Features:

  • Ultra-performance Mesh WiFi network blankets every inch of your home in super fast and seamless WiFi connectivity - room to room, wall to wall, floor to floor
  • Eliminates WiFi dead zones and buffering - 5,000 square feet of consistent coverage - with speeds up to 30 Gbps.
  • The most award-winning Mesh WiFi system on the planet: PC Mag, CNET, Wirecutter, Forbes, SmallNetBuilder.
  • Maintains speed even as more devices use your WiFi at the same time, thanks to patented tri-band technology. Ports -4 LAN Gigabit Ethernet ports.
  • Simple setup with the Orbi app - create guest network, access parental controls, perform speed tests, and more right from the appRefer to the PDF attached below in Technical Specification for Manuals.
  • NETGEAR Armor- Built-in anti-virus and data theft protection for all of your smartphones and computers. Protects your connected home from internet threats. Included trial covers unlimited devices.
Great product -- fast, easy to use, excellent coverage

This Orbi two-node system replaced a router and extender that we had. The results: better speed, especially at a distance from the base node, better reliablity, and only one network name to connect to (the old setup had 4 - 2 for the base router and 2 for the extender). Love that the Orbi picks the band that is best. It was extremely easy to set up, and configuring was also very easy. Our old network did reach all of the rooms in the house, but it was spotty at the edges. With the Orbi, we have good strong signal everywhere (house is about 3600 square feet, but has brick walls between the base node and much of the rest of the house.

The Absolute Best Wi-Fi System Out There. Highly Recommend

I have long been a fan of Netgear but I won't buy the latest and greatest unless it has a proven track record. After doing my research, being comfortable with the brand's reputation, and on the recommendation of an IT colleague, I decided hey, maybe I'll give this a try. My colleague had one too and loved it. I CAN TELL YOU, WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE IN BANDWIDTH SPEED! The speed increase was phenomenal.. the connectivity more stable with less buffering when streaming. My house is quite big with connectivity needs throughout. I purchased an additional Satellite to ensure I had the max coverage and all I can say is this is by far the best hands-down Wi-Fi system I know of. I looked at it's competitor but this rose to the top. Very easy to DIY set up, only the instruction leaflet could have been a bit more explanatory. I did do all the required firmware updates on initial install and thing s were fine but about 3 weeks in one Satellite was stuck on the yellow light on the ring. I checked online thinking it was doing another update but 10 hours later I returned from work to realize something is amiss. I called tech support (not the easiest thing to do) and they were polite, asked me to do a few tests and they surmised it needed replacement under warranty. I did get a replacement within a week and up and running ever since. I love the stability of performance and the fact that my speed is like blazing faster than what I had with a Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 beforehand.. This is totally awesome and I've recommended it at least 2x and they have bought also. Love this technology.

Finally something that covers my whole house without nerfing performance

Let me start with some quick house topography for you. My house as two floors and a basement. Basement: Approximately 1300sq ft First floor: Approximately 1500sq ft Second floor: Approximately 1700sq ft (there is a bonus bedroom above the garage) I have 50Mbps DSL that comes into the office, on the first floor. It's in the corner of the house, very far away from that bonus bedroom. In our old house, we had a TP Link Archer C9. That covered the house well. But with this new house, there were slow downs and dead spots not only. I believe this is not only because the new house is bigger, but also because the new house has full insulation in EVERY wall (even internal), making the signal harder to push through. I eventually added some signal boosters, and that helped, but only a little. So I needed something better. I researched a number of mesh routers, but after I found out about the performance drop for every node (e.g. if you connect direct to the router, you get 100% speed; if you connect to the first mesh node, you get 50% speed; if you connect to the second mesh node, you get 25% speed; etc) I was rethinking my position. I started to look into high powered devices, but didn't really trust that those would solve my problem. Then I found the Orbi. I read a lot of technical details and reviews, and I was sold on the idea of a dedicated wireless backhaul (since I don't have Ethernet to where I need it if I want a wired backhaul). Let me tell you, the reviews are right, this technology works great! After I first opened the router, I upgraded the firmware manually (after that, I have seen automatic firmware updates applied, which is nice!). Then I changed the router to be in Access Point (AP) mode so that it essentially works as an Ethernet switch and wireless access point, without needing to do the heavy lifting of the router duties. I chose this because my DSL modem is also a router (which I have turned off the wifi), and having a router behind a router has caused troubles for me in the past. This works great! Now I have great coverage all over my house. Even in that spare bedroom, I am pulling down 29-32 Mbps (previously, with the range extender, I would get 6-8 down). I can even mow the lawn on the other side of the garage, and I'm still getting a signal that pulls down 16-20 MBps. I can nearly watch a 4k stream out there! There are no dead spots at all in the house. I'm getting the full 48Mbps (this is what I generally see as top speed over Ethernet) in over half the house. And the drop off is not dramatic. t will only drop a few Mbps per room (to the low point in that spare bedroom). The only downside I have encountered so far is the lack of abilities I have when the router is in AP mode. For example I no longer get parental controls. There are many other things disabled (many of which make sense), but some which I would like back (I plan on contacting support, as they seem receptive to adding new abilities via firmware). 2 weeks in, and I couldn't be happier with this purchase. Netgear has finally won me over.

