RB50 Netgear AC3000 not really Mesh - Satellite units not available

[snowmantruckee]

I have to agree with other postings. While the RB50 has very fast speed, the Netgear promo material leads one to believe that it is a mesh system, so that you can extend your coverage to areas that normally would not receive a signal. I installed the router and one satellite unit in a line, from upstairs to downstairs and the satellite signal was very weak. I thought I could put a unit halfway between those points to increase the signal. After reading other's comments it is obvious that this will not work. The router would have to be in the middle and that just won't work.

Secondly I literally could not find a satellite unit. Maybe Netgear has them but when I ordered on from Best Buy online (RBS50) they sent me the router (RBR50).  How can you roll out a system where you can't get additional units???

[djc6]

I am starting to see the satellite units for pre-order.  Example:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1279035-REG/netgear_rbs50_100nas_orbi_satellite_wi_fi_extende...

I bought mine at Costco; it came with 1 router and 2 satellites for $500 - cheaper than adding a satellite later.  Router is on first foor, satellite on 2nd floor and satellite in basement - works great!

I'm surrpised to hear your satellite has poor signal to router.  Are they really far apart?  The manual says "Amber for 10 seconds" on the satellite means its a "fair" signal and magenta means no signal - is this what you are experiencing?

[peteytesting]

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@snowmantruckee wrote:

While the RB50 has very fast speed, the Netgear promo material leads one to believe that it is a mesh system, so that you can extend your coverage to areas that normally would not receive a signal.

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that's correct it will get signal to where normal single transmission big honking router wont reach , but i don't really agree that the orbi advertising suggests its a typical mesh system , the advertising atm shows only the one router and sat and how they inter react , it doesn't at this stage do a great job of explaining how multiple sat's will work and maybe that's where the confusion came in for you

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@snowmantruckee wrote:

 I installed the router and one satellite unit in a line, from upstairs to downstairs and the satellite signal was very weak. I thought I could put a unit halfway between those points to increase the signal. After reading other's comments it is obvious that this will not work. The router would have to be in the middle and that just won't work.

Secondly I literally could not find a satellite unit. Maybe Netgear has them but when I ordered on from Best Buy online (RBS50) they sent me the router (RBR50).  How can you roll out a system where you can't get additional units???

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unfortunately if you cant locate the router in the middle than its prob best you return the orbi as it doesn't suit your needs , however make sure you read up on how other mesh type system actually work as there is quite some loss occurs when the signal has to go through multiple hops between mesh points

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@snowmantruckee wrote:

Secondly I literally could not find a satellite unit. Maybe Netgear has them but when I ordered on from Best Buy online (RBS50) they sent me the router (RBR50).  How can you roll out a system where you can't get additional units???

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the purchase separately sat units are still on the coming soon list , but again this prob wont solve your issue

[snowmantruckee]

I do have to make an addendum to my posts. After a lot of reading, a lot of experimenting, and research (and some luck), I did get the satellite unit to work and actually ended up with a pretty decent signal. That being said I still think they need to do some rethinking on their instructions. Two items come to mind. When referring to "the router" they need to be really clear are they referring to the Netgear router, or your existing router - perhaps refer to them as such.  Secondly since I suspect many users have an existing DSL router, and will be turning off the DSL router's wi-fi, spend more time clarifying how to do this, what settings to look for on the DSL router, etc. The information is in the user manual but it is spread out in various sections. In a perfect world you would just have to follow the simple setup instructions; however in the real world that isn't necessarily so. 

[peteytesting]

hi

your issue is because you are connecting to an upstream router and this causes ip conflicts 

the orbi instructions assumes you are directly connecting to pure internet connection where it will get a public ip address 

if you have a dsl modem you need to consider bridging it or setting the orbi router to AP mode to avoid dual nat and ip conflicts