OpenWRT and complexity as mentioned - it's not a big deal for an experienced OpenWRT user, but for many, OpenWRT can be a bit daunting, things are not "obvious" in some places... The NetGear Orbi rounded out our tests with another good performance, placing in the middle to the upper portion of the group. We were able to successfully stream our test video with a whopping 142' between the laptop and the primary node of this mesh network, more than enough for most uses. Should You Buy the NetGear Orbi WiFi System (RBK50)? https://kb.netgear.com/31573/How-do-I-manually-upgrade-firmware-on-my-Orbi-router-using-orbilogin-co... None of the closed source QSDK special sauce, so NAT accel is out... for most this might not be an issue, but LAN-WAN performance will not use the NSS cores in the IPQ80xx chipset by default - there are community builds where folks have merged closed source in, but that's a community build, not something that someone can just do a git clone from Master (or release branches) Wireless standards: IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3ab, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.11n

The Orbi transmits Wi-Fi data on three radio-frequency bands. The primary 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz radios provide a theoretical peak throughput of 1.2Gbps of data flow to user devices. For compatibility information about Orbi Pro WiFi Systems, see Which Orbi Pro routers and satellites are compatible? The NetGear Orbi got off to a great start in our pair of close-range throughput tests, averaging 55 Mbits/s in the line of sight test. Wireless standards: IEEE 802.3i, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n Anyway to associate RBK50 Voxell Firmware with another Openwrt router Belking Rt3200 for 802.11r Fast Transition?At 150 feet, the Orbi router still delivered 229.1 Mbps of throughput, nearly seven times Google Wifi's 33.8 Mbps. (To be fair, the AmpliFi HD had very similar throughput at 150 feet, and the Velop had 26 percent more.) With such results, the Orbi's claim of 2,000 square feet of coverage per unit might be an underestimation. If you want a resilient network that automatically adjusts when AP’s are down, you will have to manually configure it, e.g. use batman-adv to manage the mesh networking. find your Orbi model numbers, look for the device product label on the bottom of your Orbi devices. The Orbi ships with a semi-random network name and a unique alphanumeric administrative passcode that should be safe enough to use during the short setup routine. Still, you should change both the name and code to something more personal as soon as possible.

Firmware updates in 2018 have added more fine-tuned parental controls with the Circle with Disney app. This app allows parents to set up profiles for each member of the family, complete with age-appropriate content filtering, time-limits for online use, and curfew settings to cut off connectivity when it’s time to be done for the night. (We mostly liked Circle with Disney when we reviewed the standalone device. The app should provide similar functionality.) Netgear Orbi RBK50 review: VerdictAt some point, Netgear activates the Automatic Update feature which allows the router to "find" this new firmware and offer to load it. Customers who never look at the firmware update feature will be blissfully unaware of it. This process appears to be "rolled out". My RBR50, for example, continues to report "No new firmware available." ATH10K-CT drivers - there are limits in the drivers that one doesn't have in the closed source QSDK - that being said, CT drivers are pretty good, and the upstream devs for that driver have insight under NDA from Qualcomm. Our final set of evaluations looked at the maximum effective range of these routers, as determined by how far away we could stream a video without buffering or lagging on our test computer when connected to each router's 2.4 GHz. network. We used this network since it will typically have more range than its higher frequency counterpart.

It’s better in the snapshot version than the current release candidate. In either case, support and stability may not be good for a network you rely on #YOLO. You can specify the power for each radio on each AP to further reduce radio interference and promote a better roaming handoff. To support this configuration, each Orbi device has six high-performance amplified antennas around its perimeter. There's also a Bluetooth radio and antenna, but they're dormant for now.The router can handle up to three satellites, but each satellite communicates directly with the host router in a hub-and-spoke arrangement, rather than in a true mesh topology that would let data pass from one satellite to another. If you want the expanded coverage of a mesh network for your home internet solution and are looking for the best — and are willing to pay for it — then we highly recommend the NetGear Orbi. It has good throughput and range, all while being very easy to set up and use, and offers just about all the features most people want. What Other WiFi Routers Should You Consider? With its MU-MIMO technology, the Orbi served several devices simultaneously. It stood up well to our informal saturation test, in which we played videos on Surface Pro 3 and iPad Pro tablets as a Samsung Tab Pro S moved data on and off a network-attached storage system and a MacBook Air played an online radio station. The video and audio came through on all devices without a skip, stutter or drop-out. Netgear Orbi RBK50 review: Setup and support