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Forum Discussion
Partial upgrade from RBR50 to Orbi Wifi 6
Hi, I am thinking to upgrade my RBR50 (wifi 5) partially to wifi 6. Currently my setup is, I have RBR50 and 2 satelites connected with LAN. If I get RBR850, 1. Will my current satellites (...
I have few apple devices that support Wifi 6
Do you think the mesh network would work between RBK 850 and RBS50 assuming it's all in the same SSID?
What I like the most about mesh is it always select the strongest satellite, and drop the weakest one without having to do it manually
I don't have an 8 series to connect and see how it functions.
I've just read a few posts on there that you can hardwire wire a satellite in and it works but doesn't integrate.
IF you connect it with the rbk850 setup and then connect the rbk50 series in access point mode, then I wouldn't use the same ssid as devices wouldn't roam properly
I also remember reading posts about connecting 50 series satellites to the AX routers with Ethernet and have a distinct impression that (a) it worked with the original AX firmware, but (b) later versions of the AX firmware no longer support that type of connection.
Thus, the only way to connect the original satellites to a new AX router is by connecting the old RBR50 router to the new AX RBR850 router with an Ethernet cable and then putting the RBR50 in Access Point (AP) mode. This has a number of issues:
- Unless the house has in-wall Ethernet cable, it will be impractical to move the RBR50 very far from the RBR850. For the satellites to function at all, the RBR50 WiFi must be active, so there will be two WiFi routers in the same room and on the same 5G channel. (The 2.4G channels could be different, but not the 5G)
- No matter what SSID's are used for the two Orbi systems, they remain separate systems. Devices will not change from one system to the other until the WiFi signal they are using drops to the point that they say, "I need to give up on this weak WiFi and look for a better one." That is entirely different from the device saying, "Hey, my access point is not as strong as this other access point, I'll use the 802.11 protocol for switching access points."
- You may be comfortable with this complicated WiFi setup, but other users are more likely to be annoyed, especially if they notice no difference in how their iPhones work.
Prices will come down. I'd wait.
