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Forum Discussion
Design Hep for Orbi
I have a very long one story house and am currently using a router & range extender (see diagram on placement). The range extender does an OK job but does not reach out to cover my pool or external g...
Thanks for the responses. I attached a layout of my property but I guess it didn't take.
My house is 70' long by about 25' wide. The modem/router is in the front corner BR of the property at one end of the house. Inside construction is standard 2x4 & drywalls. The range extender is currently in the LR about mid-way lenghthwise from the router (so about 35' away?).
The pool and backyard garages are about 200-225' feet from the house (so add another 50' to get to the router diagonally).
This probably doesn't change anything so I think I will start with the base + 1 satellite and see how that goes. If it covers 5,000 sq ft it may just make it down to the pool anyway.
But one further question that is still not clear: if I were to add a second satellite at my backyard garage, does that talk to the router/base or the first satellite?
The Orbi can be configured either as a "Daisy Chain" or "Hub & Spoke" topology (Look in the "Advanced" Tab under Advanced Setup>Wireless Settings).
In the Daisy Chain mode, the satellites will "talk" via the Backhaul channel to each other to get/send data and the closest satellite will talk to the base (router) via this same channel . This can extend the straightline distance of your WiFi but it can/will slow down the speeds abit as the farthest satellite has to wait for the intermediate satellite to transfer the info.
In a Hub & Spoke mode, each satellite talks to the base independently via te Backhaul channel. This gives higher overall throughput but can limit the range. Remember, the 2.4gHz band will give better range through obstructions while the 5 gHz band is faster its signals drop off rapidly with distance and obstructions. BTW, the backhaul channel is in the 5 gHz band. That's why experimenting with placement of the base and satellitesis very important to get good coverage/signal strength.
Good to know. Something I guess mine doesn't support since I don't see those options. Maybe a future thing.
I'm running firmware ver 2.1.2.18. I beleive the topology button was added in ver 2.1.x.x. Of course if only have one sat it doesn't matter!
AH ok. Ya, I only have one satellite as well.
Good info though. Will keep that in mind.
