NETGEAR RBK50 Router with 1 Satellite Extender

Detailed review and a few points on set upHave a virgin media hub which is fine when close to it. However as it is placed in middle floor bedroom, it was fine up and down but poor in the back room downstairs and in the garden.Having tried the Archer router, that just wasn’t reaching but also, it kept dropping internet connection. Thoroughly researching Orbi, I did note potential issues with both the Ring doorbell and potentially Sky Q.Despite dreading the set up, I took the plunge and started set up on Saturday morning expecting a full day of trial and error. I was done in an hour and most of that was spent connecting the sky boxes and tv’s again. Really simple when following the app. Don’t deviate from the app instructions though.What a piece of kit! I am blown away by the power. I’ve got 350mbs coming into the house. Wherever I am in the house I am getting in excess of 200mbs everywhere including at the back of the garden. The speed of course fluctuates but with the satellite in the back room, it’s generally sending consistent tests of 300, 310, 320mbs in there. In the middle room downstairs and the second floor (only a satellite on ground floor), the speed is not dropping below 150mbs and comes in consistently at over 200mbs. Put into perspective, In the same places, the virgin hub alone was generating no more than around 40mbs in those same areas, max.Too early to talk about reliability but the virgin hub was struggling with so many connections - 2 gamers online, one daughter watching Netflix and the other half working on the laptop. So far, the orbi is handling around 30 devices and having no issues.One bit of advice on set up - when putting the Virgin hub in modem mode, the orbi may tell you there’s no internet. Leave the app on that screen, Pull all power wires from the virgin hub, leave five minutes and then turn on again. Wait and then the orbi should then pick it up automatically.Yes it is just under £100 more than the TP-Link Archer router but in my opinion, it’s a worthwhile investment over anything else. The speeds are incredible.They aren’t too ugly either in my opinion. Whether it’s extended range, better performance or a mesh system, I highly highly recommend this.I haven’t needed tech support but scored a 5 as app is easy enough.

Have been running the RBK50 router and one satellite for over a month now and am very pleased. It’s a big step up in coverage and speed from the Virgin Media Superhub3 that it’s replaced.Install is in a 3 floor terraced house, with a small cellar. Now getting coverage everywhere in the home, the cellar was a “not spot” before. Typically 3 laptops, 3 smartphones connected at any time, peak will see this increase to 5 phones, plus a TV and a tablet, with no complaints from any users.Speeds (on an advertised 100Mps ISP connection) measured on Ookla, are comfortably above 80Mbps, except the cellar where it drops to about 30. Range is much improved as well: speeds measured at the bottom of the garden, 15m from the house and about 20m from either Orbi are 30Mbps, up from 7-8 previously.Mesh works as advertised – there’s no drop out as a device moves around the house. My key benchmark is that the quality of video streamed from a NAS to the TV is much more stable. Buffering of video is now very rare, before it was happening regularly.Set-up was easy, the app is straightforward (although see comments at the end of this review). My only observation is that it took the router a few minutes (3-4) to find the satellite. I was expecting something closer to the instantaneous connection I’m used to on a phone when it attaches to the wifi. Changing default SSID and password and setting up a guest network were no bother. I haven’t used parental controls, device time limits or other advanced features.I’ve connected printer via USB to the Orbi. This is the only part of the installation that was clunky. The Netgear app (which you have to download to each laptop using the printer) looks and feels old and although it’s not hard to follow, the UX/ UI could be easier. Biggest hassle is that you have to run the app when you start up a laptop and more often than not, click to connect before you start printing. 10 years ago, I had a Netgear NAS that connected seamlessly to a printer via USB and everything on the network could print automatically with no hassle. This feels a step backwards.I think these next points only apply because my purchase was an Amazon warehouse reconditioned unit and not a brand new one. I’d have dropped 1 or 2 stars from the review otherwise.I can’t register the unit with Netgear for support as the serial number is already registered with Netgear and won’t allow me to register. I’m guessing the original owner registered the unit before returning it and the reconditioning work done by Netgear/ Amazon has not reset the registration. 5 weeks on, Netgear have not answered my email and the product is unregistered with them and I can’t get support from them. Luckily, I haven’t needed it, but this is poor for a product sold “as new” with only a damaged packing box.The router came wrapped in a sleeve which had QR code, SSID name and password on it – all designed to help with set up. The data on the sleeve was wrong, after a couple of failed attempts where the SSID didn’t appear anywhere on the network, I looked at the data label stuck to the bottom of the Orbi: Different SSID and password - using these worked. My guess is that the sleeve was put on as part of the “re-work” and the firmware in the Orbi wasn’t changed to reflect this. Again, a product sold “as new” shouldn’t have these problems.