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Forum Discussion
Is the RBK850 Wifi 6 router backwards compatible with older Orbi satellites?
Is the RBK850 Wifi 6 router backwards compatible with older Orbi satellites? Specifically the outdoor model.
Two points to consider here:
- A basic pronciple in the 802.11ax standard is that it's backwards compatible with 802.11ac.
- Orbi AX has exactly the same 4x4 backhaul design as Orbi AC,
Based on the above I see no reason why the Orbi AC units would not be compatible with Orbi AX when it's available.
When I look up the specification behind the Wifi 6 Orbis. I see that the Satellite is 802.11g/b/n/ac/ax but the router is only 802.11g/b/n/ax.
This is strange to me as to why the satellite would be ac compatible but the router is not? I suppose this means you could use the older orbis if they beamform to the new AX satellite. Maybe they did it this way so that devices would chose AX over AC until you are too far away from an AX source, then it switches to AC.
Can you post a link to these specifications? The Product Data Sheet clearly says that both router and satellite have the same three radios:
https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/orbi/RBK852.pdf
- Sorry I misread the specs. The first radio which is 2.4Ghz does not include AC which is expected but it does include AX interestingly enough. I haven’t read up on AX so was unaware it was capable of using the 2.4Ghz frequency. Radios 2 and 3 are 5Ghz and include the AC/AX. They are the same for both satellite and router. Apologies for misinformation on my end.
