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Feature Request: Orbi Satellite Ethernet Backhaul
As good as Orbi looks on paper I don't understand Y you would cut yourself so short and not support Eithernet backhaul for the satellites, I have 5 locations needing a system like this but without support for Eithernet backhaul I will have no choice but to use either Eero or Luma. Is adding Eithernet backhaul even possible with the curent hardware only having to add it threw firmware or would a new hardware design be needed? There are many of us asking for this, Please update me on this and please push this reqwest to the top.
Everyone please vote this much needed feature up.
Let me acknowledge that our customer base has been clamoring for this feature for a while, and we are trying to be responsive to their needs. To provide context on why it's taking a while to get it out, during the first quarter, the Orbi Engineering team was focused on bringing out the two new products (RBK30 & RBK40) to market. Now that it's accomplished, we're actively working on bringing this feature and a couple of other interesting, market-requested features to you.
Orbi Product Team
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- For some people the Orbi works perfectly in their environment as is so adding this feature of Ethernet backhaul does not appear necessary for their use cases. The plus side that some appear to miss is just because a feature is introduced (such as Ethernet backhaul) doesn't mean that you have to use it. It would be great to get Ethernet backhaul and the user gets the option to connect or use wireless or a combination of both. Then everybody wins.
Not everybody necessarily wins. Features don't come for free. Netgear has to expend resources and effort to develop them. But what are the costs and who bears them? Perhaps the costs are low and Netgear eats them on the hopes that they will be offset by increased sales. Or the costs are high and Netgear passes some or all of the them onto customers. How much would they be willing to pay for this feature? How many people would use this feature? How many sales are lost to competitor's products due to lack of this feature?
I'm sure Netgear is thinking very hard about this.
I would very much like the wired backhaul feature it gives me great versatility a highly desired feature and I am not the only one wanting to see this feature offered in a future Firmware at some point.
I agree with petey, not sure why you would even buy an orbi in the first place if you were going to use ethernet back haul..Makes no sense, you would end up with better wifi just using AP's from ubiquiti or other other similar APs. Orbi is a great product, but its strength is really for cases where you CANT run cat drops for ethernet backhaul. So yeah, Once you get the feature you will realize oh silly me I should have just bought real APs, and saved money since now I have paid $400 for essentialy a router and two APs that I cant mount anywhere. When I could have bought a router and two AP's for $350 that I can mount anywhere, and had more features.
That said since the orbis released I have been using them in an apartment, and they have been a phenomenal product for me. We just bought a new home, and move in april, it is already wired with cat6 so the Orbis are getting replaced with Unifi APs when we move in.They served there purpose, and I have no complaints.
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We need continued support on this please vote:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/Netgear-Orbi-Wired-Sattelite/idi-p/1145210
I suspect that they are focusing first on critical issues affecting many, many people (e.g., iOS disconnects) before adding lower-priority features requested by a small set of people (even if they repost every week).
- Ended up returning the orbi due to no WIRED backhaul. I hope they add it in for you guys down the road.
I would have kept it if it had this feature.
Building out a Ubiquity Unify network instead.- How is your experience with Ubiquity thus far compared to Orb? Similar issues new issues?
I setup a Unifi network.
So i have the Unifi Security Gateway, only 1 UAP-AC-Pro access point and the clould key to control it all.
Pros
- Way better visibility and controll of the network
- Cheaper overall for my setup than orbi
- Wired passthrough on the access points
- Ability to upgrade and add more devices for low cost
- Rock solid
- Lots of firmware upgrades
-PoE devices!!!
Cons
- Difficult to setup (until i got the cloud key)
- Speed is not as high as orbi at the moment, need to tweak it.
- coverage is not a large, but i only have 1 access point. Adding more solves this and the speed issue
Unifi is an enterprise solution, the orbi is and end user solution. Both work well.
I'll be returning my gear as well.
Forgot to check the existance of the ethernet backhaul (as I imagined it was available).
Cannot wait for the firmware update... If it ever sees the light of day...
selsrog wrote:I'll be returning my gear as well.