Love the coverage, ethernet-bridging, and advanced web-ui

Been using this for a month and I'm extremely happy with it. I have the router connected to an ISP-provided combo router/cable-modem which has been put into bridge mode (i.e., router & wifi disabled). Coupled with the satellite unit, we have complete coverage through the whole house -- can watch videos from the kitchen, driveway, front porch, and everywhere else. The fact that the 2 & 5 ghz networks have the same SSID also makes me happy. While I haven't had any problems with *my* devices (e.g., Nest thermostat, Ring Pro video doorbell, Android tablets/phones, Chrome & Linux laptops), it's possibly even more interesting that we have people in the house using this wifi every week (usually when there's an event and 5-10 people are on at a time) and not one person has complained (various devices, including Apple iPads/iPhones/Minis). I also particularly love the fact that the satellite has ethernet ports to make your life easier when running cables isn't an issue. This was in fact the feature that pushed me over the edge to purchase and I'm glad that it has worked seamlessly without any issues. (Unfortunately due to time constraints it was a plug-and-go situation; I haven't bothered to do any performance testing to compare bandwidth & latency plugged into the satellite vs base.) A nice surprise was the management features that Netgear's Genie app (for Android) makes available -- I love the network map and the ability to toggle internet access for a particular device. All around: this was exactly what I needed. That said, if you don't need the ethernet-bridging or advanced non-phone-app web-ui of the Orbi, you should certainly read reviews and consider some of the other new-style mesh wifi options as the competition is fierce.

Great Product

Looking for a mesh home wifi solution? I've now bought 3 of them, here is what I bought and my results: 1. Linksys Velop Tri-band Whole Home WiFi Mesh System, 2-Pack (coverage up to 4000 sq. ft) - http://amzn.to/2xCaDyf 2. Luma Whole Home WiFi (3 Pack - White) - http://amzn.to/2xmmDEE 3. NETGEAR Orbi Home WiFi System: AC3000 Tri Band Home Network with Router & Satellite Extender for up to 5,000sqft of WiFi coverage - http://amzn.to/2w7NENN 1. 120mbps at base unit, 40 mbps at satellite unit, 5 mbps at farthest point from base unit in my house 2. 120mbps at base unit, 25 mbps at closest satellite, 15 mbps at furthest satellite, 10mbps at farthest point from base unit in my house 3. 120mbps at base unit, 120mbps at satellite unit, 65 mbps at farthest point from base unit in my house Orbi is the clear winner for me.

