@eriklindgren wrote:
If it is true, Netgear marketing of the Orbi is really a scam! How can you call it a mesh system if it is not?
Can anybody confirm whether this is true or not?
In my experience, marketing terms are not nearly as precise as one might hope. Is Netgear's Orbi a "mesh" in the sense that every device can be configured to connect to the internet and every device establishes links to every other device? NO. All of the promotional material from Netgear shows clearly how the "router" is connected to the internet feed and the "satellites" are connected to the router in a star or "Daisy Chain" manner. There is nothing deceptive about the description of what it is. I certainly knew going in what I was purchasing.
Orbi (in my opinion) can be called a "Mesh" because the entire system acts as one large WiFi network, with the same SSID/password and devices can move seamlessly from one unit to another (and back) without the connection dropping. But what the marketing department calls something may be a way to attract my interest, but I'm certainly not going to spend money on it until I read up on how well it meets my needs.
What I find more "deceptive" is the way the WiFi industry has decided to label products by adding together the maximum theoretical bandwidth of every radio into a single term, such as "2200" or "3000". What a crock. Only devices (literally) next to a WiFi access point can come even close to connecting at those speeds, and how does the "backhaul" link contribute to anything useful to customers?
