Netgear Orbi discussion thread

[pete y testing]

Review posted.

thanks for the review tim , its pretty inline with what i have experienced , i believe we will see the guest access available in the next fw release but not sure about qos

the media / client bridge testing also agrees with what im seeing here with my average throughput about 60MB/s

pete

 

[thiggins]

Tim, does it really have 4GB of flash?

Yes. 4 GB Samsung KLM4G1FEPD (x1)
So does eero.

 

[pete y testing]

the question i guess is why 4GB flash when the ram is only 512M , suggests qualcomm have something else in mind for the flash memory

 

[DanH]

I seriously had no connection in my bedroom on a rtn66u. Here is what I have now from 350/25 cable. Thanks for the review btw.

 

[RogerSC]

I also took advantage of the $50 off to take a look at this thing. Impressed so far, never seen such excellent strength and full speed wireless all over my house before. The biggest challenge in configuring it was to get connected to the internet initially. For some reason, resetting my modem a couple of times didn't help the MAC address change to be accepted as it has in the past. Actually had to clone my PC's MAC address to get it to connect to the internet, no idea why at this point. Haven't had to do that for years *smile*.

Going to give it the usual 30-day trial period to be sure that it is stable and holds up, but looking great initially. Works one heck of a lot better than a $150 network extender and a $200 router...that dedicated backhaul does the job splendidly.

 

[sfx2000]

Yes. 4 GB Samsung KLM4G1FEPD (x1)
So does eero.

That's because 4GB is the smallest part available on Samsung's eMMC planar 10nm process... doesn't mean it's all used - but it's much better than old-school NAND for durability and read/write performance...

 

[wchpitt]

Walking through Costco tonight and there it was... a Netgear Orbi 3-Pack for $499.
Put all of the units in the exact same locations as my eero devices and tested from the same laptop in the same location and yup... the Orbi units are faster. More importantly, it stays online when Comcast goes down so all of my WINK attached devices and other WiFi home automation devices keep working as long as I'm on the local network.

Only odd quirk was that on the Advanced > Setup > QoS Setup - page, if you uncheck the Enable WMM boxes all channels drop to 54Mbps (seems to turn off ac). This was using the latest firmware 1.3.0.12

On Advanced > Advanced Setup > Wireless Settings, toggling "Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING" did not seem to improve or degrade performance with two devices in different locations connecting to the same BSSID. Turned it on and left it enabled because, in theory, it should help mid-range throughput (shrug).
I don't have any MU-MIMO clients to test with so I left that disabled.

 

[swetoast]

Hey Guys

can someone take some screenshot of the interface kinda curious about the interface or is there a demo available anywhere that i can check out the interface?

 

[pete y testing]

Hey Guys

can someone take some screenshot of the interface kinda curious about the interface or is there a demo available anywhere that i can check out the interface?

page 2 of the review has screen shots of the basic and advanced gui

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33028-netgear-orbi-reviewed?start=1

 

[bernard038]

Thanks, again, for a great review. I guess i will order an Orbi when it becomes available in the Netherlands. But in I my opinion the Orbi has two major downsides:

• Tastes differ, but imho the Orbi is not the nicest looking mesh router (saying it looks like a air freshener is an insult to the air refreshment industry).
• Priced over here at € 410, (approx. 453 USD) makes it expensive.

But it might provide me with decent WiFi-coverage in my study without the need for running UTP cabling through my house (..or being disappointed with Powerline solutions).

I was just wondering.. If you add a second satellite, what will happen to the bandwith of the backhaul connection? Will 50% of bandwidth be reserved for the first satellite and 50% for the second or is the bandwidth assigned depending on the "demand" of the satellites?

 

[pete y testing]

nicest looking mesh router

thats cause its not a mesh router

(saying it looks like a air freshener is an insult to the air refreshment industry).

they honestly aint that bad

But it might provide me with decent WiFi-coverage

and thats what its designed to do

what will happen to the bandwith of the backhaul connection? Will 50% of bandwidth be reserved for the first satellite and 50% for the second or is the bandwidth assigned depending on the "demand" of the satellites?

nope thats what and why it has mu-mimo on the backhaul , same 60MB/s to each sat across the backhaul

 

[thiggins]

Walking through Costco tonight and there it was... a Netgear Orbi 3-Pack for $499.

I guess NETGEAR has enabled multi satellite support.
How are the units placed. Is the Router between the two satellites?

