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Forum Discussion
2nd gen Eero announced.
Well. Eero just announced a new 2nd gen hardware, and I must say, I have pre-ordered it.
Orbi raw speed is great (when it seems to work) but you have some major flaws that I just think it's time to move on, and eat the cost of these things.
- your iOS app, well... it is just sad. It doesn't really do anything.
- we are forced to use the web UI, and imo has a dated look/feel and also seems sluggish.
- your lack of community envolement is very noticeable. Eeros devs are very active in the eero sub Reddit, so you get a really good understanding on what is going on with the product. The orbi team seems MIA most of the time, unless they want to talk about a new product coming out. Lots of posts go unanswered on here. No one is really trying to solve issues, unless you submit a ticket in your 90 days or pay extra to do so...
- when you do release a firmware update, what does it actually do?
- clearly their are some major bugs/flaws that are not being addressed, or maybe they have been acknowledged, but it has been months...
- Eero comes with a 1 year warranty standard, but now with the option for $99/year for "VIP" customer service plus other extras is an nice option to have.
It sad... $499 down the drain as I was an early adopter when orbi was first released, but I just can't recommend this product anymore to my friends.
Orbi raw speed is great (when it seems to work) but you have some major flaws that I just think it's time to move on, and eat the cost of these things.
- your iOS app, well... it is just sad. It doesn't really do anything.
- we are forced to use the web UI, and imo has a dated look/feel and also seems sluggish.
- your lack of community envolement is very noticeable. Eeros devs are very active in the eero sub Reddit, so you get a really good understanding on what is going on with the product. The orbi team seems MIA most of the time, unless they want to talk about a new product coming out. Lots of posts go unanswered on here. No one is really trying to solve issues, unless you submit a ticket in your 90 days or pay extra to do so...
- when you do release a firmware update, what does it actually do?
- clearly their are some major bugs/flaws that are not being addressed, or maybe they have been acknowledged, but it has been months...
- Eero comes with a 1 year warranty standard, but now with the option for $99/year for "VIP" customer service plus other extras is an nice option to have.
It sad... $499 down the drain as I was an early adopter when orbi was first released, but I just can't recommend this product anymore to my friends.
87 Replies
Uplink01 wrote:
Well. Eero just announced a new 2nd gen hardware, and I must say, I have pre-ordered it.
Orbi raw speed is great (when it seems to work) but you have some major flaws that I just think it's time to move on, and eat the cost of these things.
It sad... $499 down the drain as I was an early adopter when orbi was first released,gee you think you would have learned , jumping from one early adopter to another but that your choice i guess
just dont get the logic , why not wait till its atleast released and see how the dust settles
tri band ap steering is going to be even harder to master never mind band steering
- I am always an early adopter, and I am fine with that risk when I feel like the company has great investment in follow up and support, pls I have a 30 day return policy ans I am not selling my Orbi's right away... either way I used Eero in the past and the customer support was an A+, and the iOS app was amazing. The thing it lacked was raw speed, so hopefully they solved this in 2nd version.
Or better yet, Orbi should make an announcement about a major firmware update/app update so we can see what is going on behind the seems with development on these products, with some type of timeline.I have been waiting for a bug free firmware update for months. I have lost all confidence in this company and their awful customer service and buggy firmware updates.
I also just ordered the new Eero's.
You can add me to this list as well. Its really sad, for such promising hardware NetGear has squandered its opportunity.
I'm waiting on the ASUS mesh system. ASUS has never let me down with any of their products. I like the ASUS user interface as well. The Orbi's user interface looks like something made back in the early 90's.
I must agree about the app and user interface but I'm not ready to jump ship just yet as I just got on. Supposedly now that netgear has dropped the latest budget Orbi's now they are working on improvements from what I have been reading. I have installed a few Eero systems and must say the UI is great. Netgear must step up their game in the app and staying connected with their customers in the community. Coming from Apple Airports the speed alone is enough to keep me running with Orbi, but we need functionality in the app for sure.
I have took the Orbi off of my network and reconnected my ASUS AC87U as my main router and use my AC68U has an access point and I didn't see any improvements in speed with the Orbi. The only thing I saw was improved signal quality in dead spots.
jleecloak1 wrote:The only thing I saw was improved signal quality in dead spots.but that the exact point of orbi , whole home wifi , eg total coverage and with that coverage you get speed at distances you couldnt before
the orbi i 867M on 5 gig , the rt-ac68u is 1300M on 5 gig , unless you have a 1300M wifi client you wont ee any faster speed from the asus than the orbi as well
- "but that the exact point of orbi , whole home wifi , eg total coverage and with that coverage you get speed at distances you couldnt before"
Unfortunately you also get unreliability like you have never had before. It's a pretty simple choice when you have to pick between Wi-Fi in the corners of your house, or a stable connection. - I will be looking forward to the updated comparison between gen 2 eero and Orbi.
eero 2 wont be any different coverage wise than what it is now , just an extra 5 gig channel to use bit like a tri band router
all 3 tri band routers i have here are in their boxes as i just dont have enough 5 gig clients to need or justify using them , esp wireless AC 5 gig clients
Petey.... Again you are espousing false statements. The 2nd generation Eero's have double the power, triband and, unlike the Orbi, a TRUE mesh system. When is your company going to understand the meaning of "Customer Service"?
