NETGEARUltra-Performance Whole Home Mesh WiFi Satellite Extender (RBS50) - Discontinued by Manufacturer

Background: I moved into a row house that had a Verizon Fios hookup (which is great, BTW - very fast). The service came with a Verizon branded WiFi base station / router. It works OK if you're in range of the router, but one floor up and one room over, the 2.4GHz signal is weak and the 5GHz signal is undetectable. I'm in a fairly dense neighborhood, so my phone's Wifi Analyzer app can see 8 2.4GHz WiFi networks and even 2 5GHz networks belonging to neighbors. This means that picking a completely unused channel is impossibly, and interference from neighbors' networks makes the range of my own base station more limited than it'd be if I were out in the country with a big yard.I had bought a TP-Link RE-205 range extender, and that sort of helped, but it has some issues. Mainly, if you extend both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, it needs to be power cycled every few days because it gets into a state where it can't connect to the base station after a while(!). If you extend a 2.4GHz network but only allow 5GHz clients to the extender, it works OK, but the range is poor since 5GHz doesn't penetrate walls as well. One room away, my iPad had a weak connection to the extender, which is one floor up and one room over from the Verizon base station. Finally, since it's a second WiFi network, a wired device on the extender's network cannot be reached from a wireless device on the main network (that the extender is extending). So I have to make sure to be on the extender's wifi network to reach that wired device that's connected to the extender. That severely limits where in the house I can be when using that wireless device, since the extender's network has to be 5GHz in order for the extender to be stable.After some research I bought the Netgear Orbi RBK50, consisting of two oval towers, one of which is the base/router, and the other of which is the satellite. The things that made me buy it: (1) It comes with only one satellite, but you can buy additional ones if you need better coverage. (2) It supports wired backhaul. My first floor has an unused Ethernet cable that runs under the house and pops up in the living room (the router used to be there), so I could have the router in the back plus a wired satellite in the front if necessary. (3) The bandwidth for the price ($279) seems good - not as expensive and fast as the new, $700 WiFi 6 hardware, but faster than the dumb range extender I have now. (3) I've had Netgear hardware before and it worked pretty well, so I didn't expect this to be as flaky as the TP-Link range extender, which as I mentioned above needs to be power cycled about once a week to keep it working (!). (4) The styling is subtle, unlike the hideous Netgear Nighthawk XRM570.It worked pretty well when I got it. The out-of-box experience was pretty good, although the printed instructions in the quick start guide didn't match up with the Android Orbi app at all. Also, the Orbi app got confused part of the way through the setup process while I was trying to add the password to my password manager app. I guess they tested with people who memorize passwords or write them on post-it notes or something, but lots of people use password managers so it's disappointing that the app gets lost when you switch to another app and back a couple of times. Still, going through the setup wizard a few times was sufficient to get it all working.Now that's it's set up, the WiFi coverage and speed are outstanding. I am so glad I bought this kit. So far I don't need a second satellite; the one satellite is covering the whole front of the house successfully, and measured bandwidth on my iPad at the front of the house is 300-500Mbps, with a strong and stable signal. A laptop connected to the satellite via wired gigabit Ethernet gets similar bandwidth-test numbers. I am very happy with this setup now.The only reservation I have now is that the Orbi app doesn't let you configure much. For example, I can't find a way to change the address range; it's 192.168.1.x and I guess that's the only option.

Orbi Home WiFi System by NETGEAR. Better WiFi Everywhere with 3 Gigabit Speed, Tri-Band Mesh WiFi, Easy Setup, Replaces WiFi Range Extenders I purchased the RBK50 Orbi kit (router plus one satellite) from Amazon on Dec. 6, 2016 to provide WiFi service for my 2400 sq. ft. two story home with full basement.Prior to installing the Orbi, I recorded the device MAC addresses of the current router and hardwired computers in case I needed to clone their MAC Address later when installing the Orbi. I also recorded the MAC Addresses and the IP Addresses of my printer and NAS for which I had created DHCP reservations. I hoped to be able to replicate the DHCP reservations within the Orbi so that it wouldn't be necessary to delete and recreate the file shares and printer devices on every computer. I also downloaded all firmware versions for both the router and satellite along with the device documentation onto the hard drive of the hardwired computer I planned to use for configuring the Orbi manually since others had indicated issues with the automatic firmware upgrade in the release version of the firmware.I followed the manufacturers instructions for installing the Orbi and since those steps are well documented I will not elaborate further. It was unnecessary to clone any MAC Addresses (TWC). I did deviate slightly from the instructions in that I initially set up both the router and satellite in the same room since I anticipated having to manually apply the firmware updates and I wanted to avoid multiple trips up/down stairs in case I had to reset the satellite.Once the router had established an Internet connection and I had modified the admin password, the setup wizard tried to find updates but never did, so I clicked on the 'Update Manually' icon. Per the instructions I updated the satellite first and was pleasantly surprised that once the units rebooted both the router and satellite were updated to firmware version 1.4.0.16.My next step was to power on my printer (I should have done this before powering down my previous router) and then proceed to replicate the DHCP reservations. I then had to cycle power to both the NAS and printer so that they got their reserved DHCP addresses. I verified access to the NAS file shares and successfully printed a test page, so I was satisfied that I could proceed to the next steps.I next relocated the satellite to my basement and was surprised that the satellite registered a blue light for its connection status to the router. I then powered on and established a network connection with the wireless devices one at a time both upstairs and downstairs. This process was thankfully uneventful.Satisfied with the setup and configuration, I proceeded to use a WiFi Analyzer app on my phone to take signal strength measurements throughout the house on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies. This revealed weak 5 GHz in areas of my first floor, so I relocated the satellite to the first floor. Again, I saw a blue signal strength indicator on the satellite. Weak first floor 5 GHz issue resolved! I had no immediate need for WiFi in the basement, but I did have a UPS there which I wanted to use to power the satellite. Oh well...Since I had experienced no NAS access or printing issues upstairs at the router, I didn't expect there would be any difference elsewhere. However, later in the evening when my wife tried to print a web page from her computer downstairs I discovered that I was narrow sighted in that regard. Just as an FYI, her computer was powered down during the transition to the new router.I determined from the Orbi "Connected Devices" page that my wife's computer had an IP Address, but it could not detect the printer. I verified that her computer had the same Orbi access control (access allowed, access control disabled) as the other computers having wired connections.As a test, I moved her computer (laptop) upstairs so that it connected to the router instead of the satellite. This made the printer detectable but still inaccessible. I had to delete and then recreate the printer device on her computer in order to restore printing ability. After printing a test page upstairs, I powered down the computer, took it downstairs, powered it back up, logged in, and successfully printed another test page. Later on I tried to access the NAS and discovered I had never set up NAS access for my wife's account on her laptop. Network browsing did not detect the file share or the NAS, but I was able to map the file share with no issues using its IP Address (\\192.168.1.107\Public) when using the proper credentials.Since I had preserved the printer's and NAS's IP Addresses when transitioning to the new router, I had hoped to avoid these issues. As I think longer about this, I seem to recall that I used DNS resolution rather than the hard-coded IP Address when I originally mapped the file shares, which explains the need to remap them after the transition to the new router. I could have inserted entries into the HOSTS file if I had thought about it, but I try to keep things as uncomplicated as possible and so declined this step.Observations:1) Wired throughput has shown little change on download (maybe 1 - 2 Mbps faster), and a slight increase of several hundred KB on upload.2) Overall web pages (Edge) seem to load noticeably faster.3) Wireless devices have all retained their connections with no drops since being connected to the Orbi.4) Device performance has been flawless.There have been two firmware updates since the original installation and both were successfully applied automatically as opposed to manually.

