NETGEAR Orbi 970 Series Quad-Band WiFi 7 Router (RBE971S), Security Features, Covers 3,300 sq. ft., 200 Devices, 10 Gig Internet Port, Expandable Mesh System, BE27000 27.0 Gbps – Free Expert Help

Aggravating tech
Netgear Orbi 970: Premium Price, Disappointing PerformanceSo, I paid top dollar for the Netgear Orbi 970 and Satellite, drawn in by claims of “leading-edge technology” and “unmatched range.” My old router was on its last legs, so I took the plunge. What a mistake. House single story ranch 2,600 sq feet with basment. 55 clients and a handful of IoT-type devices that don’t like or support anything over 2.4.From the start, the experience has been a nightmare:• Connectivity Issues Galore: Constant dropouts and poor performance. Despite living in a single-story, 2,600 sq ft home, I had to buy a satellite just to get basic coverage. Still sucks for a few devices.• Terrible Range: Even with the satellite, my Ring doorbell and Lenovo notebook—both only about 15 feet from the satellite—struggle with two bars of signal. And they’re even closer to the main Orbi, which is just one floor down in the basement. Much worse than my old now dead Synology.• Unreliable Interface: The HTML admin panel is flaky at best. Sometimes it works, sometimes it randomly disconnects mid-session and refuses to reconnect. I want to see which device is connected to what? Not in the web interface—you’re forced to use the app.• Inconsistent App Behavior: The Android app doesn’t reliably update device names. Some appear correctly; others don’t. It’s hit or miss.• Armor = System Chaos: Turning on Netgear Armor completely destabilized my setup. A recalcitrant managed switch might have played a role in that fiasco, but now I’m gun-shy to try again.• Their 3rd SSID, which Netgear call IoT, is okay, but doesn’t go far enough, and you’re stuck with it accessing your primary network (same subnet as primary), so you have no choice but to let old IoT devices have access to your home’s primary network, unlike using the Guest SSID. Some granularities on radio management by SSID would be uber useful.• My Echo devices (eight) constantly lose proper connectivity – new behavior just started with the Orbi 970. Even though the Alexa app says they’re online, voice commands and skills stop working after a reboot and don’t function normally until hours later, sometimes overnight.• Useless Support: Tech support is clearly outsourced, undertrained, and working in a noisy environment. It was hard to hear anything over the background chatter. No real help was offered.• Clients that have less than good connectivity are remaining connected to the router base, opposed to the satellite, which is much closer than the router base. No way to manage. Disappointing that you don’t allow admins to adjust the power on base.• Not clear: If I keep this poor tech or return it to Amazon, I have a few weeks before the return window closes, but I am trying to balance the fight of a new rollout versus just dealing with the Netgear nonesense.

Amazing Router
I have Ziply Fiber (2 gbps up and down). I was tired of paying the monthly cost for renting their router especially since they were raising the monthly rental price. I had used Orbi in the past and bought this one that supported speeds up to 10 gbps. This router regularly gives me the full 2 gbps I am paying for. (With the provider’s rented router, I was averaging only about 1.2 gbps at peak.) I even get close to the 2 gbps at the far end of my house (opposite where the router is.) It was super easy to set up. It is completely silent. The only thing to know is it is quite large – more than three times the size of the other router I was using. I strongly recommend this router.