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Forum Discussion
Tell the Wire Cutter to reconsider their recommendation of the Orbi
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 sit...
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.
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?
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.
In addition to the review, SmallNetBuilder did a relatively recent comparison of the Orbi and Velop and still found Orbi the better of the two: https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33132-wi-fi-system-retest-netgear-ac3000-orbi-and-linksys-velop
Saw that as well.
Seen many other users posing about the good and the bad, Linksys, Google, NG.
Still haven't seen any one talk about D-Links Mesh system though accept for SNB reivew. :smileyvery-happy:
You can help Netgear fix their mess all you want. God speed.
That has no bearing on whether a review site, whose entire business depends on steering their readers away from problematic products, should recommend the Orbi in its current state.
By removing 2.1.2.18 from the update server, they're indicating they want as few people as possible to have the experience associated with that release. New systems come with 2.1.2.18 (or at least mine did).
I had to downgrade my Orbis (x3) and prevent them from auto updating via telnet. That's an incredible headache for any consumer product, much less a "top recommended one".
The company is telling you there is a problem with the product. Other than dedication to the Netgear brand (which customers and review sites don't have), I do not understand the motivation to encourage other people to buy an Orbi as it works right now.
what would you recommend we use?
bent_wookiewrote:For the third time: The problem was widespread and serious enough for the company to pull its own firmware.
But thats why I'm confused - sounds like they did the right thing? They identified a problem and stopped the rollout to limit its impact. Impacted users could roll back - I wish Apple would let me roll back some of their garbage iOS releases but they prevent you from doing so. You act like they will never release another firmware revision again.
djc6wrote:
But thats why I'm confused - sounds like they did the right thing? They identified a problem and stopped the rollout to limit its impact. Impacted users could roll back - I wish Apple would let me roll back some of their garbage iOS releases but they prevent you from doing so. You act like they will never release another firmware revision again.Pulling 2.1.2.18 is the right thing to do, but that doesn't make a unit with 2.1.2.18 a product to recommend for new customers! Until new-in-box units ship with firmware that doesn't have problems serious enough to pull for existing customers, why recommend it?!Imagine if Apple had a release which was so bad even they decided to prevent existing phones from updating to it. After three months and no timeline for getting the problem fixed, you think a review site worth its salt would still recommend it?I bought an Orbi on the recommendation that it would work. Full stop. Not on the promise that if I screwed with its firmware enough it might work in the future.
