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Netgear AXE11000 WiFi Mesh System (RBKE963) Review Ratings
generalize
If you want the fastest WiFi and an easy-to-use plug-and-play all-in-one mesh system, the Netgear Orbi RBKE963 is the way to go. It has the fastest throughput of any mesh system on the market with little competition, which in part justifies the price.
advantage
- Fastest throughput of any mesh system or router I’ve used so far
- 6Ghz The unit runs at 160Mhz, ensuring fast speeds for the whole family
- Fastest throughput of a 5Ghz mesh system I’ve tested
- excellent range
- Multi-gigabit ports
shortcoming
- WPA3/6Ghz seems to have initial issues with Windows
- Very expensive
This Netgear Orbi RBKE960 WiFi 6E Mesh System Announced in October, it is the first mesh system on the market to implement a quad-band radio.
The benefit of this is that you have a dedicated 5Ghz band for backhaul, then 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and WiFi 6E’s new 6Ghz band for clients.
The downside of this is that Netgear has basically taken away £1000 Orbi RBK853 WiFi 6 system, which is upgraded with the new 6Ghz band, raising the price to £1500, making it the most expensive consumer WiFi system on the market.
The law of diminishing returns always applies to cutting-edge high-end products, so it’s a bit pointless to criticize the price. Nothing can compete with this system, and if you want the best, you have to pay for it.
Specification
Advantages of 6Ghz WiFi 6E vs 160Mhz 5Ghz WiFi 5
In my review, you’ll see that the new fancy 6Ghz band is only less of a gain than running the 5Ghz band in 160Mhz, so what’s the point of spending all that money on WiFi 6E?
The 5Ghz band is very crowded, and radar must also be done by using dynamic frequency selection, which limits the number of 160Mhz bands to only 2. I’m having a hard time getting two 160MHz to work together, so at my house I have an access point running at 160Mhz and everything else on 80MHz.
With 6Ghz, it has a total of 14 80Mhz channels or 7 160Mhz channels, no need to worry too much about DFS. This means you can run multiple access points with 6Ghz and 160Mhz channel widths without issue.
The maximum speed has not increased. Implementing them is much easier.
Because 160Mhz is now easier to achieve, this is the first Netgear Orbi that allows clients to connect at this channel width, and therefore, the first Orbi capable of multi-gigabit network transfers.
feature
The Netgear RBKE963 system comes in a huge box. Each unit looks very similar to the previous flagship WiFI 6 RBK853 product, all a bit larger.
As far as WiFi systems go, they’re almost as attractive as you are, and you can order them in black right now.
The overall design and features are similar to the older RBK853, but aside from the 6Ghz band, there’s a big upgrade.
The router now comes with a 10 Gb WAN port, followed by 2.5 Gb and 3 Gigabit LAN ports. Each satellite has one 2.5 Gigabit and three Gigabit LAN ports.
Therefore, the system can work with multi-gigabit LANs out of the box. I would prefer to see 2x10Gbps on the router. If you’re lucky enough to have internet faster than 2.5Gbps, it’s limited by the LAN port.
Each Orbi base has two mounting holes for wall mount brackets, which are included in the Netgear Orbi Professional Edition hardware.
set up
I did all the settings through the Orbi app, which is probably what most people do. The Orbi comes pre-paired, and I found it best to plug everything in first and then go through the setup process.So when you get to the end, all the mysteries have identified each other and it works
The Orbi app is pretty strict when it comes to setup. Once everything is paired, the only thing you can control is the SSID and password.
When you enroll your device, you also get a free one-month subscription to Netgear Armor.
Settings – Orbi App and Web
The Orbi app is pretty basic in terms of your system setup. The only thing you can do is change the SSID name and password.
Remote administration can be enabled in the application, but this is not available through the web interface.
Two built-in features are Netgear Armor and Smart Parental Controls, both of which are subscription services with a one-month free trial.
Smart Parental Control
I don’t have kids so this feature is useless for me, but I set up a basic profile to get things set up. It does look useful. You can choose to set up specific profiles for each child, choosing their age group and the devices they use.
Using this profile, you can define time limits, what can be accessed, bedtime and rest times.You can also monitor usage
mesh armor
Netgear Armor provides network-level security that will scan your device for vulnerabilities and black websites that may be malicious.
At £84.99 a year, it’s pretty pricey, but if you’re buying a £1500 plug-and-play mesh system, this probably won’t let you down. The subscription also includes a Bitdefender Security license that can be installed on a PC or mobile device.
web interface
If you want to do a little more advanced manipulation of network settings, you need the web interface. This includes dynamic DNS, VPN, IP address reservation, port forwarding, and more.
Devices that support 6Ghz WiFi 6E
Many mid- to high-end laptops launching in 2021 or this year will have WiFi 6E built-in. You can also upgrade your laptop with WiFi 6E (most of the time) and buy add-in cards for your desktop.
It’s a little confusing/annoying for mobile phones.This Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Features support WiFi 6E, but not guaranteed.
