Netgear RBK53 Orbi AC3000 Tri-Band WiFi System Router

I'm giving this 5 stars because not only do I have wifi throughout my 3000 sq ft house, not to mention I can sit outside on the balcony and work too, but I am technologically challenged on the best of days and I had this up and running in my house in about 10 minutes.Orbi app works great as well giving details of each connected device in the network. Easily connects and handles 20+ Devices at a time. We don't realise how many products work using wifi at our homes now a days.5 mobiles + 3 MacBooks + 1 iMac + 3 iWatches + 2 Smart TVs + 3 pc SONOS system + 4 wireless Arlo cameras & CountingHands down .....just go for it

Don't buy.over priced

My Xfinity router is on the second floor and in the past, I have purchased several Wi-Fi extenders in hopes to get better Wi-Fi on the first floor and any Wi-Fi at all in the basement. Although the other extenders worked to cover a slight increase in area for 2.4G they always resulted in some speed lost and unreliable 5G and never had the ability to cover the basement. The unit weren’t cheap either running around $150. I had just about given up but because I recently purchased two Robotic Wi-Fi vacuums I decided to give it one more go. I did a lot of research and narrowed it down to two units, finally deciding to purchase the more costly Orbi . Yes, the Orbi with 2 satellites is pricey and if you’ve made any adjustment to your Xfinity router beforehand then setup may not be a breeze either. I had split my Wi-Fi into two services 2.4 and 5G and discovered that doing so was problematic to setting up the Orbi. After removing the 2.4G split on the Xfinity router I was able to get thing working. After achieving setup the results have been fantastic. At the source of my Xfinity router the Orbi router more than doubled my Wi-Fi speed and by using the two satellites that speed is the same throughout the house including the basement. In fact, 50 ft outside of the house the Wi-Fi is nearly as strong and fast. The App that you download has many useful features and very easy to use and even though the Orbi is not split into two services of 2.4G and 5G all my devices that run on only 2.4G have had no problems connecting. I’ve only had the unit a little over a week and thus far no issues, so hopefully it will continue that way. As of today, I can totally recommend this Orbi unit.

This is a fantastic mesh router! If you need more than one router in your house (and let's face it, most people do), this is the set to get.A little background here. I have an old stone house (1859) with a frame addition built in the early 90s. My office is in the basement at one corner of the old house and that's where my router sits (I need to be wired to my router for numerous reasons and have many wired devices). As such, this is a recipe for failed wifi throughout the rest of the house. So, on the first floor, I had a router acting as an extender and on the second floor, yet another. I lived with this for years, having to make sure I was on the correct router when I was using wifi throughout the house. A pain in the butt. Also, honestly, slow speeds plagued me. I live in the country and my DSL maxes out at 8Mbps, so by the time the extenders passed it along, I was doing well with 3Mbps or less in some rooms.I started reading about mesh networks back in the winter. CNET had some great reviews of different mesh routers. I very nearly bought the Google Mesh because it was cheap... but then, fortunately, thought better of it. So I took a look again at the Orbi (2-router version) and though it was more expensive by quite a bit, the performance seemed worthwhile for me. Additionally, because of the difficult nature of the house, I decided to go with the three unit Orbi. (It's designed for 7500 sq ft, or so they say, and I have about 3800.)Wow was I impressed by performance! (Oh, it was also very simple to set up, which you generally need to do with a smart phone.) I had speeds of 7-8Mbps through the house. I even had 2.5Mbps on a hillside 500 yards away. I could be mowing a field not too far from the house and my wife could text me that dinner was ready. (Another issue where I live -- I have to use an AT&T Microcell to get any cell service and we use iMessage to text via wifi.) The speeds we now get with Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Vudu to our TV are excellent. What a world of difference.I'm a professional photographer and my wife is a graphic designer, but we prefer to live in the country, so this is a technology match made in heaven for us. If you want unimpeded wifi performance in your house, BUY THE ROUTER.

I bought the Netgear Orbi AC3000 system to replace my Negear JS6 (EX8000) mesh extender that wouldn't hold connections to my Netgear R7000 router and connected devices. Perhaps the EX8000 was defective, but I couldn't make it work after 3 weeks of trying and sent it back. Amazon's return policy is great, by the way.The Orbi system (RBK53) with router and two satellites is spectacular! I tiny bit tricky to set it up and getting it to work in daisy chain mode, but it works great. It hasn't lost any connections and hasn't shown any problems after a week.Perhaps installing an Orbi system designed for a 7,000 sq ft house is overkill in my 3,500 sq ft home, but my setup up is a difficult one. The router is in my basement at the far end of the house. Connected devices are scattered, but my TV and AV system are upstairs at the extreme other end of the house. Several walls and concrete slabs are in between. I should also point out that after several tries over the years I've never been able to get acceptable network coverage throughout the whole house with other products.The daisy chain feature of the Orbi (available through a firmware update) is great. It broadcasts the router's signal to satellite 1, which relays it to satellite 2. (this is particularly useful for my TV/AVR system). As a result, my 200 Mbps broadband service at the router tests at the same speed everywhere in the house, ranging from 200-235 Mbps.Another nice feature is that the satellites each have 4 Ethernet ports. I use the ports in satellite 2 to create a hard wire connection to TV and AV stuff (a Roku streamer, a smart TV, a Denon AVR, and a DirecTV box) in hopes of creating more stable connections. Seems to have worked, but I haven't tried WiFi connections to these devices. Netflix and Amazon now run faster than I've ever seen and DirecTV downloaded movies are watchable in just minutes. I couldn't be happier.The Orbi system is significantly more expensive than many other options, but great performance and reliability, for my money, suggest that this is a system to give a closer look. Recommended.

