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Forum Discussion
Going beyond 4 Satelites with ethernet backhall
I called customer services, they said the Netgear Orbi is only guaranteed to work with a maximum of 4 satelites. They said although the router allows you to add more, if you go beyond 4 you will exper...
P.S. You say "With any of these mesh system we are all beta testers. Our feedback, testing and suggestions are how they improve/change firmwares."
So here is my feedback: The ability to have lots of access points is very important. The three units covers xm2 stuff is nonsense, in residential installs wall thickness is a huge problem. Eg on Amazon I see many users are installing 6 duos because of wall thickness problems. Eg on Amazon I see many complaing they can't cover thier property with the 3 unit limit on BT Whole Home Wifi.
I also think the focus on speed is less important than the focus on coverage. That means a powerful 2.4Gz only unit might better suit home applications. Not many home users transfer files around thier network, they are never going to notice anything faster than thier 20Mb internet connection.
For me the best Orbi features are the outdoor satellite and the four ports on every device. This means I can get a faster connection on my desktop where I have ethernet backhaul.
I wired the parts of the house I am renovating for the Orbi. Instead of a switch I have two ports in each room to daisy chain the ethernet from device to device. Alas when I swich to the two port duo this will leave me with nothing to plug a computer/tv into!
So here is my feedback: The ability to have lots of access points is very important. The three units covers xm2 stuff is nonsense, in residential installs wall thickness is a huge problem. Eg on Amazon I see many users are installing 6 duos because of wall thickness problems. Eg on Amazon I see many complaing they can't cover thier property with the 3 unit limit on BT Whole Home Wifi.
I also think the focus on speed is less important than the focus on coverage. That means a powerful 2.4Gz only unit might better suit home applications. Not many home users transfer files around thier network, they are never going to notice anything faster than thier 20Mb internet connection.
For me the best Orbi features are the outdoor satellite and the four ports on every device. This means I can get a faster connection on my desktop where I have ethernet backhaul.
I wired the parts of the house I am renovating for the Orbi. Instead of a switch I have two ports in each room to daisy chain the ethernet from device to device. Alas when I swich to the two port duo this will leave me with nothing to plug a computer/tv into!
are you meaning tp link deco? if so be aware that system has very little in the way of configurations you can change and no web innerface. smartphone app only. and having to add switches to every access point would suck too. if you need a switch on the access point orbi seems to be the only real solution. Asus just release something called aimesh. https://www.asus.com/us/aimesh/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtDRs434LYQ&t=3s
linus tech tips did a install using it. Looks promising.
Well, from the protocol, there really shouldn't be a limitation on how many satellites you can reasonably connect. However, the bandwidth issue will kick in evenatually, since the units are also constantly chattering among each other. It may also be, that the Orbi App on iOS/Android will not cope with more than 4 Satellites, but that would be a lmitation of that app. I also seem to remember, that the guy with the 5 satellites performed a very weird way of setting those up - afair, he added each satellite while the other ones weren't active/powered off - probably due to limitations of the Orbi Web app.
The issue seemed to be that once all satellites have gotton their secret to connect to the main Orbi, it just worked. I'd also say, take a look at that thread again and decide of you want to try it out.
Cheers,
budy