I’ve had the Orbi for a few years. It has worked pretty well in that time. Prior to the Orbi I had a hardwired Ubiquiti Unifi system with an Edgerouter and three APs. But I had to switch to a mesh system because we changed ISPs to get gigabit and the installer needed to use some of the ethernet cabling that I was previously using for my APs. So I found myself needing mesh and needing something that supported speeds closer to gigabit. That is what led me to the Orbi because it was the fastest at the time.
When I started working from home more due to COVID, I moved the satellites around a bit and hardwired one of them. That helped with coverage and I haven’t had issues since.
There are some scary stories in the Orbi forums about software updates causing big issues. I haven’t seen that, but I have also been VERY wary of running firmware updates, even though I know it is not safe to ignore them from a security standpoint. When there’s an update available I always try to wait a few months and read the forums before going with it. And when I do finally update, I have my fingers and toes crossed that it will all come back up after the update.
If I had to do it over again, I would probably get the Eero. That is what I have recommended to others who are non technical and they have all reported they were able to install it without issue.
My satellite hooks up to the wired network and uses that to connect back to base. Even has a 4-port switch built into it and I used the heck out of it when it was in my office.
In such scenario would it make sense to keep both orbi (base + satellite) and get a good router to the office?
I tried something like this. I got a Wifi Range Extender (Netgear EX3700) for the office and returned it within a week. When I was in the office, I had to explicitly tell my iPhone to connect to it because it still saw the regular Orbi network and wanted to use that. When I left the office, the iPhone stayed on the Extender instead of switching over to the Orbi network for the same reason. It was just too much trouble.
Does anyone have any experience with these, or additional knowledge, that could provide some feedback?
(By way of background, I’m expecting to have a store credit in the next few months for a site that stocks the above, or the Google Nest (and probably some other options), but not the Eero.)
Just a quick update to everyone. First thanks for the recommendations.
I got the eero Pro 6 and I am really happy with the performance. I can get almost 700mbps in my computer. And wireless devices are getting between 300 and 500mbps.
I didn’t need to do any setup.
As for Asus, I purchased them before eero based on Wirecutter and returned them after 2 days. No they are not great and they are not powerful as the review was claiming. Reviews from actual buyers on Amazon and Wirecutter confirms that. I would steer away from them.
I just installed the Netgear Orbi RBR750 and it is amazing. Like life changing. Wifi6 dedicated backhaul makes throughput and especially coverage incredible. 3k sqft house zero dead zones. Highly recommend!
thanks