RBKE962

I bought this to replace a Google mesh system that I bought to replace Ubiquity mesh system. The Ubiquity system wasn't bad but in a 2 level double brick house, we needed 7 satellites to get an average signal across the house. The Google Nest mesh system had the same result except its interface is so dumbed down that you can't do anything like port forwarding or VPN.The biggest difference with the Orbi system is that it is about the only domestic grade mesh system available that has wired backhaul. This means that you can plug each satellite into your hard wired network so it isn't trying to contact the router via wireless. In our new house which is 3 levels with a concrete floor between 2 of the levels having wired backhaul means that there is 100% signal strength across the whole house. Wired backhaul also means that data going back through the router isn't using any wireless bandwidth. It also means on a large property you could run a network cable underground out to a shed or outbuilding and plug in a satellite and then you have full wireless strength even though you may be well away from your main router. In mesh systems without backhaul I found that for far away areas the satellite would have to daisy chain back to the main router which created a massive drop off in speed and reliability.Setup was a breeze and the speed is amazing, I'm easily getting 520mbps wirelessly across the house. It has a great feature where you can have all your smart home devices on a separate wireless network which is good security-wise. I bought an additional satellite to go outside in a weatherproof box so now with 1 router and 3 satellites I have 100% signal strength across our 10,000ft2 block and 3 level house. It's what wireless was always promised to be but never delivered until now.The phone app is very good and it has a great feature where you can see and control your network even when you are out of the house. The web interface to the router is good and allows a lot of control over permissions and data usage by device and user on the network so you can say prioritize your apple TV device so no matter what others are doing on your network you don't get caching when you are trying to watch a 4k movie.My only gripe is Netgear only offers 90 days of technical support unless you pay monthly for support. I would agree if it is novice support on network setup but when it is due to a firmware update that has dozens of reports on their chat pages of having issues I don't think you should have to pay to get a simple answer as to whether the firmware upgrade should be rolled back to solve a particular problem. Especially when you have paid thousands to buy the mesh system.The backhaul is 2.5gbe which is unbelievably fast so if you plug your PC into one of the 4 data points provided on each satellite and you are using backhaul you can have file transfer rates of 250Mbps across your network (as long as if you are using a switch the switch must be at least 2.5gbe). I put in a 10GBe switch and now our home network and wireless is comparable to enterprise-level fast.Netgear do offer an Armor subscription that you can then install on your computer and then the router and the software offer a very high level of malware and intrusion protection. However, I found that it was so intrusive that it blocked a lot of legitimate programs and operations so I uninstalled it.It is crazy expensive for a home wireless setup but in all fairness, it is so much better than everything else I've tried, the wired backhaul alone is worth the price of entry.

I used the base spectrum router they gave me for my smart home. I had so many devices (Govee smart lights, appliances, etc) that some devices started to drop off. I also had to use a WiFi repeater/extender to extend it to the lights outside.I bought this product thinking it will help and BOY did it prove me right. It’s handled all my devices without issue, my speeds over WiFi are 1 Gb download, 800+ mb upload (or vice versa, can’t remember). The separate bands for IoT (Internet of things) is great and allows the devices I use all the time (gaming, iPhone, etc) to have less clutter on their WiFi band. Everything has been flawless so far and set up was a breeze.Yes it’s expensive, but this has future proofed my home for the foreseeable 10 years.

