Netgear Orbi Outdoor Satellite review: Great range, but only so-so speed - teetersbefiscure

At a Peek

Expert's Rating

Pros

• Dramatically extends the range of a Netgear Orbi mesh network
• Protected from extreme weather and temperature
• Ordained 4×4 radio for data backhaul at speeds up to 1.7Gbps

Cons

• Congenial only with Netgear Orbi routers
• Very expensive

Our Verdict

Netgear currently has the only bet on in town if you want a interlock network with an outdoor node.

Netgear has one of the best WI-Fi lock network systems on the grocery store in the Orbi RBK50, and now IT's the only manufacturer to offer a weatherized mesh node that will extend your network big into your yard.

The company says its Orbi Outdoor Satellite (Netgear model number RBS50Y) fire add up to 2,500 square feet of Wi-Fi coverage, and I did visit significant increases in throughput and range. I tested it with Netgear's $370 RBK50 kit, which consists of an RBR50 router and one RBS50 indoor satellite. I updated all three devices to the latest microcode prior to benchmarking and recorded a sound increase in interior performance American Samoa well.

I encountered one significant issue, however: After updating the outdoor satellite's firmware, my client device—an Horsepower Envy x360 with an Intel Two-fold Band Wireless-Actinium 7265 WI-Fi transcriber—would link up to the outdoor artificial satellite's 5GHz radio only if it was inside a metrical unit or so of the access point. As soon as I moved the client further away, the client would drop that connectedness and exchange to the AP's much slower 2.4GHz radiocommunication.

When I quizzed Netgear about this, a spokesperson explained: "Orbi Outdoor's 5G front-haul outturn great power is much lower than its 2.4GHz radio imputable the regulatory limit of outdoorsy application. The siamese device may automatically flip to the higher RSSI [relative received signal potency] radio when moving from the satellite."

But that kinda begs the oppugn: If the customer is going to accompany the 2.4GHz radio nine times out of 10 anyway, where's the value in having such an expensive chipset in the Orbi Outdoor?

The former problem is that none of mesh networks connected the food market today are interoperable. Patc 802.11ac is an IEEE standard, the 802.11ac lock routers and interlocking nodes from Netgear (Orbi), Linksys (Velop), Google (Google Wifi), TP-Colligate (Deco), Eero, and all the other manufacturers are incompatible with from each one other. If you want to expand your mesh topology net, you must use a net node from the same maker that reinforced your mesh router. If you want to use Netgear's Orbi Outdoor Satellite, you crapper use it only with Netgear's Orbi-series routers (there are consumer and business models at various price points).

Michael Brown University

The Netgear Orbi Outdoor Planet force out Be mounted to a stand, Eastern Samoa shown here, or adorned on the wall (without the stand). Mounting it higher would believable increase its range.

You'll have to pay to play

The Orbi Outdoor Orbiter is expensive—$329 at Amazon—and it will deliver its highest performance only with Netgear's top-ledge Orbi routers, which enjoyment a dedicated 4×4 radio channel for information backhaul at a theoretical maximum of 1.7Gbps. Those would be the consumer-orientating RBR50 and the concern-oriented SRR60. When paired with the SRR60, the outdoor node also supports the patronage router's specialized features: dedicated admin, invitee, and employee networks.

The outdoor satellite will besides work with Netgear's less-high-ticket consumer Orbi routers, the RBR40 and RBR20. Those mesh routers have dedicated wireless backhaul channels, too, but they use 2×2 radios with maximum theoretical throughput of 866Mbps. A December firmware update likewise finally added wired data backhaul, but that won't apply to the outdoor satellite because it doesn't have any ethernet ports. (Netgear rightly viewed that Eastern Samoa a security measur vulnerability, since an unauthorized user could simply plug a cable's length into the outdoor access charge and gain immediate access to the electronic network.)

The Orbi Outdoor Satellite moldiness be affixed either to a stand out (enclosed) or to a wall, fencepost, OR different anatomical structure. A white LED on the butt can provide ambient lighting, but you can schedule off and on times for it or wrick information technology off completely if you don't want to draw attention to the unit. Netgear provides a 9.5-foot-long force cord, so you should follow able to mount it high happening a wall.

Michael Brunet

I couldn't plug the Orbi Outdoor Satellite's oversized AC adaptor into my protected outdoor outlets. I had to practice an extension cord.

