Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have been specifically looking at both the Netgear Orbi AC3000 and the Eero Pro mesh systems for the last few months. They consistently receive some of the best reviews for use in larger homes in real world use. I currently have Internet Blast service (200/10 Mbps) through Comcast (Xfinity). I am running my service through an Arris SB6190 Modem (that I own). The modem was previously hooked up to a Netgear Nighthawk AC1750 router (Model R6400). It was a great router that worked great in our 1400 square foot home a few years ago. We moved into a 3,400+ square foot home with two floors and a full basement on a third of an acre about three years ago. We have five bedrooms with four on the second floor and the fifth on the first floor which we use as our office. Our Comcast service comes into our home at this location. It is in the northwest corner of our home. The shape of our home is rectangular with an attached garage located on the southeast corner of our home (opposite corner of our office). I have been a lifelong Netgear fan exclusively using several of their routers as Wi-Fi has developed over the years. Unfortunately, with the use of over 20 devices (iPhones, iPads, TV, wireless video cameras, etc..), the Nighthawk wasn’t cutting it anymore. Reception outside in the front of our home, garage and upstairs master bedroom were poor to nonexistent. We were getting 0-5 Mbps in our master bedroom (sits above the garage) and only 20-40 Mbps outside to our video cameras (furthest west of our router). It was time for an upgrade, plus Comcast had recently upgraded their Blast service from 150/10 Mbps to 200/10 Mbps. Before shopping for a new router, like you, I scanned hundreds of review websites trying to narrow down my search. Based on my personal research I narrowed down my choices to either the Netgear Orbi AC3000 or the Eero Pro Wi-Fi mesh systems. I also ran comprehensive speed tests using Ookla ( a third party speed test website). I didn’t want to use Comcast’s or the router’s software thinking it may be skewed. Without boring everyone with my total comprehensive list I will summarize the areas that were doing poorly, namely master bedroom, sunroom, front of my home and garage. It should be noted that I tested each area several times at various times of the day (morning, noon and night). The devices used were an iPhone Xr and a newer HP Surface Pro Laptop computer. In my initial speed tests with the Netgear AC1750 router I was getting the following averaged results: Office directly wired to the HP Computer: (147/11.9 Mbps), Office using Wi-Fi: (90.9/11.7 Mbps), Master Bedroom Wi-Fi: (4.3/1.6 Mbps), Sunroom Wi-Fi: (14.8/11.9 Mbps), Front of home Wi-Fi: (12.9/3.6 Mbps), and center of Garage Wi-Fi (9.0/6.6 Mbps). To note I wasn’t getting any Wi-Fi at the furthest points of my property line. I was recently fortunate to purchase both the Eero Pro 3 pack from Best Buy on sale (100 dollars off) and the Netgear Orbi AC3000 3-pack from Costco on sale (80 dollars off). Overall, the Eero was a little more expensive even with the sale. I set-up both systems separately and gave each 3 days to adapt to my home and ran the same tests in the same locations at various times of the day. The main router went in the office wired to the modem, one satellite in the family room (located between my garage and sunroom), and the third satellite in my son’s bedroom on the second floor in the center of the home. The results were as follow: Netgear ORBI RBK53S-100NAS (AC3000 3-pack): (Set-up time about 45 minutes as I had a couple of hiccups after the firmware updated). Office directly wired to the HP Computer: (197.0/12.0 Mbps), Office using Wi-Fi: (125.0/12.0 Mbps), Master Bedroom Wi-Fi: (126.0/11.9 Mbps), Sunroom Wi-Fi: (119.0/11.9 Mbps), Front of home Wi-Fi: (44.6/11.5 Mbps), and center of Garage Wi-Fi (76.5/12.0 Mbps). Furthest points of my property line Wi-Fi: 38.4/11.5 Mbps). I had an issue on two occasions while using the Orbi over