Not as good as deals gone by, but it's been a while since I've seen these go below $300.
Same price at JB Hi-Fi.
Updated 18/03/2022: Officeworks now has it for the same price too.
Updated 21/03/2022: Out of stock at Amazon, still available from JB Hi-Fi and Officeworks.
CamelCamelCamel.
LOL, SO OUTDATED
Will it works with a 14.4 modem?
Instead of relying on some half-assed JB page the fact that this is AC3000 clearly indicates that this supports Wifi 5 (i.e. 802.11ac) and is NOT limited to Wifi 4
Did not neg vote you just clarifying this point
It's AC3000 so that means it's WiFi 5 I'm pretty sure as 802.11AC is a WiFi 5 thing.
Must be an error on their side, it's WiFi 5.
That said, anyone considering a buy should also consider how long they intend to keep them for - if it's more than a year or two, you might regret anything that isn't compatible with WiFi 6.
Well yes, but I have this and it still get full speed, 277 Mbps (over provisioned service) at the other end of our large house from the router, and with multiple devices from our large family.
It dos the job and I am in no hurry to upgrade
If you don't have one already it would be still OK to buy compared with a wifi 6 model if it was considerably cheaper.
As Mick Jagger sings, You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes, well, you might find You get what you need.
Can you add to this so you have 3-4 units?
You can overwrite the firmware off the router so both could be satellites
AFAIK not possible with the v2 router, which this probably is.
Ok thanks
So what netgear one used more then 2 satellites and it’s wifi6 which is the best correct?
@Twisty: You buy extra satellites. I have a large house and get full speed throughout with one satellite though.
So if thinking that just try one satellite first and see how you go.
Not sure if the router can be made to a statelite but I'm pretty sure the statelite can be added to a current setup. I have had these for a couple of years now (twin pack) and they've been pretty solid for me.
That said I wouldn't buy one now due to older wifi, or I'd buy the newer versions.
I've flashed a router to be a satellite from info found on ozbargain. Been using 4 + an outdoor unit for a few years and they've been great. 1.1acre coverage, sandstone house and sheds included. Need it in this rural area because mobile coverage is non existent. Wifi calls.
do you have the instructions handy?
Yes
It's WiFi 5, however, it does NOT support WPA3 - the reason I passed on this as WPA2 is basically on its knees. Would avoid.
wpa3 makes slower speed on my eero. Not sure how it performs on Orbi
Is WPA3 really that important? Even if adversaries were to decrypt the wifi traffic, most sites use https these days anyway.
I mean it's up to you. But considering how much range extension you get, it would be the same* as throwing an ethernet cable to all your neighbouring houses. If you're comfortable with that, then go for it.
*Not everyone would know how to attack you so there is some protection from a "security via obscurity" mindset but really it should be avoided.
If all you're relying on for protection is the security of your wireless network (or chucking Ethernet cables into your neighbours places like you say, even in jest) then you might as well leave your front door open and toss your car keys on the lawn too; this device is fine for your average consumer given the proliferation of 2FA, things like Windows Defender, etc.
@BoundedRationality: I don't think your analogy quite works but I think I understand the point you're trying to make. May I suggest you take a look at the demo video to see how easy it is to breach a network and start decrypting packets. This is 5 years old, use your imagination on how much easier things have gotten.
If your really really worried you can just set it up to only allow the Mac addresses you specify are legit . Just another bit of security although super annoying one lol..
That literally does almost nothing to improve the security by the time someone gets to that point.
If you have the wires/ports hard wire your backhaul for improved performance, a couple of these in a standard Aussie house and you’ll be sweet.
yeah I will not get a access point unless its Wifi 6 or more I would never buy old tech.
I have this, but get problems with Apple devices falling off the network all the time.
You MIGHT benefit from splitting your 2.4 and 5 ghz, there are guides online for how to do this.
Guides where? If I am not mistaken one cannot split which is a big annoyance with Orbi. PIA trying to join new IoT devices that are strictly 2.4ghz when the device with app is connected using 5ghz.