I have a 2300 square foot home on approximately 5 acres with DSL internet service from CenturyLink. I was using the CenturyLink 2082 wireless modem/router and the WiFi signal would not reach into one end of our home. I also needed internet coverage in a metal covered barn located about 150 feet from the house. After researching the different available MESH internet router systems, I choose the Netgear Orbi AC3000 RBK53S with a router and 2 satellites and the Orbi Outdoor Satellite RBS50Y. I had some reservations due to reading some of the reviews detailing installation difficulties and dropped connections between the router and satellites. When I installed the system, I used the Orbi Login online installation method and not the mobile app. I also kept the Orbi router and the 3 satellites close to my computer until everything was set up. I connected the satellite to the CenturyLink 2082 modem with the provided Ethernet cable and turned it on. After startup was complete, I connected my computer to it through WiFi and started the the Orbi LogIn program which detected the Orbi Router. I then powered on 1 of the AC3000 satellites and it synced to the router successfully. I then powered on the 2nd AC 3000 satellite and it did not sync successfully. After 2 more tries by powering it off and then on, it synced successfully. I then checked the firmware versions on the router and the 2 satellites and they were up to date for all units out of the box. I then powered on the Orbi Outdoor satellite. It took 4 tries of powering off and powering on before it booted and I then used the sync function in Orbi Login to sync it to the router. I then checked the firmware version and it needed to be updated. However, the Orbi Login program could not complete the automatic update. I had downloaded the newest firmware to my computer in anticipation of updating the firmware manually and the process was accomplished without incident. I then completed the setup for the Orbi system with the Orbi Login program. At that point, I connected all of our devices to the new Orbi WiFi network and turned off auto-join for the CenturyLink 2082. I then moved the CenturyLink 2082 and the Orbi router to a location as close to the center of our home as possible and powered them on. I then moved the 1st satellite to the far end of the house, powered it on, it synced with the router and displayed a blue light that indicated a strong connection. I then moved the 2nd satellite to the opposite end of the house, which is closest to the barn, powered it on, it synced with the router and displayed a blue light that indicated a strong connection. Lastly, I moved the Orbi Outdoor satellite to the barn knowing that if it was placed outside of the barn it would probably be unable to send a strong signal through the metal the barn is covered with. Instead, I placed it inside the barn next to a door that faces the house and that has a window in it. I powered it on, it synced and displayed a blue light which indicated a strong signal. When I checked the Wifi coverage, I now have a strong signal everywhere in the house and throughout the 48x48 foot barn. To my surprise, I also have a strong signal outside as far away as 250 feet from the house and barn. The WiFi speed has been impressive and much better than the CenturyLink 2082 router. The system was installed a week ago and it has been absolutely reliable with no issues. In short, I am extremely pleased with the Netgear Orbi AC3000 system!

If you are in the market for a mesh network, stay as far away from the ORBI as you possibly can. You buy a mesh network because you have lots of devices to connect to it right! I am a software developer and not a network guy, but after 30 years in the tech industry I know enough to know that this is not how a network product should work. You need it to be reliable and easy to operate. You need to be able to monitor traffic and figure out which devices are using a lot of it when there are questions, right? After owning this product for over a year, I am going to invest in something else. Here are my biggest issues:1. No monitoring. I have had a spike if network traffic over the last 2 months and spent hours trying to figure out how to monitor 30+ devices to see which one is pulling down so much data. NOTHING is available for the ORBI by default. You must install and configure other software in order to do it. SERIOUSLY! Offering an "Advanced" networking solution without even the simplest monitoring?2. Reliability. In the past year, I have had to do a factory reset at least 7 times on the entire system. It just stops working and nothing I did could bring it back. Having my family complaining at me about my "fancy" system that doesn't work is embarrassing. I bought this system to make things better, not worse!3. Firmware upgrades. They don't always work! And when they don't, you spend hours trying to figure out how to downgrade the firmware to get things back up again. 1 of the 7 times I had to reset the system was because of a firmware upgrade.4. Armor Security. This actually worked well -- until I had to renew it. This was the proverbial straw on the camel's back for me. I have spent 4 hours over the last 5 weeks trying to get Armor security renewed. They have now easy way to simply offer you an activation code to renew it. And they are not seamless with Bitdefender. After opening up a ticket with Netgear they eventually told me it was Bitdefender's fault and that I had to contact bitdefender. I did, and bitdefender validated that they had no purchase from me, so I went back to netgear and opened up ANOTHER ticket only to find out that ... OH YEAH WE DO SEE YOUR PURCHASE! then they send to tech support (in another country with strong accent and very little social skills) and after an hour on the phone just now, I quit. I told the guy that I was buying something else and said goodbye.Do your research before buying. Make sure to don't throw hundreds of dollars into something and have to buy something else a year later.