placed in a very inconvenient to cable place) providing steady and stable service & more bandwidth than I’m likely to use for years to come
It provides WiFi 6 and has a simple tech free set up. It’s also very neat, with easy to place stations – especially vs the very ugly archer and no nasty cables or random LEDs.
Price wise, it’s both horrifically expensive for what it is, and much cheaper than much of the (absurdly priced) competition. Also: reliable WiFi is vital to your ability to work, learn, relax, and your kids education. So while expensive, also necessary
Set up app is very simple, and unusually for networking gear appears designed by someone who understands UEX
Point off because:
1. No meaningful parental controls
2. Having to create a netgear at account to do anything & they are already sending me marketing spam in German
3. It appears to be hub and spoke rather than true mesh. Which is a pain for me, given where my modem has to live, and how easy it isn’t to run Ethernet cables from there (if it was I’d still use the archer)
4. Only having 4 Ethernet ports on the base. Should have at least 8. Probably 4 per extender too (not 2) and those ports should support teaming the nics
I needed a wifi system to cover a large area efficiently. I trawled sites and found Netgear’s AX4200. I could add another satellite if the coverage was not enough. It was simple to set up with the App and I found the coverage excellent. Much, much better than my previous wifi system. I can now work anywhere in my house and data is not dropped or delayed. It was more expensive than my previous system, but I would never go back to it. I will keep using Netgear products in future.
Subsequent improvement by adding a second satellite
I live in a bungalow with lots of brick walls between rooms. Also it is well spread out. In my office, which adjoins the kitchen I kept getting drop outs. This occurred when people were in the kitchen blocking the in-line, but highly attenuated path from the base unit. This caused frequent drop outs. I purchased the add on satellite and after positioning it in another ajacent room, which had little attenuation from the base unit, it was able to provide an alternative route via windows in to my office. It was not possible to do this with the first satellite as I needed wired connections to all my office equipment. It was simple to set up and seems to have completely resolved my problem with drop outs. I have had a similar problem with smart meters. It has not been possible to provide me with a smart gas meter because of the poor signal path from the electricity meter, which has a similar path of about 10m through three brick walls!
Well, I got the RBR750 Orbi router system, with two satellites installed in my home – a large 3 bedroomed Victorian semi that previously had a number of dead spots in it that multiple wireless routers failed to overcome. I now get excellent speeds everywhere including previous dead zones and right down the garden. But it wasn’t easy to set up.
I wanted to set up the RBR750 as an access point and keep my existing router that acts as a DHCP host for 192.168.0.XXX (The Orbi gives out 192.168.1.XXX). Firstly, if you put it in Access Point mode it disables its own DHCP. Secondly, if you use anything but 192.168.1.XXX the satellites will not pair, as they operate on 192.168.1.XXX. What is worse, you cannot change the IP address on the satellites, even from 192.168.1.XXX.
After a large number of hours on the phone talking to Netgear’s tech support, having been passed from the first line up to the Orbi expert team (four levels higher), I have come to the conclusion that they do not understand subnetting!! And these guys are supposed to be the experts! Nice guys, by the way, but hopelessly under trained. They sell network devices but don’t know how networks operate. Unbelievable. As for the phone app? Pretty and good for testing, but if you need to do anything below the surface, use a computer. Mac, PC, Raspberry Pi, doesn’t matter, as it’s all browser stuff.
By the time I had finished on the call, I was informed to send the kit back and get a refund and buy another as it would never connect and, even if it did, as the Netgear guy updated the firmware, I would never get the satellietes to update. Wrong! Why does Netgear allow you to change the IP range and not allow you to change the IP addresses of the satellites? That needs to be corrected in a firmware update urgently as it defeats the purpose of allowing change.
I went back to basics, ripped out the old router. Set the Orbi to router mode, reverted to 192.16.8.XXX and turned on DHCP. I then went through the network changing IP addresses enabling DHCP of a number of devices, including a couple of NAS boxes that I reserved in DHCP. The old router would only give out out 50 IP addresses, hopelessly inadequate, so a lot of things were on fixed IPs. With the Orbi, you can give out all 254 ip addresses if you want. With an increasing number if IoT items, this is becoming more important all the time.
So, in summary, I was looking for a system that would last over six years, that would get rid of the dead spots and give very good performance. Does the Orbi RBR750 do that? Yes, I think it does – it has good range, the best speeds ever from a wireless system, WiFi 6 ready and also able to cope with full fibre to the premises which is due in a few months. If you want more range outdoors you can buy another, waterproof, satellite. In fact, if you have a really big house, or a small hotel, you can offer good wifi service to all your residents. Having spent enough time in these hotels, most need something like this.
I have now had this for over a year. And it’s been a very frustrating year. I’ve stuck with it because of how much I paid for it, but it is a source of frustration. This router is really fast and stable until it isn’t. About once every 24 hours, it stops working. I mean, it is on, but devices connected to it via WiFi just lose connection to the internet. Sometimes it just a happens seemingly at random, other times starting a download can trigger it. I’ve been on a video call at the same time my wife is on another video call and everything flows, then I start updating an app and everything stops. Only a reboot of the router gets the internet connection back. I have updated the firmware and nothing has changed. Save yourselves the hassle and the expense, and go get something else.
I was concerned moving to just 2 units would limit the signal strength and speeds throughout my 5 bed detached property but I was unimpressed with the speeds I was getting when not close to the Smart Hub.
