I bought the Orbi 3 pack at Costco on the recommendation of the Wire Cutter. It might have been a fine product then, but it's garbage now (and has been for months). I've reached out to the review site via their Contact-Us link to ask them to reconsider their recommendation. Given what so many of us are experiencing, I encourage you all to do the same. https://thewirecutter.com/contact-us/

I bought my RBK53 three pack at Costco in November 2016, its been a pleasure to use for almost 1.5 years.I recommended it to two of my friends, they are happy with it as well. While there are a lot of complaints on this forum, I think there are many more it works great for.

Mines been working great as well, however new to the Orbi scene. Been online for two months solid. It's not always a HW or FW issue. There are other factors that can cause routers and wifi not to work well, theres environment, configuration and user set up that can impact how well all this works. ALL FW versions are still available from NG support. NG just pulled the recent one from being automatically upgraded. It's still available for use. Users and NG support need to troubleshoot where issue are present to really find out where the real problem is, where it be HW or otherwise. The article and recommendation is valid.

My Orbi is great. I just purchased another set for my holiday home. So, it’s not a universal problem.

It may not work reliably for you but it does for me. I've had one minor issue a couple of releases back which has been resolved since 2.1.2.18. Annecdotaly I can also say that in addition to myself; I've had my best friend, 2 co-workers and my sister all buy either the RBK50 or RBK53 kits and they've a great experience running their systems for at least 6 months each. Forums like these don't represent reality as those who have had a positive experience rarely come to the forums to say so. Conversly, those who have had a bad experience will spend as much time as possible complaining. This is especially true for a product as expensive as the Orbi.Netgear should definitely do more to fix issues and respond sooner but I don't think the Wire Cutter needs to modify their recommendations.

I also read the Wire Cutter review and that helped me decide on the Oribi, about a month ago. I found this forum and was worried about all the issues so I was prepared to return it with 30 days (Amazon) at the first sign of disconnect. It's been a month now and I have had zero issues. I am on the latest BIOS, I have used both Ethernet and wireless backhauls (currently Ethernet). A lot of people clearly have issues and they need to fix them for sure. But a lot of people probably do not have any issues and don't have any reason to go post in these forums to say that it's working well for them. After all, it's a router. If it works, there is really no point talking about it :-) I do hope they will fix these issues soon, it's not good for any of the owners (with working or defective units) to have this drag on and possibly destroy the product success and lifespan

Tell the Wire Cutter to reconsider their recommendation of the Orbi

21 Replies

djc6
Luminary
Mar 20, 2018
I bought my RBK53 three pack at Costco in November 2016, its been a pleasure to use for almost 1.5 years.
I recommended it to two of my friends, they are happy with it as well. While there are a lot of complaints on this forum, I think there are many more it works great for.
- Retired_Member
  Mar 20, 2018
  same here....bought mine from Costco last Nov 2017. Other than a few disconnects, it works. I'm able to get to the Internet.
  - bent_wookie
    Star
    Mar 20, 2018
    That it annecdotaly works for some people (and apparently only some of the time at that) doesn't make it a product worthy of their highest recomendation.
    
    Products worthy of recomendation don't have their firmware downgraded for months on end. Netgear didn't do that just for kicks. People are having real problems.
    
    In its current state, the Orbi is not worth recommending to anyone.
FURRYe38
Guru
Mar 20, 2018
Mines been working great as well, however new to the Orbi scene. Been online for two months solid. It's not always a HW or FW issue. There are other factors that can cause routers and wifi not to work well, theres environment, configuration and user set up that can impact how well all this works. ALL FW versions are still available from NG support. NG just pulled the recent one from being automatically upgraded. It's still available for use. Users and NG support need to troubleshoot where issue are present to really find out where the real problem is, where it be HW or otherwise.

The article and recommendation is valid.
- bent_wookie
  Star
  Mar 20, 2018
  For the third time: The problem was widespread and serious enough for the company to pull its own firmware.
  
  Why should the Wire Cutter put their own reputation on the line to recommend a product with known issues like this?
  
  I don't understand the zeal to defend Netgear's poor efforts here. How do I get more customers like you guys?
  - FURRYe38
    Guru
    Mar 20, 2018
    Again, NG only pulled it from being auto updated. It's still available and some have had good experiences with that version of FW.
    Again, it's not always a HW or FW issue. Again, the problems seen can be caused by other factors.
    
    Some of us are here to help find out where the real problems are, answer questions, provide help for those asking and help NG improve where issues are really at. Nothing wrong with this.
    
    Besides, wirecutter isn't the only one with reviews about the Orbi system:
    https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33028-netgear-orbi-reviewed
    This site tends to offer more testing results and more accurate reviews of routers and wifi.

Forum Discussion

Tell the Wire Cutter to reconsider their recommendation of the Orbi