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Review on NETGEAR Orbi Wall-Plug Whole Home Mesh WiFi Satellite Extender - enlarges your Orbi router's reach by 1,500 sq. feet, delivering speeds up to 2.2 Gbps, AC2200 (RBW30) by John Springer

Revainrating 1 out of 5

Orbi so-so: Whole-home and mesh Wi-Fi systems

Purchased to complement an RBK50/RBS50 setup and try to cover a small area with a weaker signal. The RBW30 satellite is bulky, it doesn't have Ethernet ports despite being big enough to accommodate them and it seems like its only design, although it can be used as a router, is an extender. You take it and you put it in your pocket. You'll probably need to plug it in near the router for it to connect. I had to try several times to connect it to the router. You can then disconnect and move to where you may need to update your coverage. It also has a daisy-chain option (meaning it connects to the farthest component in your system, be it a router or another satellite) which should keep the internet signal at the level you'd expect from others components in the network would expect. System. Unfortunately it isn't. The signal from the RBW30 is definitely weaker and for some reason doesn't work very well with a router and another satellite. In fact, it appears to be interfering with your existing router/satellite signal. And while we're on the subject, the current router/satellite was pretty decent when we got it and offered good coverage, but after the last software update the signal wasn't as good as it used to be. Orbi is fine system, at this point we may have overspent on these things and with the return window closed we will probably have to abandon the router/satellite but definitely return the RBW30. Netgear's customer service is responsive to one-star reviews, but when you actually try to contact them, it's like trying to contact a typical politician.

Pros
  • Decent performance
Cons
  • Some cons