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Before you buy the orbi system - what you need to know performance and feature wise
hi guys
i have started this post to clear up some misconceptions about the orbi system and where its aimed and what it can do
first what it can do
provide overall better wifi coverage by having the router and satellite located in different parts of the house and connected together by a dedicated 1733M 5 gig backbone
provide a single wireless transmission that covers both the 2.4 gig and 5 gig spectrum with a max sync rate of
2.4 gig - 400M
5 gig - 867M
provide parental control features via netgear's online parental control system
provide vpn via openvpn
provide Ddns service
provide IPv6
provide traffic monitoring
provide basic firewall functionality
currently what it cant do
provide 3 gig wifi , its max connection rate is 867M
provide guess wifi access , this doesnt seem to be a consideration warrented to be implemented in the orbi
provide a mesh type topology network , at this stage the orbi is a star topology . Mesh topology is planned for future fw releases but TBA
provide an ethernet connection for its backhaul , again this is slated for future fw release but also TBA
provide comprehensive routing and firewall features , the orbi does have limited functionality but not to the extent as a top of the line stand alone router have
provide a wall mount , the design of the orbi is to be free standing and part of the furniture the best you can hope for is to build a shelf for it to stand on
provide soho / commercial grade access point control , where the orbi router is placed in AP mode its is just that a pure wireless access point , all router functionality will then be handled by an upstream router or gateway
provide the ability to have separate ssid names for the 2 bands as this would remove the functionality of its band steering and ap steering
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As far as i can tell the orbi system is aimed squarely at those that just want great wireless coverage and that it does quite well , it is lacking in features when compared to main line routers but that's because its aimed at those that dont really care , i see this as the plug and play set who prefer to set and forget and have no great intrest in administration or control but as stated at the start just want better wifi and thats what the orbi system does and does it better than even the latest and greatest stand alone wireless router will do including the latest 2156M wave 2 routers
The orbi system is great at what it does and thats provide great wifi coverage everywhere in a normal house , i suggest anyone consider buying the orbi system ensure they have a good read of what it can and cant do as well as read reviews and blogs and make sure the capabilities of the orbi system match your expectations as its certainly not worth buying something and then expecting major changes to suit your needs
just my 2 cents but if it help someone make the right decision about weather to purchase the orbi system or not im glad i can help
pete
oh and i forgot
no usb functionality at this stage ether
there is a long list of things that ether will be added or may be added but no real ETA on when or if they will be implemented , only time will tell
pete
32 Replies
Hello peteytesting
Thanks for posting your thoughts on Orbi.
DarrenM
oh and i forgot
no usb functionality at this stage ether
there is a long list of things that ether will be added or may be added but no real ETA on when or if they will be implemented , only time will tell
pete
I have a question that might relate to the mesh topic. When I put the Orbi router into AP mode then what is the role of the satellite? Do I get extended coverage with both the router and satellites acting as switch and access points? Or does changing the router to AP mode somehow disable the functionality of the satellite? Everything is working fine when the router is in AP mode I just don't know if it is now just using the router instead of the satellite or whether it is now using both as APs since I don't need the routing functionality on the Orbi, what I really purchased it for was wifi performance and coverage.
powrby4d wrote:I have a question that might relate to the mesh topic. When I put the Orbi router into AP mode then what is the role of the satellite? Do I get extended coverage with both the router and satellites acting as switch and access points? Or does changing the router to AP mode somehow disable the functionality of the satellite? Everything is working fine when the router is in AP mode I just don't know if it is now just using the router instead of the satellite or whether it is now using both as APs since I don't need the routing functionality on the Orbi, what I really purchased it for was wifi performance and coverage.
hi
the sat operates the same wether the orbi router is in router mode or ap mode as atm it is just connecting back to the router via its 5 gig backhaul , it would be just the same if you could have ethernet connected the sat would work the same
so yes they still both work and both work as switches , all that happens is the routing functionality in the orbi router is bypassed and what ever you have the orbi router connected to the controls everything router and dhcp wise
pete
Thanks Pete for the reply. So when in AP mode does the router act as a second AP in tandem with the satellite to increase total WiFi coverage or does AP mode basically mean that it is acting as a switch for wired clients as well as a wireless bridge in the 1.7MHz band and only the satellite is providing wifi to connected devices?
