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marcoa's avatar
marcoa
Follower
Feb 17, 2019

ORBI Quesitons on Backhaul and Satellites

HI There. I have (2) questions. 

 

1)  How many satellites can I connect to a RBR50 Router? Currently I have (3) satellites connected, and I am thinking of connecting (1) more satellite. 

 

2)  In my garage, on the wireless backhaul connection, I get an orange light, or fair/poor backhaul status. I have the option of putting a TPLINK Powerline in order to make it a wired connection with "GOOD" status. Should I leave it as wireless or should I attach the Powerline? 

 

 

Thanks. 

 

 

Troubleshooting

2 Replies

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  • ekhalil's avatar
    ekhalil
    Master
    Feb 17, 2019

    1. Netgear recommends up to 4 units but many others have had success with more than that on the network. One thing to keep in mind is that the wireless backhaul is a shared bandwidth among all the satellites. The more satellites you add, the less bandwidth is available for each satellite to connect to the router. This is -obviously- mitigated by using Ethernet Backhaul.  

    2. If despite having a poor backhaul to the satellite you can see that devices covered by that satellite are getting good internet then I don't see why you will need to add extra equipment. If otherwise then one option would be to change to a wired backhaul using powerline.
    • CrimpOn's avatar
      CrimpOn
      Guru
      Feb 17, 2019

      Also, PowerLine is sensitive to wiring.  In the small print, PowerLine is described as having wonderful performance when connecting devices on the same circuit.  In a modern house, computer devices are almost certain to be connected to a number of different circuits, so PowerLine signals have to cross circuit breakers and even phases.  It is also sensitive to distance.  In my own case, I installed the AV2000 (PA-9020) series of PowerLine from TP-Link.  Between my office and bedroom (on the exact same circuit), I get over a gigabit.  However, to my garage which is on a different circuit and thus means going across the house to the electric panel and then back across the house to the garage, I get just over 100MB.  Still good enough for my needs, but a lot lower than I expected.

       

      @ekhalil is right.  "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."