This Samsung Galaxy S21 The series was the first phone to have it, but the Xiaomi Mi 11, OnePlus 9 Pro, real me GT, OPPO Find X3 Pro Many people don’t support it.
Later this year, the pixel 6 Series launched with support and Red Magic 6s Pro But not the Redmagic 6R.
So in terms of phones people might use, there are only the Galaxy S21 and Pixel 6 series. This is expected to improve on flagship phones in 2022, but it’s not guaranteed. as far as I know, Xiaomi 12 Lack of support.
Getting 6Ghz WiFi 6E to work
I’m having a nightmare here. This could be a user error, it could be Windows, or it could be a setting in Orbi.
I like to keep all my bands separate so I can always choose the fastest, which also makes testing easier. For Orbi, the default SSID is locked to use both 5Ghz/6Ghz. You can set a separate virtual SSID to be 6Ghz only, which is limited to WPA3, which is part of the WiFi 6E specification.
I foolishly assumed that when I chose a dedicated 6Ghz channel, the 5Ghz channel would also be independent.
Using the dedicated 6Ghz channel, I can’t get my Matebook 14 to see the SSID at all. This is apparently a known issue with 6Ghz. A possible reason is that Windows 10 does not support WPA3 properly.
So I spent hours installing various drivers, reading registry hacks, and I even swapped out the Intel AX210 M.2 with a different one. Ultimately, I opted to upgrade to Windows 11.
After installation, I can see the 6Ghz SSID, but for whatever reason I can’t connect. This again seems to imply a WPA3 issue.
Eventually, looking at all the settings, I realized that the primary SSID was always 5Ghz/6Ghz, and I was able to successfully connect to that SSID using 6Ghz. It’s not without problems, sometimes even in the same room my laptop uses the 5Ghz band instead of 6Ghz (even with the preferred band selected).
All of these issues seem to be Windows (or Matebook) related, I don’t have any issues with my Pixel 6. This includes using a dedicated 6Ghz SSID.
WiFi performance
6Ghz WiFi 6E performance
Working at 6Ghz, I was able to achieve the impressive results I expected.
In the same room as the main router, my laptop manages 1.45Gbps, the fastest throughput I’ve achieved with any router.I have been from Netgear RAX120 Set 5Ghz to 160Hz.
Using a wirelessly connected mesh satellite into my front room, I managed 900Mbps. I had hoped it might do better, but it’s still the fasting grid performance I’ve seen.
The range is not as bad as I expected. The speed did drop significantly. I have better results with my phone than with my laptop. The laptop will connect to iPerf and SpeedTest at about 300Mbps, while my phone is 400-530Mbps using SpeedTest.Net.
5Ghz WiFi 6E performance
5Ghz performance is the best and one of the only devices I’ve tested that exceeds 900 Mbit/sec on 5Ghz 80Mhz when tested with iPerf.
The 5Ghz range is very good. I’ve been having issues extending WiFi to my garage/gym and ended up resorting to running Cat6 cable in my garden and putting an access point there.
Using the Orbi in the kitchen, the WiFi signal can easily reach my garage, delivering over 200Mbps of throughput, which is more than enough for my Zwift indoor cycling class.
2.4Ghz performance
Personally I don’t care much about 2.4Ghz, it’s strictly for IoT devices. With this I managed 137 Mbits/sec from the router
Price and Alternatives
The Netgear Orbi RBKE960 range is currently only available in 3-pack RBKE963 systems priced at £1500/$1500.
No other all-in-one mesh system of this spec or near this price.
older Orbi RBK853 still on sale at £950, which is nearly identical to the RRP when it was introduced two years ago.
The closest competitor is to buy 3x ASUS GT-AXE16000, slated to launch in the first quarter of 2022, with a three-piece system priced at $649 or $1,947. Technically, it’s better than Netgear’s specs of 2x10GbE and 1x2GbE per device. On the downside, it’s not a standalone design, you’ll have three in your house.
The Linksys Atlas Max 6E is a tri-band WiFi 6E system, so it’s the equivalent of a dual-band system we’ve seen with older technology. The three-pack has an MSRP of £1200, which I think makes the Netgear RBKE963 seem reasonably priced.
comprehensive
I think the most important part of my conclusion is that this is the fastest mesh system and router I’ve ever tested.
I think most of the issues I’ve had are mostly initial issues with the WiFi 6E itself rather than any issues with this system.
While it’s not perfect, the mobile app is simplified with the most basic setup. Both Netgear Armor and smart parental controls incur extra costs, and the web interface isn’t as feature-rich as some routers. However, I think the available settings should be more than enough for 99% of users.
It’s hard to get over the huge price, but as I’ve highlighted in the alternative options, nothing can compete with this system. The Asus GT-AXE16000 isn’t out yet, it will cost more, and it won’t be as easy to set up. The Linksys isn’t as good as this system, but it’s only $300 cheaper. So, by comparison, the Netgear RBKE963 isn’t very expensive.
Overall, the Netgear Orbi RBKE963 is your best bet if you want the fastest WiFi possible along with an easy-to-use plug-and-play all-in-one mesh system.
