Good price for a trusted mesh system.
Note that this is Wi-Fi 5, not 4 like the JB details section states.
NetGear Orbi RBK50 AC3000 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 5 System 2-Pack $279 + Delivery ($0 C&C/ in-Store) @ JB Hi-Fi
960
Mister Popo on 13/05/2022 - 17:53 jbhifi.com.au (1915 clicks)
Last edited 13/05/2022 - 17:59 by 2 other users
Last edited 13/05/2022 - 17:59 by 2 other users
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Where did you get all the satellites from?
You can repurpose the router as a satellite, i have two pairs set up like this.
The thing that threw me off was that its not really AC3000 per router in terms of all 3000mbps being usable for your devices. its a 400mbps+866mbps+1733mbps, with the 1733mbps band being reserved for the wireless backhaul. I run a wired gigabit backhaul in my house and even so, that 1766mbps is still unusable and reserved as a wireless backhaul. This was one of my reasons for adding more satellites, so I could increase the wireless bandwidth available. Otherwise, once you start adding more and more devices the bandwidth starts to dip. To bypass this i try to have as many devices connected to the satellites via ethernet as possible.
This is compared to the asus mesh system where running an ethernet backhaul does free up the extra wireless bandwidth. Although at this price, can't really complain.
I've bought a second RBK50 to extend my current mesh system - I'm yet to set it up.
My understanding is you need to connect the second router (AP mode) to either the 1st satellite via ethernet (with the 2nd satellite synced to the second router) or the second router (AP mode) connected to the 1st router via ethernet with both satellites synced to the 2nd router.
How have you set up your RBK50s.
Thanks
@DangerNoodle: That is true. I just wanted to let people know that if you go the firmware route, there could be issues. I was lucky that I had a V1 that I could flash, but I had read a heap of disaster stories on Reddit. I had all fingers crossed when I did mine🤞😬 But so far so good
@Marky66: the house i am renting has ethernet ports around the house connected to a hub around the opticomm NTD. I have the Opticomm NTD feeding internet to the main unit, which then connects to the ports around the house via the hub nearby, and then at each outlet around the house I have the satellites connected to these ports.
If its easier, I have internet to main router, and then both satellites and spare router (AP mode) connected to the main router. I should have clarified that by repurpose the router as a satellite i meant AP mode.
Bought additional full kits and satellites off eBay over the time. I do have a spare router which is handy just in case.
Gees how big is your house? I have this router at one end of our two story house and the satellite at the other (about 17m) and get full speed from the modem through the house upstairs and downstairs on a 250Mbps service. It will do me until it breaks. Don’t really need more than that unless maybe I went for a 1000Mbps service, and even then….
While this is a great price and meets most peoples’ needs, I would not be thinking buying two RBK50 or extra satellites these days as there are newer options and, well future proofing. For the total price of two setups you could get the new, higher performing wifi 6 version.
For my household, its not so much the size of the household but the wireless bandwidth available and the interference, hence running an ethernet backhaul. each unit claims to be AC3000, but 1733mbps of the 5ghz bandwidth is allocated to the backhaul, so all youre left with in terms of usable bandwidth is 400mbps+866mbps as the orbi setups do not allow you to reclaim the wireless backhaul by running a wired backhaul. So by adding more units, you can add more bandwidth to your household network. I have my own internal network for streaming so the extra bandwidth from additional units is useful.
Bought 1 set @$399, and another @$383.25… and I'm over the moon. Best WIFI I've ever had. At this price… GET IT
Router downstairs, satellite upstairs. Whole house & front/back yards flooded with reception. By memory, several MB/s minimum anywhere.
Second setup is a medium-large single storey. Same… flooded reception throughout. Router-alone is probably enough.
By memory, several MB/s minimum anywhere.
Good review. :-)
Can't tell if sarcasm. That speed mention probs isn't helpful without context.
I mean I can be anywhere in the backyard, or in my car on the street… and still pull down large podcasts etc. FAST.
Yep. I live in a fairly large house on a semi-rural property and with an Orbi router and 5 satellites spread around, I get wifi across the whole property. I actually have 2 more units that I haven't hooked up yet. It works very well. Excellent wifi in my shed/workshop which is 30m from the house and fairly weak, but usable, wifi at the very back of the property. This is a good price and you can buy this stuff at fairly low-cost second hand.