WIFI Problems Solved

I had happily been using a Linksys EA9500 for almost two years until it recently started locking up and causing all our streaming TVs to stall. As I've not been too happy with the Linksys (Belkin) software/firmware support, I wanted to look for another vendor. I did a lot of research and settled on the RBK50 (1 RBR50 + 1 RBS50). I required enough WIFI in AP (bridge mode) to cover a 3800+ single story home. I placed the router (RBR40) in one corner of the house behind a pfsense router and the the satellite (RBS50) on the other side of the house intending to use ethernet backhaul. After some initial hurdles, this is now my setup. I'll share a few points you need to follow to get this set up: 1) Do the initial setup using the wifi backhaul 2) Update firmware to the latest 3) Set to AP (bridge) mode 4) Uncheck (DISABLE) Daisy-Chain Advanced-tab -> Advanced Setup -> Wireless Settings -> Enable Daisy-Chain Topology 5) Place the router and satellite in place and attach the ethernet wires using the ports on the router (don't use a switch). Once this is complete, you will enjoy seamless wifi covering your entire home and paremeter. I would like to point out that most of the managed services are disabled in AP mode. Here's what is left working: - Wireless Configuration - Attached Devices (router and satellite) - ReadySHARE Printer - Guest Network Settings - Add Orbi Satellite - Logs - Firmware Update - NTP Congiguration - Password - Backup Settings - Dynamic DNS - Static Routes

so this thing is absolutely amazing! My router/modem is located in our basement where ...

I mean I can't think of a single negative aspect. Hence the 5 out of 5 stars. Set up is easier and faster than making a sandwich. And I'm a sandwich ninja. Certified. Anyway, so this thing is absolutely amazing! My router/modem is located in our basement where the kids sleep (no it's not a dungeon, it's finished with cool stuff like a ping pong table and peace on earth) and upstairs was not getting a good WiFi signal at all. Pretty much useless. Once I installed the Orbi, the clouds parted and I heard angels singing "Whyyyyyy Fiiiiiiiiii". Life has returned to the upstairs area, the darkness has been lifted. I can now stream 1080 HD videos about food once again. (Sandwiches of course) - Thank you Orbi 1 Kenobi, you were my only hope.

Ridiculously Easy Setup, Stoopid Speed

My setup: 2 story house, 2500 sq. ft, w/ 1/4 acre lot; 100 mbps cable connection. Between mine and the kids' devices, will have 20-25 devices connected at peak, most wireless. I ordered this from AMZN Warehouse to replace a Netgear R7900 - lost a 2nd 5GHz channel, but gained MU-MIMO support (R7900P has MIMO, R7900 does not). I have 2 Rokus and a laptop with with MIMO capability and will upgrade any new laptops with an Intel 8265/92xx or Killer cards. Orbi RBK50 is simple to install... 1) plug in RBR (router base) and RBS (satellite); 2) satellite LED turns blue when it's synced to router; 3) Go to orbilogin.com and it's all on-screen prompts from there. I lost some time since I got a used RBK50 and didn't hold the Factory Reset button down long enough (30 seconds). When I did hold it long enough (40-60 seconds; power light will go steady green), it took less than 5 minutes to go from plugged in to whole home wifi. Observations: 1. Quick connection. The R7900 was fast; the Orbi is quicker on Ethernet and wifi connections. 2. Single SSID - Orbi decides QoS, priority, best connection btw 2.4 and 5 GHz channels. Router software allows you find your connected devices and define what they are (media server vs. iPad, for example). That's different than renaming the device so you know what's on your network; I wonder if defining the type of device leads to optimized handling on the network? 3. Orbi kit comes with a Cat 5e (100 mbps) cable. Why? Cat 6 (Gigabit) cables are so cheap now. Although you may not get true Gigabit speed for a cabled device, why make the cable the rate limiting factor? 4. Single SSID means if you want to change password, you will have to keep a single password that smart home devices can handle (most can only handle numbers and letters, no special characters). 5. Connections: router has USB 2.0 and 3 Ethernet ports. Satellite has 4 Ethernet and USB 2.0 port. The 3 Ethernet on the back of the router is odd, esp. since there's 4 on the satellite. And 2.0 vs. 3.x USB might cause a performance hit on NAS. I put most stuff in the cloud; I have a 5-port GB switch, and can probably hook up anything necessary (TiVo, server, etc.) through Ethernet. That's why you buy the Orbi - the backhaul channel runs at GB+ speed, and it's got the overall strongest signal and bandwidth pretty much anywhere in its range. Overall I like what I've seen. If you're going to get a new router anyway, my experience has been to make sure your "foundation" is solid. The foundation for a home network is the router, and it's OK to over-engineer that since it handles everything going in and out of your house. A router with MU-MIMO (Multi User Multi Input-Multi Output) is not necessary now, but will be as more devices take advantage of it.

