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Forum Discussion
Orbi Mesh Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi 6 For The Gigabit Internet Home - #NETGEARCES2019
Orbi Whole Home WiFi just got even faster! NETGEAR is continuing to lead the new era of Wi-Fi. To kick off CES 2019, we announced plans to pair award-winning Orbi Wi-Fi with the latest Wi-Fi s...
You should make a new post to post your experineces. This thread was about the new Orbi MESH system and WiFi 6 protcols that it supports. Nothing to do with current products.
Make a new post and post your experiences there please.
Thank you.
NickC4555 wrote:
I realise your post was meant to be helpful, but the Orbi is supposed to be a consumer product, not one that requires in depth knowldege of networking terminologies and how to analyse your network. If you can't take it out of the box and plug it in, then either it isn't fit for purpose or it is being sold to the wrong type of customer. Either way, Netgear is culpable, and it is regrettable that some customers are defending them and their shoddy products. I agree with other posters that it is outrageous for them to be launching a new product having let down their exisiting customers so badly with the current one.
I now have a stable 2 satellite Orbi system, but it's running old firmware and it took me several months of effort, a few different versions (including betas), many combinations of settings and satellite placements to get to where I am.
The main problem with Orbi firmware releases is a clear lack of a formal test methodology, particularly regression testing. New features and bugs are fixed in isolation, but then other things break and older bugs return. I would bet my pension that the developers are signing off on their own work packages and that nobody is doing rigourous end to end testing of the entire system against a formal plan. Nobody apart from Netgear's customers, that is, and I didn't sign up for that.
Of course, we wouldn't want to put people off buying the new products by letting them know how bad the current ones are, would we?
That might be a harsh overcharacterization of Netgear quality and products -- I respectfully disagree with you and offer my experience so far:
My personal experience is that the Orbi RBR50 is a very good product -- I have An RBR50 and two RBS50s in a very large home with up to ~130 devices at any time including a large Sonos constellation, security cameras, DVR/NVR, Nest doorbells, garage doors, smoke detectors, thermostats, Pentair swimming pool controllers, bluerays, hue lights, alarms, smart televisions (at least 7), home theater amp, laptops, gaming desktops, Ipads, androids, iphones etc. Everything works great -- even under such heavy demands. As an early adopter of technology, I obviously like adding more and more.
I use both dynamic and static IP addresses in my architecture as well as port forwarding and IP reservations.
The entire system runs smooth as silk and delivers massive bandwidth to all corners of the property, both inside and out.
Granted, there are additional firmware & software capabilities I would like to see, but overall I am highly satisfied and a proud owner.
Remote management works well. I dont use Circle!
Once set up properly, the Orbi system is the fastest and best routing and wireless solution I have used... And I have tried a lot including Linksys, Cisco, Luma (ugh!), and others.
In my view, the biggest issue with these systems users experience is setting up improper interfaces with other routers, switches, modems and not understanding proper routing & architecture principles. Networking can be complicated and some legacy devices can be problematic -- but I dont see that as a failure of Netgear... it is the nature of evolving technology.
When the new Orbi is released it will have issues like every other high-tech product. I will still probably get it!
Chuck_M wrote:
Once set up properly
What does that mean? I am assuming you mean much more than installing per the documentation and default settings that ship with the device. Perhaps you mean after spending time in these forums to learn things like enabling daisy chain is really disabling and vice versa?
Chuck_M wrote:
When the new Orbi is released it will have issues like every other high-tech product.
Boy I don't know what you are buying, but this product is amongst the worst I have ever purchased in terms of rapid fire firmware fixes that broke more things. Most high tech products I buy work great. I used Asus routers for years and never looked at one of their forums or called their support for a problem.
I would be willing to bet that the Wi-Fi 6 is much smoother, the Netgear engineering team undoubtedly made a terrible design decision that was not easily fixed with the current product, one that they will rectify with the Wi-Fi 6.
Setup properly.... means -- things like not set up as a router when it should be set up as an access point or vice versa. Other user settings configured with an understanding of what they are and the effects they have on the wired and wireless networks.
Other issues .... If issues were not discovered or if new capabilities werent fielded, Firmware updates wouldnt be necessary. I appreciate the fact that they are working on updates instead of EOL'ing the product like other MFGs have. Frankly, it's complicated and I know of no product that has been fielded with zero issues on day one. Fortunately there are people out here willing to take their time to help support others to get their stuff working optimally.
You are getting silly with comments like "fielded with zero issues on day one". Noone has suggested they expect that from Orbi. It would be nice if the product just worked like other router companies.
Companies issue firmware updates for three reasons. Defects, new hacks, and enhancements. The Orbi updates have been for defects and a few enhancements to support new Netgear products.
Lets see how many more firmware updates Netgear issues now that they have announced a replacement for this Orbi product. Yeah, news flash this version will be EOLed for the WiFi 6.
It is becoming clear, you are not a fan of Netgear!
I am a fan of Netgear not Orbi. I have liked and used other Netgear products (Arlo Pro/Nighthawk routers) without issue. Figured them out, installed, walked away, and they just worked. The Arlo Pro was very impressive at the time. 720p wireless video off a battery that lasted for me 6-8 weeks.
My issue with the Orbi was twofold. For the money, a very basic, feature lacking router. Then of course the firmware updates. There was a 4-5 month period last year where this forum was flooded with people complaining due to really bad firmware. It took Netgear multiple tries and appears they finally got it stable with the last update. What really messed people up was Netgear's firmware auto update, people didn't want to upgrade but couldn't stop the updates which continually hosed their wifi. Kind of funny now looking back at the irony, but people were pissed. Netgear’s inability to remedy during that time was really unconscionable.
Comparatively, I didn't have a lot of issues, but it seemed that something would happen every few weeks. One satellite would go renegade and decide it needed to disconnect from the router entirely. Or suddenly IOS or Android devices would have super slow speeds or lose the ability to connect.
After owning for about six months a satellite died. I can’t remember the ring color, but research suggested it was bricked but I tried a manual firmware flash. It didn’t work and Netgear wanted money just to talk to me. I didn’t want any help, just an RMA. LOL what a joke. So I took the Orbis back to Costco, got a refund, and bought new Orbis.
That was when I decided to stop the madness, bought an Ubiquiti Edgerouter and put the Orbis into AP mode. Makes a lot sense, the Orbis are good at wifi, suck at routing. I’ve only had one issue since going to AP mode. One of the satellites likes to occasionally change its 2.4 channel, but I don’t need 2.4 coverage in that part of the house. I don’t have many 2.4 devices left.
So hopefully you know understand why I am not an Orbi fan, have a lot of empathy for the many people they screwed over last year, and hope they don’t ever issue another firmware upgrade!
- I see you said you would probably get the new Orbi WiFi 6 when it comes out. Since you have experience with an Orbi RK50, do you feel that’s the better option as instead of buying The Netgear AX80 Router. And could you explain your setup again. You have multiple satellites?