I only need the satellite.
ok
Yes
i have the RBK23, can i connect those 3 to this?
You can connect any Orbi satellite to it.
I've got RBK23 too. Are you thinking of buying this and then just using the RBK23 satellite (and maybe the router too) to it?
yes, but also thinking of upgrading to a wifi 6 mesh.
just realised these wifi 6 models are expensive. i reckon the rbk23 should still be enough for netflix some browing etc.
Despite being a few years old, these are still among the best performing mesh systems out there. Dare I say even better than some of the new budget dual chanel WiFi 6 systems because of the dedicated backhaul channel.
I retired my 5 year old Orbi 2200 system (predecessor to this AC3000 series) a couple of months ago after upgrading to an Orbi AX4200 system. The AC2200 system delivered over 200Mbps everywhere inside a 2-story house and also outside in the yard. Speeds closer to the nodes reaching 400Mbps! When all nodes were linked over a wireless backhaul. This system is still a very good buy for anyone who just wants to share their 100Mbps or slower internet connection in the house and don’t have wired ethernet to link up mesh nodes.
P.S: However, I do have to say this is not without faults; there are a few notable technical limitations that could be deal-breakers for some.
My biggest pet peeve was the inability to separate or individually turn off 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands through the router interface (but there is a telnet hack, although may not be everyone’s cup of tea).
Because of this, setting up some cheap IoT devices that only operate on the 2.4Ghz band and expect your phone/tablet to be on the same band is a bit difficult.
AFAIK parental controls require an ongoing subscription
Only provide basic networking features compared to routers from Ubiquiti, Asus etc..
Thankfully all my 2.4 only devices have worked fine with the exception of maybe 1 smart plug, but all i needed to do was walk 10m away into the garage and then it only saw 2.4 and finished. Usually they have an alternative setup like blutooth though.
Yes, that’s one of the workarounds you can try, but in my case with the placement of nodes I have to walk few meters down the road to not see the 5Ghz band, not very practical when setting up a fixed device inside the house, so I normally used the telnet hack.
Bugger eh, I was surprised most of my mine worked straight away as about half of them got confused with my prior dual band (non mesh) tplink.
Will this work with TPG?
I have been using it with my TPG internet for last two years
I have been seeing questions like this on Wifi mesh whether if it is compatible with ISP.
Does it matter what ISP it is for local wifi setup?
no
Your ISP might not, but the connection type might. Do they all hand off Ethernet? Might need a seperate, compatible, router if they don’t.
If you are worried about it being wifi 5 because wifi6 is much faster, remember that hardly anyone can get data into their router at a speed that will make the difference between wfif5 and wifi 6 at all relevant. NBN at 100 mbp/s makes it irrelevant whether your wifi5 shoots out of the router at 3.5Gbps vs wifi6 at 10Gbps. To use the technical terms (and, yes, I'm well aware that isnt quite how it works, but unless you have FTTP and a superdata plan, wifi5 or wifi 6 is irrelevant to top speed)
Of course there are many other benefits of wifi6, including higher 'average speed' (regardless of top speed); but for most households these are pretty marginal. If you have 40 wifi devices connected at once and running data hungry speed sensitive applications, sure. If you have 4 people browsing the internet while someone watches netflix, not so much (to 'not at all')
Anyway, for most people who arent super avid online gamers, or especially who dont plan on buying a new phone or laptop in the next few years, or who dont have a desparate need for super fast internet, this is a great mesh option
Yes, you can 'future proof' yourself, so long as by 'future proof' you mean 'for the life of this router which is probably 5 years' and by 'future proof' you mean 'spending another $500 now, instead of waiting 5 years when wifi 6 routers will be a few $100 cheaper anyway, so when you have to replace the router in a few years it wont actually have cost you any more'
Of course, if you are 'must have latest technology at all times' - this isnt the latest technology. Buy the AX6000 at $1200 or the AX4200 for $800. Enjoy the thrill of a slightly higher speed test score.
