Are you ready for bigger, faster Internet? The Netgear Orbi RBKE963 router and mesh system may be just what you need if you are ready to get on the faster Internet.
Just released, the Netgear Orbi RBKE963 system brings the most modern Wi-Fi flavours – so fresh it may be some time before you have devices that can use all its features.
The kit comes in a nice box with a wireless router and two satellite access points. They all look the same in both size and shape but have slightly different ports and functions.
To have access to the Internet, you connect the device marked as “router” to an ONT (a box that will translate light pulses from the optical cable into electronic signals, like a modem).
Once you configure the Internet access, you can place the satellite nodes in different spots around your house to improve Internet access to these areas.
The package offers four different WiFi bands – three for your use (2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz) and one that is dedicated to linking the router and satellites, ensuring the fastest possible connection between nodes, where an Ethernet link between the nodes is not possible.
Using this mesh system you can greatly improve the quality and coverage of your network around the house – up to 830 square metres with the three devices, but you can add more satellites if needed.
Most fibre connections these days use either 300 Mbps (megabits per second) or 1 Gbps (gigabits per second). A small number of providers give access to even faster speeds – a product called Hyperfibre, with speeds of 2 Gpbs, 4 Gpbs and upwards to 8 Gbps.
With a very fast 10 Gbps WAN port, which connects the fibre network via an ONT, the Netgear Orbi RBKE963 router is a guaranteed bet on the future.
In addition to this fast connection to the Internet, both the router and the satellite models have a 2.5 Gbps ethernet port and three 1 Gbps ethernet ports. This is great if you want to use wired connections for certain client devices – important for streaming or gaming for example.
Installation can be as simple as connecting the router to the ONT and letting the mobile app guide you through connection and wireless configuration.
The configuration is not always automatic though. My ISP requires a setting called VLAN ID, which is not automatically detected by the installation wizard. In this case, the best option is to use your computer to connect to the router using either an Ethernet cable or the default wireless network, use your web browser to open the router IP address and manually change the settings to enable the VLAN ID.
The satellite nodes come pre-configured to connect to the router over a wireless link, so I just had to plug those into the power outlet and let them talk to each other.
From there you can either continue using the mobile app or the web browser configuration.
A quick word about different WiFi types. WiFi 6 is a standard that allows devices to connect to either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands and take advantage of improved use of these channels. WiFi 6E is an even newer standard that introduces a 6 GHz band. This is very new and not many devices support it yet.
With the main connection working, I looked at the network and wireless settings. There are options to individually turn the main network (WiFi 6) on/off for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, using a single SSID for both. You then have another option to turn on the 6 GHz band (WiFi 6E) using a different SSID.
On top of those options there are two other networks available: one for guest access and another for IoT (Internet of Things) devices. By turning these options on you can get devices to access the Internet while completely isolated from your main network, improving security all around.
You can turn these networks on and off individually and you can change the SSID and password for each, but you can’t create new networks. All networks use the same DNS but have different DHCP pools.
As mentioned, WiFi 6E is very new and you won’t find lots of devices with proper hardware or software to use it. For example, I had two HP laptops for review, both with the required Intel AX211 wireless network card, but the drivers don’t seem to implement the full WiFi 6E standard as approved for Australia and New Zealand yet – so these laptops couldn't see the WiFi 6E network. But that’s the downside of being ahead of the curve. With time you will see compatible devices or software coming to the market.
The Netgear Orbi RBKE963 comes with a 30-day trial of Netgear Armor, a subscription-based network security service that includes endpoint security for your devices, so you can install this security software on your laptops, phones and tables.
With a quad-core 2.2GHz processor and 1 GB RAM, the system performs extremely well, even under load. The router has a built-in speed test and it consistently showed the maximum speed (1 Gbps) available from my current Internet service.
The mobile app is well done and easy to use – much easier than the browser-based admin interface. While on your laptop you will need to know the router IP address to access the user interface, the mobile app will automatically connect to it.
The Netgear Orbi RBKE963 is available in New Zealand now - but the current price sticker at $ 2,700 might be a bit too much.
