In the Purch Labs material-penetration tests, the Orbi router's transmissions were powerful enough to punch through a metal-frame wall, a ceiling and a soundboarded wall with little drop-off. (The soundboard figure actually improved throughput by about 8 percent; we're not including regular drywall because it has little effect.) Our remaining evaluations looked at the data transfer performance of the NetGear Orbi and the other routers. For both the 5 GHz. and 2.4 GHz. bands, we conducted the same series of tests using the iPerf3 software, with the average result of three separate trials for each test being used for the final score. We ran a test with a short distance (10'), medium distance (35'), and a long-distance (70') between the router base and our test computer, including a line of sight and an interference test at the short and medium distances for a total of 5 different throughput tests for each router at each bandwidth. The NetGear Orbi got off to a great start in the 2.4 GHz. metric, outperforming many of its competitors.

For compatibility information about Orbi Pro WiFi Systems, see Which Orbi Pro routers and satellites are compatible? It’s a manual step to change each device to a satellite by deleting the WAN networks and connecting the ethernet port into the existing bridge.The Orbi ships with a semi-random network name and a unique alphanumeric administrative passcode that should be safe enough to use during the short setup routine. Still, you should change both the name and code to something more personal as soon as possible. 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. I spent several hours resetting the RBR50 and two RBS50's to factory defaults and then doing a total reinstall and now after less than a day the system has the same duplicate IPs just like it was prior to the reinstall with the above duplicate IPs and non functioning wireless internet.

Netgear has taken the lead in the race to create a home Wi-Fi network system that all but sets itself up. Wireless standards: IEEE 802.3i, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n

What Other WiFi Routers Should You Consider?

No simple “add satellite/sync” button. Adding a satellite must be done manually on both the router and the satellite.

It recorded an average of 52 Mbit/s in the unobstructed test and 53 Mbits/s when some walls separated the router from the test laptop. Netgear's firmware update process remains confusing. There seem to be three independent processes going on: At some point, Netgear activates the Automatic Update feature which allows the router to "find" this new firmware and offer to load it. Customers who never look at the firmware update feature will be blissfully unaware of it. This process appears to be "rolled out". My RBR50, for example, continues to report "No new firmware available." https://kb.netgear.com/31573/How-do-I-manually-upgrade-firmware-on-my-Orbi-router-using-orbilogin-co...Firmware updates in 2018 have added more fine-tuned parental controls with the Circle with Disney app. This app allows parents to set up profiles for each member of the family, complete with age-appropriate content filtering, time-limits for online use, and curfew settings to cut off connectivity when it’s time to be done for the night. (We mostly liked Circle with Disney when we reviewed the standalone device. The app should provide similar functionality.) Netgear Orbi RBK50 review: Verdict