Disable, reduce or turn off broadcast capability

Netgear made a horrible decision to not include this feature for such an expensive product.  I plan to return my Orbi 6 and buy an alternative that has more features.  I upgraded my nighthawk router, but will likely not buy Netgear again due to the poor design and leadership decisions they appear to be making.

I partly feel that a number of IoT devices need ssid broadcast to work properly.  Many probably disable it and thus result in support time/calls = money.  They fail to remember people like me that work in IT make recommendations to pretty much everyone we know.  While I agree netgear orbi 6 appears to be solid... I'd simply recommend the plethora of alternative mesh devices that are solid and maintain features and customizability

It's sheer idiocy that this feature is missing from a $1,000 device. I had this on my LinkSys 15 years ago. Completely absurd.

I agree - Netgear needs to add this feature back.  

You can reude the power output of the RBRs radios. 

Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

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LukeM wrote:

Hi,

I have an Orbi RBR850 with two sattelites. I have some Smart LED lights that I want to connect to my home management software. Like many IoT devices, they can only connect via the 2.4 GHz band, not the 5 GHz band. Whilst I am the first to agree that it is idealogically wrong that the router should need to be dumbed down to suit lazy/dated installation software, the reality is that it could take some time before the majority of IoT devices work with the 5GHz band. 

 

As a consequence, setting them up is a nightmare, because almost all run on Android/iOS apps on a smartphone and, of course, most smartphones grab the 5 GHz connection when they can. Although there are workarounds such as going far enough away that the 5 GHz signal is out of range but the 2.4 still in range, these are not practical and may not be possible for e.g. people living in apartments, etc. 

 

It would be very useful to be able to temporarily disable one or other of the broadcasts, or diminish the output to the point that it is effectively the same. Alternatively, the possibility to operate them on different SSIDs would work, although I understand this is contra to the whole idea of Mesh and a seamless experience when a device is mobile. 

 

Anyway, if you do not ask... (And I am sure I am not the first, so this post is more about getting the number of requests up).

 

Thanks,

Luke

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Hi FURRYe38,

fair point, but then my question is: Why only give us 25/50/100 as options? If you could also select 0 (or even a trivial number like 1, if reduction to zero is technically problematic), then this would be a workable solution. But if you are in a small apartment 25% may still be strong enough that you need to leave the apartment in order to be out of range. I know to install my IoT devices, I had to go down to the back of the garden to do it, which was a pain because the devices I was installing were inside the house and so I had to signal my partner each time to sync the pairing mode on the target and the installation app. No fun when you have 6 smart bulbs to do ;)...

Overall, I am pretty happy with my Orbi and do not regret the purchase in any way. But I can empathise with the outcries from others that in a premium device like this, we should not have to come up with complicated workarounds, especially when the desired capability exists on lower market/older alternatives, even from the same manufacturer. I accept that the ultimate fault lies with shoddy device manufacturers who do not invest in better installation software; and that the feature we want is at odds with the whole principle of mesh networks. But at the same time, knowing how disparate and lagging the whole IoT market is, a premium product should give the owner the choice to go against the principles of mesh if and when the need arises.