Forgot to check the existance of the ethernet backhaul (as I imagined it was available).
Cannot wait for the firmware update... If it ever sees the light of day...
I returned mine yesterday. It is too bad because they were performing quite well but did not fit my use case. After thinking about it, Not to second guess the netgear engineers and marketing guys but being in the tech field doing both jobs myself, I would have adopted a slightly different product strategy:
1. I would have made the routers and satellites interchangeable given the fact that they are physically identical in terms of hardware. It would have saved cost by releasing a unique unit and lowered the inventory management.
2. I would have designed it with the flexibility of the ethernet backhaul, used a 3x3 broadcast radio with the 4x4 backhaul
3. limited the backhaul to 2 satellites to maintain performance of the wireless satellites.
I spent some time testing different 2x2, 3x3, and 4x4 APs with a single clients on the 5GHz AC band for those who think the unifi AC lineup is anywhere close to an upgrade, think again. they are practicaly the slowest AP you can buy with the exception of the just off the mill AC-HD which is finally using a decent/enterprise chipset. The others use a chipset only found in a couple of very poor budget N or "AC was an afterthought" routers. The AC-Pro achieved 25-50% lower speed vs the Apple AP at most locations in spite of using 50% (6 Vs 4) more units in my topology.
- I wouldn't call unifi enterprise, more like prosumer. Too many features are not implemented and support is no where near enterprise solutions. Nice stuff though I am not knocking it, just saying it's really not enterprise. I use a USG-PRO-4 and unifi switches btw, and will be grabbing a couple UAP-HDs in April. Still though for wireless backhaul the Orbi is beast. I get 400Mbps download on a iPhone off the satellite!
I would be interested in the Orbi but not without the ethernet backhaul.
My use case justifies using both: Most of my house is already wired. It is currently networked using individual APs each broadcasting the same SSID but on different channels not to interfere with one another (aka "roaming network")
My use case is this: For those locations with ethernet, I want to use ethernet as a backhaul just to minimise latency and maximize the wireless backhaul bandwidth for the satellites which will be using it. My purpose is to maximise speed not just for internet access but for streaming within my home network.
Say you have one unit with 3 satelites, Having all 3 on the backhaul will strangle the bandwidth of the one unit connected through wire if all 3 are streaming. If one unit is wired, that bandwidth is freed and that unit can send data straight to my NAS for example without the data going through the wired unit leaving wireless and wired bandwidth for the other 2 satelites connected wirelessly. These units will be used as bridge and repeaters.
I could use multiple APs to also create bridged networks and repeaters but the advantage of having it all under the orbi system would be band steering.
So in conclusion, the lack of this feature is the single reason why I am not buying it...
If you already have most of your house wired, and you use individual APs with one SSID and separate channels, then you already have an optimal setup, and have no need for Orbi. If your issue is that you want to manage everything under one interface, then buy a couple Ubiquiti APs and a Cloud Key to run the Unifi controller. With wires already in place, this will be a better setup than Orbi, even if Orbi added wired backhaul. I have both Orbi and Ubiquiti systems at two separate sites, so I am thoroughly familiar with both platforms.
- Well than buy a $50 router. Use the orbis in AP mode. Add some wired APs from someone else. There ya go. Done
Dan_H wrote:
Well than buy a $50 router. Use the orbis in AP mode. Add some wired APs from someone else. There ya go. DoneYes, This is partially what I am considering doing. I have no intention to use the Orbi as a router. I called it a router in my scheme only to use the orbi terminology for the the wired AP. One could use a couple of these "routers" as wired AP units and broadcast the same SSID with the satellites being only wireless. The inconvenience is management interface and roaming management. Would 2 orbi "routers" talk to one another through wires?
My current setup as below has the inconvenience of not handling the sticky clients besides the smarter devices switching themselves (basically only the apple devices) and poor coverage in a couple of areas of the house because I am not using any of the wireless clients as repeaters due to the fact that new clients would see stronger signals from the repeaters but would have very poor speed not only for them but also for the source AP.
