Orbi Upgrade options and compatability

[sche]

This is for my home/office which has three floors.

I currently have an RBR40 router with one RBS40 satelite and a RBW30. The RBR40 struggles to maintain connection with both satelites across only two of the three floors. I have a DM200 modem.

I need to expand the system as I need some hard wired ports on the second floor of the house.

I am happy to replace the RBR40 router with something newer but am confused as to what my existing equipment will be compatible with.

It would be good to improve the network at the same time if thats possible as I have issues with the existing but do not want to replace everything as that seems a waste and alot of cost.

The Netgear website seems to be pushing the RBR20 but is that compatable with the RBS40 and the RBW30. Will it give many any improvement? It seems they are phasing out the RBK50 and the RBK852 is not compatible, expensive and would need to replace everything i have currently?

The options seem to be

Buy an RBK20 to replace the RBR40 and use the RBS20 on another floor £180

Buy an RBK50 to replace the RBR40 and use the RBS50 on another floor £305

Replace everything with the RBK853 with two satelites £969

I believe I can use the RBR40 in AP mode and still use the ports?

A final option could maybe be buy the RBK852 and hard wire a connection between both systems? £750 (this is the maximum i would be prepared to spend.)

Thanks

[FURRYe38]

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
Is your DM modem in router mode or modem only mode?

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What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. https://kb.netgear.com/000036466/How-far-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite-from-my-Orbi-router

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

Try enabling Beamforming and MIMO(MIMO may or maynot be needed) and WMM. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings

Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, Circle, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Set Short preamble instead of Long preamble modes. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update? 

[sche]

Thanks for your reply.

The issue I have with the current setup is the distance between router and satelites. Unfortunately its situated at the furthest perimeter of the building as that is where a) the BT connection is and b) its where the TV, Sky and majority of other devices are and i have them on wired connections.

Distance to satelites is just over 30 feet. The house was built in 1999 and they unfortunately did not have IT in mind then, so where the router should be (in the middle on the ground floor) there is either no power, no connectivity or/and no where to put a satellite or router.

My key issue at the moment is to get wired connections into the top floor for sky and the smart tv. I was using inline power repeaters but everytime i had an issue or an upgrade for them i had to climb under desks and move them to the same room to get them to resync. recently they stopped working altogether.

I missed out on some RBR40 kit on ebay this week, which would have been a solution. I am not sure i want to invest in any RBR50 kit as this will be superdeded with Wifi 6 RBK852 at some point. So currently I am thinking of buying that and linking the two systems together to get the ports i need in the places i need them.

Thanks for your other advice re Beamforming and MIMO. I have enabled them (am surprsed they are not enabled by default)

I have also done some signal analysis and my wifi is on channel 13 currently but i dont see any conflicts with other nearby houses

i did a factory reset last week after all my orbi units did an upgrade during the night and several devices were not able to pick up dhcp addresses. this also means they are on the latest version and two days ago i upgraded the dm200 as that was behind.

I did think about buying a mesh repeater just to solve my problem but the 2200 versions all seem to be out of stock. i am guessing everyone has had to improve wifi due to lockdown demands within their households.

[FURRYe38]

The two systems are not conpatible at this time wirelessly at this time.