NETGEAR Orbi Whole Home Tri-band WiFi 6 Mesh Network System (RBK853) – Router With 2 Satellite Extenders, Security Features, Coverage Up To 7,500 Square Feet, 100 Devices, AX6000 (Up to 6Gbps)

I’ve been using the Netgear Orbi 970 for a few weeks now, and overall, it’s a solid mesh WiFi system, but it’s not perfect. The setup was pretty easy, even for someone who isn’t super tech-savvy. The app walks you through everything, and I had the whole thing up and running in about 20 minutes.The coverage is impressive. I have a three-story house with a lot of dead zones, and the Orbi 970 pretty much wiped those out. Speeds are fast and consistent, even when multiple people are streaming or gaming at the same time. I also like that it supports WiFi 7, so it feels future-proof.That said, the price is steep. It’s definitely on the higher end, and I’m not sure everyone needs this much power unless you have a big house or a lot of devices. Also, the units themselves are kind of bulky, so they’re not the easiest to hide.One thing that bugged me is that some advanced features are locked behind a subscription. For the price, I expected more included out of the box. The parental controls and security features are good, but having to pay extra for them feels a bit much.In short, the Orbi 970 is a great choice if you want top-tier performance and don’t mind spending extra. If you’re on a budget or have a smaller space, you might want to look at other options. But if you want fast, reliable WiFi everywhere in your home, it delivers.

This Orbi mesh system has been a game-changer in my home. Setup took some fiddling (it’s worth double-checking a few details during installation), but once it was up and running, the performance was incredible. I’ve got around 80 devices connected—phones, tablets, smart lights—and I haven’t had a single drop since I switched. The WiFi feels rock-solid and lightning fast, and coverage reaches every corner of my house. I was especially relieved that it worked flawlessly with my CenturyLink fiber or whatever ISP you have. Plus, with three ethernet ports on both the router and satellite, I could hook up wired devices too. Honestly, it’s been more reliable than the others I’ve tried and offers great range and speed. Definitely glad I chose it!

Update 2: Replaced with the router in my first update and everything now works flawlessly. I can’t believe the difference. My system is completely stable now. The instability that I was getting with the Orbi 970 was extremely painful. When you buy a router system, what you should expect is that it just works. Even the app was bad. It frequently had errors causing me to not be able to see any devices. When I searched online, sure enough a lot of other people were also having these issues. Please, don’t put yourself through the trouble of this router.Update: This is the most frustrating router that I have ever used. I stopped buying from Netgear along time ago and for some reason forgot why. The router randomly restarts every couple of weeks (common issues with others that have this router as well). The real problem is, when it restarts my Hue and Nest cameras get very messed up. Lights won’t respond. Cameras going offline. It takes several restarts of the satellites and router, plus several hours to get everything running again. This mesh system is just pure garbage. I’ll be selling this trash and moving to an Eero Max 7.Had several frustrations so far. It was going very well for the first three weeks. I had no issues at all. Then, it randomly rebooted by itself. That random reboot led to some serious issues with my Philips Hue system. I had lights not responding and dimmer switches having connection issues.I started troubleshooting my Hue system because it seemed that was the likely issue. Then, I upgraded my Orbi firmware and magically everything was fine again. During the upgrade the Orbi satellites also upgraded and all of them rebooted.Several days later I needed to unplug a satellite. When I tried to replug it back in, it struggled to reconnect. I restarted the router thinking that might fix the issue. The satellite did eventually reconnect, but ALL of the Hue problems came back. It took me literally hours of troubleshooting Hue, restarting the router and satellites to get it working again. Finally, I restarted the router and all satellites (which I had already tried several times), and everything worked again.What a hassle this system is for $2,000. I contemplated between the 970 and the Eero 7 before settling on the 970. The only reason I chose the 970 was the dedicated 2.4 Iot channel. I regret not going with the Eero 7.What it does well is speed, range and keeps all of Nest cameras from disconnecting. My old Asus AXE16000 had issues with cameras going offline, the 970 fixed that completely. However, I’m sure the Eero 7 would have done that as well.

I had an old Orbi mesh router that finally gave out after almost 10 years of use. I was looking at the newer Orbi's and they were very expensive so I looked at other options. I bought the TP Deco BE11000 from Costco. Setup is pretty easy through the app. The app is very intuitive. I could not get the router to connect to my computer via Ethernet cable. I tried EVERYTHING. I eventually went through three TP Deco's before I finally decided to scrap it and buy this Orbi. Set it up in 10 minutes and ethernet works perfectly right out of the box. Works just as seamlessly as my previous Orbi and have zero issues. Faster Wifi and better coverage. What's not to like. Price point was higher than the TP Deco, but it works and at the end of the day that is what counts. I will never buy another brand router other than Netgear Orbi. It just works.

Expensive, but in my huge stone house spread across 3 floors, I finally have gaming level WiFi in every room. These were actually recommended to me by a Verizon tech rep who told me their product would not work in my home. Glad I listened. We now have almost 1,000 mbps in every room!