Enjoy the thrill of a slightly higher speed test score.
Well, that's what it's all about in the epeen-measuring world.
You are so right.
In addition to the plan and a wifi6 router you also need your devices to be wifi6. - no point in a wifi6 router if the laptop isn't capable.
I have Telstra 5G Home Internet. I regularly get ~800Mbps down.
the RBK352 is $319, is it better than this RBK50?
Not necessarily, IMHO the RBK50 is better, because it has 3 bands vs 2 bands on the RBK352. Which means if you link RBK352 nodes wirelessly then you’ll be sharing its 5Ghz band’s bandwidth (1200Mbps) for the backhaul and device traffic, effectively cutting the available bandwidth for each case by half (600Mbps). But RBK50 has 3 bands 1733Mbps for the backhaul 867Mbps for 5Ghz and 400Mbps for 2.4Ghz.
What about with wired backhaul, which would be "better?"
I'm running wireless backhaul on the RBK50 (we have three) and it's great
@mickeyjuiceman: I'm running wired backhaul on same and it's also great! Still hoping someone chimes in with an answer tho haha…
If you use a wired backhaul then I believe RBK352 would be better because from what I’ve read online the high bandwidth backhaul channel of the RBK50 cannot be used for client traffic, which means you’ll be limited to the 400Mbps 2.4Ghz and 867Mbps 5Ghz channel even with an ethernet backhaul. But in comparison RBK352 has a 600Mbps 2.4Ghz channel and a 1200Mbps 5Ghz channel which also supports WiFi 6.
IMHO there are better cheaper mesh systems out there if you can use a wired backhaul. I generally only recommend tri-band Orbi systems for people who have to use a wireless backhaul, because that is their strong suit.
@opt: Cool, that's what I gathered from your previous post, but wanted to check it was indeed dedicated backhaul. Thank you. I might offload the RBK50 setup to the folks who could do with wireless mesh. What other mesh systems for wired backhaul would you suggest, if you don't mind me asking? I really liked the rock-solid nature of the orbi, and the simplicity of setup was nice but i know it comes at a cost.
how does this compare to say TPLINK deco m9
M9's backhaul channel has half the bandwidth (867Mbps) vs RBK50's backhaul (1733Mbps), so if you are going to link the nodes wirelessly then this is better.
just price matched at Officeworks - $265.05 delivered.
did you order it from OW online and get a price match somehow?
I just ordered from OW with pricematch from JB HiFi. Could not do it through chat and I was told only way is either to go to store or call. I called and placed the order. Hope it helps.
had to call over the phone, but did it this morning at 9:30am.
provided the jb hi-fi sku code and it was checked and confirmed.
paid over the phone and getting it delivered tomorrow for free :)
OW price now is $279 (4:40pm)
Good but older system.
Been using this for the past 2 years just the standard 2 units. Works pretty good. Router unit connected via ethernet to PC, NAS, HFC modem. All other devices wireless. No issues streaming over 5Ghz wireless to several nvidia shields, even with high bitrate 4K.
I also have this and it my first mesh system compared to my old r7000 router which was rubbish compare to this
Whole whole approx 450sq has connection but I want to extend it to the backyard
Just looking for a satellite to addon
You can get this set and sell off the router on eBay to recoup some of the cost.
I believe you can also flash the router into a satellite*, that way you can get two satellites and expand your coverage even further.
*P.S: flashing firmware can brick your device beyond recovery, so do that at your own risk
can only flash v1 routers (check for a USB port on the back), these are v2 which can't be flashed using the same process.
Perhaps most people could flash their original router in that case and use the new router as the main device? Provided their old router is V1.
I did a click and collect from JB for this deal and mine were v1 (with USB ports). Must still be some old stock floating around. It doesn't look like there are any other major differences (apart from flashing) to care about between the versions. Hopefully they don't have a reduced life.
