The Powerline system worked surprisingly well but obviously has limitations - ideally you’d be able to retain the broadband speeds you pay for wherever you are. Most importantly, what I needed was a way to improve the stability of the internet connectivity to the Apple TVs it didn’t really matter if the speed was degraded as long as it was consistent. Because of the hacky approach - after all, power lines were not designed to carry network traffic - Powerline devices offer significantly lower throughput than a real networking solution, but they are incredibly convenient to set up. My first attempt at compensating for these black spots was to setup two Powerline devices, which run internet over the electricity lines in the house, essentially creating Ethernet endpoints in any room where you have a plug socket.
#Orbi wifi mesh tv#
Streaming content from Plex or Now TV or whatever was plagued with stuttering and buffering. For whatever reason, the Apple TV WiFi reception was always mediocre even for the box that was only adjacent to the room where the router resides. We have two Apple TVs hooked up to the living and family room televisions.
The laptop fared better, presumably because its internal antennas are larger and more powerful than the miniaturized iOS devices.
#Orbi wifi mesh download#
Our home internet will deliver 200 megabit download speeds over Ethernet. Speeds would top out around 20 Mbps in the best case, with usage interrupted from the connection dropping out on phones and iPads. The master bedroom is, of course, diagonally opposite to where the router is situated and therefore suffered the most. Network performance on the old router was decent on the ground floor and mediocre upstairs. This is just a reality of the building and the access to the road. This is not ideal location for the network hub but we don’t really have a choice. Our internet comes into the house at the very front, from the side wall into the downstairs bedroom. Now, we live in a two story family house with a fair number of thick walls. A combination of walls, interference from other devices and applications, and proximity to other networks competing for the same bandwidth all cause range and performance to degrade no matter how good your router’s antennas are. Even there, the very edges of the property would not be covered by reliable WiFi. The one router served us well, in the main living areas, kitchen, and bedrooms. Read on for my my hands-on with the Netgear Orbi mesh WiFi system.Ī WiFi router is best placed in a central location in the home with no obstructions around it. I was pleasantly surprised with how good it was.
I kind of passed it over, thinking it was more of a marketing gimmick, but I recently got the chance to review one such mesh WiFi system. A couple of years ago, mesh WiFi became a popular buzzword. I used AirPort Extreme for a while, and then a variety of third-party options. It’s not cheap, and the limited features of the Orbi app are disappointing, but if you’re looking for a mid-range mesh system that can cover larger homes, and also provides additional Ethernet ports for wired connections, then the Orbi RBK353 fits the bill.Historically, I have flitted between many different routers. Steam downloads did dip just a little in the back office, settling at 12.0MB/s, but that’s still perfectly adequate for most casual gaming, as well as streaming music and even 4K video. The Ookla speed test wasn’t fazed at all, maintaining a steady 100Mbps, even as we wandered with our laptop from the first satellite in the hallway, and then picked up the signal from the second satellite in the back office. Those speeds are what we’d normally expect in that room, but it was the back office that really good a boost from the Netgear Orbi RBK353. When connecting to the main Orbi router, in the same room as the router that provides our broadband connection, our devices registered speeds of 100Mbps from the Ookla speed test, and 12.5MB/s for Steam downloads. Its speed of 1,800Mbps isn’t going to win any awards, but the Orbi performed well when we used it to extend our Wi-Fi network to a back office where the weak Wi-Fi from our normal router normally forces us to rely on PowerLine adaptors for a wired network connection instead.
#Orbi wifi mesh password#
However, the app also allows you to set things up for yourself, perhaps creating a new name and password for the Orbi network if you prefer.
#Orbi wifi mesh android#
The Orbi app for iOS and Android can set everything up for you automatically, simply by scanning a QR code, and this will connect you to the new Orbi network using its default network name (SSID) and password. Over-active marketing aside, we were pleased to find that setting up the Orbi is a piece of cake. (Image credit: Future) Performance and getting started
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