CES 2019: Netgear Unveils New Orbi 802.11ax Mesh Wi-Fi System for Gigabit Internet

[darknyt]

I love my Orbi. My router is in the other room and I just did this speed test.

Dat upload though
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I have the Orbi RBK50 that is sold at Costco. What's special is you get one unified network to sign into - no 'My House 2.4G' 'My House 5G' 'My House 2.4 EXT' 'My House 5 EXT' like you do with access points and range extenders. So all your devices, regardless of whether they are 2.4 or 5G, all sign into one single network. In addition, the mesh systems automatically configure your "relays" once you place the units and turn them on, e.g. they automatically configure if the hubs connect directly to the main unit, or if they daisychain with each other for best coverage.

I've had my system for the past year now and it's been life-changing in my 3,400 SF two story home. No more dead spots, no having to switch to different wifi networks when changing rooms, and fast speed everywhere.

Seconded to all of this.

We had AE router and another acting as AP but it sucked. Orbi just works and the built in traffic meter and per device on/off WiFi control is awesome.

Want my kids to come to me? Just turn off the WiFi to their specific devices.

 

[Speculist]

Just recently swapped three most recent Airport Extremes for the latest Netgear R8000 WiFi Router to improve coverage through my large home. The coverage and speed is much improved, but the Mac and peripheral support is terrible. The recent Airports were plug and play with USB printers and hard drives for my various Macs and PCs. The latest Netgear, however, requires every computer in your home (and every guest) to install special print server software (not reliable for latest MacOS) before a machine can print to any printer plugged into the Netgear WiFi USB. No help from Netgear support despite numerous phone discussions with far-distant support staff could get my MacBook Pros (which can see the printers on the network) to print to network. Netgear USB connection to NAS drives do work without difficulty with my Macs. (I resorted to keeping an Airport as a WiFi Printserver, without connecting it to Internet, but shifting networks to print is a lousy solution.) I look forward to hearing how the Orbi Mesh works with printers and with Macs from actual users before trying them out. (Netgear docs always imply their latest gear works with everything).

 

[rjp1]

I have the Orbi RBK50 that is sold at Costco. What's special is you get one unified network to sign into - no 'My House 2.4G' 'My House 5G' 'My House 2.4 EXT' 'My House 5 EXT' like you do with access points and range extenders. So all your devices, regardless of whether they are 2.4 or 5G, all sign into one single network. In addition, the mesh systems automatically configure your "relays" once you place the units and turn them on, e.g. they automatically configure if the hubs connect directly to the main unit, or if they daisychain with each other for best coverage.

I've had my system for the past year now and it's been life-changing in my 3,400 SF two story home. No more dead spots, no having to switch to different wifi networks when changing rooms, and fast speed everywhere.

I have 4 Airport Extreme plugged into a switch. They are all the same SSID. There is no reason to name them all differently.

 

[Superhai]

What's special is you get one unified network to sign into - no 'My House 2.4G' 'My House 5G' 'My House 2.4 EXT' 'My House 5 EXT' like you do with access points and range extenders.

Are there APs that force you to name the network bands differently? I always on all the wireless routers I have set up only used the same SSID, even with more than one AP on the same SSID. Rarely seen issues with this, and thought people named them differently was due to what they considered more convenient.

 

[jpn]

Your move, eero. As a gen one eero owner, I've been really happy with it for the past two years. However, the one place it really struggles is wireless backhaul. At my furthest eero AP, I'm getting about 10-15% of the total gigabit pipe that's coming to my house. It's sufficient, certainly, but I'd really like to be able to get more of the bandwidth I'm paying for consistently no matter where I am on my network and whether the device is hardwired or wireless. The gen two eeros added an additional radio for backhaul; but I've read several reports that it didn't seem to make much of a difference in terms of actual throughput on devices that are connected to the wireless APs.

sorry. but by "wireless backhaul" what do you mean?

is your meaning: getting yr data sent from a one farther point to the main connect point?

if so, then eero is worthless to consider. since that is pretty much all it was supposed to be able to do as a so-called mesh system.

