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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."
Orbi systems have never offered the wireless BH for user connections. Something NG chooses to keep only for the wireless BH for the RBS. They may have good reason for doing that and with MESH being complex, they may choose to keep it that way. If you want and need access to front haul or other wifi radios, then you should get a stand alone non MESH router that had tri band support and access to all 3 radios. Something that NGs Nighthawk RS series routers and older series router support.
Be aware of that Mfr, they are under scrutiny.
Good Luck.
Thanks everyone for the responses.
I'm not surprised that Netgear keeps 5 GHz-1 locked as backhaul, although wishful/hopeful that they didn't. One of my current quad band routers' 6 GHz-2 was locked to backhaul for a while, even though on their Community I asked and a team member (works for said company,) said it was available. Eventually, maybe within the last couple of months it was unlocked...
I find a quad band router with dual 5 GHz radios a good model in the transition from 2.4 and 5 GHz to 6 GHz devices. There are very few models sold that match this: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz-1, 5 GHz-2, and 6 GHz (I know of 2 models), although this would probably be most useful, or more useful than the seemingly more available 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz-1, and 6 GHz-2 (I know of 3 models).
Thank you again for all your thoughtful responses.