Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Netgear orbi Whole Home Mesh Wifi System with Tri-Band - Wireless router replacement, Eliminate Wifi Dead Zones, Up to 5000 Sqft, 2pk (rbk50)

302 total ratings, 171 with reviews

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From the United States

netgear support is total crap, orbi too slow

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2021

connection issues, wifi speed too slow. multiple hours on phone with tech support, I repeat multiple hours & several case numbers later, problem still not resolved, 6 month old system they wont replace 4 months old thinking ill just eat th ecosts & go buy a different system

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From other countries

athomas

Easy to setup and superfast wifi

Reviewed in Canada on December 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

I was having wifi issues with my Asus router. I loved the Asus router and the wifi worked well, but it couldn't reach the far end of my house and out to my back yard. I was going to put an AP on it, but that would require a manual disconnect and reconnect to move around the house. I investigated mesh wifi and decided on the Netgear RBK50 router and satellite. It was a good decision. The setup was easy and it worked amazingly fast, even at the far reaches of my property. It has never let me down for the past year and a half. I could move around the house and property without having to change wifi connections. Its so convenient.

We recently sold our house and moved in with a friend during the transition to a new one. I hooked the RBK50 wifi system up to the Fibre Op, and it just required plugging it in. I didn't have to change any of my settings. It just worked, and worked well. I was getting full 500Mbs download speed everywhere, which is the max speed of our internet. The bonus was the ability of having a hard line ethernet connection in the satellite for an office computer and other devices that didn't have a wifi dongle. It was like having a wired connection without having to run any ethernet cables.

Overall, one of the best computer related purchases I ever made. I am super happy with it.

One person found this helpful

Rootladge

Great product

Reviewed in Canada on June 11, 2021

Verified Purchase

The ORBI NEST system was recommended by a tech guru I trust and I am not disappointed. I live in a house with two foot thick stone walls and wanted to improve my coverage outside. ORBI did the trick. Initially I had some issues related to other WIFI systems but after turning off the wifi on my modem/router ORBI took off. The app comes with a wifi analyzer that allowed me to position the router and satellite for optimum performance and now all my devices work very well on the patio and out into the yard. I may need another satellite to cover my workshop but that is the nice thing about the system. You can add daisy chained satellites to cover as far as you need. The dedicated high speed channel used exclusively by the router and satellites yields excellent results. I am getting an average of 25 MB/s down and 10-15 up outside where I needed it. Movie load on my Fire TV sticks all over the house very quickly. It also comes with several security and privacy features including a VPN to protect you.

Disappointed. Your satisfaction may depend upon what you're moving up from...

Reviewed in Canada on June 26, 2017

Verified Purchase

I had a setup with an Apple Airport Extreme acting as a router with two older Airports setup as wired access points (using network powerline adapters), One in my basement and one on the second floor (Airport Extreme Router on main floor). This has worked well for over a year. Unfortunately the Airport Extreme was starting to overheat and shut down regularly so I bought the hype of the new mesh router systems and decided to try the Orbi based upon reviews.

Manage your expectations for this system. IF you are coming up from a simple router, or a router with WIFI extenders - you may be happy with the results. I was very disappointed. The range was inferior to my Airport Extreme - and I could not get a connection in my detached garage (about 30 feet open air from the router location. (eg - my Gogogate2 would not connect consistently) I set up the satellite in the open on the second floor of our house and it made a good connection with the main router. Unfortunately - speeds throughout the house were much slower than my previous setup. Much slower. And basement reception was spotty and non-existent in a lower bedroom and our exercise room. Perhaps a second satellite would help - but even on the main floor of our house the speeds were much slower (I have 250 Mbs service from Rogers and regularly got 40 - 50 mbs wirelessly and over 140 mbs on my powerline adapter connection using my old Apple Airport Extreme setup). Testing various locations, rebooting several times, the best I ever got was about 20 mbs and only on the main floor.

Anyway, I have also tried the Amplifi HD with the two wireless antenna's and that didn't work out very well either - although the main router easily connected with my garage and the app was far more comprehensive than Netgears App. (the wireless Amplifi plug in mesh antennas are a weak point, imo). I will review these separately.

I took my Airport Extreme apart, blew out the dust and hopefully I can get it working consistently for a little while longer. In the meantime, I may go with a 3 pack of the Amplifi HD routers (will use one as the main and two as mesh points). This might work - but will wait until they come out with a 3 pack package. For now, I believe that the "mesh" systems being sold are being overhyped.

Update: my Airport died so I went with 3 Amplifi HD routers. I set up just like my old system, using powerline network adapters with the router on the main floor and the other two set up as mesh points (one in the basement and one upstairs). This is working great and is far superior to the Orbi as well as the Amplifi HD mesh system (with the 2 plug in antenna mesh points). Purchasing the 3 Amplifi HD routers was slightly more expensive than either pre-packaged system but well worth it. Wired back haul (or wireless if your house setup allows good coverage), each unit has Ethernet ports, and a good phone app to manage the system. Very satisfied with this setup - Ubiquiti should package this as an alternative to their current system.

37 people found this helpful

cloudio_18

A reliable performer as always

Reviewed in Canada on August 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

Having been using this router for a couple of months, as always. it's just rock solid!

As a replacement of my old Nighthawk R7000, it improves the overall connection quality for every single device (around 20 in total) in my house. The installation is simple and straightforward as advertised, the transition from the old router to the new doesn't cause any hiccups by simply configuring it with the old SSID and password, and that's it.

