Orbi Mesh Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi 6 For The Gigabit Internet Home - #NETGEARCES2019

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nedjel wrote:
1st Report
15 min after I checked th below 3 options, my wifi went down. No internet. So I had to power cycle the Router and everything came back up. So will see how long it lasts. I have never lost compelete internet connectivity before. Daisy Chaim remained Checked.

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It sounds like you are seeing similar to what I see.

From what I have read the Implicit beam forming is not really useful unless you have older devices so it's  don't care for me.

If I have either MU-MIMO or Fast roaming selected my Orbi crashes regularly, resulting in symptoms similar to what your seeing, so I can't have them enabled and probably neither can you.

I believe this is related to incompatility of the Qualcomm wireless drivers with one or more of my devices.

For MU-MIMO I don't think there are many client devices that are capable of using it (still) so probably not a great loss yet.

The fast roaming might be useful, I'm not sure about that, but it just doesn't work for my clients.

Nevertheless my Orbi works fine without these settings enabled, at least for my usage.

Ian

Interesting thread.  If I hadn't been interested in reading about a new product announcement, wouldn't have learned so much about configuring my RBK50!

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nedjel wrote:
appens.
I did not uncheck Daisychain as some one mentioned here that unchecking it actually selects it. Can anyone confirm ?

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That was determined not to be the case and purely a rumor.  if it is checked, it is ON.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/quot-Reverse-quot-Daisy-Chain-issue-any-update/m-p/1653439
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-RBR50-Slow-Wired-WAN-after-2-2-1-210-Upgrade/m-p/1667058/highlight/true#M45881

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nedjel wrote:
2nd Test Run
Unchecked Implicit Beamforming, some of my LG TV were unstable. Only have MUMIMO and Gast Toaming Checkrd now. We’ll see what happens.
I did not uncheck Daisychain as some one mentioned here that unchecking it actually selects it. Can anyone confirm ?

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Dustin_V  I read the product announcement and almost missed the final sentence at the bottom.  And I quote,

"Orbi with Wi-Fi 6 is expected to be available on the Orbi RBK50 series in the second half of 2019".

At face value I read this to mean the fucntionality provided by 802.11.AX will be enabled via a firmware update.  Please confirm.

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gr8sho wrote:

 

 

At face value I read this to mean the fucntionality provided by 802.11.AX will be enabled via a firmware update.  Please confirm.

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Great catch.

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Chuck_M wrote:

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gr8sho wrote:

 

 

At face value I read this to mean the fucntionality provided by 802.11.AX will be enabled via a firmware update.  Please confirm.

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Great catch.

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This is a very important distinction for me.  Getting the Orbi appears to have solved a chronic issue I've been suffering with an ISP's Arris router that's provided as part of the service.  Specficially WiFi Calling was completely unreliable and mobile service here is attrocious, therefore I place a premium value on said functionality. And it's because of the longstanding negative experienced that I finally spent time doing research and learned about the deficiencies in most routers.

As the investment in the RBK50 is something non-trivial, it is helpful to know the device is futureproofed at least for WiFi 6.  If for some reason my understanding is incorrect, I may go down a different path while there's still time.

Decided to test out the chat support that I'm entitled to and ask the question there.  This was the response I got.

"However the new WiFi 6, will have a different model number and hardware. And we will have to look on that statement. Since 802.11ac cannot be upgraded to 802.11ax via firmware since it has a different hardware."

This very clearly contradicts the prese release.

:manhappy:

I guess they'll wriggle out of it somehow with the word "series".  And I'm actually okay that the new standard drives new hardware.  The step up to a new standard should have driven a new product name, RBK60 or something to avoid any confusion.

I'm going to go back in my hole and read more about WiFi 6.  As it turns out, MU-MIMO by itself is actually limited to 4 streams as I now understand it.  That should actually be enough for me and I probably won't have any devices that support 802.11 AX for a few years anyway.  Still it would have been nice if the RBK50 was futureproofed for the new standard given the cost. 

