Signal strength, router and extension. Orbi extension (circle) added. Red is strongest, blue weakest. (Image credit: Orbi extension (circle) added. Red is strongest, blue weakest. Credit: Purch Labs) 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. The Orbi's performance dropped off with distance, but not as rapidly as the Google Wifi's. The throughput averaged 510.9 Mbps at 15 feet, 447.1 Mbps at 50 feet and 371.4 Mbps at 100 feet.

At some point, Netgear has the option to install the new firmware automatically, usually in the middle of the night. Customers who look at the management interface (or the app) may realize, "hey. the firmware updated by itself." Customers who never look at the management interface will remain blissfully unaware that this has happened. This process appears to be "rolled out" over a period of time. 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. 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. 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.Recently found out that the snapshot and release candidate versions of the base OpenWrt have support for the RBR50v1/RBS50v1 (it’s the same hardware anyways, by default it will ignore anything setup previously and setup a RBS50 to an RBR50). Was wondering if anyone else has been using the firmware and has any experiences?

Wireless standards: IEEE 802.1x, IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11e, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11i, IEEE 802.11n Netgear has taken the lead in the race to create a home Wi-Fi network system that all but sets itself up. With the Orbi router 30 feet and two walls away, the Orbi extension projected 429.1 Mbps to a laptop one floor above it — more than double Google Wifi's performance. For compatibility information about Orbi Pro WiFi Systems, see Which Orbi Pro routers and satellites are compatible?You can specify the power for each radio on each AP to further reduce radio interference and promote a better roaming handoff.

Decrease in throughput (vertical axis, in Mbps) per distance (horizontal axis, in feet). The Orbi has a smooth falloff, and its results over five test runs (thinner lines) were very consistent. (Image credit: Purch Labs) Again, this router did well with the medium distance tests, following a similar pattern to the short distance tests. 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 Although they look the same, the Orbi's router unit and satellite units are not interchangeable. You can't randomly decide which unit should be the router and which should be the repeater. Wireless standards: IEEE 802.3i, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11nTo 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.

No Netgear software (bloatware) i.e. Disney Circle, Netgear Armor, Netgear Smart Parental Controls, Netgear interfaces, Netgear configuration utilities and synchronization tools, Netgear mobile app integration (Are these a pros or cons? you decide). Netgear's firmware update process remains confusing. There seem to be three independent processes going on:After that, it's equally easy to add additional satellites by following the directions in the app and then pressing the "Sync" button, with the rest of the install done automatically. We had to update the firmware for this router once we completed the setup, but the app automatically prompted us and made it very easy. Much faster overall network performance, due to a number of reasons mostly because I can control the meshing a lot better (I have 5 satellites).