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Forum Discussion
Which Satellite is compatible with Orbi RBR50?
I currently own an older RBR50 with two RBS50 Satetellites. It is my understanding that I can have a maximum of three Satetelites and if so, I would like to add a third and would like to know what i...
Every model of Orbi satellite is compatible with every Orbi router. (Wow)
People on the forum have reported having 5 or 6 satellites on their system. Apparently, there is a technique to adding satellites after three, but people seem confident that they have five or six active at the same time.
Out of curocioty, it would be interesting to know what others do in order to add more than three Satellites. I was not aware that all models of Orbi Satellites were compatible with the RBR50, so that is good news. Can one use another RBR50 as a Satellites without having to do reprograming?
I saw the tecnique in a post recently. Alas, I did not cut and paste it into my "Orbi Tidbits" file.
Netgear designed the RBR50 and RBS50 with what appears to be identical hardware (except for the yellow color on the WAN port), but unlike some other products, an Orbi router can only be a "router". It can NEVER be used as a satellite. (This leads to many routers available on eBay without satellites because customers found the "package" price so attractive that they purchased another RBK53 rather than two satellites and now have a surplus router on their hands.)
What can be done is to put the surplus router in Access Point mode, wire it with ethernet to the Orbi router, and use it as an "ordinary WiFi access point", like you could purchase for $50 at any store (Maybe even $25) It could have the exact same WiFi name (SSID) and password as the Orbi network, but would not be "part of" the network. Devices will not roam to/from it.
So, if you have an ethernet cable that runs to a place where you need WiFi and do not care that it is not integrated into the Orbi system, that would be one use of the surplus router.
I found the post:
To clairfy, there is a hard UI limit to the number of satellites that you can add. 3 is that limit. The users that have had 5-6 satellites have done so by systematically shutting prior satellites off as a new satellite is added to get around the UI limitation.
As I read this, it is the Orbi web interface (the "UI") that appears to be limited to three satellites. (I have only one, so I have no way to test this hypothesis.)
So, turn off some satellites and there is room on the web page to add another one. Then turn the satellites back on.
Would love to have confirmation that "this is how to do it."