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Forum Discussion
Orbi 770 Sats compatible with 970?
We just moved into our house earlier this year and I broke down and upgraded to the Orbi 970 from the super old RBR50. It wasn’t broke so I didn’t fix it. Haha
I had the house all wired with Ethernet because I knew I wanted wired connections to satellites and critical items. The 970 was probably overkill and I could have just got the 960. But hey, I splurged for the future. I was an early adopter of the first Orbis so why not jump into the latest?
Anyway, that was a long way around this question. I have an Ethernet drop going out to my detached shop. My plan was to hook my RBR50 up out there as an AP and just have a separate SSID for the shop. But according to my research, that won’t work. I’m not sure why. Since the 970 satellites are so expensive and I’m already into things for a chunk of money, the introduction of the 770 got me wondering. Those satellites are $400. Anyone know if they’ll be compatible with the 970? I used to run some plug-in satellites (RBW?) and they worked fine. So I’m curious if NG is now doing a bit of that with things.
Thanks a bunch!
I had the house all wired with Ethernet because I knew I wanted wired connections to satellites and critical items. The 970 was probably overkill and I could have just got the 960. But hey, I splurged for the future. I was an early adopter of the first Orbis so why not jump into the latest?
Anyway, that was a long way around this question. I have an Ethernet drop going out to my detached shop. My plan was to hook my RBR50 up out there as an AP and just have a separate SSID for the shop. But according to my research, that won’t work. I’m not sure why. Since the 970 satellites are so expensive and I’m already into things for a chunk of money, the introduction of the 770 got me wondering. Those satellites are $400. Anyone know if they’ll be compatible with the 970? I used to run some plug-in satellites (RBW?) and they worked fine. So I’m curious if NG is now doing a bit of that with things.
Thanks a bunch!
10 Replies
(sigh) the research was incorrect. Yes, an RBR50 placed in the shop will work, no matter whether it is in 'router' or 'access point' (AP) mode.
The things to understand are:
- If the RBR50 is in 'router' mode, then any devices in the shop will be in a separate LAN IP subnet and will not communicate with devices in the main building. This is probably not what you want.
- In AP mode, the primary router will assign IP addresses to all devices and they will all appear in the same LAN IP subnet.
- The issue is that - no matter what WiFi SSID is created by the RBR50 - its WiFi network will be entirely separate from the primary WiFi network. Devices will not roam seamlessly between the primary network and the RBR50 network.
- For devices that are not mobile, such as devices wired to the RBR50 and devices that cannot move (cameras, printers, computers, door openers, etc. etc.) this is of no consequence. Devices that are mobile will remain connected to one of the WiFi networks until they totally lose connection. Then, they will look around for a WiFi system that they recognize.
Deploying the RBR50 in the shop will save a lot of money. The "A" solution is to purchase another 970 satellite and have seamless roaming. It is a cost/benefit calculation.
Netgear has not added the 770 product to the table of compatible satellites:
https://kb.netgear.com/000065169/Which-Orbi-routers-and-satellites-are-compatible
The product data sheet appears to indicate that the 770 satellite is compatible only with the 771 router.
https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/RBE770/RBE770_TS.pdf
(I find it annoying that after 8 years of creating product numbers for Orbi systems, some doofus at Netgear decided that routers should be numbered "1" and satellites numbered "0". There was a perfectly good naming convention and I see no reason to meddle with it - "R" for "router", "S" for "satellite".)
- That makes a lot more sense to me than what I found here:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-WiFi-7-BE-Mesh-Systems/Extending-an-Orbi-970-system/m-p/2354892#M778
Reading it again, he wanted to keep the same SSID I guess. But he also says something about it not needing to be a seamless mesh. I guess I had interpreted that as he didn’t mind it being a separate network SSID. But he’s talking about satellites, so….yeah.
When I had decided to use the RBR50 as my shop system, I knew that I would lose out on seamless roaming. But the only thing I have to worry about with that is my phone. Running it in AP was my preferred so that I could see the devices from the app or browser. Although, even that isn’t necessary for me. The main things I’ll have out there on WiFi are a small air conditioner, a few security cameras, and a laptop.
I just got my networking rack in the house sorted out so I’m gonna try to connect the RBR50 up in the shop this week.
When I saw the 770 announced and the satellite prices, I got a little hopeful! But I couldn’t find any information about compatibility. Thanks for sharing the information you did!
- An update to this. I got the RBR50 connected as an AP and have it set to its own SSID. It’s working fine. I get full speeds.
That being said…the 970 seems to recognize it as another 970 satellite. It shows up on the admin page as one and is stuck in Config Sync for the status.
Any thoughts? It doesn’t seem to be causing any issues but I’m not sure if it eventually will. I haven’t tried it in Router mode yet. AP seems like the most logical choice.Got a picture of this?
The RBR50 is ethernet connected to the back of the RBR970?
Shouldn't be seen by the 970 series as a satellite...
Yep, see below. And yes, it is wired. You'll see that there are 3 satellites connected, but I only have the two satellite system. The second one in the list is the RBR50 and it has been in that Config Sync status ever since I got it hooked up earlier today.
