Getting fast, reliable, and strong signaled internet in your home or small business is often not a simple task. You tend to end up with a cacophony of several routers, aftermarket range extenders, and other systems that just don’t seem to mesh very well together and can prove to be a challenge to get working in sync. Nowadays however, networking giant NetGear is hoping to change that. Welcome back to #TechTuesday.
A Complete Wi-Fi System
Today’s home networks are expected to support more devices every day, all of which are competing for bandwidth. Not wanting to keep the emphasis on just Wi-Fi coverage, but also performance within every inch of that coverage, Netgear thinks they have come up with a solution; Project Orbi. Project Orbi is the newest product introduced by Netgear in their line of performance based routers. Being marketed as a multi-unit solution, Orbi is being considered a “complete wi-fi system” due to its inclusion of a router, a range extender, and a satellite to ensure flawless connection and unwavering speed no matter where you are near your access point.
Orbi is very ambitious in its design. Marketed as being able to provide signals up to 4000 square feet, with Netgear claiming that every corner of your venue will receive strong internet no matter where you are, Orbi is already setting the bar high. How it plans to do this is through the combination of the two routing devices. The first router is intended to be set up normally, connected to your modem to provide the initial access to the web. The secondary unit is then meant to be installed somewhere central in your house, to help boost the range and functionality throughout the entire premises.
While the range might sound great, some are wondering just how well Orbi will hold that claim of full performance for all devices. Surely when you connect multiple devices to the router the speeds will see the usual drop in speed, right? Well, not quite. You see, the satellite in Orbi is meant to help provide high speed access no matter what you have connected. Its design is meant to prioritize larger devices such as tablets and computers, while still providing the same functionality to the smaller devices.
If you’d like to check out Orbi for yourself, its actually already available! It retails online for the dauntingly steep price of $399.99 (Orbi WiFi System via Amazon.com) which includes both the main router as well as the add on satellite system. For another $249.99 you can also purchase another additional satellite, though NetGear assures that the majority of users will likely never need to purchase an additional unit to receive full coverage.