I'd say the R7000's signal is better than this primary router, but thanks to the satellite router, the overall signal quality and latency in the whole house gets hugely boosted. Plus, the four ethernet ports on the satellite router allow me to wire my TV, PC, and laptop with a even better speed and latency.

The build quality is amazing, some complained about its appearence but I find them quite modern looking. The LED lights would only be lit during the booting or when there is issue with your connection. Otherwise, the lights are off during the normal uses.

The only downsides are:
* Both routers are a little bit bulky and might take some space
* Not too much 3rd party firmware available if you want to opt in them. Again, the stock firmware should already be good enough for most of people

Strongly recommended!

One person found this helpful

Tony Djukic

Decent system but watch out for the Junkware

Reviewed in Canada on September 4, 2019

Verified Purchase

So far the Orbi set-up is working well enough - stability is vastly improved from a 10 year old Apple TimeCapsule I was using. (I think I bought it in 2007.)

A couple of issues though:
A) the photos of the product show that this is the model with USB, it's NOT. Wasn't a deciding factor for me when purchasing but it'd be nice if they had the correct model photos.
B) the big issue is the "NetGear Armour has been activated" message that just flashed across the app screen during set-up. It didn't ask me if I wanted it activated, it didn't offer me an option to decline. It immediately started blocking legitimate sites (everything on https except Google was blocked) and it because I had jumped from the iOS app and started to look at the configuration via the 'orbi login' website, it looked as though there was no way to deactivate it.
There is:
in the iOS app, click the Home icon, then Settings, then Security, then toggle the 'Enable' option for NetGear Armour.

Still, I really, really, really, really dislike that NetGear subscribed me to a 30 trial without my consent. That's sleazy business practice and shitty UX.

While the device does work well, I almost feel like returning it and getting the Linksys instead. I've got 30 days.

** Additional Note: **
An iPad Mini had horrible connectivity. It would connect to the network but the speeds were unacceptably slow and often there was just 'no internet' whatsoever. After multiple calls and troubleshooting attempts, I changed tact and instead started researching iPad & 5Ghz issues... ...it turns out that some iPads can be sensitive regarding the 5Ghz channel being used. In the Orbi Admin Dashboard you have the option of selecting a dedicated channel for the signal broadcast. It was defaulted at 44, I changed it to channel 36 and the iPad immediately started working perfect and getting incredibly fast speeds (200mbps+).

One person found this helpful

Damo

Netgear Orbi AC3000 Mesh Wifi System - Great 5ghz Performance, Abysmal 2.4ghz Speeds

Reviewed in Canada on April 21, 2019

Verified Purchase

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To give a little perspective on my setup: I live in an approx 1350 square feet condo. With the Orbi satellite and the Orbi hub placed at opposite ends of the condo (approx 40 feet away from each other, separated by 1 wall) I am getting coverage in every area of my condo. I'm using Bell Fibe 1.5 gbps, so my internet connection is very fast. The Orbi system I am using has the latest firmware updated for both the hub and the satellite (v2.3.1.48) as of writing this review on 04-21-2019.

Coverage from the Orbi mesh system is great.. 5ghz wifi speeds are great (typically im seeing 350 mbps down / 300 mbps up for wireless AC devices approx 10-15 feet away from the Orbi hub, even up to 30-50 feet on some of my wireless AC devices). My Samsung galaxy s10 plus gives me 550 mbps down / 520 mbps up from 5-10 feet away from the main hub on the 5ghz stream -- which to me is phenomenal real world wireless performance.

What I don't understand though is why the mesh system is making wireless AC devices (like my note 8, my note 9, and one of my laptops) connect to the Orbi hub via the 2.4 ghz stream instead of the 5ghz stream, when they are only 15-20 feet away.

Even then, it wouldn't be much of a problem if the 2.4 ghz stream this mesh system puts out actually had decent speeds, but it doesn't. The 2.4 ghz speeds are insanely bad. So bad, I thought I would share what the speeds are when my note 9 is literally sitting on top of the Orbi hub in a video (58.6 mbps down / 30.8 mbps up for those who don't want to see the video). Those kind of speeds with 0 distance from the Orbi hub are completely unacceptable.

I did troubleshoot this Orbi system with Netgear support, and they suggested I return the unit and try a new one (I ordered a second unit yesterday and am waiting for it to arrive today). I'll update this review if I find the replacement unit has improved performance over the original unit.

2 people found this helpful

DARRIN B.

Not quite a five-star product !

Reviewed in Canada on April 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

I would’ve given this product five stars as I really do like my orbi router and satellite. Two of the reasons I do not give this product five stars is because placement of your satellite is key to making this successful and if you get a wrong placement you will have trouble with your satellite staying fully connected to your system. I have spent many hours on the phone with Netgear trying to fix this problem and I fixed it myself by moving the satellite to a new position that is a little more open. Secondly I have spent lots of time on the phone with Netgear only to find out that in three months I will no longer have phone support and if I want to get phone support it’s $100 for two years that’s another negative against this product. Otherwise I do like all the features that are available but get ready to fork out more money if you want any of the main features to work for you as parental control and online protection Will cost you money if you want to use the services . Overall a great item but very expensive if you want to continue services in usage and need support.

2 people found this helpful

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