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Wired Backhaul
My refund period for my Orbi is about to expire. Can a moderator comment (hopefully a NetGear Employee) as to when/if we will get wired backhaul? If it is in the next six months, I will keep my Orb...
Nick,
Here's something I posted this morning on another thread for the same topic:
I've added Ethernet Backhaul into my list of Candidate Features for a future Firmware update. I can't yet commit to a delivery date, but wanted to acknowledge that this is a valid use case and something we're looking seriously at.
Orbi Product Management
I had eero - went back to my Netgear NightHawk, temporarily. eero stores all of your configuration settings in the cloud and they have had several cloud outages. When that happens, you cannot make changes to your eero configuration. I found this out the hard way. Went to open up one of my kids profiles via the eero app and got HTTP 500 errors. First mistake - poor error handling and no indication their servers were down. Next, went to disable profles, now the system started acting funny, disconnecting the satellite devices, etc. Was left with the main eero running. Could not reconnect the satellite because eero's registration servers were down. So, I pulled it out, put the NightHawk back in, changed the IPs to match eero and was back in business. Will sell the eero on ebay as the return period ended months ago.
So, I bought the 2-pack Orbi and then started seeing this backhaul issue, have not installed it and will most likely return it now to amazon. What a serious omission from a company in the networking gear business for years. Even eero, a startup, had the presence of mind to include wired backhaul. Sadly, they put all their eggs in the cloud basket and we know the cloud suffers outages. At least Orbi can save the configuration local, cloud or both. But, without backhaul, I will have to home run a cable to my office where the bulk of the bandwidth is needed. Can do that, not a big deal, and I would if the backhaul feature seemed like it was coming in a firmware update. Me suspects it is not anytime soon.
Just wanted you all to know about eero limitations - may be a dealbreaker for you. It was for me.
NJITman wrote:But, without backhaul, I will have to home run a cable to my office where the bulk of the bandwidth is needed. Can do that, not a big deal, and I would if the backhaul feature seemed like it was coming in a firmware update.
Five by one. The Orbi system does establish it's wireless backhaul interconnecting all Orbi devices, router and satellite in a transparent way. No need to put in cables. If your router (or then the Orbi configured as a router) is located in a central point of the house, you still can put the Orbi satellite somewhere between half the way form the Orbi router (or or Orbi router in AP mode) to the office.
You can still consider to install a network cable from the Orbi router (or Orbi in AP mode) to the office, to get the best possible (wired) performance there. Or from an Orbi satellite in case of wireless coverage for the office is not sufficient.
Up to here, this is possible today.
The aim why some users are requesting (and would be willing to add) a wired backhaul is using an existing (or to be established) network connection, being a direct network link being an existing layer 2 switched environment, to connect some or all Orbi systems over a wired network - ie. mainly to overcome the limited reach (and the performance impact) of the wireless 5 GHz backhaul connection.Can anyone post realistic network speeds attainable via this tri-band wireless link? I have not connected Orbi to our network yet, so don't have any real-world data. For example, our cable provider supplied 300 Mbps down/35 Mbps up at the router. What kind of hit does Orbi impart to the integrated switch (wired Ethernet) for the main unit? If you then have that wirelessly linked to the satellite Orbi, what would be the expected bandwidth conservation at the satellite Ethernet ports? Of course, the weakest link will be that tri-band connection, just wondering how much loss I can expect.
For example, 300 at router, 150 at Orbi main Ethernet, 75 at Orbi satellite Ethernet. Just doing 50% conservation as an example. If I instead run a home run cable from the Orbi main to my office, I will start off at 150 versus 75. If Orbi had Ethernet backhaul, I assume I would fall somewhere between 150 and 75.
With eero, I lost bandwidth due to the external switching needed. First the output of the main eero was already down in the low 100s, so a huge hit there and then by the time it came out of the satellite eero, it was in the upper 50s. So, in my office, I never experienced really fast Internet speeds due to the inherent switching bottlenecks. It was actually faster on wireless! So, even though eero has backhaul built in, the design of it was not resource efficient. Plus, the other issues I mentioned - good riddance.
If anyone can speak to the throughtput of the Orbi devices, that will probably drive my decision whether to return it.
I like the unified SSID of these mesh devices, but they may not make sense for the more advanced networking crowd that wants the ability to customize, tweak and get the most bandwidth.
I've measured the following data throughput using iperf between two clients on the internal network:
1. Between wired devices on either the Orbi Sat or Router--940 Mbps (full gigabit switch speeds)
2. Between wired devices across the Orbi backhaul--575 Mbs
My WiFi throughput between a wireless and a wired client is 225 Mbps, but this is limited by my clients, which are 802.11n 2x2 with a 300 Mbps connection speed. A 3x3 ac client would be faster.