- I completely understand what you want and think the Orbi should do. I am going to leave you to that now. Words fail me at this point. Good luck.
Linksys' Mesh Velop system utilizes both a dedicated wireless backhaul like the Orbi and offers ethernet backhaul - giving the best of both worlds.
However, the Velop's lack of extra ethernet ports, like the Orbi, gives me pause. As the competition for mesh system heats up in 2017, Netgear would really be foolish to leave this feature out forever.
I'll just sit and wait and continue resenting my pair of R6400 in clunky AP mode.
iHeijoushin Please request it here in idea exchange there is petition on going for it more voices more attention it gets, I believe it is on the cards but no ETA
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-For-Home/Netgear-Orbi-Wired-Sattelite/idi-p/1145210
The more people thumbs up and state their use case more likely it will be added sooner rather than later, right not Engineering has bigger fish to fry with stability and disconnect issues.
If we want this feature we need everyone to vote for it in the above post. Thats how that feature request will get implemented. Yes its a star network, which is debatably faster due to less hops. So please lets all go vote for it here and get the firmware with this in it!
I just purchased the Orbi system from Costco with Router and 2 satellites. Unlike eero and other comptetors there is no ethernet (wired) connection on the Orbi satellites. Big disappointment. My house is large and is wired for 4 ethernet ports. Several rumors on the various blogs state that the ORBI satellites will get a firmware update that will enable one of the 4 ethernet ports on the satellites to function as a backhaul connection to the router. Is this true? Its a shame to use a wireless connection when I have a wired ports available throughout my house. Also, in addtion to using a network switch at the ORBI ROUTER i will need to use a network switch AND an Orbi satellite at each wired ports in my house, rather than just an ORBI satellite with one ethernet backhaul. This will result in daisychaining switchs and I have heard that daisychaining switches is not good. Costco allows 90 days for returns. If the firmware update does not happen within 90 days I will return the Orbi and purchase a few Apple Airports.
interestingly you have read there might be an update and you where aware that it didnt have ethernet backhaul yet you purchased the orbi and are now disapointed !!! , wether it will ever get or at some stage get ethernet backhaul is anyones guess as its been talked about forever and nothing from netgear as far as an official response goes , not even a suggestion at this stage
if you have structured ethernet runs in the house why would you want any mesh or distributed wireless system anyway , all you need is a few well placed wireless access points or wireless routers with AP mode
its been almost a year since the orbi was in beta and then released and all that time ppl have asked for backhaul ethernet and nothing has come of it and tbh i dont think it will in the next 90 days although wonders never cease to amaze me , perhaps ethernet backhaul on the orbi will be one of them that do
peteytesting wrote:wether it will ever get or at some stage get ethernet backhaul is anyones guess as its been talked about forever and nothing from netgear as far as an official response goes , not even a suggestion at this stage
Netgear acknowledged this request and said they are considering it, but didn't confirm that it will happen for sure. The post I read from a Netgear product manager is on this forum here somewhere, in one of the ehternet backhaul threads.
- AmitR wonderful! I will hang on to my Orbi's and eagerly await the release!!
truepudding wrote:
AmitR wonderful! I will hang on to my Orbi's and eagerly await the release!!we have heard the sa me from the dev team before , i wouldnt count these chickens till the come home to roost , after all they comment was they where working on it and there is a big difference between that and achieved it
i would also wonder if those expecting 2 x 5 gig bands to be available once ethernet backhaul becomes available will be disapointed still if its still just 1 x 2.4 and 1 x 5 gig as i cant see it changing to a real tri band router as well
peteytesting, I hope that whoever stepped on your bed of roses apologizes soon. Perhaps then, you can be less doom-and-gloom, and smile a bit.
To stay on track... Looking forward to seeing if this feature actually comes to fruition; it would be awesome.
If Orbi had ethernet backhaul I would return the eero 3-node system that I just purchased and installed yesterday and get an Orbi... Hope it comes soon.
