I bought the 3-pack last time around and one of the satellites died after two months. Fair warning – even though there is a Netgear-provided 90 days of warranty on this, Netgear does not actually honor the warranty. They’ll just string you along until it’s 91 days and then ignore the fact that you opened your warranty claim on day 80-something and tell you tough luck. Thankfully, Woot was willing to do a refund despite being past 30 days, so I was able to get a mesh system that actually worked.
I have been in IT for longer than I care to admit, and these are easily one of the biggest leaps in user-friendly performance and control than I have seen in the home (and small office) networking space. While I am not particularly keen on Netgear’s other products, I am a huge fan of their Orbi line, and especially models with the tri-band for a dedicated wireless backhaul (such as this RBK50). These have been my go-to for so many installations, and with only one exception, I have had terrific luck in their reliability, and nobody has been disappointed with their performance. The one downside that I have noticed is that my clients seem to be more disappointed in their ISPs after they have this kind of throughput and range.
I even installed this same set (but new, from the big blue store) for my again in-laws, and they are amazed at the range and speed. Their old modem/router was rubbish, and wouldn’t reach to the ends of the house, but now they can stream music while out in the yard, or pull up YouTube tutorials out in the tool shop. And they can even use wired devices like their AppleTV and an office printer into the satellite unit’s extra LAN ports. It’s pretty seamless.
As with any electronics, and particularly refurbs, they have a useful life that you can’t predict. I am sincerely empathetic toward anyone who has experienced a failure with this product, but I have found about a dozen sets of this model to be very reliable for up to about two years now, with good firmware updates and technical support.
No, I don’t work for Netgeae, or get paid by them. I don’t even use these, since I manage various VLANs and need more robust controls - I use Ubiquiti enterprise network gear at home. But for most people, these are an amazing product if you’re willing to take the risk with a refurbished or reconditioned unit. It may not last as long, but I typically replace routers long before I expect that they would naturally fail and die, so I leave that call to you.
Happy hunting.
I have the RBK20, and I am VERY satisfied with it. That is a pretty good price. I wish I had gotten the RBK50, it’s a bit more powerful, and having an extra node would make things a bit more flexible for me.
I bought these last time. They did not work. The satellite unit had a yellow sticky note on it from a PREVIOUS owner that said “software errors cannot connect”. Sure enough both routers actually did not connect to Internet or each other. They were dirty and badly packed. Went to COSTCO. Picked up ORBI Router and a Satellite with Alexa Voice for same price as here. Great performance all around with good speed and no connectivity issues. Stay away from these “refurb” not worth your time or money.
Can’t speak to this model but I recently picked up their Beacon 1 three pack from the mothership when it was on sale. Great piece of kit that gives me a solid, seamless signal across 3 floors and about 2600sqft. Nice easy setup for your average user. Mine run behind my Asus router in bridge mode. Have not needed to do a thing to them since install.
edit: as it turns out the B1 3 pack is on sale again right now for $138. Jsut “clip” the coupon and get 35% off.
Many people are very satisfied with these. I got another model from Woot that will soon go up on eBay. For general everyday use they may be fine but for me for gaming and WFH they were nothing but trouble. I think they were refurbs for a reason. They didn’t work well in the first place and were never really refurbed, just resold.
One satellite dropped connection numerous times every day so there were plenty of game fails for my son, who competes on a collegiate team. Not a good look. And my work VPN connection dropped frequently as well. It got me out of some boring business meetings for several minutes but, again, not a good look.
There are many, many Netgear message board threads on this issue. Following the settings recommended helped reduce the problem but never solved it. Just one example of the annoyance is the advice to reset the devices after each software update and set up the network again from scratch. Not hard to do but one should not have to.
The other satellite in the media room was okay most of the time but there was had and buffering occasionally, more often than what I replaced the orbi with.
YMMV. I’m selling mine, with full disclosure and a fair price for what you get. Just for browsing the web and even streaming, they do provide coverage I could never get with a single router.
I can attest this is true. They will string you along until they run out the clock on the warranty, with lots of apologies for a late response. These ORBI systems can work, I got mine at Costco and exchanged them-the new set runs perfectly. The original set would randomly lose connection. Netgear is a mix of shoddy manufacturing QC and a short warranty combined with absolutely terrible support. Mine is working now, but when I replace them I will definitely go with a different brand, probably spend a bit more and do a proper Ubiquiti setup.
Late response, but good reference data:
The only major difference between the model offered here (RBK50) and the Costco offering (RBK50V) is the inclusion of voice control, as denoted by the V in the name. The Costco model will have a model capable of integration into the Amazon Alexa voice system for certain controls. Personally, I don’t think that I would want any voice control of a router, although using it for lights, switches, plugs, and some other things can make sense, depending on your use. Apart from that, it is still the base set of two units; one router (RBR50), and one satellite (RBS50). I am not certain what the exact SKU is for the voice unit, and again, I wouldn’t utilise it anyway, but I would be grateful for Costco’s return policy, and having a new unit rather than a refurb in this case.
I’ve also been working in IT longer than I care to admit and this is what I have. LOL. It works great except for upstairs in the corner of my house where my kids’ rooms are. So, I’m looking to add a 2nd satellite up there.
The only thing I really don’t like about it, and most other routers these days to be honest, is that they have all stripped out the ability for us nerds to separate 5ghz from 2.4ghz. Because of this I now have a Onelink Safe and Sound smoke detector that has been off the network for about a year… Ever since one of the last firmware updates. Tried all the tricks with separating the two using terminal commands and everything. No dice. It doesn’t stick. Netgear needs to just put the check box back to separate the two. Not everyone wants the router to choose for us.
Assuming the web admin is the same or similar to my Beacon 1, I can change the SSID name for either frequency, as well as turn either on or off, via the Network tab. In fact you can assign a unique SSID to each node if you wanted to (defeats the purpose of the mesh of course). Has to be done on the web though, the app doesn’t provide for that.