The end of the cable that connects to the satellite itself has a rubber O-ring to prevent pee from seeping in, but I ran into a problem with the oversized AC adapter at the strange end of the cable: It wouldn't fit in any of my protected outdoor outlets, which possess either plastic bubbles or take form-loaded doors covering their receptacles. I ended up using a short extension phone cord and putting the arranger inside a Twist and Seal of approval Cord Dome ($30 at Amazon).

Twisting and Seal of approval

This cutaway shot of the Corduroy Dome shows how it can protect a high-powered mercantile establishment strip.

The Cord Dome is an ingenious weatherproof shelter for protecting ability-cord junctions. Measuring 14 inches in diam, it's large enough to fit a small power strip. While it's designed to lay flat on the dry land (holes and stakes are provided so you can drop anchor it in place), it can also be oriented vertically and mounted on an outdoor wall like a hose rack.

Thoroughly weatherized

Netgear gives the Orbi Outdoor an IP56 military rank, pregnant no harmful amount of particulate matter (e.g., disperse) can come home it, and that it can hold up a powerful water jet from adequate a 12.5mm honker. Far beyond acquiring rained or snowed connected (IT can operate in temperatures ranging from -4 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit), you'll constitute competent to hose the social unit down when it gets dusty. You might want to unplug it and allow it to cool start, however; there's a large heatsink connected the spine of the unit with a warning label that touching information technology can result in a combust. The fulminant, radical change in temperature caused past a magnanimous quantity water coursing over information technology could have a harmful impact happening the metal.

Michael Brunet

A large heatsink is mounted to the back of the Netgear Orbi Satellite.

Installing the Orbi Outdoor was a simple matter of plugging it in and so having the Orbi mobile app discover IT, although I had to postponemen more a few proceedings for that to happen. The router and wholly the mesh topology nodes wont a single network key (you tush also ensnare a separate guest network), sol you can act upon all around your home and the Orbi's band-steering tech will seamlessly tie you to the strongest access stage.

Yay for new microcode!

As mentioned earlier, I saw a significant jump in performance in my interior tests after I updated the system to the modish microcode. As you can see from the graph below, when the customer was in the same room as the router, separated by nine feet of air, I recorded a 40-percent jump in TCP throughput, from 428Mbps with the older firmware to 599Mbps with the new.

Michael Brown

Netgear's Orbi RBK50 was already our uppermost pick in mesh router systems, but a new microcode update increased its indoor performance considerably.

When the client was moved to the great room—33 feet from the router, with an insulated interior wall, plywood cabinets, and a refrigerator in the bespeak's path—the conflict in throughput was even more operative, skyrocketing from 224Mbps to 572Mbps. Test results in my two unexhausted locations weren't quite an equally dramatic, but the 19-pct increase when the client was in the home theater, which has double-quilted insulated walls for dependable-isolation purposes, is noteworthy.

The future chart compares the RBK50 system's performance before and after the increase of the Orbi Outdoor Satellite. The first matter you'll bill is that every last the Numbers are today in only double—not triple—digits.

Michael Brown

Netgear's Orbi Outdoor satellite delivered significant boosts in TCP throughput in most locations, merely the client would connect only to the access point's 2.4GHz radio. (Note: Distances indicated are from the router, not from the access breaker point.)

I readjust the client's Wi-Fi adapter ahead benchmarking at each test location, impartial to make sure the guest was connecting to the access point with the strongest signal, merely it's non possible topull the client to tie in to a particular node. The router has an admin page that reveals which node each node device is connected to: It reported that the client in this case related to to the 2.4GHz network all told quaternion outdoor locations, and to the 5GHz network all told foursome indoor locations. The floorplan shows the bi of obstacles between the client and all of the access points, but it's worthy noting that to accomplish Yard Location 3, Wi-Fi signals encounter a duplicate-wide aluminiferous roll-up service department door.

Michael Brown University

This floorplan shows the cardinal interior and four outdoor locations the client was set for benchmarking. Note that the marked locations are not incisively to scale.

Effective, but very expensive

If you're already running an Orbi engage network, and you need to pass your network outdoors, the Orbi Outdoor Satellite is an effective, if expensive, way to achieve that target. If you haven't invested in a meshwork network yet, the Orbi RBK50 is currently our top pick.

This product is a lot tougher to recommend if you've already invested in another brand's mesh network, or if you'd instead practice a gaming-oriented router, such as Netgear's own Bullbat Pro Play XR500 or Linksys' WRT32XB, because it will require you to toss everything else you throw. But if the freedom to stream HD video everywhere in your railway yard is an imperative, the Orbi system will deliver it.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/401686/netgear-orbi-outdoor-satellite-review.html

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