Netgear Orbi RBK53 topology question

[scottyspw]

Hi, 

I had a quick question regarding my Orbi setup and what I want to do. 

For context I have a large terraced old Victorian house that's 3 floors with thick walls so WiFi signal has never been good.  I've had the orbi's for over a year now connected through the wireless backhaul.  Majority of the time they've been good barring occasions of resetting and satellites dropping out.  My brother who's on the third floor has the most problems, bad connection speeds, connection dropping etc which if any of you are gamers can make you lose sanity haha! 

Anyway, I will discuss my current topology and move on to the proposed... 

Current 

Virgin router in modem mode in my office - room A (my office is probably the worst location in the house for any WiFi but most locations aren't great and by office I mostly mean gaming den) The orbi router directly connected doing the routing work.  Then two satellites placed adjacent in two bedrooms throughout the middle of the house to give the best 802.11 coverage. 

With this topology I currently get the issues above and it's a constant pain resetting them and logging in for them to show they're connected and working but to have my brother constantly complain at me.  I would say I'm no expert in networking but competent enough for this to bug me where I would like it all too just be working well as intended, reliable speeds and connection with no issues. 

Proposed 

Moving the virgin hub into my bedroom (this is where the 3rd satellite is, probably the most central room to the house.... my brothers room is above this).  Have the virgin hub as the router and then connect my orbi router as an AP via ethernet into my office.   

TLDR:

My main question which I can't seem to find is if I can connect an orbi satellite directly to my virgin hub via ethernet cable into my brothers room or if I'm just better off getting a new AP or switch as all I've seen so far is satellites always connected through the orbi router. 

Any tips or advice would be great  

[plemans]

Do you have coax throughout the house? 

If so I'd check into using MoCa adapters (ethernet over coax) for a wired backhaul. You could also investigate using powerline adapters for a wired backhaul. Powerline is a bit sensitive to interference and some older wiring struggles with it. Reason I mention this is many older victorian houses had plaster lathe walls. Which do an amazing job of blocking wifi signals. Finding a way to hardwire in a backhaul would do much more for fixing your connections issues. 

If that's not a possibility, I'd switch to a star (ish) arrangement instead of daisy chain.

Daisy chain:  Router-----satellite----satellite-----satelite.

Star: satellite----router-----satellite        

It might help, or it might not depending on your house. 

[FURRYe38]

If you home has built in LAN connections, or add LAN connections throughout the home, you can connect Orbi and it's satellites via ethernet cable as well. 

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
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

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@scottyspw wrote:

Hi, 

I had a quick question regarding my Orbi setup and what I want to do. 

For context I have a large terraced old Victorian house that's 3 floors with thick walls so WiFi signal has never been good.  I've had the orbi's for over a year now connected through the wireless backhaul.  Majority of the time they've been good barring occasions of resetting and satellites dropping out.  My brother who's on the third floor has the most problems, bad connection speeds, connection dropping etc which if any of you are gamers can make you lose sanity haha! 

Anyway, I will discuss my current topology and move on to the proposed... 

Current 

Virgin router in modem mode in my office - room A (my office is probably the worst location in the house for any WiFi but most locations aren't great and by office I mostly mean gaming den) The orbi router directly connected doing the routing work.  Then two satellites placed adjacent in two bedrooms throughout the middle of the house to give the best 802.11 coverage. 

With this topology I currently get the issues above and it's a constant pain resetting them and logging in for them to show they're connected and working but to have my brother constantly complain at me.  I would say I'm no expert in networking but competent enough for this to bug me where I would like it all too just be working well as intended, reliable speeds and connection with no issues. 

Proposed 

Moving the virgin hub into my bedroom (this is where the 3rd satellite is, probably the most central room to the house.... my brothers room is above this).  Have the virgin hub as the router and then connect my orbi router as an AP via ethernet into my office.   

TLDR:

My main question which I can't seem to find is if I can connect an orbi satellite directly to my virgin hub via ethernet cable into my brothers room or if I'm just better off getting a new AP or switch as all I've seen so far is satellites always connected through the orbi router. 

Any tips or advice would be great  

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