I cannot be more delighted with this product – with just 2 units I’m seeing stable connection throughout my home and garden with consistent speeds of 450-600mbps in most rooms and at the end of my garden still 150mbps.
I was considering the 2 satallite package or the next model up (RBK853) but I’m so pleased with this (Paid 299) and it’s more than adeqate for my house and approximately 35 devices connected.
Summary
Before
Kit – Openreach ONT + BT Smart Hub 2 + 3 Discs
Package – BT Fibre 900
Speeds
– 300mbps down / 50mbps up max over WiFi close to the main router
– 45-80mbps down /20mbps up on average in the rest of the house
– Poor / no connection in the garden
Now
Kit – Openreach ONT + Orbi Router + 1 Satellite (no need to use Smart Hub 2)
Package – BT Fibre 900
Speeds
– 720mbps down / 70-98mbps up max over WiFi close to the main router
– 450mbps down /55-65mbps up on average in the rest of the house
– 150mbps down /25-30mbps up at the end of the garden
Top Tips
Connect directly to the ONT
Retain your existing SSID and Password
Router + 1 Satellite is good enough for most houses
I tried a few mesh options but none worked seamlessly without drop-offs. These absolutely do the job but if you’re in an old house with thicker walls, you really need to over-do the number of satellites. We’ve three over 340sq m and there’s a real need for a fourth. They’re easy to set up and the app is really clear to use. There can be some rogue choices by other kit – one of our Ring cameras which is literally two metres from a satellite often randomly switches to another one much further away and hammers its own signal in the process. If there were a way to force kit to use a certain satellite, it would be perfect but otherwise it’s as close as you can get with a mesh setup.
Very easy to configure and fixed my wifi range problem. I can now get wifi in the garden and the garage which was never possible with my ISP’s basic uni
I hsve had this product for nearly two years now and it has been nothing but excellenet in operation and reliability. I purchased it to improve wifi coverage in my house which is a Victoian mid terrace with an extension at the back of the house. Coverage here had been non existent from my exsiting Virgin Media hub (which is notorious for providing poor reception).
I had a initial issue trying to get my Sky Q mini boxes to connect via the Orbi hub, but found this was an issue with the mini box iteself and not the Orbi system. Once I used the ethernet connections instead of wifi, all worked flawlessley.
I am considering purchasing an addiitonal satlellite so that I can extend coverage to the top of the garden from my utility room at the end of the house.
Would definitely recommend Orbi for those wanting upgrade their existing wifi to a mesh network.
This is my second Orbi system (upgrade from the excellent RBR50 to RBR760).
This provides superb WIFI coverage and speed to make the most of full fibre connection..
Setup is made much easier using the free App WIFIsweetspots to help position the Orbi’s for Best coverage & speed.
Having used power line adaptors to extend my network across the house for the past 15 years which sort of did the job but would occasionally be glitchy I decided to go for the Orbi mesh system.
My initial concerns that it would not be able to cover the area I need with a stable Wi-Fi we’re totally unfounded and now it has been active for a month I am happy to write a review.
Simply put it does exactly what it says – I now, for the first time have one seamless Wi-Fi network across my entire property (including outbuildings) with no dead spots.
Connection speeds are phenomenal – if anything my actual broadband speed is now the only limiting factor.
Very easy to set-up with the app and satellite placement was fairly simple it is definitely worth trying a few spots to get the best out of the system.
I would most definitely recommend this product.
Switching from BT halo 3+ to these made a noticeable difference in performance and WiFi 6 speeds up downloads noticeably. Wish there were more ethernets though
Its fast, and once its working (read on) its really solid, sometimes my devices choose a weird base point to join, so for example, a printer in my office (next to an access point) has decided to connect to the living room base point which is a long way away … it works its just odd? Can I change the default base station for a device ? No.
I do like the guest network settings, so if you have a cafe, or B&B and you want to use EPOS and “private” devices such as laptops, tablets, Sonos speakers for example, then the private network is perfect. Then you can simply create another “guest” network with a different password and give different access to people.
The setup was great – (but there is a down side so read on) – This system uses a wizard to set you up, it works and it took the pain out of it. BUT. a big BUT… If you want to play Jazz with it, like fiddle with settings, or do some pro setup of your network then you are going to be disappointed. It does it one way and that it… It works perfectly (mostly) but it’s very restricted.
Something that is REALLY GOOD, is the switch handling – So I have a load of devices, like Philips Hue, Smartthings, Hive heating, NAS storage boxes, Sonos devices, and the all need a base station type connections somewhere. With a Cable to a router somewhere. So buy a cheap Netgear (or whatever) un-managed switch like “NETGEAR 8 Port Gigabit Network Switch GS108 25 on Amazon” and just plug everything in, then connect it to a single Ethernet port on the ORBI base station – and wow wow wow it just all works. If you want to tinker and play jazz (read on) you can’t – it works but there is no controls you to touch – that might sound like heaven or hell depending on your skill level !
It is very restricted to “home users” with kids… The safety settings, and internet restrictions are powerful but pointless if you just trust your family or want “normal” internet. I turned on Parental controls by accident, and when I tried to turn it off I managed to lock everyone (including myself) out of the internet. Support gave me nothing useful (using my phone 3g to access) so in the end I did a hardware reset to factory setting and started all over again. Painful day that was….
