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Forum Discussion
Using Orbi with Cat6 home network and Verizon Fios Gigabit
Hi - looking for advice on how to best set up my Orbi system with a newly installed Cat6 home network and Verizon Fios Gigabit internet in a 3-storey wood frame row house. At the moment we have our V...
Thanks for the reply - disappointing to hear the satellites can't be wired. Hopefully in time...
I'm getting 250-300 Mbps on average on various devices. I haven't made much of an effort to position the satellites optimally, so maybe that will make a difference. I did have ethernet outlets placed at various locations - behind TVs, desk positions, etc. so I do plan to wire whatever I can.
Another thought - rather than have the Fios router feed the main Orbi router directly, would it be possible (and potentially more beneficial?) to have the Fios router feed the network switch in the basement, then have the main Orbi router placed more centrally in the house (connected to ethernet outlet), then position the Orbi satellites (not connected to ethernet) on the other floors for optimal Wi-Fi coverage?
Yes. That is an excellent idea and will give you the best options for coverage. (Orbi must remain in AP mode though.)
However, if you are getting an average of 250 to 300 Mbps around your home, then your system is already working perfectly, and you shouldn’t expect to see significant improvement.
The 450 to 500 Mbps figures I quoted are maximum figures, for highly capable client devices, in the same room as an Orbi unit, a few feet away, with no obstructions between them.
Cool - I'll give it a shot and see if there's any change...
On another tangent - since I have a wired network, is Orbi perhaps not the best solution here? Should I investigate just having the Fios router feed the network switch and install a series of Ubiquiti access points (or similar) at various ethernet outlets around the house?
thomasdiak wrote:...On another tangent - since I have a wired network, is Orbi perhaps not the best solution here? Should I investigate just having the Fios router feed the network switch and install a series of Ubiquiti access points (or similar) at various ethernet outlets around the house?
Depending on how much ground you want to cover, the ubiquiti could be a better solution. The Orbi was designed for places where wiring was not an option. Netgear will probably add wired backhaul sometime next year but if you want that there is very little reason to wait.
250-300 is expected on a 1x1 ac connection, all smart phones, tablets and most computers run this protocol. 500 is the most i can do on a 2x2 setup. if you need more you will need a different setup, something that supports 3x3 ac 1300mb/s. the backhaul of the netgear is 4x4 1732 at maximum connection so if they ever did wired backhaul and freed up that bandwidth it would be pretty cool. my house is wired cat 6 but the mesh idea seemed like a good thing for me. I had a linksys velop system that supported ethernet backhaul, but that system was so bad i returned it. everyday it was problematic and you have to reset everything and start over each time, it tooks hours to setup. trash system. google wifi supports ethernet wifi but the throughput just wasn't what i needed. I knew netgear didnt support ethernet backhaul but I figured since everyone else has it they wont be far behind. Still waiting go figure. if your vios router is good enough the ubiquity access points are a better solution, as its supposed to be business grade equipment. my att router wont support upnp, my security camera system or certian other things i want so i have to buy a router reguardless. if you house is too big for the netgear wireless backhaul then another system might be better. the new firmware allows daisychaining satellite so that might work well for you.
But as others have said if you can get those speeds anywhere in the hosue then its working as designed. gigabit internet is not designed for a single device to get that speed, but so that several devices on the network do not bog down each other when using a lot of bandwidth. Now if your doing a lot of network file transfers then wired is the best, and if you really want wireless like me then you have to do a few hardware upgrades to make it work.