Purchased 2 weeks ago at $379. Did not open it yet.Think about refund and buy again😂
I just did that with Amazon haha
Netgear's firmwares and support are absolutely rubbish. Mine work well with third-party Voxel firmware. But keep in mind that Voxel is from Russia…
Mine's fine on the netgear firmware
I want wifi6 but can't afford it. Just bought one with 5% off at JB and 5% off egift card which make this ~$252.
About to move out to a double story, I'm abit confused. How do these mesh routers work? Can they just plug directly into the phone line or do you need a dedicated modem?
I am moving to double story as well. So purchased one. From what I gathered, if you have NBN, you will have a terminating device called NTD. You just plug the router to the NTD and power it. Place the satellite at the other end of the house and power it. That's it. You don't need a modem as NTD is the modem. And you connect to NTD via the LAN cable.
You need a modem (or the NBN box). Signal comes down the wires from the ISP to your house. The modem 'collects' the signal and then the router (the mesh) sends it out to the home devices. You plug the mesh router into the modem.
If you already have the internet, you will have a modem. You can probably use that. The only issue is that many modems are both modem and routers, and you can only have one router at a time ie you dont want two different devices sending out their own signal. So if you have a modem/router, you need to 'bridge' the modem, which essentially means turn off the router in that device and make the mesh router the one that is the one that is working. For most devices this involves logging into the modem as an administrator (168.192.xxx.xxx) and ticking the 'bridge' box, but you obviously can read the manual. Some modem/routers dont allow for this, but most do.
If you are on the NBN, then the NBN box is only a modem (not a router). So ignore all the above re bridging, you just plug the mesh router straight into the box. Very simple, will take you about 2 minutes and another 2 minutes to link the satellites (for Orbi, its pretty much push a button and wait until it connects)
Great, thanks for explaining. So will the ISP supply the nbn box?
NBN box should already be there when you move in. They're supposed to stay with the house.
If it's not, then ISP can arrange for another box to be sent.
…and best check well in advance with real estate if box is there as it can take a long time to get a replacement NBN box if they (NBN Co) are out of stock. It's critical that the people moving out don't take the box with them.
@Borg: There is no NBN box. Just a phone line in the kitchen. Perhaps the old tenants nvr connected NBN? 🤯
@EchoNoob: Check the address via NBN website. It should show
NBN Check
Or check via your current ISP's website.
Officeworks added to post.
To whoever reading this later:
I returned this within few days of using. Luckily, Officeworks didn't ask much questions. All issues mentioned in this comment is accurate and much more.
Firstly, there is no option to split 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. All devices connects to 2.4Ghz by default and speeds would drop due to high interference. One option I tried with no use was to reduce the transmission power of 2.4GHz radio in settings. Another trick is to switch off 2.4GHz radio altogether (you might think!), but no, they have removed this option in the latest firmware. I used a silly trick after reading somewhere that the option to disable 2.4GHz is still available as checkbox but as a hidden field. I used a chrome inspector to scan for that field on the router admin page and finally was able to disable. Then all devices connected to 5GHz fine and speed was lot better. For anyone having the same problem, follow the instructions here. If you think, it feels so silly that Netgear has not given this option.
Another suggestion - do not upgrade the firmware to latest. The latest has lots of functionality removed - ability to telnet, option to turn of a specific radio etc.
Another big problem I faced was the devices would always connect to router and not the satellite even though it is literally placed next to the device. I was tired of searching for the solution. And many have reported the same problem with no response from Netgear.
If you are courageous, you can flash custom firmware. More details here. I didn't had time or interest to do, so chose to return. You will get lots of options including ability to telnet and change the power of individual radios.
The mobile app is almost useless. I always used 'routerlogin.net' or 192.168.1.1 to do any of the tasks.
Extremely subpar experience. Don't care how much the hardware is capable if firmware is no good to make use of that. Added to this is the pathetic support from Netgear.
fade on 17/03/2022 - 08:32 Comment score below threshold.