three days where my Wi-Fi signal disconnected for no apparent reason. I had to turn the Wi-Fi off and then back on for my iPad and then it reconnected. I also had disconnecting issues with my Samsung television Q65, which I purchased last year. My Wi-Fi signal strength was at three bars on the main router and each of the satellites and the set-up process indicated they were placed close enough to each other, so I thought this was odd. Also, although my Wi-Fi speeds and range increased significantly, I thought they would be better, considering the Orbi 3-pack is said to cover 7,500 square feet. I took a detailed look into the Orbi App to see how and where my devices were connecting. This showed that my devices were not connecting to the closest Orbi hub and seemed to always want to connect to the main router/hub in the office. I tried numerous times turning the Wi-Fi off and on in my device settings, but the device would always re-connect to the office even if I was a few feet from one of the satellites. Then, when I would go upstairs close to the bedroom satellite, the devices would want to connect to the family room. It didn’t make any sense. I thought that maybe the three Orbi’s were too much and causing interference, so I disconnected the one in the family room, but was still having issues with my devices not connecting to the closest Orbi. I was very disappointed with that fact. The Orbi did do a good job of deciding when and when not to use the 5 GHz versus the 2.4 GHz radio bands. Eero Pro (AC2200 3-pack): ): Set-up time about 20 minutes, which included the firmware update. Office directly wired to the HP Computer: (239.0/11.9 Mbps), Office using Wi-Fi: (238.0/11.8 Mbps), Master Bedroom Wi-Fi: (225.0/11.9 Mbps), Sunroom Wi-Fi: (229.0/11.7 Mbps), Front of home Wi-Fi: (76.1/12.0 Mbps), and center of Garage Wi-Fi (125.0/11.9 Mbps). Furthest points of my property line Wi-Fi: 46.7/11.7 Mbps). In checking my connected devices using the Eero App I found that the Eero system was doing a great job of detecting the closest router/satellite and connecting to it. When moving from location to location throughout my home and outside I found that my devices would accurately and efficiently connect to the closest router/satellite within a few seconds of realizing there was a better signal; and like the Orbi, I found that the Eero Pro did a good job deciding of when and when not to use the 5 Ghz versus the 2.4 Ghz radio bands. A couple of things to note, I found that each of the Eero Pros felt very warm to the touch whereas the Orbi units felt cool over prolonged use. I was initially concerned, but after researching a little online I found that the Eero is using a heat sink mounted to the top of the device to draw heat away and keeping the processor cool versus the Orbi which has vents in its large plastic housing. Also, the Orbi units are very large and stuck out like sore thumbs in my family room and son’s bedroom. I could care less about the office because I had a huge router there before and it is on the corner of our desk out of the way. Some people do not care about the aesthetics, but I wanted to be clear that the Orbi’s are huge. The Eeros are smaller and for me they were easier to blend into our living areas. In summary and based on my personal testing and results, I have returned the Netgear Orbi and I kept the Eero Pro as I experienced it being more consistent and doing a better job of connecting to the closest Eero hub. This would most likely account for why I was getting better speeds and distance with the Eero Pro system. I also liked the functionality of the Eero App a little better as compared to the Orbi App. I did not use the Orbi's web interface, so I cannot comment on it. I am still recommending the Netgear Orbi AC3000 as I still found it to better than a single stand-alone router for larger homes. However, if you are looking for something you can simply set up and forget while having excellent stability, then I would highly recommend going with the Eero Pro.