How many acres? Curious
5000m2
Do you just plug satellites into PowerPoints around the property and outdoors that connect wifi wise back to the main router and that's how you get the wifi coverage all the way out to your property back shed etc?
I have a satellite on the outside walls at the front and back of the house. I don't have the proper outdoor units (which Netgear make but are very expensive) but have them in weatherproof enclosures, although they are under the eaves of the roof and not really exposed to rain and sunshine. Another in my shed at the front of the property and another under the roof of a gazebo by the pool at the back of the property. All just plugged into power points and meshed wirelessly. I'm not sure if this is the correct setup but it works.
I have a single D-Link dir850l wifi router provided by the ISP for free back in days. Does upgrading to a paid solution like this… Just the router provide that much of a coverage increase off the hardware?
Can you choose between 2.4ghz or 5ghz wifi bands to connect to?
I have a single one that has the coverage I need. It’s not the fastest, but it is rock solid for years.
Have had this one for a few years now. Best once I've had. Coverage is excellent can walk 50meters up the road and still get a faint signal while walking.
Officeworks same price if helps anyone
https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/netgear-or…this is a good piece of kit. I have a single level home, and I get wifi everywhere, in the shed and on the street lol
Single storey brick housing too. Just wondering does the router wifi connect to ISP router or it replaces it? Then the satellite you just place it at a PowerPoint somewhere further down the house and the wifi connection between the system still delivers super fast wifi coverage thru house?
Trying to cover my front of house especially for security and doorbell devices.
Just as a side note - how many of the RBK50s out there have the plastic coating turning into a slightly yellow horrible sticky surface.
My current setup is a RBK50 / RBS50 (router/satellite) - seemingly version one as it has a USB 2 port. (I did hope I could connect a USB ext drive, but apparently, you can't - I'll eventually connect a NAS via ethernet). Both devices have a horrible sticky surface which I haven't found a good solution.
Same, my first version of RBK50 / RBS50 started to become a little sticky. It is the rubbery coating that is deteriorating over time. I have used mine since 2017.
Other than sticky surface, it works really well and good coverage for a 2-storey house.Possible solutions for sticky surface:
1. check if any of the vinyl skin online sellers can cut vinyl wrap into its shape, and then wrap it.
2. use sticky tape all around it
3. use glad wrap to cover itI believe all 3 above solutions will work, and not affecting its performance.
I bought second hand units and they had the sticky issue. You can run off those costing using isopropyl.
Once removed, it will reveal the bare shiny plastic underneath.
How do these compare to the google mesh system? Saw the 3 pack online for $399 so was planning on hitting up officeworks, attempt at getting 10% off that price.
Cheers!
If you dont need ethernet at the APs or ethernet backhaul the google is fine. But the rbk50 has been awesome for me, i would highly recommend it, also it wont listen to you ;)
I had massive ongoing issues with the google mesh system, switched to this and never had better/more reliable internet in my life, I’d highly recommend going for this from personal experience.
I returned my had heaps issues with random drop outs. Multiple people on Netgear forums had similar issues. Just randomly the wifi would go out and I wasn't even moving. Just chilling on couch and wifi drops and reconnects. Very annoying. Ax88u had no issues since rock solid
Is this worth an up/side grade coming from a tenda mw6?
Have a large number of smart devices (~31 connected devices) and a 250mbit nbn connection that never reaches full speed in other rooms other than when connected to LAN which I have solved with multiple switches around each node
Want to know about this too
Been some time since I’ve checked if there’s a work around but the issue I had with this was the inability to turn off 5g and force 2.4 for setting up initial connections with IOTs that only use 2.4, when it first came out there was some ability to do it (so long ago can’t remember what it was) but that got patched, it’s great as a keep it simple stupid but there’s limited settings control
Yes that is an annoyance i've read about, thankfully i haven't really had such problems with my 2.4Ghz devices. Wyze cams, reolink, xiaomi stuff, all worked off the bat. I think i might of for maybe 1 or 2 smart plugs might of though, i just took it further away from the router so 2.4Ghz was the dominant signal. You can also temporarily lower the power of the 5Ghz band as another work around but i've not needed to.
I gave that a go but for some of the stuff I had there was no choice and the power reduction on the 5ghz just wasn’t enough to fix the issue, I still have this as my primary wifi but ended up having a second router on 2.4 only for things that I couldn’t link
@Ididntbuythat: That's weird, maybe you have some setting toggled on/off that i do not. At a friends place that had similar issue (different wifi system) i just used wifi analyzer on my phone to see where the 5ghz wasnt reaching and we did the setup there, i think it was in his garage or shed or something. Was easy enough. Been faultless since.
