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Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

Cswqueen
Tutor

Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

what are the main differences and how is the orbi better then the nighthawk 

Message 1 of 13
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

Orbi is designed for whole home Wi-Fi.

Many houses are too large to be served by simply a single wireless router. Up till now you'd typically get e.g. an R8000 then add a wireless range extender to try and cover the rest of the house.

Orbi is designed to be easy to setup. You have the same Wi-Fi SSID for both the router and the satellite so your devices can move between the two easily and not have blackspots. Designing the router and satellite to work together means that we're able to optimise this by dedicating a band to connecting the two in order to get the best results for extending the wireless network. To get the performance that Orbi provides in the past you would have to use wired access points which would require paying a licensed cabler to run ethernet cables around your home.

 

Often your phone/cable/fibre wiring terminates at one end of the house. This is where the Wi-Fi router tends to get put, but with the wireless router in a non-optimal location there's typically some blackspots (where you can't connect to Wi-Fi because you are out of range or the signal is so poor that it drops out a bit) around the house. To provide optimal wi-fi coverage you should have something in the centre of the home. That's where the satellite comes in handy.

 

With multiple satellites Orbi is able to cover larger homes than what's possible with a single satellite or if you prefer extend further into a large backyard (by placing a satellite at the back of your house).

You can continue to use the R8000 and place the Orbi router in AP (Access Point mode) if you want and still connect the satellite to the Orbi router.

 

Some users will want to keep things simple and get Orbi to handle the router tasks, others will just want it to do the whole home Wi-Fi. We're catering to both.

 

The Orbi doesn't make use of the USB port for connecting storage devices whereas the R8000 does.

 

If the R8000 covers your whole home (e.g. an apartment) without blackspots then it's a great option. The tri-band Wi-Fi allows you to put different clients on different bands to get best results.

With the Orbi system devices in different areas of the home would connect to the router or the satellite spreading the load that way. One of the bands on the Orbi is dedicated to communication between the router and the satellite, so can extend your network whilst maintaining performance.

 

It's not that one is better than the other, they are both great at what they do and designed for different needs.

Message 2 of 13
Hdg
Apprentice
Apprentice

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

Please Please Please make the USB ports v3.0 and allow them to be used for print server or external Drive (via Samba share)!!!!  There is so much potential.. It blows my mind why USB ports are included in hardware but useless in software!!

Message 3 of 13
mikestjames
Guide

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

So...on my current R7900 there are two 5Ghz bands and one 2.4Ghz band, all available to deviceds. Are you saying that Orbi only has TWO bands available for devices, reserving the 3rd band for communication between primary and satellite? With no waveform antennae, can signal propagation be as solid as with the X6 R7900? We have two Desktops (wired), three laptops, two tablets, two smartphones, one Arlo hub, and about a dozen WeMo devices aboard our current network. I've traied to spread them out among the three available bands. We pay for 150gbps DL/12gbps UL from Comcast, and I don't want to degrade performance by losing a band, or losing signal strength.

Message 4 of 13
DarrenM
Sr. NETGEAR Moderator

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

Hello mikestjames

 

The Orbi Wi-Fi system delivers 3 independent radios including one 2.4GHz band and two 5GHz bands for 802.1a/b/g/n/ac wireless devices. Smart Connect intelligently selects the best Wi-Fi band for each dual-band device to optimize connection speed and performance based on that device’s speed and performance capabilities.

 

DarrenM

Message 5 of 13
Cswqueen
Tutor

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

Thanks for the explanation, even though I am not very savvy on this, I still want the best connection available.  Right now I have 300mbs from time warner and I still have buffering problems on my tv and tablets whenever I watch any videos.  So I bought the nighthawk and a range extender and still buffering.  Will the orbi solve this?  Or adding an orbi make it better.  If I added an orbi, how would I do that as I'm not sure what an access point is.  I really appreciate your explanation as I'm confused 

thanks so much 

Message 6 of 13
mikestjames
Guide

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

To simplify the question, is one of the three Orbi bands dedicated to connection between the two pieces, and therefore unavailable for use by devices? I would like the blanket coverage, but we have a lot of devices spread as equally as possible between all three bands. Thanks,

Message 7 of 13
DarrenM
Sr. NETGEAR Moderator

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

Hello mikestjames

 

Yes it does but we have band steering in the Orbi which will help with the issue you are talking about it.

 

DarrenM

Message 8 of 13
Cswqueen
Tutor

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

Thanks for the explanation, even though I am not very savvy on this, I still want the best connection available. Right now I have 300mbs from time warner and I still have buffering problems on my tv and tablets whenever I watch any videos. So I bought the nighthawk and a range extender and still buffering. Will the orbi solve this? Or adding an orbi make it better. If I added an orbi, how would I do that as I'm not sure what an access point is. I really appreciate your explanation as I'm confused
thanks so much

Message 9 of 13
Cswqueen
Tutor

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

Thanks for the explanation, even though I am not very savvy on this, I still want the best connection available. Right now I have 300mbs from time warner and I still have buffering problems on my tv and tablets whenever I watch any videos. So I bought the nighthawk and a range extender and still buffering. Will the orbi solve this? Or adding an orbi make it better. If I added an orbi, how would I do that as I'm not sure what an access point is. I really appreciate your explanation as I'm confused
thanks so much

Message 10 of 13
AdamG620
Aspirant

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

[quote=mdgm] You can continue to use the R8000 and place the Orbi router in AP (Access Point mode) if you want and still connect the satellite to the Orbi router.[/quote]

 

Can you explain what this means?  

 

For example, I have a similar router (R7800).  My Uverse Gateway is running in bridge mode and the R7800 is my wireless router.  If I buy an Orbi, can I set the router to AP mode and run both the router and satellite off of my R7800 and get the same mesh network?

 

If I have the R7800 in the basement, would I place the Orbis halfway between the existing router and the places where I have reception challenges in the house?

 

Thanks!

Message 11 of 13

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000


@AdamG620 wrote:

[quote=mdgm] You can continue to use the R8000 and place the Orbi router in AP (Access Point mode) if you want and still connect the satellite to the Orbi router.[/quote]

 

Can you explain what this means?  

 

For example, I have a similar router (R7800).  My Uverse Gateway is running in bridge mode and the R7800 is my wireless router.  If I buy an Orbi, can I set the router to AP mode and run both the router and satellite off of my R7800 and get the same mesh network?

 

If I have the R7800 in the basement, would I place the Orbis halfway between the existing router and the places where I have reception challenges in the house?

 

Thanks!


 

hi 

 

you would run the r7800 with its wifi disabled and connect the orbi router to it and the orbi router would be set to ap mode eg bypassing its router , the sat works the same in both router and ap modes

 

as long as you have ethernet run from the r7800 to the place you want to run the orib router thats fine you can then place the sat where you want 

Message 12 of 13
NETthisGEAR
Apprentice

Re: Orbi vs nighthawk R8000

The R9000 is a much better comparison to the Orbi.

 

The Orbi is great for people with large homes that want something easy to set up. If your house is larger tha 5000 Sqgt then this is probably your best bet.

 

The R9000 is recommended for techies and people who want advanced features. You do not need to be a techie to use it. You can always add an extender or powerline to a certain area that this doesn't get if you home is very large.

Message 13 of 13
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