Pros: - Works with most service providers and can add-on to your current provider gateway - Expandable, can buy additional satellites if needed - Loaded with features - AC3000 tri-band Wi-Fi speeds, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports each, VPN, QoS, Dynamic DNS, DHCP with secure guest network access, MU-MIMO ready - Easy to unbox and set up - Excellent coverage and speeds, no dead zones - Plenty of wired LAN ports - Nice look, very modern - Mobile app (Apple and Android) available for system configuration and control Cons: - Cost - some of the other routers at this price point have more features and settings, additional satellites for expansion of the system will cost you - Limited USB 2.0 functionality I recommend this Wi-Fi system for those needing speedy wireless networking to all areas of a large home where multiple devices are present. Ideal for streamers, gamers, heavy data users.

Try four times to get this to work on my wi-fi system I cannot do it I'm ready to bring it back

It wasn’t good for multiple setups that require hardwire. It was returning it or buy a wife hhd.

After spending some time with this, I come away disappointed. There are a couple of good things about this. But one step at a time. The setup is fairly simple. Those using cable internet services can simply connect the cable modem to the router. However, those using Verizon FIOS or similar will find it difficult to utilize the device’s full potential and features. Connecting the satellite to the router requires simply pressing the “sync” button for both the satellite and the router. Once it connects to each other, you should have a big wireless network that should provide cover to your entire residence. The keyword here is “should.” The interesting feature is that both the router and the satellite provide ethernet ports for wired connecting, as well as USB ports for portable storage or printers. This effectively means the entire setup is providing up to 7 ethernet connections to the Orbi system. Setting up wireless is fairly easy. But its configuration UI could use some tweaking. It took some effort to find the setting to turn off SSID broadcasting. This is a must should you want to keep your wireless network from being hijacked. For the sake of simplicity, or perhaps part of their feature, Netgear sets up your wireless network name as the same for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. If your device is able to connect to 5GHz, it’ll make use of that. This is likely good for most users. But as a power user, I find it to be a bad thing. Even its advanced settings, there is nothing to make separate wireless networks so one can differentiate between the 2.4GHz network and the 5GHz network. Wireless network performance seems to be good enough for the most part. To test this, I transferred a 571MB and a 250MB file from my desktop over to my Android phone. The router and the satellite were placed on each floor the house and synced up. Assuming the Orbi works as designed, I should be getting maximum signal strength and insane transfer speeds. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The smaller 250MB file transferred in roughly 1 minute, giving me a wireless network speed of around 33Mbit/s. As for the larger file, it finished transferring data in about 3.75 minutes. That puts it around 20Mbit/s for wireless speed. Granted, there may have been a bottleneck somewhere along the line. Most people will not be able to notice the slow speed unless large files/data are being transferred around wirelessly. In the time that I have spent with the Orbi, I found maintaining a connection to either the router or the satellite to be very problematic. In fact, it was problematic almost from the very start. Many times when I tried to do something on the phone, the app I was using would time out on its network connection and I would notice my phone disconnecting from the wireless network and reconnecting. It wasn’t isolated to a single app either. I later figured out that this was due to the dismal and poor performance of the 5GHz band from the router. Forcing my phone to use the 2.4Ghz band only fixed this. And so my testing continued until the day I am writing this review up. After coming back from a dinner outing with the family, my phone would not connect to the wireless network. I was 10 feet away from the router, on the other side of the wall. That was the last straw. And because of that, I was unable to test the USB portion of the Orbi. From there, I shut the Orbi down and went back to my previous router. I apologize if this isn’t a complete review. But this is how I have experienced using it. For the asking price, this is not worth purchasing. There are better performing routers out there for this exact same price that will give you better connections, performance, and more options.

Sorry but this wifi system was not good. I couldn't even open you tube or anything that streamed videos.

Not a good product. All problems and had to return a few times.

Had to have main unit and satellite sitting next to each other in order to connect to each ither

I had a two router Netgear system running for five years when front end router started to permanently power cycle every 2 minutes. Headed to Best Buy ready to double upgrade when a nice Blueshirt introduced me to Orbi by Netgear. Awesome product, easy to setup, provides whole house coverage for large house. Sets up on own but still has flexibility to reserve addresses for printer, NAS, etc. Single SSID, plenty of speed, much less engineering, great out of box experience. Recommended.

I got this for my daughter's college rental where 5 room mates on 2 different floors make extensive use of the home's broadband connection. Their WiFi coverage was spotty on the main level and inconsistent throughout the home. This unit did the trick, with the base unit replacing the current WiFi router on the upper floor and the satellite component providing coverage on the main floor. Setup was simple and all is working great. Both the base and the satellite are aesthetically pleasing -- not a big deal for the base, but a plus for the satellite since you can place it on an end table, book case, shelf, or wherever there is a power source without worrying about the looks. The WiFi coverage is now much improved...

