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Orbi placement concerns
Having one router / WAP near the edge and the other WAP (satelite) near the middle of the home is a poor layout for optimized coverage. Reminds me too much of single WAP systems this Orbi mesh system...
Every home is different but this is our general guide for common house layouts: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/31029/~/where-should-i-place-my-orbi-satellite%3F
The optimal placement does very depending on the layout of the home.
You can experiment a bit to see what works best for you, but there's a good chance you'll find the first place you put the Satellite works great.
Most internet connections have wiring that terminates at the edge of the home. Yes some of the coverage of the router would fall outside the home. Unless you are able to place the router in a more central location (due to internal wiring) there's not much that can be done about that.
Our focus has been on performance with a dedicated wireless band. As we've gone for performance rather than trying to minimise the size of the unit at the expense of performance, we also put a lot of effort into designing Orbi to be aesthetically pleasing. Whilst the router might be tucked away somewhere the satellite could be e.g. in the living room where it could be in the field of vision a lot.
Every home is different but this is our general guide for common house layouts: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/31029/~/where-should-i-place-my-orbi-satellite%3F
The optimal placement does very depending on the layout of the home.
You can experiment a bit to see what works best for you, but there's a good chance you'll find the first place you put the Satellite works great.
Most internet connections have wiring that terminates at the edge of the home. Yes some of the coverage of the router would fall outside the home. Unless you are able to place the router in a more central location (due to internal wiring) there's not much that can be done about that.
Our focus has been on performance with a dedicated wireless band. As we've gone for performance rather than trying to minimise the size of the unit at the expense of performance, we also put a lot of effort into designing Orbi to be aesthetically pleasing. Whilst the router might be tucked away somewhere the satellite could be e.g. in the living room where it could be in the field of vision a lot.
Can the Orbi satellites connect with each other and would that reduce performance? In other words, if you placed the Orbi router at the edge of the house where the internet service comes in, and you placed an Orbi satellite in the middle of the house, could you also place another Orbi satellite at the other end of the house (opposite end vs the Orbi router) and still get fast, reliable coverage from the second Orbi satellite?
my guess is yes you would "get fast, reliable coverage" up to the limit of Satellites (4?)
communication between the router and a satellite or a satellite and another satellite is the same takes place on that third frequency. The only difference would be the number of hops through satellite(s) to get to the router if you were communicating with the internet. I imagine most users would not notice that difference at all. If you were communicating in your local area network (i.e. from your laptop to your smart TV inside your home) there would be no change.
edited for clarity
Agreed, the size of the system does not hinder me unline thouse routers that have antenas that look like a spaceship that landed around my tv area. I like the hues of blinking lights which indicate the health of my system from disconnected (red) to white for connected.
Just received the Orbi kit through Amazon and had a question on placement. I have looked through the post and viewed the location pictures. Due to where my cable modem I need to kind of reverse the setup. I am looking to put the router on the seond floor edge and have the satellite on 1st floor middle. I have a mixed system of DISH satellite with a cable modem. The playroom on the second floor has the kids gaming systems, main router and modem. I try to keep the gaming systems hard wired into the router which over time created less problems. Just checking before I crack open the Orbi box if I could run into a problems with the router on second floor and satellite centrally located on 1st floor.
I think you shoud be fine, The picture is just an exsample of one setup. Everyons situation will be diffrent, One forum member reported he put the sattelight in the basement and the router on the first floor and has great coverage. See link below-
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-WiFi-System/m-p/1147753#M494
I am thinking about purchasing an Orbi and am confused about the home placement. All of the examples I have seen are for a ranch style or colonial style home. I have a split level, so there is really no such thing as a "central" location in the house - the central location is stairs everywhere. How well does the Orbi work in a split level home and what is the optimal placement? Thanks.
With a split level I'd say it would really not be any different than a first floor with a basement or a ground floor with a second story. I would just place base unit and the extended unit accordingly -- based on where your internet connection comes into the house and the extension unit on whichever floor doesn't have the initial connection. If you go to Netgear's installation suggestions, you can see how the signal covers an area of the home.
I have my initial connected router in the basement with my additional unit on the main floor of my new home and it's working great. The basement unit is probably to the very far left side of the home and the main floor unit is located in about the middle of the home and coverage is great so far.
Hope this helps!
Brian
Thanks. I'm not sure that really addresses the issue though. Although my house is pretty average - I think it's about 1700 sq ft - I have four floors. If you were looking at the house from the outside, the underground basement is on the right side of the house, then the left side of the house is the family room (my office) which is half a step up - it is on slab, but has concrete walls for about the first 4 feet on the outside, about 5 feet on the inside. Then back on the left half a level up from the office is the main living level and then back on the right half a step up are the bedrooms.
In addition to the fact that there's no middle level, the Internet comes in at the family room / office level. Ideally, I was figuring an additional unit should go somewhere on the next level up to capture the left side of the house, but there's no midpoint - I'd have to put it in the entry hall (which has no outlets) or the stairs (which has no outlets and is less than ideal).
Would it work if my satellite unit is on the family room level (bottom level on the right - though technically the second level up) and then put the other unit in my kitchen or living room, both of which are pretty far over on the left side of the house?
I just don't want to spend about $400 - $500 for these units only to find out they are not ideal for my home configuration.
Thanks.