Not sure I like the Rewards feature of the parental controls – granting “internet time rewards” for good behaviour sound like a house I would not like to grow up in…. but I am old and have no children so I will let you be the judge of this feature.
Here is the BIG negative. – Netgear I expected better. – This system is basically only compatible with itself. There are lots and lots of NETGEAR ORBI models and kits, too many to count, and basically they all do the same thing – some faster, some with more concurrent connections, newer models with more whizzy stuff but in principal all doing the same job. EACH SYSTEM IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE OTHER – RBK752, RBK762 base stations and extension points will not work with other Netgear Obi systems – you have to have the exact model from a look up table on Netgears website to extend the system. That has got to be deliberate !
I only found out this when I purchased an extra pair of satellite range extenders which looked identical but were not compatible – I Had to return them. BAD NEWS – I could not buy single or even (at the time) double satellites that were compatible with my existing ORBI system- even though it was pretty new, so after only 9 months, even though nothing was faulty with them at all, I had to but this system again NEW because it was the only way to get my hands on compatible satellites to extend the range. BOOoo Netgear.
For a system that is supposed to be fully extendable, and totally “capable” of connecting everything together, that’s is job at the end of the day, I fail to see why NETGEAR have chosen to build in incompatibility into their systems with no way to join or extend freely from the range.
With the benefit of hind site – I should have just paid a lot less for a mesh network, I don’t know how much better this is for the money, but I help a friend set up a DecoAX3000 the other day and it was brilliant, at a quarter of the cost. I don’t expect that to last a lifetime but I can buy one every two years for a decade for the price of the ORBI !
Easy to setup and use. Great signal strength for me in a tricky location. This does exactly what I wanted it to do.
Only one gripe for me – it emits a blue light and I can’t find a way to switch this off. In a bedroom you might find this kind of annoying.
I’ve spent 1,000 on this and for the life of me can’t get it to work properly. I’ve had it for over 90 days so Netgear won’t help unless I pay for their support package. What a crappy system!
I have used multiple wireless mesh over the past few months, eero, Tenda, Asus And none of them do the job that netgear do! having the backhaul network allows me to utilise the full speed of my connection across my whole house… The only downside… I could afford the 3 pack at the time, but I will be ordering that soon!
I bought this mesh system to replace my powerline WiFi range extenders when they stopped working after a firmware update. The mesh system means my phone no longer needs to switch from the main router to the powerline network as I move around my house since every node of the mesh is on the same network. The speed and reliability have been great so far.
Having heard very positive things about the speed of Orbi WiFi 6 systems, I ordered this to supplement a Tenda wi-if mesh system that was in operation already. The difficulty I had with that system that while great for general use around the house, it was topping out at 120-130 mbps and was struggling to get 60 in my home office. This was mainly due to a couple of quirks of the home build effectively creating an accidental faraday cage around my workspace.
Enter Orbi.
Setup was really simple – plug in, switch on, let the wizard do all the connections, change passwords and network names etc. there were a couple of steps I had to repeat as the wizard seems quicker than the routers but no real drama.
Result? Consistent 400Mbps in the office, basically the same speed as at the modem.
The control app is typically netgear in that it has plenty of options but is typically over complicated and hides a few critical items down sub menu rabbit holes. Traffic metering for example, and device connection is a bit all over the place.
Adding satellites is easy however and with 1 base and 2 satellites I’ve seen vastly increased performance across a 2300 sq ft home.
Overall definitely worth it if you are happy with the cost of entry
Got this set up as my Virgin wifi kept dropping out, even after they sent out a new router. The signal would randomly drop out on my Samsung S22 and Tab A8.
This has fixed all problems and on WiFi I now get 246 mbps in every room of my house. Which has walls over 600mm thick and is 250 sqm in footprint.
Yes the Orbs are a bit big and need to be plugged in. But I haven’t had a drop out or and issue in a month since it was Installed.
Drop outs on the Virgin router were around 10 to 12 a day.
Plus I now have strong WiFi at the bottom of the garden some 12m away, which I didn’t have before.
Would highly recommend
I have been using a single non-meshed WiFi previously and this is game changer. With the ultra fast AX4200 I now get coverage everywhere in the house, Garden and in the garden shed/office. The Security of this mesh system is unparalleled too the Armor software already blocked quite a lot of external malware attacks which I wasn’t even aware of previously. Very good product but it comes with its higher price but you get what you pay. Premium technology.
The set up was straight forward. I did have one issue. You have the option to use your old Wi-Fi name and password, this would have been helpful as I have a number of devices through out the home. The devices were stuck trying to get to the old gateway of the previous Wi-Fi set up. I resent the hub and satellite back to factory settings and set up with the new Orbi name. All worked fine, easy to set devices to the new Wi-Fi name. Now we don’t experience drop outs or speed issues. Well worth the purchase.
Having been used to Apple routers and their ease of installation and use, it was with a fair measure of trepidation and resignation that I opened the Orbi package for installation. Imagine my surprise when the entire installation happened in a jiffy with no issues whatsoever. The Orbi app was great. Connection to my provider was also smooth. And when I connected the satellite in another room with an Ethernet cable, recognition was immediate and seamless. Speed were amazing. Guest wireless setup was also simple. No meaningless questions on the setup were asked. In short an ‘apple’ like experience!! As go from room to room the handoff has been seamless and speeds amazing. Highly recommend this product.