 

[mattopotamus]

I have the older/current version, and they're not much taller than the AirPort Extreme I was using, though markedly wider. But I have the base tucked in the corner where the Airport was, and never notice it, and the satellite unit is sitting in a corner in my office and I forgot it was there until my kid accidentally unplugged it the other day. And I will say, it is REMARKABLY fast.

Thanks. The picture made it look much taller, almost like a Wifi router tall.

 

[iKaushal]

I have RBK50 at my residence and its amazing...!! I live in a Cement walls apartment complex and I get wifi reception in every nook and corner of home with good speeds all over.
Best part is, I get wifi even on my apartment parking area which is very far from my router.

Looking forward to next version..!!

 

[Quicksilver867]

Very happy with my current Orbi setup; I imagine this one is even more awesome.

 

[Ifti]

Also happy with my current Orbi setup. I don't think I would upgrade until I had devices that could take advantage of it.

 

[AnthonyG6]

I bought the Orbi RBK50 on Black Friday just gone and it is absolutely amazing. I get great speeds throughout the house with no dead spots. I have Virgin Media Broadband which I have put into modem mode and I use the Orbi as a router with its satelite at the furthest point away from that, this gives me great coverage through-out my 4 bed semi.

I have the main Orbi on a table by the window in the lounge and most people think its an air purifier

 

[xalea]

Are these going to work with 5G home? I'm so ready to stop relying on cable provider for internet access. They price gouge for the speeds. Also, I live in Houston just outside of Verizon's new 5G access (of course). They're getting 1gbps for $50 a month which is a lot less than I pay for 400mbps through Xfinity, plus tv, etc.

I'm just curious if these mesh systems will work with those wireless internet routers. I'm guessing probably so.

 

[siddavis]

LOL still loving my (now discontinued) Apple Airport Extreme base station. It will do fine for a couple more years, and by then all computers (Macs and PCs) would fully support the new n Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax standard.

I'm in the same boat. I have a (current?) gen Airport Extreme and a previous gen acting as an access point. I bought Orbi to replace them, but the stability was awful. The secondary unit would constantly lose connection with the main and it was hardwired! So for me, any potential speed gain was definitely killed by lack of stability. I went back to the Airports and they run consistently for months on end.

 

[Le Big Mac]

Uggghhhhh Just bought a 3 pack around Christmas. Don't even have it opened!!

Easy to return then.

 

[Defthand]

I've not been impressed with the speeds of relatives' mesh wifi systems. I'll stick with my ethernet-wired network (streaming devices, multiple wifi access points, security cams, etcetera) for now.

 

[canyonblue737]

I still wonder when Eero would come in and update their system to have Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax technology. I really hope Eero would launch a 3rd gen Eero mesh network this year.

I'm fairly certain they will. Their Gen 2 is from 2017 so they are due and I'm sure they will want upgraders and to compete. I'm sure by late summer, early fall there will be a Gen 3 for holiday 2019 sales.

 

[NUTNDUN]

I recently returned the current Orbi system and ended up going with Ubiquiti Unifi. While the Orbi had good speeds I would encounter dropped connections frequently. Tried different settings as well as different firmware versions and just couldn't get it quite right. While it was extremely easy to setup out of the box.

I went with the UAP AC HD with the wave 2. Only have one unit right now covering 3,600 sq. ft. and it does a great job. As fast or faster than the Orbi was when it was working. Mostly the latter.

 

[Wildavid]

I bought the current version Orbi AC3000 because my AirPort Extreme all of sudden started dropping and buffering as well it’s range became a lot smaller ever since Apple announced they were getting out of the wireless business. I was advised by Apple to add an extender which created 2 new networks in both 2.4 and 5 ghz which became almost unmanageable.
The Netgear mesh system replaced the multiple networks to one network, there is almost no degradation in wireless speed to the satellite. All my IOT seem to work now and the two nodes cover all sections of my house in both 2.4 and 5 ghz.
I have come to realize that wireless routers have become the same as phones and have to be replaced as technology changes.

