NETGEAR Orbi Home Mesh WiFi System (RBK20W)

I installed this in conjunction with ISP change, and to free myself from the "Just OK" ISP provided Routers. The RBK20W has vastly improved the wireless experience in my house. I have Base set up on top of Kitchen Cabinet. I have one satellite set up in Bedroom on the outside wall nearest by Outdoor Deck/Pergola. I now have seamless WiFi everywhere in the house and on the deck with a single SSID. I get 500 Mbps at the router , 300 Mbps WiFi indoors, 200 Mbps on the Deck. The iPad App is pretty handy for checking status and SpeedTests. I did find that some of the secondary setup stuff was a little easier with a wired connect and Web Browser. The App connects over wireless, which resets a lot during setup. I only used the direct connect one time and use the App frequently. Router was not inexpensive, but still a good value. I would buy it again. A nice feature is ability to print a QR code for the Guest Network that folks can use on their own to get connected. I keep the QR code on my Fridge and point guests to it. I had to reset some of my smart plugs. Last time it did it, it took 30 minutes per device. This time it took <5 minutes per device. I am sure this is a result of a Stronger WiFi signal. I saw some mediocre reviews. I have not encountered anything negative with this router. It has been the easiest setup I have ever done. And it appears to work flawlessly.

Nice mid-range WiFi setup. Range extends to about a 40-50 foot radius from each unit (this is thru walls, unobstructed would be much further). I have it installed in a 2700 sq ft split level ranch house, and get full coverage through the entire house, and decent signal outside in a city lot size yard (a little weak about 30 ft from the house, but still useable and not overly slow). My isp service speed is 250 mb/sec wired, and I'll get between 120-180 mb/sec over WiFi using this router. I'm not sure if you'll get higher speeds with a faster isp connection or not, but it claims to handle gigabit speeds, so I'd assume it scales accordingly. I had trouble with the app setup (the app froze at different points across multiple attempts), but had no issues using the desktop computer setup. It's been installed for about a week, and I've had no speed or connection issues. Probably the best thing you can say about a WiFi router is that once installed, you just kinda forget it's there, and that's the case with this one. This hits a good price to performance point. There's definitely faster and more range-y products out there, and because it's using the WiFi 5 protocol it'll probably be obsolete by 2026, but for the money right now, this hits the sweet spot for me.

I replaced a traditional Netgear Nighthawk 802.11ac router that didn't supply good speed at the edge of the house. This solution allowed the wifi connection at the edge to go from 10-90Mbps (inconsistent) to 300Mbps consistently. Other areas of the house are now up to 400Mbps, which is the limit of my Spectrum cable. This solution is basically plug-and-go, so its perfect for unsophisticated users. For more advanced users, there's only one open ethernet port, so I had to add an unmanaged switch. The $15 cost was much less than upgrading to the Orbi with more ports. There is only one SSID used for both 2.4 and 5ghz networks, and it can be difficult to get your devices to use the right one. For example, I had a PC that kept connecting at 2.4 with 35Mbps. After playing with the client's wifi hardware settings, I got it to prefer the 5ghz network and move up to 80Mbps. There is a backdoor (using telnet) to allow for separate SSIDs, but I didn't try it. I also saw occasions when devices would connect to the satellite instead of the router or vice-versa. I would temporarily shield one to force the connection to the other. Which brings me to management. Both the app and the webpage have pretty good information. You can see each device on the network, whether it's connected to router or satellite, and which band it's using. But its tricky getting the clients to do exactly what you want (which is really more of a client-side problem then an issue with Orbi). It also looks like there are fewer 5ghz channels to chose from since the back-channel is using the upper range. Probably not a big deal unless you've got lots of other nearby networks. Overall, a very good product.

Does what it’s supposed to. I have a relatively small house (1800sq ft) but was having trouble getting a solid signal in the front so far from the router. This works great, with the satellite up front, making the signal strong enough and consistent throughout to stream on all TVs and and smart devices. Only con: The setup was a bit of a pain because I have Verizon, but that speaks to Verizon more than Orbi and I think would be the same with any non-Verizon router or mesh system. Not plug and play. Googled to get step by step instructions to use with the Verizon router (available on Obri website) which required configuring on that router before the Orbi equip would work. Took about 30 mins, not too bad.

Most Powerful Network Signal Booting Unit for a 3500 Sft house. Go for it without any hesitation, you will never regret. It Works as described without any flaw. Installation - Any one can install without any tech guy advise. Just follow the simple steps. Or just follow the steps explained in youtube. You are set to go. Parental control is superb.... and marvelous.... Option to allow guest with limitation... Superb.... I Love the functions.

