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Sorry for confusion. I returned it about 5-10 days afterward (back in January)...to COSTCO. They now have a $75.00 off offer on the 3-pk or RBK 50's. I'm thinking about trying it again (Yes, I'm STUPID, but it REALLY worked when it DID work!) in hopes that they may have issued a new hardware REV. or at least a fimrware update that actually IMPROVES something! 😞 Thoughts??
Waste of time in my opinion. Don't do it. Netgear has apparently designed this product for a very specific use case and decided to prioritize a cheaper lower performing version of it to attempt to compete with cheaper competition without recognizing the others have a broader market thanks to greater feature set as you rightfully brought up. I would fire the marketing and product management guys who wrote the business case for this if I was Netgear.
Generally speaking, it is more likely that there are important things that the team is prioritizing from their perspective and those things may not be visilble to end consumers. Product Management, especially for the consumer market, can be very challenging. Products are often rushed to market and in doing so the team must make compromises and incur tech debt. That tech debt may be easy or very difficult to pay off. Over time the capacity of the development team and release pipeline will shift towards customer demands, assuming they have the resources.
It would seem, however, that the (now almost 9 month) ongoing connectivity issue complaints (missing features notwithstanding), that NETGEAR would note a "pattern of deficiency" and would choose to address it. It's hard to market a "new" product when the existing predecessor seems to be mired in mediocrity.
NETGEAR has a DYNAMITE concept...they just need to make sure it doesn't "fizzle". Product quality and reliability drive sales...NOT abandonment and "flash".
Actually, its quite easy - what is the market opportunity for fixing an existing product versus introducing a new one? If you assume that 40% or more of the people with the old product will buy the new one perhaps it makes more sense to invest in the future...
I work in technology marketing and can tell you that's not the logic. It should always be existing customer first because they are always the best advocates to get new ones. Netgear though seem to think more like you.
I've worked in the industry for a long time. At the end of the day they are trying to make money. Smaller companies MUST focus on happy customers but larger companies do not necessarily share that same need.
I'm not advocating this approach, but thanks for passing judgement on me 🙂 I've seen all different approaches to the product.
People complaining here on this forum are unlikely to be the 'strategic customers' that Netgear 'must' listen to.
I had no intention of "sparking" a revolt. Just looking for a product that will deliver consistent/stable performance in a MESH environment. The ORBI was GREAT when it worked...I got 3-10X speeds over my existing HAWKING range extender in most areas of my home. Hence, my disappointment in the reliability AND in the somewhat rudimentary software interface that ORBI delivered.
Any news on this topic? I was talking with people from Netgear Netherlands last month and they told me that the firmware upgrade for Ethernet Backhaul would be available before august ( and yes.... in 2017).
Any news on this topic? I was talking with people from Netgear Netherlands last month and they told me that the firmware upgrade for Ethernet Backhaul would be available before august ( and yes.... in 2017).
there has been no time frame set at all for ethernet backhaul , the only comment made by the dev team is they are currently looking at working on a solution , beyond that anything else is a guess at this stage , but i can prob assure you it wont be by august
Hi, I don't understand your comment. Since when is this available (or will become available)? I know there was a requirement for this but it was in the same list as the Ethernet connection with the satelite.
Model: Orbi High-Performance AC3000 Tri-Band WiFi System (RBK50)
I gave up on waiting. The google wifi is cheaper and works a treat. Sorry Netgear, I felt releasing without this feature really tricked a lot of people into expecting something we assumed was there. Every other system has this, and it's not really complete without it. 😞
I would also really like to see wired backhaul. I live in a large home and just cannot place the router in the center point in the home (the Kitchen/living room, which are off limits for tech gadgetry). As a result, the router on one edge of the house cannot reach the other side, no matter how many satellites I use.
However, the whole house is wired, so if they were able to communicate via backhaul, I could cover all areas easily.
Unfortunately I'll have to return mine until the feature shows up as the setup isn't usable for me without it.
However, the whole house is wired, so if they were able to communicate via backhaul, I could cover all areas easily.
Unfortunately I'll have to return mine until the feature shows up as the setup isn't usable for me without it.
If your whole house is already wired, a far better soulution than Orbi or any "mesh" system is to install a few wired access points.
Agreed, and that's actually what I have now (prior to purchasing the Orbi).
However, I liked the idea of the simplicity of the Orbi using a single SSID with higher speeds. It so far generally delivers the higher speeds, but the coverage is actually quite a bit worse, so I'll be switching back to the multi-AP setup I had prior.
