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Orbi 970 Router (Router ONLY) - 5 GHz (240 MHz) Channel Available for Clients?
Hi, I am considering my next purchase and I see there is an Orbi 971S aka router only model being sold. Does the dedicated backhaul channel on these units become accessible to client devices, (s...
jzchen wrote:
It's been on sale as a single for a while, but you have to be careful because I think vendors/merchants might confuse it with a satellite:
Thanks for taking the time to locate those links. I can think of some possible reasons to sell "just the router"
- Completeness. Sets of 1, 2, 3. "Buy what you want. We sell every combination!"
- Perhaps a customer wants to "try out" the product and see if they like it before omitting to an entire system.
(which is ridiculous, because mesh is such an essential part of the design. If someone is going to return the product, it is no harder to return a set than to return just the router.) - A customer has lost or damaged their router and needs a replacement to get their system working again.
- The router has failed and is more than a year old, and thus not eligible for warranty replacement.
The point remains. Netgear sells both "ordinary WiFi7 routers" and "Mesh" WiFi7 systems. "Mesh" is the entire point of purchasing a mesh router.
Years ago, people asked why Netgear did not make the backhaul WiFi channels available for front-haul on the RBR50 system. (I was one of them.) The answer was, "The system has to be ready. If a person plugs in a satellite, it has to work. If a person was using Ethernet backhaul and disconnects the cable, the system has to continue working."
Where does this stand-alone 971S router appear for sale?
(a URL would be helpful)
My guess is, "never in a million years".
It's been on sale as a single for a while, but you have to be careful because I think vendors/merchants might confuse it with a satellite:
Orbi 970 WiFi 7 Mesh Router System RBE971 – Exclusive
NETGEAR Orbi 970 - BE27000 WiFi 7 Quad-Band Mesh Whole Home Wireless System - Micro Center
(Thank you very much for the quick response)!
jzchen wrote:
It's been on sale as a single for a while, but you have to be careful because I think vendors/merchants might confuse it with a satellite:
Thanks for taking the time to locate those links. I can think of some possible reasons to sell "just the router"
- Completeness. Sets of 1, 2, 3. "Buy what you want. We sell every combination!"
- Perhaps a customer wants to "try out" the product and see if they like it before omitting to an entire system.
(which is ridiculous, because mesh is such an essential part of the design. If someone is going to return the product, it is no harder to return a set than to return just the router.) - A customer has lost or damaged their router and needs a replacement to get their system working again.
- The router has failed and is more than a year old, and thus not eligible for warranty replacement.
The point remains. Netgear sells both "ordinary WiFi7 routers" and "Mesh" WiFi7 systems. "Mesh" is the entire point of purchasing a mesh router.
Years ago, people asked why Netgear did not make the backhaul WiFi channels available for front-haul on the RBR50 system. (I was one of them.) The answer was, "The system has to be ready. If a person plugs in a satellite, it has to work. If a person was using Ethernet backhaul and disconnects the cable, the system has to continue working."
Thank you for sharing your past experience with Netgear WiFi Mesh.
My prior/old house was less than 3300 sq ft, so technically a single Orbi 970 router would cover the entire house. Why would I want a single Orbi 970 vs a Nighthawk RS700S? Because I'd prefer a BE27000 router over a BE19000. That's 42% more bandwidth availability over the Nighthawk. But if Netgear will not even consider making the 5 GHz-2 (or is it 5 GHz-1?) available for client use then I might as well get a TP-Link Archer BE900/BE24000, hence my question.