Netgear Orbi Mesh WiFi

[paulockenden]

For a Mesh system i'm using the Unifi, and that works great. You have to have ethernet to the APs though, but other than that works great.

Not really mesh then...

P.

[dty]

Orbi wins (if you pick the '50' units rather than the cheaper 40 or 30)

What's the difference? I can see two-unit setups in all the ranges which claim different coverage, so I'm guessing that it's different output powers. But output power is only half the story - it's no good if my wireless devices can't send back. I could have enough power to reach Land's End, but I still wouldn't be able to get a connection.

Also, do you know what the marketers have in mind when they talk about square footage? I assume the "3000 sqft" kit would cover 3000 sqft on the ground, so a 6000 sqft house (assuming "typical" two stories, and usual radio coverage caveats applied)?

[mtmcgavock]

Not really mesh then...

P.

I believe if you wanted to connect them to one wired main AP then have secondary APs off it wirelessly you can. However seeming they run POE it seems daft not to run a LAN to the device. I've found it's one of the most flexible systems on the market for not much money. It's transformed the wireless in our house.

[bruce_miranda]

There is something distinctly different about the way the mesh systems appear to work as opposed to have multiple access points on the network. I was running 3 APs before on the same SSID same passphrase but different channels but my phones refused to roam them. Now with the Velop units they happily roam, I have no idea why.

In terms of coverage the way I read the Orbi marketing is to space the units in such a way it gives you effective coverage of the claimed sq footage. What I did with my Velop is to place each node at the opposite far ends of the house on every floor .e.g. loft rear, first floor front, ground floor rear. That seems to cover every part of the house and clearly at points in the house is picking up the signal from other floors as it's a stronger signal as a straight line distance through ceilings and floors.

[HenGus]

I will throw my tuppence worth into the pot. I am running a Fritz!box and a 1750E repeater with new beta mesh firmware in a 5 bed house and getting 50Mbps down speeds throughout the house. It plays nicely with the Sonos Mesh apart from the once in a Blue Moon 2.4 band channel change. I am not brave enough to try the Sky Mesh so I run the two Sky boxes from a LAN wired connection with the 1750 and an old WiFi repeater that isn’t mesh capable.

[paulockenden]

What's the difference?

Power amps, antennas, and the number of 5ghz channels used for backhaul.

The European product director explained to me that the square footage thing was just an attempt to try to come up with something that non-techie people (the target audience) would understand.

[dty]

I thought they used a completely different band for the backhaul?

[paulockenden]

Backhaul uses the high number 5ghz channels. The original 50 model uses four channels as four separate streams. The lesser models use fewer channels, eg the 40 only uses two.

As well as throuput this also affects range. At extremes, with four channels there’s more chance of contact being made. The Velop (when using wireless backhaul) just uses a single stream across two adjacent channels.

[bruce_miranda]

Orbi now finally supports an ethernet backhaul. For my use case a Velop with it's 3 units suited better. But if I needed just two units I would get an Orbi.

[paulockenden]

The firmware that supports Ethernet Backhaul is getting many complaints though - the auto roll-out has been paused.

[bruce_miranda]

Linksys told Amazon to refund my complete payment for the Velop because I reported a major issue with Linksys' firmware for ethernet backhaul which was released literally on the day I was performing my install. I was the first person to write to Linksys and report it giving them all the details. It was a big enough problem that Linksys not only paused the roll out but then actively downgraded all the previously upgraded units too. Sounds like Netgear are having their share of that fun then....I have a free Velop which works perfectly now, so I ain't complaining.

[paulockenden]

Free things always work best!