NETGEAR Orbi 4G LTE Mesh WiFi Router (LBR20) | For Home Internet or Hotspot | Certified with AT&T, T-Mobile & Verizon | Coverage up to 2,000 sq. ft., 25 devices | AC2200 WiFi (up to 2.2Gbps)

I’m really quite amazed. I purchased the Orbi 4g LTE modem-router for non-cable WiFi connection and matched the Orbi to 4 Arlo Essential security cameras. Should work, right? Never did anything like this before. Like so many of these electronic combinations that I’ve theorized about in the past, I assumed this wouldn’t work either. I talked to several advisors – Orbi technicians, Arlo community contributors. Everyone said it should work. And it did!!!! Amazing!!The Orbi LBR20 was a bit of a challenge. The Obi app was skittish … worked sometimes, sometimes got stuck. The password used to set-up my Orbi account (Netgear) was not the same as the password needed to activate the Orbi modem-router for Internet connection; the Orbi password is printed on the label at the bottom of the Orbi unit … Oh, that password.PureTalk (really AT&T) indicated that they had coverage for my barn’s Zip Code but could not guarantee the Sim card would work with Orbi LBR20 … not quite the confidence booster I needed. Ok … so brave as I am, I purchased the PureTalk Sim card and a 6 Gig data plan.After everything arrived, I first tried to connect the Orbi wireless modem-router to the Internet using the Orbi app as instructed. Nothing automatic here. After several tries, the Orbi app asked for the APN number of my Internet service provider. What’s an APN for goodness sake? Googled “PureTalk APN” and came up with “RESELLER”. I entered “RESELLER … then my PureTalk phone number as the only User ID I knew and then my PureTalk password. No contact and no Internet. Frustration!! The next day, I called PureTalk and asked for the APN number, user ID and password. After transferring through 4 different technical service associates, I received the information (APN = RESELLER, User ID = Not set up yet, Password = Not set up yet). So, I entered “RESELLER” and nothing else (no User ID and no Password). Success!! Internet access!!! Oh, so you don’t need a password in this case!! But … I was now connected to the Internet through a Orbi 4g LTE wireless modem-router … no cable. Once I got the password and APN right, Orbi activated as promised.The next step was to see if the Arlo Essential WiFi cameras would connect to the Orbi LBR20 and then connect to the Internet. The Arlo app was needed to activate the cameras. The Arlo app worked more reliably and consistently than the Orbi app. One by one, each of the Arlo Essential cameras activated. I could see my home office on each of the cameras. Amazing!!! What vanity looking at myself on all four cameras!!! Still, this was at home … and not 25 miles away … in the middle of nowhere. To be safe … I purchased two antennas to attach to the Orbi (not provided in the Orbi box), just in case the Orbi needed the extra help in capturing the wireless signal in the rural Midwest. The Orbi had no problem at home. Every WiFi device in the house wanted to connect to the Orbi … I had to resist. But would the same happen at the barn?I unplugged everything and transported the Orbi and the Arlo Essential cameras to the barn. Located the Orbi 14 feet above ground. Plugged it in. Immediate Internet connection!!! You’ve got to be kidding!!! Installed the Arlo cameras. Each of the cameras … one by one … immediately linked to the Orbi … just like at home. You’ve got to be kidding!! Now … 25 miles away with no cable … I have the views as shown below.There are still questions. The jury is still out. What will the battery life be for each of the cameras be? I fully charged the cameras yesterday; today they are at 92-94 %, though was experimenting with features a lot yesterday. The WiFi signal from the Orbi to the Arlo cameras appears strong. The barn is wood frame with steel siding. Two cameras show four bars and two show two. One of the cameras showing two bars showed four bars yesterday. I may need to reposition the cameras. So … everything is still new. We’ll see.

Didn’t know what to expect as I have never used anything other that my cell phone hotspot for sharing my cell data. Setup was easy just popped my IPhone 11 SIM card directly into the router and just like that it started working. We live in a rural area with almost no “natural” cell signal so we have this router connecting through a Sure Call Fusion4Home booster and the GUI shows full bars. I’m not gonna win any speed competitions for speed (7mbps down and 2 mbps up) but it sure is better than not having any WiFi at all. This router allowed me to connect all my smart devices as well as some basic (probably SD) streaming. It had a surprisingly large range covering all 30’ x 60’ of my house plus another 50’-100’ outside of the house. If I end up getting the satellite I think I would easily have a 150’ solid WiFi bubble around the house which is better than any router I’ve ever had. The other thing I noticed is that the data utilized was my actual unlimited cell phone plan and not the smaller and more expensive hotspot data allotment. This means I should be able to “add a line” with my carrier and pay the $40 or so for an additional unlimited data plan and throw that extra SIM card into the router for dedicated WiFi service. That’s the plan anyway so hopefully it goes accordingly. So far really no complaints as I now have reliable WiFi that I can run my smart home whereas before I could not. Eventually we’ll either get Satellite internet or convince the local internet company to run fiber and the LTE service will be a solid backup for my wife’s at home job but until then gonna enjoy the small victory and be thankful we have internet service.

We live incredibly close to the location of the downtown Nashville explosion on 12/25 that took out AT&T service for several days, including at our house and cellular. Our home is full of smart home products that all failed with the network failure - something we hadn’t accounted for. This router is a perfect failover solution to ensure continuous service. I setup T-Mobile’s basic hotspot plan at 2gb LTE and unlimited 3G for $10 a month. It’s cheap enough to not think about it but works well enough to not think about it if our fiber line goes down.Edit: Netgear doesn’t understand the failover concept. The LTE is disconnected until Primary WAN fails, then it attempts to connect which can take 3+ minutes. It may not reconnect when primary is back until it is restarted. Replacing it with something else. Unreliable.

Our family has a north woods cabin in a low population area with only one ISP choice. Not only was it expensive, but service requests took months, if not longer. I was looking for another option and landed on the mobile hotspot/cellular router option. I was a little hesitant to add another line to our cellular plan for something I wasn't sure was going to work, but I figured it was worth a shot. I went with this model for 2 reasons - first it was more affordable that the 5G cellular routers, and we are just out of range for the 5G cell signal anyways... but still got LTE on our phones. And second I wanted something that had high performance and could be plugged in all the time, since some of the battery-powered mobile hotspots typically limit performance to save battery. This also was capable of capturing all of the available Verizon bands (bands 2, 4, 5, 13, and 66) and as a Cat 18 device even combining bands at the same time to increase speed. I set it up, ran the speed test, and was very happy that even on 4G LTE cellular signal, I was still getting downlink speeds of over 150 Mbps, which is perfect for what I need. Originally I was planning on adding external LTE antennas to the ports on the back, but it may not even be necessary. So far I haven't had any issues with the signal dropping, and the speeds seem pretty consistent... moreso even than the local ISP. So far I'm very happy with the device, and being free from the cable company will actually save me money in the long run.