@Xizor: Could prob do it but would need to do some serious pissing around carrying the router itself as some of my things are fixed in place units like door bells, garage door controllers, wall switches etc, because they can’t easily be moved and don’t need much bandwidth I just use a couple of random old routers set on 2.4 as extenders, if I needed a faster connection across the board on one network I would prob start again with a eufy system
@Ididntbuythat: Ah ok yeah, there are some things i refuse to wifi up as the benefit does not outweigh the potential hassles for me (setting up, reliability, if they die etc). I feel even better about that now. :D
p.s. have you tried turning off the Orbi, setup your alternate router with the same ip range/ssid/password etc add the troublesome devices, then turn it off and put the Orbi back on. I had heard of people having success doing it that way too.
@Xizor: Yep tried playing that game also, still no good, my house is all set up and working in a Frankenstein kind of manner so it can stay like that until I need something better/cleaner. This is the first time I’ve used a router that didn’t have the ability to turn either of them off, like I said earlier works great for keep it simple stupid but as soon as you need to do adjustments or play with settings it becomes hard work
@Ididntbuythat: Ok that's very bizzare something must not of been set right at the time. Plenty of people have done that successfully, but i guess it's the case of devil you know.
It is higher spec'd including higher max speed and dedicated backhaul. As long as it's setup appropriately it will be superior but what speeds depends on many factors with wifi. If your current wifi is not fast enough causing you to use LAN then yes this will improve that. If you have a big house you might want a third unit though.
Our place is solid brick/block internal and external walls and i have main unit front of house, satellite 10m away in living room using its own wifi backhaul. Main TV 2m from that satellite with an nvidia shield that streams 4K from my NAS over 5Ghz and IPTV great. My PC and NAS ethernet to router unit + 20 or so wifi devices all run great. Covers the house and around it adequately that i never have issues streaming in multiple areas simultaneously. If i want to go in the backyard the speeds drop down to about 20ish mbps at the back fence (which is much lower than the satellite unit as its a sloping block).
Ended up buying the unit to replace my tenda mw6 and noticed little to no difference. Still going from 250mbit (study) to 50mbit (lounge), so it seems the orbi won’t do the trick.
Will consider returning unfortunately
Although the price is good, it's a few years old now. I'd like to future proof a bit more personally.
Unless there is some cutting edge technical requirement or a need for wifi 6 this thing will comfortably handle demand for quite a few years to come i reckon. It's one of the highest performing wifi5 systems in terms of both coverage and throughput.
Why? The nbn speeds out of the wall are lower than 100mbps and nowhere close to the router speeds. Also the router speed is moot if your wifi devices are slower.
Also a Tri Band Wifi 5 is better than a Dual Band Wifi 6
NoNoNo Dual band Wi-Fi 6 is better than Triban wifi 5, the gap between 5 and 6 is huge
Its not true triband wifi 5 though. the 1733mbps band is reserved for the wireless backhaul, even if you run a wired backhaul setup like myself. so realistically in terms of usable bands, its dual band 400mbps+866mbps, not the completely usable AC3000 that they claim.
It’s probably weird, but I do the opposite. Maybe just following a corp IT mentality? Spent decades smashing my head against a wall. I’m done.
Let everyone else pay top dollar to Guinea pig hardware/software/cars/whatever. I sweep it up cheap & mature. This is almost 1/3 what it cost when released, and better now.
Officework has same price. So can’t get 5% price match
Put the voxel firmware on these and they are the bees knees.
https://www.voxel-firmware.com/Downloads/Voxel/html/orbi.htm…
Router plus 2 Sats 35 devices no issues
+1 - Voxel firmware > stock firmware
Great value for something easy to set up.
Personally prefer Asus' AiMesh for flexibility and combination of different routers/satellite. AiMesh set up also won't be cheap.
Can I use this to replace my ISP's router? My house has FTTP, so I can just connect one of them to my NBN device (ground floor), then place the other device on the 2nd floor? Will this work better than my current Kogan MW3?
You can use this to replace your ISP routers. I have opticomm FTTP and I have my orbi connected to the NTD.
Thank you :)
Considering retiring my old TPG router along with the Tenda MW3 meshDid your old router just connect to a mesh wifi router and satellites ? I have an ISP provided dlink for 850l router that I use. Wonder if I connect this to a mesh system or this orbi one just replace your existing router and is a system in itself?
