Netgear Orbi RBR50 Spiel

by Rian

Orbi RBR50 has been EOL for a couple of years now, so as a “review”, this post will be outdated the moment it is published. But I thought to share some of my experiences, some positives, and some negatives in using and setting up mesh routers for the first time then upgrading to another one. I wouldn’t go into details on what is my latest choice of routers, but it isn’t from Netgear — partly due to its pricing and product design.

When I started looking into mesh routers back in 2017 or so, I’ve read threads where the opinions were simply hostile toward consumer-grade mesh technology. They argued mesh routers would only add even more traffic to the crowded WiFi channels; instead, the consensus seemed to suggest connecting WiFi AP via Ethernet to the main router as a solution. The argument seemed sound; I had tried it, only to abandon it. However, for me, it was less about crowded radio frequencies, than radio-obstructing walls.

Orbi, at the time, had just updated its firmware to enable Ethernet backhaul — connecting nodes via Ethernet instead of WiFi. It sounded like a plausible solution to the wall problem I was having. Having tried AP-based solution, I could whole-heartily say it wasn’t worth the hassle: devices would disconnect upon moving, each AP has to be managed individually, and so on. The mesh router system was more straightforward and coherent when managing one LAN, especially in home environment.

Physical installation and usage were, frankly, no different from any other routers I’ve used previously. I did have to link the nodes manually, but it wasn’t as cumbersome or glitch-prone. I recall reading there was an early patch —like a day one patch— to the firmwares to fix some of the aforementioned issues. Most of my devices already supported WiFi roaming, where a device can choose the strongest node from the mesh network, so it was a nice addition from the AP based system I had previously.

I did have hiccups with overall maintenance. The model I had has a designated main node unit, where only it can be physically connected to the WAN. That main unit needed to be replaced, and I had no other choice but to buy a 1+1 satellite package to replace the faulty one —main node only package was not available for sale. The other problem was its lackluster updates and maintenance of existing features; in fact, some of the features were flat-out removed.

Those were also the same reasons why I didn’t choose Orbi as my next mesh system. Price points of Orbi products aside, the mesh routers from competitors are now touted to be smarter and more capable to handle dynamically changing environment. Again, it’d be pointless to buy just one satellite, but if you are upgrading or replacing a faulty unit, compatibility between all nodes is definitely a welcome feature. Consumer-grade mesh router is always a matter of compromise, and I believe Orbi RBR50 was able to convince me that much.

note: Featured image is from Netgear Orbi