NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Ascrept49
Jun 04, 2020Aspirant
RBK43S versus RBS50Y
My ORBI router model number doesn't even show. Question is: since the ORBI RBK43S slightly helped inside and a bit outside of the house, will the RBS50Y help extend my signal to my out buildings and...
Ascrept49
Jun 22, 2020Aspirant
Incidentally, I did make a drawing, scanned it onto my email, but there's no place to drag or post it on this forum. The satellites are 30' and 20' feet respectively from the main ORBI hub router. The outbuildings are 150' and 225' respectively. I have one wireless camera on the building that is about 150'. The WiFi signal is at 2 out of 3 bars in strength. The ORBI satellite is now physically closer, in fact direct view through a window, yet the strength has not improved. It's remarkable that there hasn't been any improvement whatsoever. Perhaps you'll agree that for the $300 spent, was not in my interest. Question still remains as to whether or not the RBS50Y will improve the signal and no one has even attempted to answer that. As I've stated before, the return policy at BestBuy is terrible, so I'll probably purchase the RBS50Y at Costco, try it and then return it if it fails to deliver any better signal or keep it. Either way, I'll become the knowledgeable one on this forum and of Netgear support that was rather simple.
CrimpOn
Jun 22, 2020Guru - Experienced User
When creating a post, there is a button labelled "Browse..." in the lower left. That can be used to select a jpeg file to attach to the post.
In my mind, the relevant information was "150ft distant from the house". Regular WiFi access points, whether indoor or outdoor, do not perform well at long distances. If this situation was exlained to the sales person at Best Buy in terms of "will replacing my R7000 with an Orbi improve service to a building 150ft away?", then this does not reflect well on Best Buy.
The only solutions to distance that appear to work are (a) lay an ethernet cable (up to 300ft) or (b) use a "point to point" bridge. There will be some improvement with an RBS50Y simply because it is outdoors and does not have to penetrate the building wall, but I predict it will be a disappointment.
- Ascrept49Jun 23, 2020Aspirant
That's been some of the best advice I've had. Thanks. As to whether the RBS50Y will work, I suspect it will to my outbuildings, and if it does, that will mean I can advance having more wireless security camera angles. I'll wait for a good sale. Still, the one thing advised was to add an ethernet line, and I'd say from what, since all of the 3 ethernet ports are taken, one less than the Nighthawk. Why would Netgear do that?
- CrimpOnJun 23, 2020Guru - Experienced User
Ascrept49 wrote:That's been some of the best advice I've had. Thanks. As to whether the RBS50Y will work, I suspect it will to my outbuildings, and if it does, that will mean I can advance having more wireless security camera angles. I'll wait for a good sale. Still, the one thing advised was to add an ethernet line, and I'd say from what, since all of the 3 ethernet ports are taken, one less than the Nighthawk. Why would Netgear do that?
- I still have serious reservations that an RBS50Y will provide decent signal at a distance of 150ft.
- Yes, the RBR50 Orbi has three open ethernet ports compared to four in many WiFi routers. That is why I spent about $30 to purchase an unmanaged gigabit switch, so that my two PC's, one printer, two Raspberry Pi's, Powerline adapter, and laptop can all be connected to ethernet at one time. God knows why some goofball engineer decided to stick only a 4-port ethernet switch in this Orbi instead of a 5-port. The RBR20 has onlyone open port.