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United States of America, Salem
1 Level
722 Review
53 Karma

Review on NETGEAR Orbi Tri-band Whole Home Mesh WiFi System RBK23 - 2.2Gbps Speed, Router & Extender, Covers up to 6,000 sq. ft. - 3 Pack (1 Router & 2 Satellites) by Seth Hogate

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Good concept, poor execution

I'm a network engineer by trade. Our house is set up so that my router is at the top on one side of the building and my bedroom is at the bottom on the other side. There are about 1000 feet between rooms with multiple walls. I've tried using wireless extenders and repeaters, but they all seem to suffer from the same crashing issue when going from zone to zone. I've researched a lot about mesh routers and decided to try this one. Installation was relatively easy and I was up and running in about 20 minutes. I went to my bedroom, made sure the satellite showed a good connection, and continued surfing. The same thing. Exactly. Problem. It swiped on my phone or tablet for 5-10 minutes and then spun. Reddit wasn't loading GIFs at any speed, and my smart TV was constantly buffering streaming services. I packed it up and sent it back. Reading other reviews it seemed to be a firmware issue (I updated all firmware) but I won't reset everything. It either works out of the box the first time or is sent back.

Pros
  • Good build
Cons
  • Sad hardware