My situation - bi-level home, 50x20, 1,000 sq ft on each floor, service enters in the extreme southeast corner, wifi devices scattered throughout - 3 wireless dvds, 2 smart tv's, ipad, amazon echo, thermostat, etc, etc. The one that's always given me the biggest problem is the wife's pc, located in the extreme northwest corner. Over the years, I've tried many solutions - additional routers configured as access points, hi gain booster antennas on the routers, POE (power over ethernet - those devices you plug into a wall socket) - but I could never get more than 2 bars on the farthest pc. Streaming on the north side of the house is sometimes spotty, at times either buffering or dropping resolution. So, I naturally viewed the Orbi with a certain amount of skepticism. The hype on the Orbi lays it on heavy about being preconfigured, easy setup. Well, maybe for some, but - here comes the first snag for me. I have Verizon Fios, with the combination modem/router for internet, tv, & phone. The skimpy pamphlet that comes packaged in the box only covers the very best of circumstances - that being that you take it out of the box, plug it in, and you're hooked up in less than 5 minutes. My first task then became hunting online for directions to hook up to a Fios modem. If you have a situation like mine, here's what you need to do - first you need to go into the modem setup and disable wifi on the Fios network. Next, hook the Orbi with a cable to LAN port on the Fios modem. Now, from your wifi device, you are directed to a proprietary website, orbilogin.com, from which you can login to the Orbi setup page. In the setup, you change the Orbi to AP (access point) mode, and also choose to get an IP dynamically from the Fios router. The IP address of the Orbi then configures itself to 10.0.0.1, and you should be good to go. Not exactly as simple as advertised, and zero information in the box about this. As far as performance, I hooked the base unit next to the Fios router in the southeast corner, lower level. I placed the satellite at the midpoint of the house on the upper level. I first went to the habitually troubled pc in the northwest corner, and was happy to finally have full service there. I ran a couple of speed tests, I have 75 Mgh service, at the midpoint of the house with no direct line of site to the Orbi, I was pulling a 65. The pc in the far corner was doing a 60. I'm no wireless technician but I consider that pretty good for over the air, and certainly the best I've had in the house. My reason for dropping a star in the rating is first & foremost, cost. This is an expensive unit, and at this price point, I didn't appreciate the next to useless pamphlet in the box. There should at least be some rudimentary explanation for various contingencies that might arise during installation. Here in the NY metro area, Fios has a pretty significant market share - not sure if there are other service providers that use a similar modem/router configuration, but there should at least be a nod to the fact that this isn't an idiot proof setup for 100% of the population. That being said, it has so far performed without a hiccup, which is more than i can say for the hundreds of dollars i've previously spent on wifi access/extender products.

Setup seemed easy but was nit able to get product to detect internet from my fiber provider

Found it difficult to get up and running. Once I did it was spotty speeds.

Initially, I did not encounter any problems when setting up this product. The router and satellite are both identical in size; however, Net Gear placed bands with the needed information around them in order to prevent confusion. Setup is really cut and dry all one has to do is connect the router into your existing router, input passwords and plug-in the adapter. It is recommended the satellite is placed within the center of the home. *Connection speeds-I instantaneously noticed that my connection speeds increased. I purposely opened up several web pages in order to see how quick I could get a connection and surprisingly I did notice a significant increase when opening of several web pages. *I always have several devices in operation at any given time. For the most part, Orbi was successful at connecting and integrating with my devices except, I could not print on my Lenovo 2/1 laptop after connecting it to Orbi. I don’t know if the 8.1 operating system that the 2/1 runs off does not integrate with Orbi; however, I was unable to print. After reverting back to AT&T’s network who is my internet provider, I was able to resume printing and I did not have to restart my PC in order to do so. *Duration-I experienced long periods of uninterrupted Internet access (6 or more hours) after connecting to Orbi which has been a very good experience thus far. *Chromebooks- I have 2 Acer chromebooks, one that is fairly new (R11 2/1) and one that is a couple years old (C7). The newer chrombeook, (R11 2/1) seemingly integrates fine and makes fast connections with Orbi; however, I did noticed the older model; (C7) did not make fast connections when surfing and opening of pages. This could very well be to the age of the device. Also, I noticed when I disconnected from the C7, I received a solid magenta color which indicated the Orbi satellite could not connect to the router, which was a good sign that the system communicates and works well. In summary, I would recommend this product to anyone who desires new technology that offers a tri-band Wi-Fi system. Moreover, if someone has multiple devices and desire faster Internet connections, then Orbi is the product that can accommodate their needs!

Never could get this system to work properly. Never again!

Unit works very poorly no improvement in WiFi performance

Worked well for a couple weeks and is now litteral garbage

It gives me the same speed as when I did not have.

The coverage is not at all good . Paying more price for trash

I set up the base router in my basement and the satellite on my third floor bedroom on the opposite end of the house. I thought there would be no way the wireless link between the two would work, but it did, and it worked well. This has been the only solution to getting the whole house covered with no dead spots. Setup was dead easy. The two units saw each other on their own after powering them up. After that is a quick browser-based setup. I was up and running after 20 minutes. I wish there were more than three Ethernet ports on the base, but I'm happy to see four on the satellite that I can connect to streaming boxes and the like upstairs.