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Forum Discussion
How to select best orbi devices position
Hi need some feedback on how to best place all three orbis for better performance. My orbi is the RBK43
I am using them in my summer place in Mexico so the first thing is that house construction is way different they are solid concrete, so that may be problem one.
The other thing is I am in a 3 level home, my first idea and that is why decided to buy this on the first place is to put one on every level.
A this time my ISP is 200 Mbps speed vía coaxial cable non optical so is kid of a down for me, the main orbi router was placed way on top the 3rd level then the satellites below them on second and on first level, the current speed I get on an iPad for example is almost 100 in most of the second floor and kind of 80 sometimes more in the first floor.
The thing is that the system besides the place where the orbi router and the speed test at that point is 195 or so Mbps, Can someone give me some support if May be I am doing something wrong on placing the satellites?
From my understanding they can give me when connected same speed as the main router or maybe I am wrong.
Thanks in advance.
4 Replies
The signal coming out of WiFi looks like a fat donut. So first of all you don't want to have the Orbi's directly above or below each other. You also don't want them too close to each other as that will cause too much signal overlap. Too far away is also bad as the backhaul will be weak.
If you can move the router to the second level you'll have a more direct line to it for the satellites.
What I would suggest is to turn off both satellites and just have the router on. Then use a WiFi signal app on your iPad (or other mobile device) and find a spot on the next level that is as far away from the router as possible and still has good 5Ghz signal. Place the 1st satellite here.
Then with the router and 1st satellite on look for a spot on the remaining level that is as far away from the satellite on the floor above but with good 5Ghz signal. This is where you place the 2nd satellite.
Make sure you have daisy chaining turned on if you are placing the router on the 3rd level and the satellite on 1 and 2 as the satellite on level 1 is likely to need to chain through the one on level 2.
Thanks for your suggestions, at this point since I was away when the ISP installed their crappy modem there is no way I can put it in another floor than the third one. So I sure can do the other things you mentioned, as for the positions of the 2 satellites, imagine the front of the house like a rectangle kind of figure, the router is on the third floor far right wall if seen in a front way, then the number one satellite I can put it near the far left wall of the second floor and the second satellite can be placed in the far right wall of the first floor.
I do not know if this can do better, thanks again for your kind support
Zig zagging them like that should work but house and wall construction can affect things. You'll have to play around with the exact placement.
I've moved mine around a few times. One of the positions I had tried seemed optimal until I realized the refrigerator was between it and one of my streaming boxes and causing poor performance even though the signal strength was fine. I'm using a RBK-50 with the router on the 1st level and the satellite on the 3rd. It did not work as well with the satellite on the 2nd level as it was too close to the router.