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jrref's avatar
jrref
Tutor
Oct 06, 2023

First Experiences and thoughts

I recieved and connected up the 970 router and the two satellites. This is an upgrade from a 960 router and two satellite system. The upgrade process via the Orbi app on my iPhone was very easy and relatively quick. The only thing that was a problem is moving your existing Bitdefender/Armor software to the new system. Apparently there is no way to do this. Netgear gives you a new one year license and gives you a prorated amount back for the old license but you need to call support to do this.

 

As far as performance. Using my iPhone 14 at different points in my 2600 sqft house, I can say the 970 is a little faster and gives you a little more coverage but not enough to warrent the cost of the upgrade. The wireless backhaul on the other hand is greatly improved. With the 960 system I would get about 600-700 mbs wirelessly to the satellite that services my home theather and my AppleTV which I have hardwired to the satellite. With the 970 I get my full 1Gbs bandwidth in the same configuration thanks to the 5G and 6G combined backhaul arrangement. This means I get full wired 1Gbs speed wirelessly at the satellite serving my AppleTV, NAS and home theather. Also, when streaming from my NAS the data speeds are just as consistent as if it were wired when I tested both for comparison. Although the 970 is crazy expensive, for me the improved backhaul was worth the cost of the upgrade since I don't have hardwired ethernet at my home theather. Also, I now have enough WiFi technology for my needs for several years. Even when WiFi 8 comes out, for my residential environment what I now have is overkill so anything more would probably be a waste of money.

 

So far the system is incredibly stable and the Netgear support is very good which I would expect give how much money I've spent.

 

The only potentially negative thing I've observed is although the 960 and 970 both use the same exact power supplies, the 970 router and satellites runs a little hotter. I'm hoping the very good build quality of the 970 takes into account the extra heat.

 

Thanks,

John

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  • Dfran1's avatar
    Dfran1
    Apprentice
    Oct 13, 2023

    Had my 970 white system over a week now..

    It came with the latest 9.10.0.2 firmware.

     

    Setup was super easy, I have placed the satellites in various locations in the house and found where I have them now is best.

    I found the wireless backhaul to only get 700-800mbps vs using my motorola moca 2.5's (one to one on 2 different lines) absolutely best, and now I get 1100-1200mbps, what I pay for from my ISP, using my 6e chromebook.

     

    I had a Asus ET12, that with main and one satellite I always was getting great wifi signal from my farthest camera.

    After testing the 970 in the same locations, I found that the camera would never get that same great signal, so I moved that satellite and placed the other in the opposite side of house with the router in the basement located centrally.  Now IF that camera connects to the closest satellite, I get great signal, but most of the time the camera connects to the farthest satellite or main router, weird, but the camera works good.

     

    On 6Ghz band, I could not get the Chromebook to see or use the band, I had to force the ET12 to separate SSID for the band, NOW with the 970 the Chromebook always finds the 6Ghz band, that is a major PLUS, as I love the one SSID.

    After testing, I find the 6Ghz band very (extremely) short distance before it turns into the same speed tests as 5Ghz, like 10-15 feet away from any router or satellite.  

     

    I have about 25-30 devices constantly connected at all times and 50 devices total, no problems.

     

    On the speedtest.net or app I get about the same speeds with old router vs 970 BUT I do get a tad more jitter on the 970.

     

    I think and hope the 970 does get better over time BUT am also very very extremely worried with firmware updates as my last Orbi's Always, Always got worse wifi and would not stay up and running (meaning had to do reboots) so I just may keep reading these forums for others that do the firmware first, and try to make a judgement on if the new firmware actually improves.........  (hopefully netgear does not force updates even though I turned it off)

     

    I have the traffic meter on and Security, I actually am starting to really like the security, I opened am email from a spam site by accident (as I normally do) not even clicking on anything in the email and the Orbi security found that I opened it and blocked it instantly, very nice indeed!!

     

    What I do not care for is, all devices on the IoT network will not show in the app the connection speed, I may actually switch all back to the main SSID and disable the IoT, not sure on that yet, and one device would not connect to the IoT BUT did connect to the main SSID, strange.

     

    I have been up for 5 days now around (took that long after fiddling with placement), devices seem to be settling on placement (meaning connected to main router or a satellite).