Top positive review
32 people found this helpful
Great add-on for the Orbi line if you don't need an Ethernet jack.
By Robert B. Hamilton on Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2017
This little booster works great as part of the Orbi system. Orbi it's self is a great mesh router. I stacked Orbi up against Google's Mesh router and found the Orbi worked better for me. Google kept locking up and crashing. Those were early days and things may have changed. For sure Orbi has been busy. Orbi has recently upgraded their firmware which improves things quite a bit. Previously the main Orbi had to be in a central spot and all satellite boosters within range of the main router. Now each satellite can chain to the nearest satellite rather than the hub. This can extend coverage quite some distance although I don't think it's designed to run WiFi all across the neighborhood. I don't know exactly what would keep 3 satellites from sending your data in a great big circle rather than out onto the internet but I assume somebody thought of that and in any case, it appears to work very well. But back to the item in question - this booster. It's small and nice looking. There's not much to be done other than run an app on your cell phone to add the satellite. After a bit of blinking a blue ring appears. Then it goes out and you forget all about Orbi forever. Done. Simple as that. If your Orbi ever has a problem the ring will light back up and turn orange or purple but that's never happened for me. Otherwise you just have a white brick stuck in the wall and better WiFi - which is exactly what I wanted. There are only two negatives with this booster. First, it doesn't have an Ethernet jack. For that you need the larger models. Second, it is supposed to give you less coverage over the larger Orbi satellites. I can't confirm that - to me they seem about the same. But I'll take Orbi at their word. I guess that's why this smaller unit is a bit cheaper. In my case, I bought this item to replace one of the larger Orbi satellites because I needed to move the larger satellite to another location. As long as you keep the two limitations in mind I don't think there's any real downside to this device. It seems rock solid. Internet in the back bedroom is just fine for what we need. Fast enough to stream Netflix on a laptop or tablet. Perfect coverage for browsing or email. So long as you don't need an Ethernet jack and you don't live in a gigantic mansion, this booster is a nice add-on to the Orbi line.
Top critical review
742 people found this helpful
Poor Technical Support for Failing Unit Which Required RMA Return
By N.D. on Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2017
I purchased the Orbi Satellite recently, and after 6 weeks it failed. Contacting Netgear technical support was a little maddening. They only provide tech support in the first 3 months, after which you have to pay $50 for "Premier Service." So what happens if you ordered the unit from Amazon in April, and because it is out of stock it doesn't arrive until June? Yup, you guessed it, you have to pay $50 for a unit that is now out of free tech support. Also, their tech support was less than useful. After a long wait of 45 minutes, I finally got through to an overseas call center, where they attempted to walk me through various updates and fw patches. The problem is that none of them worked, and I spent 3 hours on the phone with them before they admitted that unit was defective and had to be RMA'd. Fine, I can accept that, hw sometimes fails, and that's no-one's fault. But then they wanted to charge me $16 to have a new unit shipped out to me within 3 business days, and said that I could then send back my old unit. Ok, that's not unreasonable, so I forked over my credit card and paid for the "expedited" shipping fee for the replacement unit. After 7 days, and not a peep out of Netgear, I contacted their tech support again. This time, the wait was 1 hour. Asked them what happened to my RMA and so the agent replied that it was held up because I had "failed" to send in my Amazon invoice! What? That wasn't even requested of me in the first call, and plus I had registered the unit when I first purchased it. Furthermore, nowhere is it mentioned in the RMA document that you need to include the receipt. So I had to go into my Amazon account, snapshot the invoices, and send them to Netgear. By the time this is done, I will have wasted almost 2 weeks, added to the aggravation of 2 hours on the phone of listening to crappy elevator music, and another 3 hours wasted on the phone with the tech support engineer. My time is valuable to me, and I don't consider this good customer service.
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