WARNING: Several modems (including SpaceX's StarLink specifically) have issues renewing DHCP leases. Constantly unplugging the WAN port from RBRE is required for new lease and internet functionality!REVIEW: Buying this for “the best of the best” is quite frankly the biggest tech disappointment I’ve ever had to endure.Think of it as upgrading from a 2018 Mercedes Benz (RAX200) to a 2022 Mercedes Benz (RBKE963) - the 2022 goes a little faster, but every feature inside the car has been stripped away completely.Seriously, how can you guys charge $1,499 USD for a mesh hardware system that comes with software that is an abysmal mess.- First of all if you use a Static IP, forget about it, prepare to rip your hair out during initial setup and reset the unit several times just for the static to function correctly.- Want to split your 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands? Nope, not possible. You are forced into using one SSID that combines them all. This will cause all sorts of issues on certain smart home setups, specifically legacy ones.- Want to force a daisy chain setup due to your specific satellite placement. Nope, forget about it, not possible to choose/force a daisy chain, the router decides automatically and 80% of the time decides wrong in specific house configurations, meaning both satellites will connect to the router and one will have terrible connectivity, you need to continue rebooting to get the daisy chain system you’re looking for, hoping you get lucky. Literally who thought of this? Why not let the users choose their own setup? This now means every power outage you get, your system becomes an utter mess and you’ll be forced back into rebooting to possibly get the daisy chain working again.Want to change the 5ghz channel to anything but default? Oh prepare for the biggest several wasted hours of your life while the satellites fail to sync correctly due to firmware issues. I near returned the unit at this point. It’s only when rolling back to the default 5ghz channel that things started to slowly sync up, after another hour or two mind you. This is likely some design failure seeing as the satellites use the 5ghz channel to communicate. (2.4 and 6 channel changing seems fine though).- Want to be sure who’s on your network at all times? Nope, prepare for ghost devices that access control just cannot see. I’ve been setting networks up for years and this is quite clearly a horrendous software. 95% of devices show fine but you WILL have ghost devices.- Want to make use of the features you had in previous non mesh standalone routers, OFDMA being one of many examples, nope, not possible. It’s all been stripped away.- Want remote web interface based management (since the app barely has any settings) for your router when you’re away from home, NOPE, remote management is only available through the terrible iOS app now, setting up a custom port to access the far more sane and functioning web interface has been stripped away, completely!- Want to create a guest network without a password temporarily if you’re hosting a party? You guessed it, not possible, passwords are now forced. Unsecured guest networks are suddenly a thing of the past, because you know, Netgear has decided we’re all dumb and can’t manage our own security practices.- Want a stable iOS application that can enable/disable access control, well, you’ll have it, 10% of the time, the other 90% it doesn’t allow for this easily and doesn’t even show you groupings of devices (which are connected to 2.4, which are to 5, etc). Device grouping and proper access control management will literally function 1 out of 10 times on app opening. (iOS 15.3 19D5026g). I’ve closed and opened this joke of an app at least 100 times, to the point where I feel like making a video on this issue just to demonstrate it. And I’m not even going to get into the fact the entire app is buggy, barely loads your configuration, and is designed for a 6 year old, who I bet would still get frustrated with it lol. I have no idea who gave the green light on such a dumbed down non-functional design.- Want an advertisement free experience as an advanced networking administrator, nope you’re out of luck. You will be PLASTERED with advertisements for parental control subscriptions (because apparently we all have kids) and Netgear armor spam. Seriously, we’re paying $1,499 for this? Oh and don’t forget parental controls are a monthly subscription for those who do care about that, don’t even think you get those out of the box lol.- Want tech support, or even a forum where perhaps a Netgear employee will visit from time to time to answer the communities concerns. Ha, in your dreams! Tech support is utterly useless, the community forums are dozens of times more useful, yet nearly all community members still continuously mention that not a single Netgear employee has been seen there in years to address any concerns. Meanwhile competitions router brands listen to their communities, actually communicate with them in an official capacity, push continuous firmware upgrades that ACTUALLY give the people what they want, and genuinely support their products. Meanwhile Netgear is as it’s always been. Release product, make money, release next product.All in all, will you have wifi in your house? Yes. The internet will work lol. Is it worth $1,499? My god, it’s barely worth $400 seeing as it’s completely stripped away several features and butchered its entire interface and application functionality from their previous high end non Orbi systems. You are wasting your money, buy the cheaper Orbis, or better yet look for a competitors product.Guys, nothing to see here. My wallet and I have bit the bullet for you and can safely say pass on this one. Hands down. If only there was a review like this prior to my purchase, I’d have saved a lot of money.EDIT: WARNING TO ALL BUYERS: Netgear has gone as far as to delete my review off their website. The netgear site falsely advertises customer satisfaction! (Further edits at bottom of review).EDIT 2: Netgear has released version 6.0.3.82 & 6.0.3.85. These updates not only fixe nothing but were never even recognized by both their iOS app and router administration page. It’s only because I stumbled upon them on the community forums that I realized updates have been released. To install these you must do so manually, and you must do satellites followed by router. (Doing it the other way around can render your unit useless, unless you have the downgrade firmware.) So through all this time, we have received useless updates that fixes nothing, and came to see yet another problem with this unit. An auto interface based update process that is non-functional at all and must be done manually. Seriously who is behind the engineering & IT team at Netgear?