Disappointing for advanced Users - Orbi 970 Series Quad-band WiFi 7 Mesh

Thanks for the reply — I completely understand that Orbi is primarily targeted at residential users. My goal from the start was to use the system in Router mode initially, and then eventually transition to Access Point (AP) mode once I had my upstream Firewalla router fully in place.

What I had hoped for was relatively simple: the ability to disable the Orbi’s internal DHCP server entirely in AP mode, allowing the upstream router to handle IP assignments for all SSIDs (Main,IoT and Guest). This would have allowed me to manage segmentation at Layer 3 (IP-based), even if true VLAN (Layer 2) tagging wasn’t available.

While not perfect, this approach would still allow me to apply firewall policies and group-level rules upstream to keep Guest and IoT devices isolated. Unfortunately, without the option to disable DHCP for the Guest network in AP mode, I lose that flexibility — and I’m forced to either use the Orbi in Router mode (which conflicts with my existing setup), or deploy separate hardware to provide a segregated Guest network.

It’s just disappointing, given the capabilities of the hardware and the price point, that these basic networking options aren’t exposed to advanced users. I still believe the system has a lot of potential, but it would be great if Netgear could offer more control for those of us with more complex needs.