NETGEAR Orbi Tri-band Whole Home Mesh WiFi System with Wall Plugs (RBK33) - Discontinued by Manufacturer

This is kind of a dual review of the Netgear LB1120 wireless modem and the Netgear Orbi wifi mesh system...Wow. My wife recently bought this modem. We had been using a Netgear AirCard 815S through AT&T to receive wireless internet service in our home. Now, we live in the middle of nowhere, but can "see" the AT&T repeater tower (one of those really tall ones) from the window of our home where we kept the hot spot.We purchased the modem solely for its Ethernet socket. The 815S hotspot doesn't have any way to connect it to, say, a Netgear RBK33-100NAS Orbi Whole Home Mesh WiFi System with Tri-band. The Orbi was high on our list to try and boost the wireless signal around our house and property. As an aside, we use several Whistle dog tracking collars that utilize wifi or GPS, depending on what's strong and available. Unfortunately, the 815S hotspot just wasn't strong enough to reach even into our small fenced in yard. Consequently, the dogs' collars were constantly switching from weak wifi to GPS. This caused a lot of false escape warnings. But I digress... NETGEAR LB1120-100NAS 4G LTE Modem - Instant Broadband Connection (LB1120) The Netgear LB1120 LTE modem was a quick swap for our AirCard 815S. Just swapped out the SIM card and a little app-setup (wife was in charge of this). It still sits in the window looking out at the cell tower. What was amazing was the speed increase. We went from about 10~20Mbps down and 5~15Mbps UP to in excess of 41Mbps down and 30Mbps up! And that isn't even using the external antenna (Netgear 6000450 MIMO) which we have on order. The modem already gives us 4 bars, so not sure the external antenna will help that much. And, when doing speed tests with another AirCard (we have two) the difference is easily double.Netgear 6000450 MIMO Antenna with 2 TS-9 Connectors - Retail Packaging - BlackNow, when coupled with the Netgear Orbi (we got the version with base unit and two satellites) our wifi range is incredible. We have the base station next to the LB1120 LTE modem, connected via Ethernet (the Orbi has to have a modem connection via CAT cable). One Orbi satellite is out on our deck (about 30 feet away through brick) and the second is in our bedroom (closest place to the backyard to the dog collars can take advantage). I've done several speed tests, and from 270 feet away out at my son's bus stop, I get speeds as fast (or faster) than if I had an AirCard in my pocket. Same for the far back yard, say 150 feet away. At these distances, speeds are at least as fast (and generally faster) than an Aircard by itself.So, the combination of the Netgear LTE modem and the Orbi system has solved so many of our connectivity issues and increased our overall speed by a factor of 2. And both units were extremely easy to set up. If your only access to the internet is a cellular connection (we had DSL but our speeds were on the order of 2.5Mbps down and 0.5Mbps up, so wireless was a no-brainer). this is the way to go.

(RBK33) Further update after three months: Still killing it. Stable operation, strong signal strength everywhere (from - 30db to -450 db on 5GHz), and ISP speed contracted for consistent throughout house. Very pleased.Update: This router has been solid since purchase several weeks ago.. We do not find the plug in satellites obtrusive and one is even behind a couch now. Coverage is excellent and the signal strength on 5GHz is impressive, with truly mobile devices utilizing it while inside the house (only going to 2.4 in yard). Though the Orbi is not as unobtrusive looking as hockey puck brands, the performance is excellent.Only four stars for now since it has only been up and running for a few hours. I may give it another star if it continues to perform at this level over the next few weeks. I truly commiserated over which brand, then which model of Orbi to buy after researching as much as I could tolerate. There were scant few reviews on the RBK33 package (plenty on others). I was a bit dubious but I was trying to fit need with aesthetics and two wall plug satellites fit the aesthetic part (my wife was not enthusiastic about having the larger Orbi units on tabletops), and give me the performance I was looking for. I was a bit concerned about the distance I needed to put the units from each other due to the 5GHz backhaul range, but rolled the dice. At this writing, it is awesome. Even with the three units between 35 and 40 feet of each other, the satellite blue rings came on and I commenced with the set up. I am getting full ISP purchased speed at the router and at the satellites, and signal to the farthest reaches of our 2600 square foot house is solid.One former almost completely dead zone, now about 25 to 30 feet away from one satellite, is -55 to -60dBm (5GHz), and 84% of ISP purchased speed. Our Samsung smart TV at the other end of the house is at 95% of ISP purchased speed, and the signal (again 5GHz) is running -45 to -50 dBm.The only downside is the app and GUI compared to - for example - Asus. They could do better there.One note: if you name your new Orbi network with the same SSID and password, your devices will hook up automatically. However, on some devices I was not getting the speeds expected. So I forgot the network and reloaded it and signed in again, and bang, the speeds were there.More devices now are hooking up to 5GHz than ever before (device hook up speeds found at Netgear Orbi GUI under Advanced / Connected Devices). Only one really old mobile phone used as wifi device only, gets confused at times, not switching back to 5GHz when in range, but going in and out of airplane mode fixes that. Newer devices: no problem. Very pleased.

Easy to set up, and has most of the features you would expect in a home router.With the two satellites I was able to get good coverage on all 3 floors, so I can now actually use Wi-Fi on the top floor without issues.The management smartphone app is actually useful, though I would prefer to have the same options in the web UI so that I didn't need to install the app.

First off Let me tell you that I have spent thousands of dollars in our home trying to fix or make a WiFi that works.I was lenient in writing a review untill we used this system for a good period of time.I can honestly tell you this Orbi system has done everything plus more. I could never have expected such great results. I was fairly easy to setup and once running it has never let us down. The download and upload speeds are amazing. The parental controls are awesome. I would recommend this to anybody. AAA +++

Está buenísimo, llevaba varios años tratando de encontrar una solución para mí casa y al fin la encontré, muy recomendable

No funciona con Sonos , hace interferencia el que la señal de wi fi no venga de un solo aparato, va de regreso

The house is 2000+ sqf. We used to have one power Asus router or the newest Rogers router+modem combo. They both did not cover the second floor and the basement properly. The ping spiked constantly and the download speed was less than a tenth of what it was beside the router.With the Orbi system, the whole house gets good ping and blazing fast download speeds. Actually lets me play games in my room again!!!