NETGEAR Orbi Whole Home Tri-band Mesh WiFi 6 Add-on Satellite (RBS850) – Works with Your Orbi WiFi 6 System Adds up to 2,500 sq. ft. Coverage AX6000 (Up to 6Gbps)

First of all, lemme say that unlike synching brand new RBS850ss, both of which connected/synched effortlessly this (refurb?) standalone wasn’t as receptive. After hours of trial & error & a heavy dose of trial n error voodoo and ill logic, it synched. Then, after that I realized I should’ve factory reset it despite sellers claim’as good as new’. What they should mention the second you lay eyes on this is check the current settings via its ‘settings’ page prior to ever synching. And at this point esp if its been used or a refurb, do a hard reset which should’ve been done by the seller. if you don’t , you’ll waste time. So, factory reset for a clean slate and from here you’ll go to the RBS settings page to upgrade firmware and from what I’ve read be able to edit “Region”. Doing this will save you much grief and hair pulling, since both can make the synch a potential nightmare. So, go to the RBS850’s settings page where you can see what FW version is currently installed in that individual RBSatellite. Assume its outdated as I discovered only hours later, but I also discovered Netgears fancy “check firmware” button is NOT to be trusted, since for a month its told me no new firmware, and because of having to update I realized all 4 of my RBS(atellite)’s and RBR(outer) were already outdated by 2 newer FW versions despite the router settings page telling me there were no updates (GUI unreliable). They need to get it together. The GUI I swear has barely changed in 20 years with clumsy access to minimally informative, outdated help content, sluggish sit n wait editing & maneuvering, and an overall subpar GUI experience thats out of touch considering the astronomical pricepoint of the hardware, using their Help Community which is really run on page of customers’ collective bemoaning blindly trying to make sense of their hardware (countless manhour$ of trial n error dirty work) and that’s your go to source for help. I digress, but tired of overpaying for buggy products and synching this satellite has been the buggiest of all sometimes its in synch, sometimes ‘disconnected’, and sometimes even after unplugging one of these RBS’s it said it was synched, on, and AOK when actually it had been turned off the day before & put away in a drawer to be relocated. Again, can’t trust the GUI. but by doing the above, the dreaded synch might just go a little smoother than it did for me.

esp the minimally informative help comments at the bottom of the page are incomplete, horribly outdated, and mostly of no help. Anyhowthe upgraded Firmware du jour that you will need to have already downloaded from NG website and stored locally unzipped in a folder. done from same settings page using downloaded FW update file you can get from NG website and upload from whatever folder you unzip it to. I haven’t tried to reset all over again for timesake, but per support articles, if you open this the 1st time you can set the Region (mine apparently was used in Canada (Region) which has its own funny rules and allowances when it comes to the airwaves Reset sequence: paper clip to pinhole reset button, push n hold reset button till led blinks then goes solid with various coded colors observed along the way, which you can lookup. Turn off. While off, paper clip to reset button again, push n hold before and during turning RBS back on, hold till lights change. Once factory reset, plug her in direct (ethernet cable from computer to RBS850 ) or indirectly (ethernet cable from computer to network switch or router) enter & go to RBS IP url for the satellite’s local settings page which is at http://192.168.0.250 if still in factory state and enter “admin/password” literally for user/pw or as in my case, setup attempted earlier and my router already assigned it an IP address in which case instead of for the former, youd use admin/network pw (NOT wifi pw)

I bought several Orbis to replace a Nest WiFi system that was outmatched by the size of a new home. My goal was reliable, fast WiFi that would be easy to configure and maintain. I got one out of three.

The good news is that the Orbis are very fast, and they cover a large area. Setting up the network was pretty easy. The units look good (their power makes me excuse their size), the LEDs are somewhat helpful in understanding state, and having 4 Ethernet ports on each unit (and Ethernet backhaul) is a real advantage. There were no incompatibilities with old IoT devices.

Unfortunately, Orbi is not reliable. Orbis have been saddled since September (at least 4 months now) with firmware version 4.6.3.16_2.0.51, which allows lots of brief disconnections, seemingly at random. It has been very difficult for Zoom calls, and leaves smart speakers apologizing for their momentary inabilities to reach the Internet. Message boards are filled with frustration and appeals for an update to solve these problems, and I am beginning to wonder if Netgear has lost some critical engineering resources over the past 6 months.

Just getting to this firmware level was an ordeal – Orbis are supposed to update automatically, but my units arrived running a 3-series firmware, which required a manual firmware update to get to the 4-series firmware. From here it is supposed to update automatically, but for months I’ve seen no updates at all.

The app and web-based management tools are clunky and slow, and they take a looonnng time to update after a reboot or a configuration change. Sorting out satellite names is made harder by Netgear’s habit of shuffling the order in which satellites are listed – you’d better match MAC addresses to locations for each satellite unit or you’ll be chasing ghosts for a while.

Other little complaints – Orbit keeps trying to upsell users on security software that other makers (Asus) provide for free. The power bricks are large. The management UI is happy to show you that a satellite is disconnected when it is providing WiFi. Tech support is friendly, but not that engaged or sharp.

I tried Asus AX6600s (nice management UI, fast enough, long enough range). When I ran into conflicts between the Asus system and some legacy IoT devices (irrigation controllers, 3-year-old smart speakers) Asus tech support really went to town on trying to solve the problem, but eventually I went back to Orbi because it at least reaches everything most of the time. Not a ringing endorsement, but worth three stars.

Update: Firmware V4.6.7.13_2.1.9 is out, and if anything it has made WiFi connections more erratic. Netgear support techs still seem to be denying the problems on Netgear’s forums. No idea what is going on at that company.

Update 9/29/22: Firmware 4.6.8.2 was somewhat more stable, but satellites went out of synch about every week, requiring reboots. Some satellites had good signal but would occasionally restrict logins to the guest network. And the update to 4.6.9.11 required manual intervention, including manual firmware uploads to 3 of the 5 satellites in operation. After it was completed the browser-based status pages still displayed only “Wait a moment” (forever) instead of confirming that no updates were available for several satellites. Router still requires reboots once per month. This product is a mess.