Thanks for that reply - The compatibility chart did not come up in searches I did.
It seems this is an 'end of life' product and SRS60 is hard to find. RB50Y is compatible in extender mode only according to the chart. What does that mean in practical terms? A bit of a performance hit is OK so long as one can still move devices easily around the mesh network without having to select the access point once logged in.
It means that devices will not roam seamlessly between access points.
i.e. in "Extender Mode", the RBS50Y behaves like any WiFi Extender from any brand. Not what you want.
Probably time to look for
Refurbished products on Amazon
eBay
There is probably an explanation for why this entire product line has gone End of Life, but it is not the sort of thing companies feel compelled to make public.
Thanks for that. I will look for an SRS60 as you suggest.
Pity that there is not better backward compatibility with new products pairing to older routers. It's almost as if Netgear want us to start over with a whole new setup!
Part of the backward compatibility issue is simple: the WiFi6 (AX) products have a Qualcomm chip that allows for a higher capacity connection over 5G WiFi6. (1024QAM vs. 256QAM in the WiFi5 products). It would be complicated to keep track of how to communicate with satellites if they each have different radio chips. Likewise, what is the meaning settings such as "Enable AX" when some satellites are capable of 802.11ax and others are not?
I have no idea about "backward compatible" of the mesh WiFi systems from other vendors. (Google, eero, TP-Link, Asus, Velop, etc.
