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Forum Discussion
HomeKit Router
Will Netgear (Orbi) support iOS 13 with a HomeKit Router?
I perfectly understood your request and was offering help, that maybe you didn't want? Apologies for that.
IMHO Eeros is inferior to Netgear and other mesh competitors, but it is affordable, which is why it is popular.
We used to install them as a cheap alternative, but the coverage was never near what they advertise so we got complaints.
Now we consistantly go with Netgear Orbi and one other quality brand.
I would keep that in consideration, when switching to a product that may not give you the coverage you are used to.
I guess I didn't understand that you were offering help. In my view there was no help to be given seeing as how Orbi are not HomeKit Routers and they haven't made an announcement saying they would provide an udpate to adde that functionality. There's no help to offer when it's not a feature/function available. I was simply posting to make an overt feature request and add my voice to others in the community who also want Orbi to have HomeKit enabled routers.
As for quality of coverage, I've not been terribly impressed. Our home is about 2100sqft and I had to upgrade to the RBR50 with 2 satelites to get adequate coverage. I'm thinknig of getting Linksys with 4 nodes and will definitely pull the trigger when they release their HomeKit upgrade. They announced it's "Coming Soon" and while it looks like they missed the summer release plan it's still pending, thus why I'm waiting but not holding my breath and in the meantime if Netgear announces they will also, I may just sit with my current setup and I may even invest in a 3rd satelite.
Another disappointing shortcoming of Netgear's is that even they they offer both Orbi and Arlo product, they don't interact/support each other. In my view it's a horrible missed opportunity to not take advantage of Arlo's hubs to help extend WiFi range when paired with an Orbi AP system. Arlo's wireless scheme is nothing more than another WiFi network (albeit private). Why not take advantage of it and offer an Orbi Arlo enabled. In a way it would be a lot like what Apple offers with HomeKit protocol for routers. It would help improve wireless coverage and even reduce noise. Besides my Orbi with 2 satelites, I have 2 Arlo hubs to provide adequate coverage for our 5 cameras. That's 3 separate WiFi networks broadcasting at our home and that even with Guest access disabled. With Guest access enabled, we're talking 4 competing WiFi networks in a single home!
- NEW technology where no hubs are needed will dominate the smart home industry. Even Amazon is moving away from it, with their "Certified for Humans" technology and Google is following. More and more inexpensive devices are on the market fueling the change.
An Orbi RBK23 system would totally cover a 2100 sq ft. home.
With that many networks it will definitely slow the WIFI Down, hence why your speed suffers. You're right, I should have been fine with the RBK23 and it was woefully inaduquate to blanket our home even with one satelite. I had to return it after a few weeks testing it out and it was horribly slow. There were spots indoors that didn't get coverage at all - before even adding Arlo hubs. Our walls (interior and exterior) are solid and thicker than new stick and cardboard homes in the US. I upgraded to the RBK53 (RBR50 + 2 RBS50 satelites) and that dramatically improved performance, coverage, and even extended outdoors by placing one of the satelites by a window and the main router by another window. It's why I'm leaning towards Linksys, not only for it's "coming soon" HomeKit enabled feature, but the kit I'm looking at getting would have 4 nodes which will give me greater flexibity to blanket indoors and even an outdoor structure.
I like your idea of "NEW technology" where no hubs are needed. Please influence Netgear to ditch Arlo hubs and have their cameras connect directly to Orbi or to be able to be paired with any WiFi network. Arlo hubs are horrible in that not only do they broadcast their own private WiFi network, they don't even play with other Arlo Hubs. When you pair a camera to a hub, that's it, it won't "load balance" or float between available Arlo Hubs on a single network. That was a huge surprise and disapointment.
Good bye Orbi and hello Linksys Velop that are now officially HomeKit enabled! I returned my Orbi RBR50 kit with two satellites yesterday and have been enjoying my new Linksys Velop nodes. Per node the coverage is actually much better, they take up less than half the space, and to boot they improve my network security now that they "Work with HomeKit"! I think the only thing I miss about Orbi is Circle, but that's easy enough to replace given NetGear only offered "1st gen Circle".
https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=316767