NETGEAR Orbi Whole Home Tri-band Mesh WiFi 6 System (Open Box)

Pros: - Speed, speed, speed. Best WiFi speeds I've ever experienced, I routinely hit peaks at 800MBps+ (see pic) => +5 stars Cons: - Web interface is excruciatingly slow, counter-intuitive and cumbersome. The previous Orbi generation web interface was already pretty bad, but this is worse, the new Orbi supposedly comes with a much snappier CPU and should run the webserver a lot faster, but it doesn't. To add insult to injury, Netgear removed a ton of options readily available in the Orbi first generation => -1 star - Security is not implemented well, the thing leaks like a sieve (see picture, you absolutely don't want the blue squares). I would caution against connecting the router directly to your provider's WAN, you might want to leave a gateway or a cheap yet capable router in the way. That's using the latest firmware available (V3.2.9.2_1.2.4), and with the firewall settings on ("Disable Port Scan and DoS Protection" is off, it makes no difference on or off anyway, I tried both) => -2 stars I own the previous generation of Orbi router/satellites, they are far from perfect, but they are rock solid and reliable when it comes to security. This new product was obviously rushed to market, and consumers are essentially being used as beta testers. Given the amount of similar reviews all over the interwebs, I'm surprised Netgear is not stepping up, the firmware in its current state is either going to lead to extremely negative headlines when someone manages to exploit the security holes on the WAN side, or to a class action lawsuit for selling an unfinished product and not implementing what their website says they did. Netgear keeps saying here in the comments they provide high security and point to their website security "good practices", but they haven't even implemented the first "security measure" listed on their site. I'll come back and update my review as they make progress, in the meantime, I'm putting my RBR850 behind an el-cheapo router with a standard firewall stack (it doesn't take much effort to implement, but I guess it's too much to ask from Netgear for now). This is disappointing to say the least, especially when you have to drop a grand to get a router and 2 satellites. *** 2/24/2020 update *** I did submit a case on the Netgear support website (per their request in the comments), and also pointed out the security issues on their forum. No peep from Netgear, so that's another star that's gone. Some forum users acknowledged they saw similar issues with the built-in firewall, but Netgear reps never took the time to look/respond at the forum either. I gave up and bought an Edgerouter 4 from Ubiquiti and switched the Orbi to AP mode (access point only). The Edgerouter proved to be rock solid and secure, though if you plan to make a similar move, make sure to triple-check your firewall rules on he router before you make the switch. It's unfortunate I had to spend another $200 to get basic security that was available in the previous Orbi generation. One positive note: the guest network in AP mode still works, it has its own subnet and dhcp, I was actually surprised moving to AP mode didn't screw that up (one can argue since guest devices are on a different subnet with its own dhcp, they're effectively being route, so it's not true AP mode for them, but that's the way it should be designed to keep the guest network isolated). *** 3/1/2020 update *** I keep finding new bugs on a regular basis. Latest one: if you plan to use the router in AP mode and plan to use a fixed IP address for the router instead of DHCP, the router will not connect to NTP servers to get the correct time, even if you try to use a third party server and not Netgear’s. Why does it matter? Many devices will not properly connect to WiFi guest due to the fact that the guest network has its own DHCP server (it’s on its own VLAN), I suspect the leases are out of whack due to the time discrepancy between the router and the devices. *** 3/18/2020 update *** Netgear pushed a broken firmware last week and essentially bricked many Orbi's in the process. See Netgear forums, lots of unhappy users over there. We're well into negative stars territory at this point. *** 4/1/2020 update *** Well, I really gave it the old college try, but I eventually gave up and put the thing for sale on fleabay. The hardware is great, but the software is simply not mature enough, and I have better things to do than debug the damn thing on behalf of Netgear. I switched to the Amplifi Alien and things have been rock solid since then. YMMV.