Basically what I want to know is whether there is a wifi coverage advantage to running the router in AP mode or is that just a way of turning it into a switch for wired connections plus the satellites. I'll be honest I put mine in AP mode and after a while had a lot of flaky behavior so I switched it back to router mode which seems more stable but when I turned off DHCP on the Orbi to get the addresses assigned by the uplinked router for a flat address space ( important for DIRECTV) I could not get any connections to the Orbi and had to do a factory reset to get things running again temporarily with segmented subnets.
Somjust trying to sort out if AP mode has a coverage advantage for connected devices or is basically "switch" mode since sooner or later I need a flat address space by either AP mode (not lucky so far) or disabling DHCP in router mode (also not lucky so far). Thanks for the advice.
New user here, I just bought the two pack RBR50 and RBS50. I just had a question, why would you buy the Orbi and than not use it as a router? I thought the "magic" of this thing was all of the bands and how the router controls and disperses them. Also could you not just as easily leave the Orbi as the router and make your old router an access point?
Jryan619 wrote:New user here, I just bought the two pack RBR50 and RBS50. I just had a question, why would you buy the Orbi and than not use it as a router? I thought the "magic" of this thing was all of the bands and how the router controls and disperses them. Also could you not just as easily leave the Orbi as the router and make your old router an access point?
You are right that the magic of Orbi is in the wireless radios, and how Orbi uses them to cover a large area with WiFi. These are not router functions though.
Your concept of what a router does versus an access point is off. Google "access point versus router" and read up on it. There is some basic info at this link: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/107106
1) Stupid question. Will the Orbi Router work just by itself without any satellites? I have a fairly small place (1600sq ft)
2) If i have and Orbi and 2 satellites for my office will it work if the internet incoming cable hence the router is in the middle of the office? Netgear website suggest the satellite should be in the center of the building
sinyc 1)Yeah, the Orbi will certainly work by itself. Every device alone will give you 2000-2500sqft(obstruction depending). Obviously a satellite will not work without the base station.
I think I would rather get a Nighthawk R9000 for more functionality in the 1600sqft, if money wasn't a thing(obviously it is overkill in so many ways). Otherwise I'd get the Nighthawk R7000., but the Orbi is certainly easy to use.
2)You will want to place the router in the middle and the satellites strategically for the best performance.
- sinyc
1) yes the router will work by itself. If you aren't going to grow later it might be better both performance and cost wise to use a different solution for a single powerful router solution
2) having the router in the middle and satellites in various directions communicating back to the centralized router is the best and preferred solution since Orbi is a star topology vs the completion which utilizes mesh topologies. Netgear suggestion On their website is primarily for a router and 1 satellite configuration. Thank you, Petey, for this very helpful post! Rumor has it that a firmware update has added a guest network option. However, I've also heard that the guest network functionality is locked to full access - thereby nullifying any benefit to having a guest network. Is this true, in your experience?
Also, are there any other updates to what Orbi can/can't do since your post?
Thank you, once again!
Item #2 on the can't do list is now incorrect. Guest Wireless Access is now possible.
Just bought the 3 pack (router and two satellites) from Costco online for 499.00 to replace the 6 Luma devices I have (rather, had) setup.
I'm running my Orbi's in AP mode with a Netgear FVS336Gv3 as my firewall/DHCP server, etc., so far, so good.
Setup the units and ran through the update. Current version as of 2017-03-24 is 1.8.0.6 and Guest Wireless Access is there. See screenshot at the end of this post.
Release notes for the Router/Satellites is here: https://kb.netgear.com/000037844/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-1-8-0-6
Reading through other forum posts seems to indicate that Guest Wireless Access has been in the Orbi since Firmware 1.4.0.16. The Release Notes site page (https://kb.netgear.com/31580/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-1-4-0-16) was updated on 2016-12-02, so it's been out for 4 months now. The orginal poster may want to update his original list.
I read through a few previous release notes and read this nugget for the 1.5.0.12 release:
- Allows users to enable or disable the “Allow guests to see each other and access my local network” feature in AP mode.
This is also shown in the screenshot below.
unfortunatly you can edit posts here after a day or so , so unless the mods can do something i cant change it
thats client isolation enable / disable and should be part of any ap mode
- Will Orbi allow me to operate my Arlo system, and use my computer internet?
Thanks for your posts, very informative.
Laurie
LALeach54 wrote:
Will Orbi allow me to operate my Arlo system, and use my computer internet?
Thanks for your posts, very informative.
Laurieyes the arlo system work with porbi and use your comp at the same time