 

[Mr X]

I recently returned the current Orbi system and ended up going with Ubiquiti Unifi. While the Orbi had good speeds I would encounter dropped connections frequently. Tried different settings as well as different firmware versions and just couldn't get it quite right. While it was extremely easy to setup out of the box.

I went with the UAP AC HD with the wave 2. Only have one unit right now covering 3,600 sq. ft. and it does a great job. As fast or faster than the Orbi was when it was working. Mostly the latter.

Same here. Had Orbi for 6 months with great performance but then a major software update (v2) rendered it next to useless. Shame. Ended up testing a load of Mesh systems and have been over the moon with my Ubiquiti AMPLIFI. Solid as a rock. With about 400 up down over Wi-fi.
Will be interesting to see how these new Orbi perform but I won’t be giving my money to Netgear again. Support was shocking.

 

[hinesmj]

Concept of gigabit is cool, but my R7000 is a rock and in my area gigabit speeds aren't nearly affordable. Show me uncapped gigabit speed for $70/mo and then maybe I'll consider upgrading.

 

[AnthonyG6]

Are these going to work with 5G home? I'm so ready to stop relying on cable provider for internet access. They price gouge for the speeds. Also, I live in Houston just outside of Verizon's new 5G access (of course). They're getting 1gbps for $50 a month which is a lot less than I pay for 400mbps through Xfinity, plus tv, etc.

I'm just curious if these mesh systems will work with those wireless internet routers. I'm guessing probably so.

You guys are so lucky! The max we can get in the UK is about 300mbps through Virgin Media

 

[LuckyBubba]

Ugly. What is the fascination with these companies to design such awful looking products, sometimes beauty is found in simplicity. Loved Apple's wifi's, the Base unit was in a closet and the Hockey Puck units were small, flat, and unnoticeable.
"Think Different"

 

[nsayer]

Can these do wired backhaul? We have proper cabling in our house but we have a couple of dead spots it would be nice to fill in.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Dont bother with this stuff anymore. I went enterprise tech, and never looked back. Wi-Fi is strong and fast as ever.

I went with a SonicWALL NSA220 + SonicPoint ACE Access Points.

Though I am now looking at replacing this with Ubiquti equipment, which by the way, was founded by an ex-Apple employee. Wanting to put in a Ubiquiti USG with Ubq APs once the 802.11ax access points become available.
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Can these do wired backhaul? We have proper cabling in our house but we have a couple of dead spots it would be nice to fill in.

Take a look at my post above. If you have all the wiring, look into ubiquiti, dont bother with consumer equipment.

 

[NUTNDUN]

Can these do wired backhaul? We have proper cabling in our house but we have a couple of dead spots it would be nice to fill in.

I would imagine they will do wired backhaul. The current version does.
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Same here. Had Orbi for 6 months with great performance but then a major software update (v2) rendered it next to useless. Shame. Ended up testing a load of Mesh systems and have been over the moon with my Ubiquiti AMPLIFI. Solid as a rock. With about 400 up down over Wi-fi.
Will be interesting to see how these new Orbi perform but I won’t be giving my money to Netgear again. Support was shocking.

I agree I won't be going back to Netgear either unless things change. We have gigabit cable with 1g down and 42mbs up. Be nice to have fiber but we are in a rural area so it might be quite a few years till that would happen. With my 2015 macbook pro I can get 950mbs down hard wired and on wireless with my macbook or my XR I can hit 650mbs to 745mbs being within 10 to 15' of the AP. At the far end of the house I can still pull 250mbs which is about 30' away from the AP and 3 walls. Have yet to have a dropped connection either.

 

[nsayer]

Take a look at my post above. If you have all the wiring, look into ubiquiti, dont bother with consumer equipment.

Those things are intensely expensive, and for the most part they want to be ceiling mounted with PoE, which we don't have (yes, you can PoE inject at point of use, but that's just more **** to buy).