After much research I decided to opt for this system. It’s a breeze to set up, has a great app but more importantly it works really well.
Before I had a BT whole home system, over the years it was very troublesome with auto updates messing things up. The final straw was when two of the satellites stopped working and the main one had to be constantly rebooted.
With the new netgear Orbi whilst setting it up I changed the password and name to the same as the BT unit it replace. That meant all my equipment logged straight into it, brilliant! As I’ve a lot of gear! Solar panels, alarm, Tesla Powerwall, and a number of other things. Can’t recommend Netgear Orbi mesh enough.
Previously we had two different access points using isp router and a power line adapter with wifi. The connectivity was patchy – some areas of the house there was no wifi – where there was wifi the speeds were well below the 76Gbps coming into the house. The “Customers” (wife and son) were constantly complaining about it so in the end I bit the bullet and bought this Orbi 753 Mesh WiFi setup in the black Friday deal. It took about 20mins in total to set it up using the instructions on the phone app. Now we have one access point name all over the house – 74Gbps all over the house – Rock solid performance all over the house. Superb. I bought these particular ones on the back of another review which pointed out I probably didn’t need to go for the latest top of the range model as my requirements are not that high and I’m glad I took that advice. These are more than enough and at a fraction of the cost 439 as opposed to 1699. Really happy with this purchase.
Setup. Easy to do, plug in the Router version, connect to your Modem (Virgin in my case) and switch on. The app takes you through, the initial setup, firmware updates if needed and then adds the satellites. Took about 25 minutes from start to finish
Config. This is probably where the app lets you down a touch, however, in true Netgear fashion you have a web browser interface which is awesome. So any peculiar config, firewall rules, static IP, or port forwarding I would use the web browser over the app.
Stability. Rock solid, couple of reboots after Virgin dropped, outside of that solid as rock!
Recommended, so much, I ended up buying the Quad band version!
Bought this to replace the ISP delivered Eero as I could not get a wifi speed more than 300-400mbit even within 1 meter of the eero 6 router.
With this Orbi I can sit 5 meters away and get 500mbit speeds even outside through a brick wall i get over 300mbit.
This Orbi also have 3 1gbit ethernet ports as well which is just what I need.
The Orbi satellites are easy to set up just need to keep them close to the main router when adding them at first.
Quality is very good and feels solid.
The Orbi can be set up either through an App or through the web browser.
there is no manual delivered with this but it was easy enough to download it as a PDF from the website.
Replaced a brand new Nest WiFi Pro 6 with this. The Orbi has better range, is easier to set up (remarkably), has more flexible configuration and actually provides accurate network and device information, unlike the kit it is replacing. Now I have a functional, reliable mesh network from Netgear and all I’m waiting for is Google to give me my money back for their kit. Definitely recommend and I really should have bought Orbi in the first place. Only criticism is the subscription parental controls, additional security services and support after the initial 90 days, but I don’t need the first and can manage without the second and third so not a problem for me.
The installation is a simple as can be. Download app and follow the instructions. Also, the system seems robust and the transmitter and remote units both reboot perfectly after power interruptions.
I’m slightly disappointed by the power output / range of the remote unit, but it does just about what I need it to do, so I’m a very happy, if not totally ecstatic, buyer.
Then you find out that parental control ‘isn’t’ included and, after taking out a months trail, you have to pay a yearly subscription fee. Okay, bit miffed, but pay it and guess what. It doesn’t work. Add my child’s devices to her profile, set a bedtime period and it simply doesn’t work. Plus, you can’t do any parental control on the router itself, you can ‘only’ use their phone app.
A web search found numerous others with the same issue, some saying that bedtimes don’t work in the trial period but do when your subscription kicks in. Check my subscription and Netgear make it start ‘after’ your 30 day trail, not from the day you pay. Whether it will actually work remains to be seen.
Registered for support and submitted a ticket about this. Netgear’s response is to give you a phone number to call which is, of course, only open during working hours when I am at work myself and, if you don’t contact them within 48 hours, your ticket is closed automatically. A great way to be able to publish fantastic support performance. Look, 99 percent of support requests are closed in 2 days.~
So I am now left having to manually block and unblock my child’s devices until my trial ends and ‘then’ have to see if it actually works or not. Very very disappointed in a system that costs 500. Very very very disappointed in Netgear’s levels of support.
In summary, great solution to wifi coverage in your house, but parental control does not work well at all.
The units are very well built, look good, are silent in operation.
I am not networking savvy. I’ve learned that I, like many others, have a modem/router. The modem part connects to the internet and the router part provides your wired/wireless network. It has four sockets for cable connection to PC’s etc. and an aerial which transmits your wifi network.
I have for 5 years had an early mesh system which recently needed frequent reboots. This provided wifi in the house along with the integral wifi from the router part of my modem/router. This elderly mesh system simply connected to a local area network socket (LAN) on my router. All used the same wifi network name (SSID)
I unplugged the elderly mesh and connected the Orbi Router and satellites. Set up went well, all devices connected. A duplication of my previous configuration. Then it dropped off the internet. Several times.
Computer savvy friend to the rescue. It seems that I had connected two routers in a line. Each would issue each device with an IP Address (Internet Protocol). (No different to previous five years?)
