Feature Request: Orbi Satellite Ethernet Backhaul

To clarify a few issues I've had/solved between AP's and mesh:

Access Points

To test my theory, I played a game on my iPhone (clash royale). I walked from one end of the house to the other on AP's. During the game, it lost connection for about 7-10 seconds switching access points, and then it reconnected and worked fine. Also, sometimes my laptop would get 'stuck' on an access point in another part of the house and not want to switch to the closer one.

Mesh

I did the same test playing the same game and walked from one end of the house to the other (at the time, using the Orbi). The game switched units (I verified in the web console) without _ever_ losing connection in the game. Also, I do not have the problem of it getting 'stuck' on units further away. 

This is very edge case and probably something nobody really cares about - but for those that do - here you go.

And to clarify, I no longer use Orbi. It's sitting on my table about to go on eBay because of no wireless backhaul. I purchased the google mesh system ($270 for 3 units) and it works flawlessly. Easy to setup on my phone and I even fixed my plex server by setting up port forwarding with just a few clicks. I had to reserve an IP address for the host and everything and it took < 2 minutes.

Orbi has all kinds of great features and it would be great if it had a wireless backhaul. But not supporting a feature that I'd say *EVERY* other competitor provides, even OLDER units provide this functionality, is a bit of a trick on their customers to get the product to market faster. 

I waited plenty of time for a fix, but couldn't handle the terribly slow network any longer. I just hope they fix it for the person that buys my set of 3 on ebay and then shows up in this forum to read my post.

I meant to say no WIRED backhaul, but I couldn't figure out how to edit my post, sorry about that. :/

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myrison wrote:

Clarifying more... I run 3 WAPs in my house all with the same ID for a 2.4Ghz band, and a second SSID for the 5GHz band.  I'll give it a whirl with one SSID across all of them.

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I have two dual-band Unifi APs and use one SSID for 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios.  Four radios and one SSID. You can add as many APs as desired.  Devices roam seamlessly, prefer 5GHz, and will transition to 2.4GHz outside the house, where 5GHz becomes too weak.  Works beautifully.

It should work on ASUS also, but I can't be sure.

Use the same SSID for all radios, 2.4/5GHz.  Use the same security settings and password for every radio.  Use a different channel for each AP, or at least make sure neighboring APs are on different channels.  Set channels manually--don't use auto.  Use 20 Mhz bandwidth and only channels 1, 6, or 11 for the 2.4 GHz band.

>   Devices roam seamlessly, prefer 5GHz, and will transition to 2.4GHz outside the house

That's a nice feature about switching to 2.4 ghz for long distance. You will have a little bit of packet loss between switching access points, though, by definition of how that system works. It has to disconnect you from one and re-connect you to another. If it didn't have any packet loss at all, there would be no point in a mesh network in the first place. However, this does not matter for 99% of people unless you pace back and fourth and play competitive games on your phone. :) 

If anyone experiences issue with channels and doesn't want to deal with manually setting them (I 100% agree with this), check out the Portal (you can find it on amazon). They have a patented system that auto-selects the best channel for you (and it works beautifully). 

I have spent far too much time researching this topic. Sorry to bombard the rest of the Orbi users, I hope this information is helpful to someone.

You might lose a few packets, but I've tested roaming between APs while on a Facetime WiFi call and had no significant issue.  Maybe a brief blip in the call, but nothing disruptive.

Agree, definitely shouldn't be what makes or breaks the deal. :)   What breaks the deal is no ethernet backhaul. :P

lack of research and or reading before  buying a device leads to these sorts of threads , expectations lead to disapointment if due dilligance isnt followed and in this case the orbi never has suggested in any way , shape or form that it has ethernet backhaul 

if it not having ethernet backhaul is a deal breaker for you then so be it but the orbi claim to fame is whole home wifi via 5 gig backhaul 

Do you feel better now after lecturing the Internet?  Kind of a harsh approach for a superuser/moderator, isn't it?  "Go away all you pesky commenters!"

How about if we actually did research, and we did know it didn't have backhaul, but counted on the fact that the device says it covers up to 5000 sq ft, so we decided to give it a try?  That's what I did, and unfortunately it doesn't quite get there for my house.

I realize every house is different, so there was only one way to find out.  But since this is a product/feature request thread, I decided to let Netgear know that if it had this feature, it'd work better for me.  In the meantime it works great for lots of other folks, and I'm happy for them.

no its just plain fact and keeping it in perspective 

if the orbi doesnt cover your house with wifi then by all means you have a case to complain or return as you are not wanting anything but what is advertised , although you must have some very difficult local experimental conditions with regard to wifi propagation if that is the case , however complaining because the device doesnt have an "expected" feature and making it a deal breaker is not the fault of the device or its design 

yes it would be nice if it had it and yes its been asked for quite a lot as you have seen in this thread , will it ever have it ? who knows , it has been suggested it may be im the long term plan but i certainly wouldnt be waiting for it to eventuate 

I had a garden variety wifi setup that looked exactly like the picture on the box. It didn't work as advertised.

I've purchased Netgear products for over a decade (almost exclusively for networking), and I was surprised that this feature did not exist. I don't think it's fair to define what the "perspective" should be in a thread titled "Orbi Satellite Ethernet Backhaul". The customers returning the products and not saying a word about it seems like it would be worse for Netgear in the long run than people voicing their concerns and trying to hang on to the product in a box in the closet, waiting to see if they will fix it. 

I tried to help by contributing on this forum. I don't understand the moderation of this thread - I was attacked with "don't hold your breathe" about Netgear when I was positive and excited about them saying it might be coming, then I was attacked when I gave up on waiting - by the same person. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. 

Good luck to the rest of you out there! If you want a wireless/AP setup, scroll a few messages back and read about @st_shaw's setup - that's about as good as it gets. If you want a mesh system, checkout portal, google wifi, velop, Ubiquiti, eero. These are the competition, and 100% of them have ethernet backhaul.

The lack of respect from the moderators in this thread tells me all I need to know as a prospective customer.