I used to face a lot of issue with the network connectivity throughout my home. Specially with the current WFH situation due to COVID-19 restrictions, having seamless connectivity with high speeds became a necessity.Shortlisted RBK20 after going through a lot of reviews, videos and discussions with friends.This one is really good for a 1500-2000 sq ft apartment in my opinion.Having Tri-band is a really great advantage. Now I can move around the house the entire house without being bothered about connecting to a particular band/SSID. The router/satellite duo do all the hard work.Netgear Armor and Disney's Circle are added advantage.I have not tested yet for high end gaming, but i am using this for keeping 4 iphones, 1 ipad, 2 laptops, 2 smart TVs, 3 echo dots, and multiple other smart devices (plugs/remotes/camera) connect to the internet 24x7. And not facing any issue so far.One area of improvement would be to have an easy option in the advanced settings to have a separate name for the 2.4 GHz SSID. Most of the smart home devices such as smart plugs, do not support 5GHz band currently. Thanks Netgear!

In the era of work from home and home schooling, having reliable internet connection all over the house has become a necessity. Existing Airtel router (Huawei) failed miserably in the regard in a 2500 sft apartment. Adding a booster would mean a different IP address and break in VPN connectivity when moving between rooms + at least 2-3 boosters to cover the entire apartment. After much research, I went ahead with Netgear orbiRBR20 with 1 satellite. The router sits in the living room (center of the house) and the satellite in a corner bedroom which doubles up as an office room on occasion and has the most signal drop and interference from neighbors wifi networks. The router was connected to Airtel router via LAN cable and followed instructions on ORBI app (PS: didn't get any internet on LAN cable at first attempt, since airtel had disabled all LAN ports on the router!! Not sure why! Enabled via admin login on router settings). Once the internet on LAN was enabled, all router set up instructions on Orbi app was followed but internet was not working on Orbi router. Turns out, after a call to an awesome tech support exec at Netgear, that the router needs to be set up via orbilogin.com. this information was not available on any documentation provided with the router. However, must say that the tech support was very good and 15 min of work on the set up later, everything was working fantastic. Internet speed was pretty consistently hitting 150-200mbps in all rooms. Still a bit of a drop once you reach 25 feet from the router. Overall a huge improvement from before and very happy so far. Well worth the investment

I was amazed by this product for 1500 sqft one node is enough and satellite just add power for 4000sqft Easy installation takes time just be patient For act broadband you dont need any external router just put the pin in wan port and use advance setting for pppoe connection and type id and password and enjoy the wifi connection with no dead zone and same speed throughout the home My speed is 90mbps and i get around 75-90 throughout my home Only issue to switch from main node to Satellite takes time though with less signal i get speed of 45-70mbps Thank you netgear for wonderful product

I live in a ~2k sq ft house. Had been using a airtel provided Huawei router+modem for 80 mbs connection. With long hours of work from home and regular office audio/video conferencing I realized how my wifi internet speed was inadequate as the calls would often drop. I took the exercise of measuring the internet speed using google link that comes up when you search for “test internet speed”. Checked it at my work desk on my laptop with wifi , the speed was 20 Mbps; while my ISP offers 80 Mbps. The router is placed in another room with a bath room separating my work room and the room with router. Distance would be ~25 feet between my work desk and the router with two walls coming in between. Then I went next to the router and checked the internet speed, it was only 40 Mbps!! I expected that when I am so close to the router I should be getting 100% speed, i.e. 80 Mbps. Then I connected the laptop and router with a LAN cable, I got 78 Mbps of speed. So my ISP was almost providing as promised but the wifi system highly inefficient. I decided to do research and went to Amazon. Came across this “Networking and Internet Devices” page - https://www.amazon.in/b/ref=s9_acss_bw_cg_Gtable_1a1_w?node=1375427031&pf_rd_m=A1K21FY43GMZF8&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-1&pf_rd_r=NRDB4KGJ2M5BE5DSS59D&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=de914e9e-24d8-49bf-a7a7-c74275ff311a&pf_rd_i=1375427031#RouterGuide and leaned that for heavy usage (video streaming, connect home) of ~2200 sft the proposed device is mesh router of AC2200 with dual band. Based on that I researched and found Netgear Orbi 2200 , 2 unit mesh routers. It was the lowest priced AC2200 with 2 units mesh routers. Bought it immediately, it was for ~18k. I installed the router myself using the app. Connected the output of the old router to this new router as this new unit is not a modem. I did faced some issues while installing and called Netgear for tech support. They helped me promptly and helped me set up the router correctly over phone. Now I get 76-78 Mbps in most parts of the house. I realized how the ISP provided routes are usually of very basic specs and as a result wifi speed drops significantly because of them. Our walls and distance from the router further adds to the drop. Anyone with decent internet usage (long hours of connected working) and with walls separating router and work space should go for mesh routers. Highly recommended !!