Long experinece with home class routers and new WiFi standards has mostly been with a new standard of WiFi comes out, it's mostly kept to a new product line. Most current and older HW and Chip sets seen in already released HW does not include support for any future WiFi standards as new chipset HW is designed around new wifi standards. Thus most of the time and probably in this case, Any Orbi 50 series will not see a upgrade to the AX WiFi standard. Same may happen for WPA3. Though depending upon how the security standard comes down from those who do the core code, if new HW is needed, then this may effect how WPA3 is implemented by router and wifi Mfrs. Thus if HW is needed for WPA3, then current wifi and router HW may not see WPA3. Though just speculating that WPA3 maybe less HW dependent and more FW dependent, we hope that WPA3 can come to ALL older and current products rather than having to buy new. Who knows though. If marketing has it's way, we'd all have to buy new. :smileymad: Hoping that WPA3 will be mostly a FW update. Let all hope for this. :smileywink: I think WPA3 is in the new NG RAX routers. Will probably be in the new Orbi AX systems as well. 

And I was hoping this would be the last router I ever purchased.....

LOL!

Router Mfrs wouldn to make money then if they allowed that. :smileytongue:

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FURRYe38 wrote:

Router Mfrs wouldn to make money then if they allowed that. :smileytongue:

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I forgot to close out with </sarcasm>   

!!!!

"We come for your daughter Chuck!!!"

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FURRYe38 wrote:

"We come for your daughter Chuck!!!"

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No sweat.  I am armed and dangerous :)  

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FURRYe38 wrote:

Long experinece with home class routers and new WiFi standards has mostly been with a new standard of WiFi comes out, it's mostly kept to a new product line. Most current and older HW and Chip sets seen in already released HW does not include support for any future WiFi standards as new chipset HW is designed around new wifi standards. Thus most of the time and probably in this case, Any Orbi 50 series will not see a upgrade to the AX WiFi standard. Same may happen for WPA3. Though depending upon how the security standard comes down from those who do the core code, if new HW is needed, then this may effect how WPA3 is implemented by router and wifi Mfrs. Thus if HW is needed for WPA3, then current wifi and router HW may not see WPA3. Though just speculating that WPA3 maybe less HW dependent and more FW dependent, we hope that WPA3 can come to ALL older and current products rather than having to buy new. Who knows though. If marketing has it's way, we'd all have to buy new. :smileymad: Hoping that WPA3 will be mostly a FW update. Let all hope for this. :smileywink: I think WPA3 is in the new NG RAX routers. Will probably be in the new Orbi AX systems as well. 

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Agreed, also I didn't get the impression that the Orbi 802.11ac based devices would be upgradable via a firmware update "at all".

Maybe that's because I have some small degree of understanding of how this all works, but also I might not be entirely correct so take it however you wish.

In order for low powered router (and in this case satelite also) hardware to be able to do what it does much of the heavy duty processing is done in hardware, particularly the wireless functionality.

So when a new wireless standard comes out, such as 802.11ax, the wireless chipset makers/board makers develop new boards and release new development kits (wireless drivers etc.) for them and the router vendors then develop products around them.

This must be done this way at least because of the need implement functionality in hardware.

One obvious point is that while Netgear probably has relationships with the device manufactures they are very much dependednt on what the manufacurers do.

The point is it isn't right or accurate to critisize Netgear for something they have no (or at the very least little) control over.

Another thing to consider is that I'm pretty sure (read this as I'm "certain") that we will not see any 802.11ac routers upgradable to 801.11ax routers from any domestic router vendor (and most probably not enterprise vendors either, unless they had released harware specifically capable of 802.11ax as an 802.11ac product)!

Yes, I get it.  I only take exception to the wording in the press release and the use of the RBK50 statement.  It's clear from the product pages on the website NG is taking the opportunity to rollout new routers based on the standards, and with respect to the point on processing power, it is rendered quite explicit.