The Orbi system has been featured at numerous retailers from Costco to Amazon, and the expansion units are widely available. Although it would be find for most small business installations, the product is mostly marketed towards the home user. Installation can be done directly on the unit like a traditional wireless router, but Netgear also offers a mobile app to facilitate installation.

I recently installed an Orbi AC3000 RBK50 (available on Amazon – http://amzn.to/2P71pDv) router and satellite as well as an addition two Orbi AC3000 RBS50 satellites (also available on Amazon – http://amzn.to/2xZOexF). The router installed without any issues and it was able to be setup as a pure access point (transparent bridge). All units were wired into a switched network with a single subnet.

The satellites did present some minor issues accepting the backhaul configuration. After trying the latest firmware, as well as some older firmwares, nothing worked. I found that connecting the satellites to the router directly with a cable, then configuring the satellites to use a static IP address and moving the satellite to their final location on the network worked. Using the scan function subsequently results in the backhaul dropping, so I recommend not making any changes once the units are disconnected from the router.

After the Orbi’s were setup, performance was good. This installation site did not allow for radios to penetrate the walls well yet roaming between the various access points worked well. I would consider owning these units myself.