Retired_Member
just consider us super user the conduit between you guys and netgear , we will do what we can and tbh netgear has embraced this and i think this is a good thing , i cant do miracles , but i can push the barrow for you guys and thats what i accepted the superuser tag for , some have real issues and if thats the case me and the other super users can take that up for you
separating the real issues from the config and other misc issues is the key
btw part of that what would i change is that now we have the super users and a direct contact at netgear to project these issues at that it wouldnt take as long to get a response to you guys on whats going on
if i could do magic i wish that everyone had an orbi that worked like mine , perfect since day 1 with 2 sats , no connectivity issues and no client disconnects , yes and i started at beta 1
regards
pete
- Petey, first thank you - You are a volunteer and as a user I appreciate it. My concern is more with the stagnation in the last 6 months as an Orbi owner. If I'm dropping $500 on a router / system I expect the app to be far better than it is now. I believed NetGear when they said they were working on it, but I've seen very little movement.
While I still believe Orbi is far superior performance-wise, I find Eero was better in their support and responsiveness. It shouldn't just fall on volunteers like you - Where is NetGear to address these issues? Where's our roadmap beyond "We're working to improve it?"
This frustration (in my case) is with Orbi and NetGear, not with the volunteers here. I don't think anyone said that, but I'm making it clear here that's not the case.as a beta tester let me assure you they are working on it , its a complex system and the beta test guys have been working overtime including myself to try and ascertain and help fix issues , the main issue is the way the orbi works is totally different to anything else on the market so they have nothing to cheat against , so its baby steps but its getting better
i will say eero can put more effort in as its their only product , they live and die by how well or poor it does , netgear have many many products and tbh this diversity does stretch the netgear staff and capability somewhat , but i can assure you they are trying , this is the longest beta testing i have ever done so the effort is certainly there from us and netgear
i certainly can understand the frustration as it is expensive and the expectations are not lost in transit , i too can be frustrated at times but i think long term investment wise its worth it for you guys as the DW ( distributed wif ) way of doing what it does is far better than mesh for most households
imho its a matter of time b4 they find a balance between usability and functionality , its just taking longer than usual as its a bit like the first man on the moon , eg there are no foot step to follow and a whole bare ground in front of them to explore and understand , the whole ap and band steering alone does my head in lol
cheers
pete
I think it is disgusting of Netgear to rely on their customers to beta test their products. The Orbi has been out for 9 months and they are still using their customers to fix it instead of hiring some talented IT people to fix. They are dishonest in marketing a product to the public that is full of bugs.
- Exactly jleecloak1, because all the evidence points to that. If it is, would Netgear admit to it? I doubt it when they can take people along for the ride for another yeah promising firmware fixes. Soon everyone's warranty will be over and that's the light at the end of Netgear's tunnel in my opinion.
I really don't think it is a hardware issue as I was having problems similar to those described by many on here. Darren from Netgear reached out and put me in touch with support who gave me a beta version to try. My system is now rock solid and v fast across all 4 floors of my house, even into the garden. I am therefore now thrilled with my Orbi and also grateful to the support from Netgear.
I'm glad that it works for you but I have the beta as well and it was worst than the last official firmware for me.
Retired_Member wrote:
Exactly jleecloak1, because all the evidence points to that. If it is, would Netgear admit to it? I doubt it when they can take people along for the ride for another yeah promising firmware fixes. Soon everyone's warranty will be over and that's the light at the end of Netgear's tunnel in my opinion.im not sure about the code and rules in the country you live in but here in australia there is code of conduct and department of fair trading that would with the onbudman force the company to fix or replace fauylty unit evenb after any warranty period if that fault was hardware based and not fixable
- I am pretty sure the backhaul problem would show up in their lab tests both before release and now. Who knows if anyone even touches the debug logs, Wireshark logs, and network diagrams support makes users send in. Slightly for my amusement I drew my network diagram with a crayon and made it look like a 5 year old did it. All I heard from it was the standard line about the engineers reviewing the diagram.
