NETGEAR Orbi Pro SXK80 WiFi 6 System

[VSG]

WiFi 6 is finally gaining ground, and we begin our coverage with NETGEAR's prosumer-oriented Orbi Pro SXK80 WiFi systems. With a mesh network using a router and satellite, it aims to offer excellent wireless performance and business-class support and features!

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[Minus Infinity]

Netgear and good support and firmware don't beloing in the same sentence. Same goes for D-LInk.

 

[VSG]

Netgear and good support and firmware don't beloing in the same sentence. Same goes for D-LInk.

Well, the support part is at least on point here. Keep in mind this is the NETGEAR Business side of things, not the retail segment.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Wow, that's a really terrible 2.4GHz range/attenuation performance. Normally you should be able to get well beyond 60dB on 2.4GHz, but it seems like Netgear has either used some really poor antennas here, or simply don't care about 2.4GHz for this product.

 

[VSG]

Wow, that's a really terrible 2.4GHz range/attenuation performance. Normally you should be able to get well beyond 60dB on 2.4GHz, but it seems like Netgear has either used some really poor antennas here, or simply don't care about 2.4GHz for this product.

Am I missing something? The signal drop should be lower for better performing antennas. I physically can't get much past the distance set on the X-axis, so having a lower drop from 0 dB is good.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Am I missing something? The signal drop should be lower for better performing antennas. I physically can't get much past the distance set on the X-axis, so having a lower drop from 0 dB is good.

Not sure how you test, but these are the kind of results I expect for 2.4GHz. Admittedly he's using some very high-end test equipment and chambers, but you only got to half of that before the signal seemingly dropped out. Five meters is also a very short distance for 2.4GHz to drop that much in speed, as you can see from the chart below as well, based on your singla attenuation, it shouldn't even have dropped until you hit that drywall.

Linksys MR7500 Hydra Pro 6E Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

Updated: Linksys' Hydra Pro 6E is a slightly more affordable Wi-Fi 6E router with good 6 GHz, but disappointing 2.4 and 5 GHz performance.

www.smallnetbuilder.com

 

[VSG]

Ah you are referring to throughput vs attennuation, yeah of course that's a different thing and we are on the same page. I thought you meant signal attentuation vs. range (distance from the router). The 2.4 GHz band on WiFi 6 is much better here, but I test 2.4 GHz on 802.11n mostly because it is far more common. Likewise, 5 GHz was better with WiFi 6 than WiFi 5/AC.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Ah you are referring to throughput vs attennuation, yeah of course that's a different thing and we are on the same page. I thought you meant signal attentuation vs. range (distance from the router). The 2.4 GHz band on WiFi 6 is much better here, but I test 2.4 GHz on 802.11n mostly because it is far more common. Likewise, 5 GHz was better with WiFi 6 than WiFi 5/AC.

Hmmm, I only use n/ac mode on my own gear, as I don't have anything really old, but I guess I only have a couple of devices that use n, so I never come across poor range or speeds on the devices I can test with.
That said, I also have three APs in the house to get decent coverage.

 

[VSG]

Hmmm, I only use n/ac mode on my own gear, as I don't have anything really old, but I guess I only have a couple of devices that use n, so I never come across poor range or speeds on the devices I can test with.
That said, I also have three APs in the house to get decent coverage.

Based on the second review ongoing of another NETGEAR Orbi set, it seems evident that at least from this company you should get the WiFi 6 products only to use WiFi 6 even disregarding cost. The antennas are clearly tuned for it.

 

[dirtyferret]

I also have three APs in the house to get decent coverage

What kind of space are you covering? I currently have two AP's for a three level town home but I'm moving into a ranch. I'm thinking of just one main router to cover it all but I've yet to see anything impressive for Wi-Fi 6 range wise that has a reasonable price.

 

[TheLostSwede]

What kind of space are you covering? I currently have two AP's for a three level town home but I'm moving into a ranch and thinking of just one main router to cover it all but I've yet to see anything impressive for Wi-Fi 6 range wise that has a reasonable price.

Not even 200 square meters, but it's split between three floors and the house is made with a lot of steel beams, rebar and concrete, so the Wi-Fi signal has a hard time penetrating each floor/ceiling. 5GHz is useless a floor up and I get pretty poor speeds on 2.4GHz.
The funny thing is, I get better signal in the shared parking garage under the house from my main router, than I do a floor up in the house...
I have an "old" Netgear R7800 as my main router and the range is otherwise quite good, as I can use it 30-ish meters away from the house no problem at all on 2.4GHz and this is going through a few more walls, since it's an attached house.