The solution is there, on Google. How to connect an Orbi Mesh system to a modem/router. The Orbi has to be set up as an ACCESS POINT. This entails logging in to your Orbi/Netgear account on a phone, tablet or computer connected to the Orbi wifi network. Follow the guidance on Google, select Access Point after several screens. Switch off the wifi generated by your modem/router.
Perfect.
I feel strongly that this information should be clearly stated by Netgear giving two distinctly different methods of connection. For this reason, four stars.
Having recently moved in to our new house, the location the BT router has to go in is rather bizzare. Due to this, the signal is blocked heavily and it’s not a big house either.
Having done some research, this felt like the best option. Granted it’s not cheap but it appeared to be the easiest to install and manage. I’ve always been shy delving into routers, mesh systems and the like, so I must admit I wasn’t sure how successful this would be.
To my surprise and credit to Netgear, it was extremely easy to install; just follow the steps exactly as they request them. I did have some teething issues but hands up, this was my fault for trying to skip steps.
Not only has my signal improved to better than before, with the satellites, we’re getting this same speed throughout the house!
Amazing kit and I’m kicking myself for not buying sooner!
It’s widely known that the hubs supplied by Virgin Media are not great at strong stable wifi signals. I even had the new pods, which my opinion is they caused more issues than solved. I finally made the decision to buy a mesh network system and definitely it has helped a lot. Wifi signal stability and coverage is noticeably better and while the router and 2 satellites cannot push out the maximum speed of the broadband coming in to the house, it does pretty well. I have a 1gb line, and the house has 300mb on the first and second floor. Ground floor has anywhere between 500-800. Ethernet from the Netgear hub throws out a whooping 800mb. This is about 30-40% better than the Hub4 and stability is unquestionable. I looked into this further and this particular Netgear model doesn’t have a 160mhz channel (I think because it is used for something called a backbone – not sure exactly but something to do with router/satellite workings). I feed an ethernet cable to the first floor that runs a separate router (one that has 160mhz). When it configured this router to 80mhz, max speed was about 300-400mb. At 160mhz, it doubled. Personally, I’m not so hung up on the speed rather 1) the stability 2) coverage and 3) getting what you pay for is definitely key.
I’d been using a Netgear Orbi system for about six years, and decided I wanted to upgrade to the newer wi-fi 6 version. I work from home, and I don’t like trusting computing hardware as old as my existing system, and I wanted to take advantage of the faster speeds and better handling of multiple devices. While there was a bit of a setup issue, Netgear support helped me sort it out quickly.
I’m in a big, old house with thick walls, and with this new system, I get higher speeds and better range. The range in my garden is noticeably better, and the coverage in the furthest rooms is faster and more reliable.
In regards to the system itself. How does it perform? Overall – fine. The signal strength from the unit is superb, the 2 units cover the same area as 3 Google Nest Router devices. Furthermore, the dedicated wireless backhaul performs great! However, reliability and performance are problematic, largely due to the Netgear Armor service. Whilst I support protection like this being integrated into home routers, manufacturers need to ensure that the router’s processing power is sufficient so as not to bottleneck the performance and degrade the experience for a household that uses the internet for real-time applications (video streaming, video calls, gaming, etc). The busier the network, the more problems occur… and it truly doesn’t need much to start seeing performance crumble in our experience with 2 heavy internet users. My personal advice? If performance and reliability matter to you, ensure that your devices are protected and turn off Netgear Armor from day 1.
Would I recommend the Netgear Orbi RBK752? If you are looking for a wire-free mesh system, the Netgear Orbis are great. However, if you are looking for something a bit more configurable for your inner-network geek, there are better consumer options elsewhere.
This product is simply amazingly. It’s easy to set-up and does exactly as advertised, fast internet everywhere inside and out . On top of that their support is top class – I had and account query. NETGEAR support staff were knowledge and super helpful. Well done NETGEAR !!
Setup – very clear and easy to follow instructions. TBH the orbi simply installed itself. All I did was plug it in, connect the Orbi to my internet router (one cable), register my details and after performing an automated firmware update and auto detection of Orbi satellites the mesh network was ready to rock and roll. Took about 15 to 20 minutes for the auto installation. This is very helpful as I have zero IT knowledge.
ORBI App – Very easy to setup, clean interface, helpful information and very easy to use. Has not failed on my yet. 5 stars easily.
Product – the ORBI Router and satellites are on the big side, but they work so extremely well I am more than happy to live with their size. In fact I have hidden them within a wardrobe and behind a display unit and they still work amazingly well. I get full blown internet at the back of my 100ft garden.
Overall – extremally happy with the product and NETGEAR support. Seriously just this equipment if you have a solid, fast internet throughout your house both inside and out.
