EERO Gen 2 Vs Orbi - What’s the Fastest WiFi Mesh System? TheWirecutter.com

[BretD]

TheWirecutter.com pit EERO Gen 2 vs. Orbi vs. Plume and even Google WiFi and other WiFi systems. See how Orbi Wins the WiFi Race

[HockeyStick]

Since the Orbi is a piece of garbage that will drop your connection continuously, I'd vote for any other product other than this one.  I wish I had never purchased mine.

[Mikey94025]

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@HockeyStick wrote:

Since the Orbi is a piece of garbage that will drop your connection continuously, I'd vote for any other product other than this one.  I wish I had never purchased mine.

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Fortunately, the Orbi works great in my household and doesn't "drop my connection continuously."

[Ely]

Orbi is an awesome product, simply the best Wi-Fi I have ever owned in over 25 years using the internet.

[dpdurst]

A few hiccups here and there but outside of this the Orbi has rocked it and performance beats anything else so far I have installed. I'll keep my Orbi thanks..

[Snorky]

Unfortunately, mine drops connection and reconnects about every 10 minutes. Orbi connected to Netgear C3700 Cable Modem/Router.

I have moved satellite 2 3 different locations, same problem since day (about a month now).

[martyfp]

Apart from early hiccups, our Orbi has been very stable and dishes out great wifi around the house. Our previous head-spot issues are behind us.

If Netgear add a working the QoS support and USB drive capabilities to the Orbi then it would be perfect.

[tagteam]

I'm not sure whether I was just fortunate or something, but the Orbi system I bought from Costco (RBK53) worked perfectly straight out of the box and setup was an absolute breeze.

When I switched internet providers (cable to fiber), all I had to do was replace my Netgear cable modem/router with the Orbi router and replace my two range extenders with the Orbi satellites.

In fact, since setup was almost too simple, speeds and connections were fine, and everything else appeared to be running smoothly, I was actually afraid to upgrade the firmware that was on the system (1.4.x) to the latest immediately. Instead, one day I logged in and noticed the firmware had auto-upgraded with zero issues and I've had none since.

Moreover, no dropouts or disconnects that I used to experience rather frequently with my range extenders. I am, however, keeping my fingers crossed that I don't experience anything untoward at some point in the future.

[martinhj]

I would have to agree!

[martinhj]

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@Ely wrote:

Orbi is an awesome product, simply the best Wi-Fi I have ever owned in over 25 years using the internet.

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I would have to agree! (with the quote to what I was agreeing with!)

[TonyTiger]

Hi,

Regarding performance and coverage I must say that Im impressed so far. 

  //BR Tony

[RogerSC]

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@Ely wrote:

Orbi is an awesome product, simply the best Wi-Fi I have ever owned in over 25 years using the internet.

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Another "old timer" here *smile*. I have to agree, great wireless throughout my house. First time ever...makes a great wireless AP, very happy with it. The eero would be my second choice if the Orbi hadn't worked as well as it has.

[Guyfromunion]

I have to agree My orbi drops connections all the time.

[VillagesAV]

I was an early adopter to Orbi and the internet may not be available was so annoying I had to buy the gen 2 EERO Pro Set a few weeks back. No more random drops, just a solid connection in all corners of my home. The Orbi is now a $350 doorstop. Get your sh$£ together Netgear, this products firmware needs alot of work. Stability 1st

[VillagesAV]

I was an early adopter to Orbi and the internet may not be available was so annoying I had to buy the gen 2 EERO Pro Set a few weeks back. No more random drops, just a solid connection in all corners of my home. The Orbi is now a $350 doorstop. Get your sh$£ together Netgear, this products firmware needs alot of work. Stability 1st

[Greyhawk68]

I bought the Orbi for the speed and the dedicated backhaul channel (and the ethernet ports.  It's been stable since I got it last January, but since the end of October it frequently disconnects.  I've tried every remedy people have suggested here and none have worked.  It's beyond frustrating at this point and is driving me crazy.  I'm not alone.  For those that it's still working perfectly, I'm happy for you, because I don't want to you to go through what many of us are.

