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Forum Discussion
Mikener
Jun 20, 2020Aspirant
A few questions from someone new WIFI
First I'd like to apologize for being so lame about these questions. My family has me very stressed out about keeping the WIFI up and running and I really don't have a handle on WIFI. I am unde...
Mikener
Jun 20, 2020Aspirant
First, thank you for such a fast response. I am a little unclear about a few things.
When you say each device conducts a dialogue about the features they support, I assume, but want to be sure that this dialogue is done behind the scene and not a bunch of questions that I need to respond to. When I see the word dialogue I immediately think of a dialogue box that I need to respond to. Am I correct that in this case this is done in the background without user interaction? I suspect this is a dumb question, but my family is really stressing me out about this.
While expense is one concern, I am looking for the option that's the easiest to setup, the easiest to maintain and the most reliable. Plus my wife already ordered the Orbi for Father's Day. With all that in mind, excluding the expense, would the Orbi be a better choice than the extender?
Thanks again and sorry to bother you.
CrimpOn
Jun 20, 2020Guru - Experienced User
Mikener wrote:When you say each device conducts a dialogue about the features they support, I assume, but want to be sure that this dialogue is done behind the scene and not a bunch of questions that I need to respond to.This is exactly correct. There are WiFi standard protocols that WiFi access points and customer devices use to communicate what their capabilities are. Ironically, this is one of the "bones of contention" in regard to the Orbi product because some users want to be able to force devices to communicate a certain way and the Orbi makes that very difficult.
While expense is one concern, I am looking for the option that's the easiest to setup, the easiest to maintain and the most reliable. Plus my wife already ordered the Orbi for Father's Day. With all that in mind, excluding the expense, would the Orbi be a better choice than the extender? I find the Orbi really easy to set up. Every time I replace my WiFi system with a new one, I give the new system exactly the same WiFi name (SSID) and password as the old one. Every device "simply connects" as if nothing has changed. In terms of reliability, the situation is puzzling. My Orbi has been installed since Dec 2016 and has given me absolutely no trouble. This use forum is full of posts about "network dropping", can't do this or can't do that. Being an "old punched card sort of guy", I am not a big fan of the Orbi "app" for setup. Obviously a lot of people seem to do just fine with it.
Thanks again and sorry to bother you.If it is coming from Amazon, you have 30 days to decide whether you like it or not. Keep the packaging intact. If you hate the Orbi, just plug in the old WiFi router and all your devices will "simply connect" to it.
- MikenerJun 21, 2020Aspirant
Thanks for getting back to me and sorry that I took so long to get back to you. It's been hectic around here.
I really appreciate the help. I am happy to know that I don't need to deal with the connection speed of 2.4 or 5.0. As far as the Orbi .vs. extender question, while I would like to save the money by purchasing the extender, since the Orbi is easy to install and my wife already ordered it, along with I've heard how reliable it is from a friend in Florida, i guess I'll go with the Orbi instead of the extender.
Thanks again.