I recently purchased an Orbi RBK352 system (1 x base unit & 1 satellite) as a Christmas present for my daughter. I had previously done some research as to the best systems on the market and Which had given this Orbi system a 90% top rating. The router in her house is on the opposite side to her office, where the wifi is absolutely woeful. As I’m going to be installing this on Christmas Eve, I thought I’d try it out in my own house first, just to make sure there were no ‘hidden’ issues. My daughter and husband aren’t really ‘techie’ so I’ll just be setting it up in ‘Access Point’ mode. It really is plug and play. I setup the base unit first – the instructions were clear and took a couple of minutes to change the mode. I then connected the base unit to my BT HomeHub6. Using the Orbi app on my smartphone, I checked the connection. I had internet (150Mbps) and my wifi connection was 856Mbps. Perfect! I now took the satellite and set it up in my loft, which is about as far away as you can get from my router. I plugged it in and synced it with the base unit – it took a couple of minutes to connect. Reception brilliant! The wifi in my own house isn’t that good but now it’s great. So I’m keeping it! I’ve just had to go out and buy another Orbi system for my daughter’s Christmas present. I work in IT, and for my own house, I wanted to use the base unit in ‘router’ mode to replace my BTHomeHub6. That’s where I came across a few ‘issues’. Whilst it is possible to replace the BTHomeHub with a separate modem (expensive – and not an option for me), it took quite a few Google searches to find out how best to leave the BTHomeHub6 in place as a primary router and setup the Orbi base unit as a secondary router. A more knowledgeable IT friend of mine explained that I just needed to setup the Orbi on a separate subnet and everything would work fine, which it did. There was no information on the Netgear site to help me regarding this issue. This is a great piece of kit which I highly recommend.
As Network Administrator I’ve been fairly happy with the setup. In my study I can get download speeds over 700Mb/s even though some of the cabling is old Cat 5 stuff. The family, however, have been grumbling about slow and intermittent WiFi, so I decided to bite the bullet and install a MESH system.
450 seems like a very great deal of money for three WAPs but they do appear to work. We now have one WiFi SSID that covers most of the house with fast internet access.
The system is clearly aimed at people who don’t want to have to fiddle with settings and it expects that it will be the only WiFi, controlling all connexions between your router and your devices. I managed to get it working even though the controlling app, which I dislike intensely, claims not to be able to see the two satellites which connect to the rest of my network through cables.
Using a web browser to connect to the satellites reveals a fairly useless interface which provides some minimal information and no options for configuration. I still haven’t managed to connect to the main unit from my browser, even though I can see it on the network and read its MAC and IP addresses.
The system claims to offer a host of “security” features which are provided on a one month trial basis – Netgear obviously hopes that customers will subscribe to these at the end of the free trial and continue to pay for evermore. Since the daft app cannot even recognize that the satellites are connected and working with the right credentials, I really don’t trust it as a source of security. Besides which, there are still devices on my home network which bypass the Orbi and connect directly to the main router and it is obvious that Orbi cannot control them at all.
Now that we have the Orbi system installed, the rest of the family is content that they have fast WiFi all over the main part of the house, so it has achieved what I wanted. I should, however, prefer something that I could configure myself and I feel that the app is simply a mechanism for extracting more money from worried users.
It has a two year warranty, I believe. Only time will tell if I have to try to claim on it: at 450 one would hope that it proves to be reliable. Then again, at 450 I’d expect the app to recognize that the satellites are connected and working, and it doesn’t.
[EDIT and update]
After another day of fighting with the system, running up and down ladders, pressing “sync” buttons and staring at das blinken Licht, waiting for it to turn blue, I eventually connected to the main unit and have got to the bottom of the issue. The firmware on the main unit is rubbish.
To try to keep a track of what’s going on on the network, I gave the real router, the one that does the DHCP, the mac addresses of the Orbi and its satellites and assigned them specific ip addresses. That’s when I discovered that the Orbi thinks it knows better and chooses it’s own ip address and network settings despite this.
With the Omni “router” in AP mode, one cannot use the “Advanced” settings to set the thing’s ip address. In “Router” mode it refuses to accept an ip address in the same subnetwork as the “WAN” connexion. But, there is a way around this. As one switches the device from “Router” to “AP” mode, there is an option to set the ip address and that address can be on the existing network.
The firmware on the base unit can recognize the satellites when they connect wirelessly but when the satellites are plugged into the network they disappear from the main unit’s list of connected devices. However, connecting to the satellites directly (by typing their ip addresses into the browser) shows that they have acquired the same login password as the main unit, have acquired the right SSID, and are allowing connexions from devices around the house.
Why don’t they simply have a configuration menu that lets the user set the main unit’s address easily, and then allows one to type in the addresses of the satellites? All of this over-simplification is well and good, but it makes life difficult for people who don’t have absolutely standard set-ups.
Right now, the web interface of the main Orbi is showing no satellites: the app can see one; both are actually working properly. Garbage software. Pretty good WiFi coverage.
I did a lot of research and while I was initially a bit apprehensive about the cost, the research and some advice from a tech-savvy friend (and trusting Amazon to look after me if this didnt work out) – I was convinced to make the purchase.
Not quite plug-and-play… the set-up app didnt really do the job and I had to go in via laptop to get things working. However, it was WELL worth the effort!
My old Surface Pro is showing 600Mbs in my home office… and I suspect that is the device limiting the speed. We’re streaming 4k downstairs, gaming upstairs with around 45 devices total connected, and not a single glitch. Hard to get across in a review how much this just “works”…. its like the way we always imagined wifi would be “one day”.
Genuinely, seems expensive when you buy… but you very quickly forget about the price when everything just works seamlessly and without any buffering. Amazing.
I tried 3 other popular brand meshes and they simply performed poorly or didn’t work. This is my 4th mesh in 3 weeks (yes!) before being satisfied it works wonderfully. I have a 600mbps broadband and a relatively small flat, but have some black spots due to the layout / construction. The other meshes were either maxing out at 100-150mbps, or unstable.