So far so good!

So far so good. I did all the setup offline (I have a fairly complex system) and swapped out my RT-N66U. I now have my own signals stronger than my neighbors (condo) - finally! I had tried extenders (EX6200) which worked "OK" but the mesh system seems to do the job better. I would have preferred separate SSIDs but I can probably live with one. One thing I am VERY surprised at is not being able to set a login ID. Netgear only allows "admin" as the ID. Yes, you can change the password, and since the Orbi is behind my Uverse modem (WiFi disabled), getting at it from the outside would be difficult but c'mon Netgear, you should know better! Performance overall seems to be better than with my older RT-N66U, which I always thought did a great job. I do prefer the Asus GUI but the Orbi GUI isn't too bad, even if its a bit slow. Updating: of course the first thing you do is update the router - which is a generally easy process. You can update online or manually. I first tried online and the main router firmware downloaded fine but the satellites did not. The Netgear website shows firmware for the satellites but when I downloaded it, the zip file did not have a .img file, just a .chk file which appears to be an error on their part. But eventually the satellites updates themselves online and all was good. Netgear does say to update the satellites first but their online method seems to update the router first. But everything seems to be OK. One thing I would like to see added is signal strength for each connected device - it may be there somewhere if I dig deep enough.

Huge Improvement!!

We live in a 1900sq ft, two story condo that was just built one year ago. Since we moved in last year, we have been battling slow wifi speeds and poor signal strength. We started with Verizon Fios 100 mpbs and switched to Cox Cable 100 mpbs and the problems were the exact same (using rented modem/router and our Netgear extender). We upgraded our speed to 300 mbps and bought a Netgear AC1750 modem/router and hardwired everything we could. While this helped a little and proved to be a better setup, we still had the same issues. Technicians have told us, "it's the house", "it's the fire wall between the condos", "it's all the condo neighbors", etc. but never offered us a solution. We just had to accept the fact that 50-80 mbps wifi was as good as it gets on a 300 mbps plan. Our biggest issue is the inconvenience of having to change wifi networks (2.4 - 5 - and the extender) as needed, depending on where we are in the house. Thus, we decided to try the Orbi system. We purchased the 5000 sq ft setup. It may be overkill for our 1900 sq ft condo, but oh well. I setup the router in our smart box, connected directly to the Netgear AC1750 modem/router and placed the satellite upstairs. I don't know how to turn off the router function on the AC1750 so we still have three networks. One from the Orbi and two from the AC1750 (we disconnected the extender). I left everything we could hardwired into the modem and transferred all the wireless devices onto the Orbi system. I'm not sure if this is the best setup, or if I should move the Orbi to another area of the house using an in-direct connection to the modem or if I should replace the AC1750 with a different modem only, not a combo modem/router. If someone has a better suggestion, please let me know as I'm learning as I go here. The signal strength throughout the house is awesome. It's wonderful to not have to change networks every time I go up/down the stairs. Our only surprise is that our Ring Doorbell still says wifi signal strength is the same, "Good" and not "Very Good". We expected this to change and it did not. As for the wifi speed... amazing improvement!! I tested the wifi speed (downstairs) using three different speed tests, all within a minute of each other. The results were interesting: Orbi app test: 340 download - 32 upload Ring app test: 119 download - 32 upload Speedtest.net: 132 download - 32 upload I'm not sure why the Orbi speed test range is so much higher than others. I've done this multiple times, range is always about the same. All devices (that we can test) have an average speed of 130-150 download, testing downstairs, with speedtest.net. The only exception is a 4 year old ipad that tests 80 downstairs and only 20 upstairs I'm not sure why the speed drops so much upstairs, on all devices, nor do I know how to resolve this issue. Clearly we will never get the wifi speeds that we pay for. Still, the Orbi has been a huge improvement for us and I currently have zero complaints. I will update this if anything changes.

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