Add AirPort Extreme to Orbi Mesh Network

[NDH]

Hey all 😄

I've seen quite a few questions like this, but no really specific answers that I can make out.

I now have the Orbi set up at home (1 Router in AP mode, and 2 Satellites around the house).

I'll be converting the garage into an office next month, and will run 2 ethernet cables down there which will be connected to my network switch.

Can I connect an old AirPort Extreme in the new office (via ethernet, which will connect to the switch), and hook it up to the Orbi network?

Will it effectively work as a new Satellite and offer the seamless roaming experience? Or will it simply give me the same WiFi network, without the hand off type functionality?

My concern is that it's likely the office will pick up a faint signal from one of the existing Orbi Satellites, and likewise, the house will pick up a faint signal from the AirPort Extreme - I wouldn't want my devices to hold onto that signal when moving between the house and the office.

Thoughts?

[plemans]

---

I'll be converting the garage into an office next month, and will run 2 ethernet cables down there which will be connected to my network switch.

Great plan! much better than trying to use wireless to get that far. 

Can I connect an old AirPort Extreme in the new office (via ethernet, which will connect to the switch), and hook it up to the Orbi network?

sure you can! Make sure its setup as a wireless access point so you're not running into a double nat setup. https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-Double-NAT

Will it effectively work as a new Satellite and offer the seamless roaming experience? Or will it simply give me the same WiFi network, without the hand off type functionality?  No, it won't work as a new satellite with seamless roaming. You can set a seperate ssid for it and manually connect to it. there's also apps out that that help with roaming between ssids better. You can check into those. For the truly wireless roaming experience, you'd need another Orbi satellite. Not the airport.  

My concern is that it's likely the office will pick up a faint signal from one of the existing Orbi Satellites, and likewise, the house will pick up a faint signal from the AirPort Extreme - I wouldn't want my devices to hold onto that signal when moving between the house and the office.

They will tend to hold onto the signal. thats those apps I mentioned that you can setup to make your device switch between ssid's based off strength. Or you could buy another satellite (my recomendation) and hardwire it in for wired backhaul. This will keep your seamless roaming without having to mix and match solutions to make them work. 

Thoughts?

---

[NDH]

That is incredibly helpful - Thank you.

Second question if I may......

I bought the RBK23 set up last week, so still well within the return window.

Amazon have the RBK50 (router and satellite) on sale for £219.00 and the RBS50 on sale for £139.00.

I take it I can't use a Satellite as a router? Although my Orbi router is in AP mode, so could a Satellite replace it here?

The RBK23 cost me £219 (same price as the RBK50 currently is), although the 3 access points work better for me due to the extra ethernet ports.

I could potentially get away with just 2 of the current Orbi's in the house, and move the 3rd to the garage next month - But I fear this will force a few devices to move to the 2.4GHz network at home.

What do you think would be the best route here?

Thanks again 😄

[plemans]

---

@NDH wrote:

That is incredibly helpful - Thank you.

I take it I can't use a Satellite as a router? Although my Orbi router is in AP mode, so could a Satellite replace it here?  No, you have to have one orbi router in the setup. 

The RBK23 cost me £219 (same price as the RBK50 currently is), although the 3 access points work better for me due to the extra ethernet ports.

I could potentially get away with just 2 of the current Orbi's in the house, and move the 3rd to the garage next month - But I fear this will force a few devices to move to the 2.4GHz network at home.

What do you think would be the best route here?  Best route? Try it.  Unplug one of the RBS20's from the house and see how it works for a couple days with 2 of them. If it works great, then you don't have to worry about returning the kit and upgrading. Plus if you're running them with a hardwired backhaul, the upgrade to the rbs50's isn't as much of an upgrade in this mainly affects the backhaul. 

If it doesn't quite cut it after a couple days of running, then upgrade. 

---

[NDH]

I feared you'd say that - The Amazon offer is only for today (it's "deal of the day"), so I don't have too long to decide.

I've unplugged the one that I would remove (to put in the garage), and the signal is still fine, but it reverts back to the 2.4GHz network on my iPhone (annoying).

I used to have just 1 AirPort Extreme for the entire house which covered it in 5GHz speeds for the most part (2 separate SSID's for each frequency).

We are also upgrading from ADSL which runs at 17mbps to Fibre which runs at 36mbps (happening on Thursday).

This may make enough of a difference that I don't need to worry about the 2.4GHz network speeds in the living room, and mean I don't have to buy a 4th AP.

Does that sound like a reasonable assesment (given you clearly know about this, and I really don't!) lol.

Thanks again.

[plemans]

How large is your house? Material its made from? Concrete, brick, hvac, and foil lined insulation do a great job of blocking signals. Moving them around to optimize can help with speeds.

the iphone might switch back to 5ghz. Orbi dynamically adjusts for bandwidth distance needs. 

How many wireless devices on your network?

Orbi should be able to max out a 36mbps connection without much problems so it sounds pretty reasonable.