Netgear RBK853 Tri-band Mesh WiFi 6 System Review & Comments

It All sounds fantastic, but for that price I would want my virtual girl Joi ala bladerunner 2049 as part of the package
 

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It All sounds fantastic, but for that price I would want my virtual girl Joi ala bladerunner 2049 as part of the package
:D Yes, that would be a nice touch!
(Speaking of Ana de Armas, Night Clerk on Amazon Prime is definitely worth a watch - very excellent!)
 
I'm running an older RBR50 and RBS50 system here at home and those I bought off CEX and Ebay because the prices for these were insane. £940 for a mesh system is ludicrous regardless of the performance. I've been happy with the Orbi and would probably upgrade when these break. I'm also running the Voxel firmware on my units and so far so good.

Maybe if Costco UK do an offer like I keep seeing it the states I'd be tempted.
 
I’m going round in circles, is there anything that’s stable :) My isp is Sky and while Ethernet is fine, WiFi is shocking, just want something reliable, works with Q minis and doesn’t cost the earth. I’ll check out your suggestion thanks

There's no such thing as "stable" Wi-Fi - by definition Wi-Fi is fickle and unreliable. All we can do when designing Wi-FI systems (including the equipment choice) is create a deployment which has "the best chance" of working.

Think of Wi-Fi like sound: Just as you cannot create a "stable audio environment" by buying some particular sound emitting device, there's not "magic" box that can fix all Wi-Fi issues. There's just too many variables, many of which are out of our control. A "noisy neighbour" is a good metaphor for this - if you have one, you could buy the most expensive set of speakers in the world, but it won't fix the problem that your neighbours are drowning you out on Fridays and Saturdays when they hold their banging wicked beats sessions.

Worse still, if a potential interference source is inside your own locale - baby monitor, microwave ovens (for example) or maybe it's your SkyQ that's causing the problem. Perhaps experiment with turning your SkyQ off for a week and see if your Wi-Fi improves.

If you want fast reliable data networking, then gold standard is to use wired ethernet.
 
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You cannot change the laws of physics - Wi-Fi transmit power is limited by law and most kit is, and always has been, at or close to the permitted max. If you have issues with signal propagation, whether for backhauls or clients, there's no "magic" box that will fix it. For the nearly 1000 GBP of this particular Wi-Fi offering, you'd be better off paying a professional "cable monkey" to come and install some (proper) wired ethernet backhauls.
If I do any work on the house, ie lift flooring I run ethernet cable in the hope one day of having sufficient wandering around to help things. As it is there are currently just 3 randomly located lengths dotted about.
 
There's no such thing as "stable" Wi-Fi - by definition Wi-Fi is fickle and unreliable. All we can do when designing Wi-FI systems (including the equipment choice) is create a deployment which has "the best chance" of working.

Think of Wi-Fi like sound: Just as you cannot create a "stable audio environment" by buying some particular sound emitting device, there's not "magic" box that can fix all Wi-Fi issues. There's just too many variables, many of which are out of our control. A "noisy neighbour" is a good metaphor for this - if you have one, you could buy the most expensive set of speakers in the world, but it won't fix the problem that your neighbours are drowning you out on Fridays and Saturdays when they hold their banging wicked beats sessions.

Worse still, if a potential interference source is inside your own locale - baby monitor, microwave ovens (for example) or maybe it's your SkyQ that's causing the problem. Perhaps experiment with turning your SkyQ off for a week and see if your Wi-Fi improves.

If you want fast reliable data networking, then gold standard is to use wired ethernet.
I agree with what you are saying in general but once you’ve had a Sky router, you realise there was such a thing as stable WiFi.
I was with BT, using the exact same equipment in the exact same location and never had an issue. With the Sky router, Ethernet is fine (and Sky Q is hardwired as are the majority of AV items), WiFi all over the place. I can have all WiFi items (there are only 6) off bar one and it will be fine, then speed drops, then it’s fine, repeat...I’ve been though multiple routers and troubleshooting attempts with them.
For those WiFi devices, disable WiFi and go 4G, boom solid performance (and my 4G signal strength isn’t great).

Their WiFi implementation is poor. Can’t wait to go back to BT.
 
agree with what you are saying in general but once you’ve had a Sky router, you realise there was such a thing as stable WiFi.
I was with BT, using the exact same equipment in the exact same location and never had an issue. With the Sky router, Ethernet is fine (and Sky Q is hardwired as are the majority of AV items), WiFi all over the place. I can have all WiFi items (there are only 6) off bar one and it will be fine, then speed drops, then it’s fine, repeat...I’ve been though multiple routers and troubleshooting attempts with them.
For those WiFi devices, disable WiFi and go 4G, boom solid performance (and my 4G signal strength isn’t great).