@SaberX: My old (existing ISP supplied router) connects to the NBN box, then the Tenda/Kogan mesh (main unit) connects the router and talks to the other two.
From what they have been discussed earlier, the ORBI 'router' can replace my ISP router and at the same time it will talk to the ORBI satellites. Hope that answer your question.
@beOson: Ok thanks! So tenda is a Kogan brand of mesh that doesn't include the router hence why you utilise the existing ISP one?
Have you any reason to ditch It? Seems a few have tenda so presuming they're quite reputable or recommended?
@SaberX: Kogan branded Tenda, what others have called. They are super reliable, tho mine is MW3 (the basic model) and I'm on a 250/25 plan (trying out the Telstra promotion), compared to the router that comes from Telstra, the range and speed are not as good, hence this ORBI deal has brought my attention. I probably only need one ORBI downstairs and one upstairs.
The existing Tenda could probably replace my ISP router, never thought of that before tbh, but I can definitely recommend them as one of the top choices for budget mesh wifis.
These are awesome. I got 3 sets the last time and sold the extra routers on marketplace. These are version 2 and the routers can't be repurposed as satellites.
So once you set up one router wifi you can connect as many satellites as you neeed? They just plug and play add on?
If I have Ethernet coming at various places in the house, do I still need these or I can simply have wifi router connected at each ethernet?
I don’t know enough, but would the multiple router approach lead to multiple SSIDs?
Your devices won't be on the same network and therefore will have issues communicating to each other.
In my house I have ethernet ports through the house and the main hub is near my network termination device at the front. I have an ethernet cable connected to my router from the NTD at the front through the wan port, then i have ethernet cables connecting the lan port on the router to the ports on the hub at the front. From there I have the satellite units and a router in AP mode connected at the various ethernet ports around the house. Then at these satellite units and AP router units I have other devices connected via ethernet to free up the wifi bandwidth since 1733mbps of the wireless bandwidth is reserved for a wireless backhaul (even if you're using a wired backhaul).
The benefit of using the ethernet backhaul is that you get better latency between devices due to a hardwired connection compared to running the default wireless backhaul and you only have to deal with a single SSID.
These have been great since I installed them.
Newbie here… My ISP nbn provided a dlink dir850l router… Nbn NTD in my garage premises is connected via ethernet wall point into roof and through to the study room ethernet port. I then connect router to the ethernet point and get my wifi through there.
As someone who's never used wifi extenders or mesh systems etc do I switch in the wifi router from this orbi system with my existing router from ISP? Then can I just plug in the satellite towards back of house next to a PowerPoint and get stable coverage as it connects to the orbi router ? I don't have ethernet coming back out from my study router room to various back rooms so I can't wire them, although conduits are setup for this in future. Or can I connect my ISP router to the orbi router and satellite?
Is it ok to use these mesh systems without ethernet connections linking the satellites to the router wifi device ? Or is the speed and coverage impacted?
I've only got a single storey house max 245 Sqm internal. Trying to cover the sides and front and back of house (small 1.5 m wide sides block of land) so I can put up wifi security cameras and doorbells.
Is there an ability to connect to either wifi band : 2.4ghz or 5ghz? Because current router allows both. Someone mentioned above issues with devices that can only connect to 2.4ghz? Orbi only does 5 GHz?
https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/netgear-or…
or this ac3000 ?
thinking to replace my isp networks ? too bad networks atm
Might depend on your specific needs. But it seems straight-forward to me.
You'd normally have to pay ~$60 more for this one… but currently $80 cheaper!
Do i need to have laptop or phone with wifi 6 features to use the wifi 6 mesh systems router ?
Cuzz atm im using the normal dual bands 5g and 2.4g from isp networks ( Belong )
Thank you for your help
This is rubbish. Went back to my Optus standard router which is much faster. Satellites rarely connect and very slow when they do. Don't waste your money.
I’m sure it’s that simple.
Problem is pebkac.
Noob question. I bought this to fix wifi black spots but my kid uses an ethernet cable and I am wondering do I keep the cable plugged into modem still or plug into the orbi?
plugged into modem
Thanks
this triband 5g or dualband wifi 6 ax1800 which is extra only $50 ??
Have a router and 4 x satellites here (spread across a house and granny flat). No black spots and great performance everywhere. Strongly recommended!