Orbi has been a good performer, I can get about 550mbps from the main router, and about 250 from a satellite. Slightly disappointing the satellites don’t perform as well given its got a dedicated backhaul as well, but at least it’s a stable connection. Could also be my positioning and other conditions.
The stability is really good. It was easy to setup. One peculiar issue I had with the other meshes was that sometimes Spotify connect would not work and hence could not play Spotify media my Yahama AV receiver. Not had an issue with the Orbi and everything seems to work wonderfully.
My config is such I’m using a mixture of wired and wireless devices, with a wired NAS on the satellite, which performs equally well. Also compared to other meshes, Orbi has a web interface in addition to the mobile app, which is great as you can tweak a lot more settings. The other meshes were a bit limited on what you can change.
One downside, 300+ for a set of 3 routers. It’s a lot of money for a small piece of kit (not even commercial grade), but I suppose everyone has joined the bandwagon and charging the same amount.
I considered the various extenders/boosters on the market, but reviews all seemed to say that they only work to extend the range of the signal they receive, so if the signal’s degraded then it merely passes that on – oh, and for good measure, when connected to the extender you’ll be needing to connect to the SSID for that, which would be different to that of the router (so roaming in the house sounded like being a pain).
So what about a mesh then?
Long story short, my sister-in-law in Canada recommended Orbi from their experiences there, and a cursory read of reviews suggested they’re good, so in a nuthouse, that’s why I tried them first.
I went for the 2 satellite option because the router is at one end of the house, and there are 3 thick walls between there and the other end. So the router’s downstairs, one satellite is downstairs 2 walls in, and the other is upstairs in the middle of the house. Actually, I’d started with the downstairs satellite right at the other end of the house (ie 3 walls in), but the signal proved too weakened & so I relocated it.
Oh, and also because it’s a router only, and was replacing the ISP-provided modem/router hub, I decided to source a BT Openreach modem from a popular auction site to sit in front of the Orbi router.
And of course you get to use the same SSID regardless of which Orbi you’re connected to! However, I did note that at least one of my devices (a relatively old wireless printer), when placed in the center of the house, could actually see all 3 Orbis, and also each of the 2.4 & 5GHz networks on it, and decided this a security issue & refused to connect to any of them! I resolved this by relocating it to one end of the building where it could only see one & then it was happy (of course this is an issue with the device, not the Orbi system).
I’ve had it in place for a month, and our experiences are generally very favourable:
– I’ve had to reboot each of the satellites once each (on different occasions) after they’d seemed to lose touch with the router (with no explanation), but other than that have been rock-solid – hence a star off for “stability”
– I remember I had issues with installation using the app & only managed to complete it successfully by connecting to the web management page & the same has gone for ongoing management/maintenance – I’ve found it’s best done with a combination, as each provides different sets of information (sorry, I can’t remember details) – so that’s one star off for “easy to install”.
– Cost: well, it seems some similar-sounding mesh systems are in the 900+ bracket, so on the face of it 270 for this seems quite reasonable. However, it’s a lot compared to sub-100 extender-type solutions, and of course I’ve only bought it because the “free” offering from my ISP wasn’t up to it. So in absolute terms, it would appear to be good value, but in relative terms it seems a lot for something that I should have been getting for free (not that my ISP, or probably any ISP for that matter, would agree!). So I’ve lopped a star off for that.
Bottom line: very happy with the system!
I picked these up on a Prime Day deal. I was working previously with the TaoTronics AC3000 mesh WiFi. It wasgood. For the price, very good. But it struggled across a 3 story house through thick doors, walls etc. I went looking for wifi 6 mesh, with wider frequencies that would (I hoped) get around this.
Enter the Orbi. Three monolithic spaceships set up around my house. First the negatives: setup is fiddly. You must do things EXACTLY in order of the app. Want to turn on the satellites later? Tough. Don’t know where to position the satellites? Also tough. Unless you follow the steps precisely, the setup will crash. Secondly, the units themselves are quite large and the plugs are quite deep.
If this sounds like nitpicking, it’s because it is. These are the only downsides, other than the crippling cost. The units in fairness need to be big though, to house the giant aerials pumping WiFi around your home. The reception is flawless. Strong signal everywhere, no dead spots, reach and speed far exceeding my old WiFi 5 set up. And once set up, the app is a dream to use.
So – if you have the money, and need to blanket a complex space in signal, these Orbis will not disappoint. Just remember to follow the instructions.
Apart from that, this device has solved so many problems. I am so happy with it. I have a lot of internet enabled devices in my smart home. My old router wasn’t coping. Facetime was breaking up. Devices were losing connections. Streaming services were stop/start/stop/start.
Enter Orbi …
You put your old router into modem mode (Consult your ISP for details on this), connect your Orbi to your router (now acting as a modem), and follow the setup procedure in the app. It’s actually quite a simple setup procedure. I had it all up and running in no time.
Now I’m getting maximum speed from everywhere, including the bathroom. All of my devices are connected, working and responding quickly and reliably. Facetime is high quality, stable and clear.
The only issue I’ve had is with a network drive which sometimes doesn’t seem to respond. I’m still investigating that.
At one point I tried to get tech support using chat on the app. I got in the queue and then it told me some time later, moving down the queue, that support was not available. So thumbs down for that.
The system seems stable. I’ve only had it 2 days and not really had any problem with it. But, it has only been 2 days, so I’ve taken a star off for stability just in case.
