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Orbi USB 2.0 port
The whole sales spew for Orbi is about throughput, throughput & even more throughput. Then they put a single USB 2.0 port on the thing? Here's some perspective: http://bestwirelessroutersnow.com/w...
I hadn't considered that. It crossed my mind that it would be cool if I could use one of the 1gb Ethernet ports for a storage connection, but I haven't spent any time at all looking into this (obviously.) I'll look into what's available and put a temporary moratorium on my carping about the USB 2.0.
My other concern was regarding the RF radiation from these puppies and from what I've been able to determine, these things will be putting out about 36dbm (about 1 1/2 Watts) and that a person five feet from the the unit will be irradiated with a -30dbm signal, which is 60dbm down. I'm not an engineer but -60dbm is a million times less (at least it is on the farm where I was raised.) From the experts at Drudgereport.com and other authorities, 5Ghz is non-ionizing radiation which is far safer than ionizing radiation. The point being, maybe I'll put aside my concerns about USB 2.0 and RF radiation and not cancel the order. At least these are things to think about during the next two weeks.
It may make sense if you already have the Nighthawk. Not as much sense if you don't as an option.
Most USB disks would probably have NTFS on it. Getting good performance with this filesystem tends to require a fair bit of resources.
With Orbi the focus has been on getting the whole home Wi-Fi done right and a core advanced feature set. We're looking into features to add, but the USB2 port sends a clear message that USB storage is not on this list.
I suppose I could hang a ReadyNAS 626x (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/netgear-sets-network-storage-performance-123100021.html) off one of the Orbi's 1gb Ethernet ports and stream my vast Bullwinkle collection simulatneously to every device in the house. The ReadyNAS 626x has a 10gb port but the Orbi's total wireless throughput probably isn't anywhere near that, so what the hay, the 1gb port will be just fine.