Their WiFi implementation is poor. Can’t wait to go back to BT.
Just buy a wireless access point, plug it into your Sky Router and turn off the router's wifi it will solve nearly all of your woes in one easy hit.
 
Just buy a wireless access point, plug it into your Sky Router and turn off the router's wifi it will solve nearly all of your woes in one easy hit.
Agreed - with Vodafone/Unitymedia here in Germany. I already had an Asus RT-AC87U Router which I use as an access point & first thing I always do when they swap their Router out, is switch off the WiFi on it.
 
Just buy a wireless access point, plug it into your Sky Router and turn off the router's wifi it will solve nearly all of your woes in one easy hit.
Its not that a more modern AP has more power, but it will have better dedicated processing and often a better antennae arrangement which is one of the things that makes a big difference.
 
Its not that a more modern AP has more power, but it will have better dedicated processing and often a better antennae arrangement which is one of the things that makes a big difference.
Agreed. My Asus, for instance, has four external Antenna, & "locks on" to any connected device that is in use. You cannot expect much from a box that comes for free with your contract (Unitymedia/Vodafone offers the "FRITZ!Box 6591 Cable" as a rentable upgrade - that tells you their faith in their standard box!)
 
Isn't this basically obsolete at launch? My understanding is that Wifi 6E will require a hardware update and given my laptop and my phone supports 6E if I was looking to upgrade my Mesh WiFI I'd want that to be offered on launch or guaranteed as a imminent firmware upgrade.

Insane to pay that kind of money if not.
 
Agreed. My Asus, for instance, has four external Antenna, & "locks on" to any connected device that is in use. You cannot expect much from a box that comes for free with your contract (Unitymedia/Vodafone offers the "FRITZ!Box 6591 Cable" as a rentable upgrade - that tells you their faith in their standard box!)
Nonsense. But if you are determined to believe whatever you want to, nothing I can say using expertise and understanding of how it really works is likely to change your mind.
 
Nonsense. But if you are determined to believe whatever you want to, nothing I can say using expertise and understanding of how it really works is likely to change your mind.
Oh My,

My dear sir, the "Nonsense" only comes from your end. The strength of coverage, & the (measured & tested realtime) upload & download speeds at various places in the Apartment, down in the House Cellar where my workout room is, & across the street, speak for themselves when I switch off the Asus & test the supplied Router versus Supplied Router WiFi off & use the Asus, But to use your own words - "if you are determined to believe whatever you want to, nothing I can say using expertise and understanding of how it really works is likely to change your mind."
 
Yeah good luck with wifi 6E. It will have even less range than 5Ghz (as it uses 6Ghz). Maybe if you live in a field or a house made out of paper. Real world tests show it to be less effective than wifi 6. Just because a manufacturer advertises their latest £1300 phone using wifi 6E - give me a real world application where it is even relevant ? a 4 Gig connection to your phone, for what? Its just more willy waving. Less than 0.001% of the population even has a broadband connection that will support those speeds, no matter the internal infrastructure or a router than can actually route traffic effectively at that bandwidth. If e-peening is what floats your boat, good luck to you. For the rest of the professionals that live in the real world, Wifi 6 is barely out of the starting blocks. Wifi 6E, if it ever gets traction, is at least 2 - 3 years away in reality, and by then current kit will have been superseded.
 
Yeah good luck with wifi 6E. It will have even less range than 5Ghz (as it uses 6Ghz). Maybe if you live in a field or a house made out of paper. Real world tests show it to be less effective than wifi 6. Just because a manufacturer advertises their latest £1300 phone using wifi 6E - give me a real world application where it is even relevant ? a 4 Gig connection to your phone, for what? Its just more willy waving. Less than 0.001% of the population even has a broadband connection that will support those speeds, no matter the internal infrastructure or a router than can actually route traffic effectively at that bandwidth. If e-peening is what floats your boat, good luck to you. For the rest of the professionals that live in the real world, Wifi 6 is barely out of the starting blocks. Wifi 6E, if it ever gets traction, is at least 2 - 3 years away in reality, and by then current kit will have been superseded.
Interesting points, though my phone is 2 years old and has Wifi 6E, my laptop a year old and has it too so I hardly think it's new.

Just feels as if you're launching a flagship product that it would be nice to support it, even if as you say WiFI 6 might be better. I've had my Netgear Orbi for a few years now and it would nice to think when I upgrade it would be current for several years again.
I'm sure I did see a review for a none mesh WiFi 6e router that looked quite impressive but I'm not sure of the review setup.
 