When it works, it's brilliant, but when it disconnects several times a day and leaves everything in limbo, it's a huge pain.

[st_shaw]

That's around the time the v2.0 firmware was released.  That firmware apears to have reduced the range of the backhaul.

Many people have needed to change the location of their Orbi router and/or satellites so they are closer and/or have fewer walls between.  Unless something changed in your RF environment, repositioning things should be the only change you need to make.

The v2.0 firmware also added the daisy-chain topology, which might work for you, but requires changing the device locations also.  For daisy-chain you need to have a layout like: router <-> sat <-> sat

[Raka1212]

Just got RKB53 Costco system and installed with breeze. Have full throttle connection in entire house with router in basement and two sat on 1st and 2nd floor. It came with firmware version 1.8X and working fine. I see too many people having issue after v2 upgrade. It wonders me if should I upgrade to v2x or leave it alone untile Netgear comes up with stable firmware?

[martinhj]

Personally I have had no issues with 2.0.0.74

[mastervisa30]

I have been using firmware 2.0.0.74 on my RBK53(one router and two satellites)have been working great:)up and running 14days now and no issues so far

[tagteam]

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Raka1212 wrote:

...if should I upgrade to v2x or leave it alone untile Netgear comes up with stable firmware?

I also bought an RBK53 from Costco and it came with firmware version 1.4.x, with which I had absolutely no issues. After several weeks, more or less, I noticed that the system had auto-upgraded to v2.0.0.74 and I was initially concerned. However, I have had zero issues with this latest firmware version; it's been perfectly stable in my case.

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[Snorky]

I have had so many service interruptions (seems to be caused by the satellite) that when the Orbi misbehaves my computers that are wired to the cable modem/router (Netgear C3700) can't get access to the Internet. If I take the satellite out of the picture, the Orbi main unit behaves fairly normally....although I don't get the range.

The bottom line is I am so fed up with dealing with this I got a Google Wifi with 3 nodes, it works perfectly, great range....not quite as fast as the Orbi (when the Orbi works which is about 75% of the time).

I am hoping I can get Netgear to RMA the whole package so I can sell it on eBay, becuase I have zero faith in Netgear fixing it.

[Retired_Member]

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@Snorky wrote:

I have had so many service interruptions (seems to be caused by the satellite) that when the Orbi misbehaves my computers that are wired to the cable modem/router (Netgear C3700) can't get access to the Internet. If I take the satellite out of the picture, the Orbi main unit behaves fairly normally....although I don't get the range.

The bottom line is I am so fed up with dealing with this I got a Google Wifi with 3 nodes, it works perfectly, great range....not quite as fast as the Orbi (when the Orbi works which is about 75% of the time).

I am hoping I can get Netgear to RMA the whole package so I can sell it on eBay, becuase I have zero faith in Netgear fixing it.

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Yep, that's a common problem people have around here.  It's not the performance when it works, but the stability.  The Google Wifi is much slower, but rock stable from what I read.

[RogerSC]

After you guys have had your Orbi's for a while, you'll find that you have no choice about upgrading your firmware. The Orbi auto-flashes the latest firmware eventually. It may take several days, but it will happen. I'm not personally happy with this, but at the moment I'm using the 2.0.0.76 Beta (which I manually flashed), and that's working really well for me. As did 2.0.0.74, but the wireless signal strength on the 2.0.0.76 Beta seems a little stronger here. So I'm not really upset about the lack of control over the firmware version at the moment, but the time may come :-).

[tagteam]

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RogerSC wrote:

...The Orbi auto-flashes the latest firmware eventually. It may take several days, but it will happen...

If there is one thing I could change about the system, that would be it = allow users to disable firmware auto-updates. I imagine that would be a relatively simple option to add to the firmware and the default could be set to "enable".

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