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Forum Discussion
Orbi RBR50v2 multiple satellites issue
Hi friends! I first bought an RBR50v2 pack including a router and a satellite. It worked well. Then, I was told by the reseller, in order to extend my network with more satellites I should by an exact same package with a router and a satellite.
This has proved not be working correctly. The satellite in my second package has lined up and connected well in with my network in place. But the one named "router" is not cooperating. It wants to be a router and not a satellite.
Did the sales person not know what he was talking about? Or do I do something wrong?
Hope for help!
Nanoq
4 Replies
- Hi Nanoq
I don’t think the new additional router unit can become a satellite with your original router. You can use the new satellites ok but you may have to keep the second router as a cold spare, which useful and means it’s not wasted (I would install a backup of the original onto it and keep it up to date). You may be able to use it as a bridge or extender over the Ethernet but that would be an unusual configuration but you probably cannot sync a second router as a satellite to another router.
I faced a similar situation wishing to deploy an additional satellite but not wanting to buy a whole new router kit. So I went for the outdoor satellite unit instead which I can use indoor or outdoor as my wifi coverage needs change. I bought my outdoor from Amazon but beware which region it is as this will determine what power adaptor/mains plug it is supplied with as well any regional wifi settings set by the factory to meet regulatory requirements across different countries (usually related to airport and weather radar).
Nanoq wrote:
Did the sales person not know what he was talking about? Or do I do something wrong?
Correct, he was completely and totally wrong.
Other brands of mesh systems are all identical devices and can be configured as a router or satellite. Not Netgear's Orbi. There is a hack that is supposed to able to convert a router into a satellite. I have never tried it myself. Voids the warranty for sure.
As things stand you have a spare router in case the original router fails after the one year warranty expires. (I bought another RBR50 on eBay for just this purpose). You could sell the router Or, you could try the hack.
If coverage is adequate without this unit, there would seem to be no urgency in making a decision.
Thank you CrimpOn and Jeffgear!
You made it all clear to me now! It is annoying with salespersons that present thier personal guessings as if they were facts. We call it "kill-gissning" in Swedish, meaning something like bloke-guess or guy-guess. After all there are more often male individuals rather than females that will present this kind of behaviour. Could have been me :D
I will skip the hack and keep the extra router for future breakdowns. Good advice!Is this an outdoor router that will work with my system perhaps?
https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/mesh/rbs50y/I might just actually hang up it in the barn (close to the house) and see if I can extend the network a bit further out in the garden.
- I’ll add kill-gissning to my “nice words to know” list :-)
Yes that outdoor satellite is exactly the one I have as my 3rd satellite to my AC3000 kit. I have it indoors at the moment but it will go outside when I add more outside smart gadgets. I had to replace the power adaptor for one suited for here and I have an outstanding query about the factory set wifi region being North American rather than Au/NZ but the differences are inconsequential here and relate to a couple of channel differences in country standards. The outdoor unit is well built and I like the fact it works as an outside light albeit just a subtle one. This makes it a nice feature. You might be able to modify the power plug to suit your country but check the wifi region is suitable. Worse case is it’s non compliant with respect to a couple of channels but this may not be an issue in practice depending on how remote you are.
