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Forum Discussion
Orbi RBR350 + 2 satellites internet speed question
Hi! I use a RBR350 Orbi connected to 2 RBS350 satellites in my house with 2 floors. There is a big concrete wall in the middle of the house. So basically, the router and the RBR350 are downstairs, ...
Something to check into as well, maybe a powerline adapter between the RBR and the far side of the wall to get a RBS ethernet connected to the RBR.
Or maybe just run an ethernet cable between the two satellites. Though that depends on whether the goal is to improve the performance in the partner's room, or whether it is just to get the best overall speeds possible.
Powerline could be part of the solution, though I've found its performance to be hit-or-miss in my home (depending on the specific circuits I am using for it). If there is an accessible pipe chase or shaft, then shifting to a wired backhaul might be possible. maxpuissant - if you do that, you do need to make sure you have the proper grade of cable. This is about fire safety, not just electrical performance. In my location, that would be "riser" cat 6a cable (which has different insulation than normal cat 6a cable).
Concrete and steel will cause problems for any wifi mesh system.
Yeah, especially if the concrete has rebar in it (as it almost always does).
Or maybe just run an ethernet cable between the two satellites. Though that depends on whether the goal is to improve the performance in the partner's room, or whether it is just to get the best overall speeds possible.
Well that could be a solution, but first, do you think I have good speed in my room?
Well that could be a solution, but first, do you think I have good speed in my room?
What ISP speed are you paying for?
What speed do you get when you are in the same room as the router?
Another factor is whether the speed you get now is getting in the way of the things you are doing. A couple years ago I used T-Mobile Broadband for my work (as a test for my employer) instead of my usual 1 gbps fiber service. The T-mobile service wasn't as fast - if I remember correctly, it was similar to the 200-300 mbps you are seeing. But that was fast enough for what I was doing (including video conferencing).
maxpuissant
But currently the RBR is on the ground floor and the RBS on the second floor (attic). In your configuration, should I move the RBS to the ground floor or the first floor?
If powerline works well with your wiring, AV2 kit might give you 300 mbps of actual throughput. It could deliver a lot less. So personally I doubt it will help that much in your room, since you are already seeing 300 mbps speeds there. It could boost the speed in your partner's room, so you could start by getting one pair of adapters and use them to connect the RBR and her RBS.
As far as topology goes, the idea of powerline is to replace the wireless backhaul. If it works well, then keeping the RBS in the two attic rooms (offices?) would give you the best performance in those rooms. If it doesn't (for instance, if you see the speed drop), you should give up on it.
Actual gigabit ethernet would easily outperform powerline, but it could be harder to install. That depends on the wiring constraints. There could be existing conduit that could be used. My home office is on my third floor (also an attic), and I was able to run ethernet cable through an existing pipe chase that ran from the basement up to the attic.
I get around 180 Mb/s with my Macbook Pro M1 Max with an ethernet cable.
I overlooked this before. When you are using ethernet to connect to the RBS and get ~200 mbps, and get ~500 mbps over wifi near the RBR, then that confirms that you are limited by the mesh backhaul. Powerline won't give you the same performance as you get near the RBR, but might give you some boost.
Getting back to your original question, upgrading to one of the higher-end WiFi-7 systems (770, 870, or 970) would probably give you more performance, since they all add a 6 ghz channel to speed up the backhaul. But that is a fairly expensive upgrade, so I'd get some quotes on getting two cat 6a ethernet cables between the RBR and the attic rooms first.
What ISP speed are you paying for?
What speed do you get when you are in the same room as the router?
We pay for what we have: 500 Mb/s!
Another factor is whether the speed you get now is getting in the way of the things you are doing.
I need to download lots of data, so having speed around 500Mb/s is OK, but down to 300-180 is sometimes limiting.
Actual gigabit ethernet would easily outperform powerline, but it could be harder to install.
Yes that's what I'm afraid of, hence why I'm asking you guys what could I do to optimise my current setup.
When you are using ethernet to connect to the RBS and get ~200 mbps, and get ~500 mbps over wifi near the RBR, then that confirms that you are limited by the mesh backhaul. Powerline won't give you the same performance as you get near the RBR, but might give you some boost.
So you think it's also the mesh backhaul that gives me around 300 Mb/s with the first satellite (first room) and around 150 Mb/s with the second satellite (second room) in the attic?
so I'd get some quotes on getting two cat 6a ethernet cables between the RBR and the attic rooms first.
Well in that case, we wouldn't need the Orbi anymore, we could just run the cables between the router and our laptops.