New Netgear Orbi Tri-band Wifi Mesh Routers

The first Orbi came out last year, and just recently released new models, sized for different needs.

Is anyone using them yet? How are they running? Reliable? Fast? Problems?

What is Mesh WiFi, and Should You Use it? Ft. Netgear Orbi Tri-Band WiFi System


LIVE | Meet The Orbi Family | NETGEAR Product Update


Orbi Family
http://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/orbi/

 

Welp, Orbi has some fussy settings for WiFi bands, and didn't fix my dead zones. I used it once in my home (about 4500 sq. ft.) and once at my in laws (concrete apartment building, around 1500 sq. ft.), and the 802.11ac on 5 GHz couldn't really talk to the other APs. Which I suppose makes sense considering that its range is less than 2.4 GHz. Dumbest $349.99 I ever spent.

I did see something recently that make work a lot better and for much less money. It connects to your existing router, uses your house's coaxial cabling, and turns unused cable outlets into WiFi antennas. $99 as the starting price...plus you don't need to reconfigure your old router or replace it with more hardware.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1577631618/coaxifi-whole-home-wi-fi-over-coax

 

That's kinda what I thought, trying to use 5ghz to link the routers isn't the right way to go distance / coverage wise, even though there is more spectrum there at 5ghz for most people.

I like the idea of the cable distribution extension system, but what are people supposed to do with their TV's? Not everyone is migrated off of cable to 100% internet, especially people with a really good whole house distribution system for cable tv.

You couldn't really mix that antenna extension through cable with continuing to use your cable TV system, so I think it's a really small niche product.

I also wondered why Orbi didn't use ethernet as a distribution system, that would make more sense.

IDK what the penetration of running ethernet throughout the house is, for me I've been doing it for a very long time, it's just part of the required infrastructure once I went to dual T1's way back when.

Now I've got a mind to consider a "star" distribution for Wifi through wall antenna's - that would be what I would consider a kickstartable business - higher entry costs - you'd need to run parallel "cable" throughout the house, but you could maintain your existing cable TV - you would need to explore better shielded cable to run "next to" existing cable TV cable.

Thanks for the link, too bad they have so few backers...

 

I'm guessing that the Coaxifi thing has diplexers to give people the option of making circuits between the cable modem and feed line, or between an HDTV antenna and a particular cable outlet, while also using WiFi as the high pass frequency on the diplexers. I have fiber Internet but 2 rooms with an HDTV antenna feed, so I would probably use the diplexers to get the TV feed to a TV splitter and on to those 2 rooms, then would use the other cable runs in the house for WiFI.

You're right, Cat5e is the way to go and most houses around here since maybe 1998 have it. I wish more houses were built with Ethernet ports to the ceiling like smoke detectors, then you could use a star topology to reach ceiling mounted APs.

 

I looked at their schematics in that info video on their kickstarter page, and I didn't see any "shared" use examples, they all ended in Wifi Antenna only solutions.

Maybe I missed it, but I'd think if that had that solution it would be a major selling point - first thing I wondered as a cable TV user - so if they didn't highlight that feature, or show it in the schematics, I wouldn't assume they have it.

 

Looks like they mention it somewhat under "Will it work with my cable modem/TV antenna/MoCA adapter?" Granted, it's probably something that the tech savvy crowd would go for.

 

Ah, thanks, found it

Will it work with my cable modem/TV antenna/MoCA adapter?


"You bet! Each kit includes two diplexers that let you combine Wi-Fi with the signals from either a cable modem, a TV antenna, or a MoCA adapter, on the same coaxial cabling circuit."