Only odd quirk was that on the Advanced > Setup > QoS Setup - page, if you uncheck the Enable WMM boxes all channels drop to 54Mbps (seems to turn off ac). This was using the latest firmware 1.3.0.12

That behavior is by design.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/30938-dont-mess-with-wmm

On Advanced > Advanced Setup > Wireless Settings, toggling "Enable Implicit BEAMFORMING" did not seem to improve or degrade performance with two devices in different locations connecting to the same BSSID. Turned it on and left it enabled because, in theory, it should help mid-range throughput (shrug).
I don't have any MU-MIMO clients to test with so I left that disabled.

Should be ok. I doubt you will see noticeable improvement unless you did careful A/B throughput testing. If you run into device compatibility problems (disconnects, flaky behavior) you may want to try disabling this.

 

[thiggins]

MU-MIMO on backhaul isn't going to give you 2x bandwidth. In fact, I'm not sure how it will work. With 1x1 MU-MIMO devices and a 4x4 MU-MIMO AP, you can get 2X peak total throughput. But MU-MIMO throughput gain with a 4x4 AP and 4x4 STA, who knows?

You would need to run traffic through both satellites simultaneously to Ethernet-connected clients to get an accurate look at what is happening to backhaul bandwidth.

 

[pete y testing]

How are the units placed. Is the Router between the two satellites?

strange as i didnt think they where releasing the 3 pack yet , but yes at this point both sat's connect only to the router and not to each other

 

[Killhippie]

Great review and an interesting product, but for now I get maximum speeds with my R7800 all over my two bedroom bungalow that my ISP can pump to me (54Mbps down 19Mbps up) and with Brexit causing Stirling to plummet that price is just to high. I would also like to see guest networks and some form of QoS really and I have to say they look ugly to me, which is odd considering I have a 4 legged black upside down robotic spider for decoration as my router

 

[thiggins]

Great review and an interesting product, but for now I get maximum speeds with my R7800 all over my two bedroom bungalow that my ISP can pump to me (54Mbps down 19Mbps up)

If it ain't broke...

 

[jbodine74]

I tried this and the new r9000. I like to tinker with the interfaces, etc. I returned them both within one day. I just cannot get passed how slow Netgear's interface is. My current setup is Asus rt-ac3100 and a 87u as a access point both with the latest merlin firmware. I also had trouble with the orbi and the r9000 connecting to the internet and also getting into the gui. I know, I dumped a lot of money just to check these out. I really like how Netgear's products look but the gui is to slow.

 

[Killhippie]

If it ain't broke...

Indeed,

I tried this and the new r9000. I like to tinker with the interfaces, etc. I returned them both within one day. I just cannot get passed how slow Netgear's interface is. My current setup is Asus rt-ac3100 and a 87u as a access point both with the latest merlin firmware. I also had trouble with the orbi and the r9000 connecting to the internet and also getting into the gui. I know, I dumped a lot of money just to check these out. I really like how Netgear's products look but the gui is to slow.

Considering how rarely I go into the GUI its not really an issue for me, but it is clunky I have to say, shame that the newer Orbi GUI seems no better then...

 

[RogerSC]

I tried this and the new r9000. I like to tinker with the interfaces, etc. I returned them both within one day. I just cannot get passed how slow Netgear's interface is. My current setup is Asus rt-ac3100 and a 87u as a access point both with the latest merlin firmware. I also had trouble with the orbi and the r9000 connecting to the internet and also getting into the gui. I know, I dumped a lot of money just to check these out. I really like how Netgear's products look but the gui is to slow.

I agree, the web admin GUI is slow when you make changes, like when you initially set it up. But you only set it up once, and then you can kick back and enjoy your full wireless coverage. I'm finding that with the last couple of Netgear products I've had, I'm actually using the Netgear firmware *ugh*, and about the only thing that I'm using the firmware for once the router's set up is checking the uptime and looking at traffic. Of course, there isn't much more to look at than that *smile*. The firmware has been reliable once set up, and the hardware has been solid. Having a hard time finding problems that really bother me with the R7800 or the Orbi.

 

[ablatt]

What if the lower 5Ghz channel that is available for clients to use (the backhaul uses an upper 5GHz channel) is already heavily used by a neighbour?

At least if the backhaul used a proprietary communications, you'd have some choice in channels for the user.