Muy buen producto, extendió mi red wifi 5G al segundo piso sin problema

Fácil de instalar, desde que salió esta tecnología me ayudo a cubrir todos los puntos de casa y jardín.

After installing the Orbi mesh system I had solid wifi signal throughout my home. I highly recommend this product

I bought this satellite to add to my existing Orbi RBK50 network. The coverage has imrpoved and there are no deadspots now. I get the same download speeds over my WiFi as my ISP allows - 300Mbps. All 3 units work as one and ensures a single SSID network spans my home. So no disconnections even if I move from one area to another while on a video call or conference within my home. Not once the router had to be restarted after its latest firmware upgrade that was done 6 months back. Reliable and steady performance and I am happy with it.

I purchased the Netgear Orbi RBK50 for my home for the purpose of providing whole home wifi. I am very happy and satisfied with my decision and my review is as follows The Problem :1. I have more than 30 devices, on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz which were overloading my earlier router.2. Earlier router wasn't able to reach to each corner of my house, at least the 5GHz band wasn't able to. So although I had a 100Mbps UP/DOWN internet line, I was unable to get the full speed at most of my house locations.3. My smart home devices would lose connections and my in-home streaming setups like plex or steam link or chromecast would lag and buffer making the experience a dull one.4. Although my home is pretty new, it does not have ethernet cabling, its not possible for me to run a ethernet cable down my house too. The Solutions I tried1. I tried using wifi extenders, but they end up eating away half of my bandwidth. This was fine for smart home products, and light web activity, but in-home streaming was suffering. 2. I tried dedicated WDS routers and router in Wifi client mode. That worked, but it had its own challenges of manually switching to the best signal every time I changed rooms, also the nuisance of handling multiple SSIDs.3. I tried powerline adapters, although I liked this setup, but I felt them to be slow, and again I had to put a router at the end of the powerline adapters to extend the wifi coverage, which again kind of repeated the problems mentioned in point 2 and 3.So I was left with 2 choices, either try a high end routers with dedicated amplifiers or go for a good mesh wifi system. After a lot of research I decided to go with the RBK50. Here are my points regarding the pro and cons.Pros:1. Dead simple setup. The Orbi app and the web interface both are neat and well guided. 2. Good configuration control. Not as highly configurable as the Nighthawk series, but this was not meant to provide that can service, so expecting those features from Orbi would be unfair. It does what it was designed for, that is to provide a seemless mesh Wifi setup.3. Range is awesome, I get great 5GHz coverage. 4. Throughput is great. I can use in-home streaming over plex, while I am playing games on steam link over wifi, while my wife is watching netflix in 4k, without a bit of lag or stutter. 5. All my devices, including my smart home devices readily connect to it, and so far it hasn't needed any power cycle.Cons:1. I am not sure there is any. Maybe the mobile app needs a bit more polishing.Double edge sword :Although having single wifi ssid for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz workss like a charm, and normally gets the job of allocating the device to proper band, done smoothly, I have seen it to fail sometimes too, like my iPhone still attached to 2.4GHz even when I was sitting right next to the router. I simple re-connection solved the issue though.One more issue that I had was a very particular one, with a particular brand of smart home devices. Somehow the vendor app wanted me to connect to 2.4GHz wifi to be able to configure my devices, which kinda make no sense, but in this case I was unable to switch to the 2.4GHz on my iPhone, and ended up having to use an older phone that had only 2.4GHz wifi chip to configure my devices. But once configured, the devices worked flawlessly with the Orbi.I must say this one is a awesome product and netgear never ceases to deliver the very best. I am thoroughly impressed and planning to buy one for my parental home too. Thanks Netgear for such an awesome product.