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Introducing the Orbi 970 Series Mesh System with WiFi 7(BE) technology. For more information visit the NETGEAR Press Room.

Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
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Re: I must be lucky...

Mayhugh1
Apprentice

I must be lucky...

I bought the Orbi to replace a dated wireless Buffalo bridge that I setup 7 years ago between my house and a backyard machine shop I own. With the distance and numerous obstacles the 2.4 GHz had to pass through, I could only get a reasonably usable (5-10 mb/s) link by using 1 watt active antennas on each end of the bridge. The performance at the far end of my house was a bit better, and with the help of an Amped range extender I could get 12-15 mb/s on a good day. I could expect to have to reset the router and/or range extender maybe two or three times a week because, I suspect, of an interference issue. In my area I can see as many twenty other networks, and just one block away from my house there is a major highway intersection with several cameras and some serious looking antennas attached to them. Every day between 4pm and 6pm, my system throughput dropped to as little as 1 mb/s, and if I were going to have a dropout, it would happen during this time. I don't know for sure, but I always suspected those cameras were transmitting collected data during that time. To add insult to injury I pay the local cable provider for 100 mb/s internet.
I was always afraid of upgrading to a 5 GHz system because I felt it would be less apt to deal with the numerous obstacles between my two buildings. In any event I went shopping for a bgn router at the local Fry's hoping to at least improve the 4pm-6pm situation. I let a store employee who seemed pretty knowledgable talk me into the Orbi. I'd never even heard of a mesh network until that time. I bought the AC3000 with one satellite that I set up in the shop. The setup was pretty quick and painless, and I couldn't believe that most of my devices attached to the 5 GHz link, and for the first time I was getting a bit more than 100 mb/s from the devices in my shop as well as over most of my house except for a far end. Pumped with what I was seeing, I went back to Fry's and bought another satellite that I set up in the center of my house. Now with my iPad I get 100 mb/s everywhere on my property. Standing at that intersection which is about 150 feet away from my house, I still get an easy 20-30 mb/s which is the same rate I see inside my house during that strange 4pm-6pm time.
My system has been up for 5 days so far without a hiccup, and so needless to say I'm thrilled. I've studied many of the threads on this forum since finding it, and I have to say that if I had read them before buying, I would have steered clear of the Orbi. The problem with open support forums like this one is that it's people with problems that make a majority of the posts because they're looking for help. As a result, it's difficult for a prospective buyer to tell how many satisfied users are really out here. I figure there are probably lots of them or else Netgear wouldn't allow forum access to non-owners like some companies do. On the otherhand, I think forum moderaters could provide a bit more realtime feedback so some of the inevitable issues don't appear like they're being ignored to the point that users feel they have to threaten to abandon the brand to get attention.
I certainly don't have the IT knowledge or experience that many here seem to have, but one basic thing I learned from some bitter experience with the power grid in my area was to keep all my computers and WIFI equipment on power conditioning UPS's. There can be a lot of nasty stuff going on at that end of the system that can create problems at the other end.

 

Model: RBK50| Orbi AC3000 High-Performance Tri-Band WiFi System
Message 1 of 5
cue003
Apprentice

Re: I must be lucky...

Congrats on the upgrade to your property and that it is working out flawlessly. The members of this site and many forums online are very vocal and loud about problems that exist with whatever product(s) the forum represents but there are many other such as yourself that the product works great for. So for that I say congratulations and enjoy. Hopefully it continues to be rock solid for you as the firmware is updated as well. Many have started to see problems after firmware updates.

Message 2 of 5
Retired_Member
Not applicable

Re: I must be lucky...

try to stay away from manual fireware updates.

Message 3 of 5
Ely
Luminary
Luminary

Re: I must be lucky...

Congrats, welcome to the club, I have had Orbi for almost two years already and it has always ran great with absolutely no issues, I never had better Wi-Fi than this, you might see a lot of posts here from unhappy users, but after so many millions sold you would expect a few thousand users might have problems and this is one of the places they can come and express their frustation, it is understandable, I hope you enjoy your Orbi.

 

Message 4 of 5
OrbiMan
Luminary

Re: I must be lucky...

I am one of the decent one too. I have minor issues here and there. Maybe once a month or 2 I have to restart then entire set of router and sat when wifi started to act wonky. But otherwise maybe one or 2 disconnect. About 18 wifi devices. Speed could be better but not bad. Got good speed but not stellar
Message 5 of 5
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