So, in conclusion, my advice is … take a deep breath, pay the money (As a general piece of advice, I would say never buy anything on credit. Save up for it. Don’t get yourself into debt on credit cards, overdrafts etc), get the Orbi and enjoy trouble free WiFi.
Update 25/01/2022 – still going strong, had an issue with my work laptop not connecting to the network however that was an easy fix with Netgear support helping me out, all I had to do was turn off wifi6 on the mesh network then my work laptop connected fine.
I have the main router upstairs and two satellite nodes downstairs, one of the nodes has the sky box plugged in via cat6 cable and this offers very stable streaming with no drop outs for all the services on the sky box (prime, YouTube, Netflix, Disney etc). This is where this product is better than most simple mesh networks as the data ports on both satellites offer strong wired connections, even though the mesh is wireless magic! No idea how the wired connection is so strong even though the mesh connection is only over WiFi.
This mesh handles two of us WFH both on video calls simultaneously.
The app allows you to see what devices are connected to each node. You can also turn these connections on and off.
Almost a year later and I would still recommend this product to anyone having issues with their broadband provided routers.
It provides WiFi 6 and has a simple tech free set up. It’s also very neat, with easy to place stations – especially vs the very ugly archer and no nasty cables or random LEDs.
Price wise, it’s both horrifically expensive for what it is, and much cheaper than much of the (absurdly priced) competition. Also: reliable WiFi is vital to your ability to work, learn, relax, and your kids education. So while expensive, also necessary
Set up app is very simple, and unusually for networking gear appears designed by someone who understands UEX
Point off because:
1. No meaningful parental controls
2. Having to create a netgear at account to do anything & they are already sending me marketing spam in German
3. It appears to be hub and spoke rather than true mesh. Which is a pain for me, given where my modem has to live, and how easy it isn’t to run Ethernet cables from there (if it was I’d still use the archer)
4. Only having 4 Ethernet ports on the base. Should have at least 8. Probably 4 per extender too (not 2) and those ports should support teaming the nics
I needed a wifi system to cover a large area efficiently. I trawled sites and found Netgear’s AX4200. I could add another satellite if the coverage was not enough. It was simple to set up with the App and I found the coverage excellent. Much, much better than my previous wifi system. I can now work anywhere in my house and data is not dropped or delayed. It was more expensive than my previous system, but I would never go back to it. I will keep using Netgear products in future.
Subsequent improvement by adding a second satellite
I live in a bungalow with lots of brick walls between rooms. Also it is well spread out. In my office, which adjoins the kitchen I kept getting drop outs. This occurred when people were in the kitchen blocking the in-line, but highly attenuated path from the base unit. This caused frequent drop outs. I purchased the add on satellite and after positioning it in another ajacent room, which had little attenuation from the base unit, it was able to provide an alternative route via windows in to my office. It was not possible to do this with the first satellite as I needed wired connections to all my office equipment. It was simple to set up and seems to have completely resolved my problem with drop outs. I have had a similar problem with smart meters. It has not been possible to provide me with a smart gas meter because of the poor signal path from the electricity meter, which has a similar path of about 10m through three brick walls!
I wanted to set up the RBR750 as an access point and keep my existing router that acts as a DHCP host for 192.168.0.XXX (The Orbi gives out 192.168.1.XXX). Firstly, if you put it in Access Point mode it disables its own DHCP. Secondly, if you use anything but 192.168.1.XXX the satellites will not pair, as they operate on 192.168.1.XXX. What is worse, you cannot change the IP address on the satellites, even from 192.168.1.XXX.
After a large number of hours on the phone talking to Netgear’s tech support, having been passed from the first line up to the Orbi expert team (four levels higher), I have come to the conclusion that they do not understand subnetting!! And these guys are supposed to be the experts! Nice guys, by the way, but hopelessly under trained. They sell network devices but don’t know how networks operate. Unbelievable. As for the phone app? Pretty and good for testing, but if you need to do anything below the surface, use a computer. Mac, PC, Raspberry Pi, doesn’t matter, as it’s all browser stuff.
By the time I had finished on the call, I was informed to send the kit back and get a refund and buy another as it would never connect and, even if it did, as the Netgear guy updated the firmware, I would never get the satellietes to update. Wrong! Why does Netgear allow you to change the IP range and not allow you to change the IP addresses of the satellites? That needs to be corrected in a firmware update urgently as it defeats the purpose of allowing change.
I went back to basics, ripped out the old router. Set the Orbi to router mode, reverted to 192.16.8.XXX and turned on DHCP. I then went through the network changing IP addresses enabling DHCP of a number of devices, including a couple of NAS boxes that I reserved in DHCP. The old router would only give out out 50 IP addresses, hopelessly inadequate, so a lot of things were on fixed IPs. With the Orbi, you can give out all 254 ip addresses if you want. With an increasing number if IoT items, this is becoming more important all the time.
So, in summary, I was looking for a system that would last over six years, that would get rid of the dead spots and give very good performance. Does the Orbi RBR750 do that? Yes, I think it does – it has good range, the best speeds ever from a wireless system, WiFi 6 ready and also able to cope with full fibre to the premises which is due in a few months. If you want more range outdoors you can buy another, waterproof, satellite. In fact, if you have a really big house, or a small hotel, you can offer good wifi service to all your residents. Having spent enough time in these hotels, most need something like this.