Maybe have a look here?

Wi-Fi Router - Ranking

title

www.smallnetbuilder.com

 

[VSG]

200 square meters is absolutely massive for Taiwan lol

 

[dirtyferret]

The funny thing is, I get better signal in the shared parking garage under the house from my main router, than I do a floor up in the house...

I have a similar situation with my town home, my office is directly underneath my router (on the main floor) and gets excellent throughput but my master bedroom needs an AP as the signal barely penetrated it (regardless of main router) even though it was one floor up and about 30ft away through wood & sheet rock.

I currently have my old Netgear Nighthawk 6700v3 set up in the new house as I'm doing renovations (painting, new wood floor, etc.,) and the 5ghz is solid but fails to reach the furthest bedroom on a regular basis while the 2.4ghz throughput is 1/4 of my max ISP Mbps once you are more than one room away from the router. Once we are ready to move in I will bring over my current main Asus router that offers betetr 2.4ghz throughput but similar 5ghz performance as the netgear.

Maybe have a look here?
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/wifi-router/ranking/WiFi6/rev11/500

I've checked it out and posted on their forum now and then (as have you). I'm just glad Tim is back running the site, for a while it looked like it may join jonnyguru.com

 

[TheLostSwede]

200 square meters is absolutely massive for Taiwan lol

Well, for one, it's "out in the sticks" and they also count outdoors space here, so that includes a tiny "garden" as well as a small balcony, a small area for the washing machine, as well as some percentage of the general community areas. I'm guessing the house is about 40 square meters per floor or so. Ground floor and top floor is over 3m in ceiling height though, with the middle floor being about 2.4m. So a very tall building, but with only 2-3 rooms per floor. It makes it quite complicated to get good Wi-Fi coverage. At least now, I have Ethernet between the floors which makes it a lot better. The range extender at the top floor used to drop the connection to the second floor all the time, despite one being right above the other...
I feel for the neighbours behind us, as they have four story homes...

I have a similar situation with my town home, my office is directly underneath my router (on the main floor) and gets excellent throughput but my master bedroom needs an AP as the signal barely penetrated it (regardless of main router) even though it was one floor up and about 30ft away through wood & sheet rock.

I currently have my old Netgear Nighthawk 6700v3 set up in the new house as I'm doing renovations (painting, new wood floor, etc.,) and the 5ghz is solid but fails to reach the furthest bedroom on a regular basis while the 2.4ghz throughput is 1/4 of my max ISP Mbps once you are more than one room away from the router. Once we are ready to move in I will bring over my current main Asus router that offers betetr 2.4ghz throughput but similar 5ghz performance as the netgear.


I've checked it out and posted on their forum now and then (as have you). I'm just glad Tim is back running the site, for a while it looked like it may join jonnyguru.com

Being on one level clearly helps, but it comes down to what's inside your walls as you know. Pipes/wiring in the wrong place can mess up the Wi-Fi signal quite easily.
I've seen people that are mounting a high-power AP in the loft to cover their home, as the idea is that there are less things in the ceiling in most homes, as normally you only have insulation and some electrical wiring for ceiling lights there, so fewer things that can interfere with the signal, plus, it's out of sight.

I presume you're using Merlin's firmware then?

Yeah, Tim is good at what he does, but maybe not quite adventurous when it comes to tearing down the hardware sometimes. We bought the same Octoboxes he had when I was working at Securifi, very nice pieces of kit, but not cheap. Was impossible to do proper testing in the office without them, as there was always a bunch of RF interference going on, for obvious reasons. Tim never really left, he was working full-time for Octobox, but I guess they decided to let him run the site on their dime, which I think in some ways serves them quite well too. They have a somewhat limited customer base and what Tim does is the best way possible to promote their products. Just need to get him to write up the reviews of all the new toys he's tested already.

 

[dragontamer5788]

That power-usage graph though... I guess they're really using 3 WiFi routers in here (2.4 GHz + 5GHz + 5 GHz for tri-band), so it makes sense that its power-usage would be so high. But... still.

 

[VSG]

That power-usage graph though... I guess they're really using 3 WiFi routers in here (2.4 GHz + 5GHz + 5 GHz for tri-band), so it makes sense that its power-usage would be so high. But... still.

View attachment 211309

It's the total for the system of two devices, as mentioned in the review.

 

[dirtyferret]

I presume you're using Merlin's firmware then?

yes