There are quite a few wifi 6E routers available already. The performance, although theoretically 4x Wifi6 is no better within 1 -2m of the router and degrades quickly as you move further away and fairing considerably worse once it has more than a single wall to go through. Currently the 6Ghz spectrum is pretty empty, so you would expect some gains from that, but sadly not. I think until commercial broadband has saturation over 1Gb/s which is around 10 years away for the UK I think that there will be little call to exceed the Wifi 6 standard. By which time we would most likely be looking at 6G and Wifi8. The problem will be that as we use higher and higher frequencies of the spectrum to obtain that extra speed we will either need more powerful radios (which is unlikely) so we will need a higher density of APs to provide the same coverage. If all of those 6E radios need 1 or more dedicated wireless backhauls to provide their 'mesh systems' then those spectrums will become just as if not more congested than 2.4G because you need a greater density of APs. I think for now and the near future Wifi 6 will be the sweet spot.

Out of curiosity which phone do you have as there are only 2 phones with wifi 6E and both launched this year with the Samsung Galaxy S21, which launched at CES in January being the worlds first 6Ghz capable phone and chip manufacturer broadcom only launched the BCM4389 Chipset (the worlds first mobile 6E chipset) in February 2020.

1. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Release date: January 14, 2021

2. Xiaomi Mi 11
Release date: December 2020 (In China), February 2021 (Global launch)

Those currently are the only 2 smartphones that are Wifi6E enabled. Also the Wifi Alliance only started certifying Wifi6E devices on January 7th 2021 and to date there appears to be 1 laptop that is 6E certified which is the MSI GE76 Raider which does not come with Wifi6E but you can but an intel upgrade for it. That laptop starts at £2300 without Wifi 6E
 
Those currently are the only 2 smartphones that are Wifi6E enabled. Also the Wifi Alliance only started certifying Wifi6E devices on January 7th 2021 and to date there appears to be 1 laptop that is 6E certified which is the MSI GE76 Raider which does not come with Wifi6E but you can but an intel upgrade for it. That laptop starts at £2300 without Wifi 6E
There are a bunch of WiFi chipsets which are now certified including Intel AX210 and one from Broadcom so may devices will be certified even though the actual devices isn't certified.

But not expecting much difference between 6 and 6E. AX had a bunch of useful features which has definitely improved WiFi for me.
 
My mistake, I could have sworn I'd seen Wifi 6E in the standard for my Samsung S10 but I've checked and you're right - my apologies.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, however I would still wonder what the second hand value of this would be if it gets replaced with a Wifi 6E version later this year given most peoples desire to have the latest and greatest. (Even if the performance isn't actually much better)
 
I am not sure that 80% of the world even know what wifi 6 is no matter wifi 6E. For many it will be little more than marketing blurb to sell the latest doohickey. Given that something like 70 -90% of broadband users use whatever their ISP supply they wont even realise that their New Samsung / Apple device isnt benefiting from this new technology as their old BT / Virgin Hub is still only Wifi5. And those that do realise it, will probably NEVER have an Internet connection fast enough to benefit from 6E. I still struggle to understand how a phone is going to benefit from a 4GB/s connection... Maybe somebody can enlighten me?
 
Yeah good luck with wifi 6E. It will have even less range than 5Ghz (as it uses 6Ghz). Maybe if you live in a field or a house made out of paper. Real world tests show it to be less effective than wifi 6. Just because a manufacturer advertises their latest £1300 phone using wifi 6E - give me a real world application where it is even relevant ? a 4 Gig connection to your phone, for what? Its just more willy waving. Less than 0.001% of the population even has a broadband connection that will support those speeds, no matter the internal infrastructure or a router than can actually route traffic effectively at that bandwidth. If e-peening is what floats your boat, good luck to you. For the rest of the professionals that live in the real world, Wifi 6 is barely out of the starting blocks. Wifi 6E, if it ever gets traction, is at least 2 - 3 years away in reality, and by then current kit will have been superseded.
I use my phone for work & bits of YouTube. I admittedly don't play games or watch movies on it (??????)
4G is lovely for big files. but that is fast enough.
I guess as phones eventually get to the size of my poor 55" LG OLED TV?
 
So after looking at AP’s / mesh networks for my sky WiFi issues, it was cheaper to go for a new modem router.
5 mins later and it’s up and running, all WiFi devices now running as I would have expected they should have in the first place.
While it’s not on topic, appreciate those on the thread pointing me to an alternate solution.
 
I am not sure that 80% of the world even know what wifi 6 is no matter wifi 6E. For many it will be little more than marketing blurb to sell the latest doohickey. Given that something like 70 -90% of broadband users use whatever their ISP supply they wont even realise that their New Samsung / Apple device isnt benefiting from this new technology as their old BT / Virgin Hub is still only Wifi5. And those that do realise it, will probably NEVER have an Internet connection fast enough to benefit from 6E. I still struggle to understand how a phone is going to benefit from a 4GB/s connection... Maybe somebody can enlighten me?
Its not just about speed, WiFi6 has other benefits allowing you to use what signal you have better and across multiple devices. 6E adds a few more channels but the real benefits are in 6 / AX.
 

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