NETGEAR® recently announced the addition of WiFi 6 to the Orbi Pro portfolio – a range of Mesh WiFi solutions expandable through add-on satellites, and bundled with a management app that lets you monitor and control your business network remotely. We got hold of one set of Orbi Pro for review and see if it is any good.

WiFi 6
The Orbi Pro WiFi 6 (SXK80) Tri-band Mesh System is an tri-band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) multi-node mesh system designed to suit business spaces of any size, and grow with the business as network requirements and space used goes up. So this is positioned for corporate business use and packed with features. The main kit comprises of a single router and a single satellite boasting capacity of up to 60 connected devices and can expand to support up to 6 satellites (wireless nodes) for increased coverage area. While this is targeting small and medium businesses, you can install this for home, as most families have easily over 20 devices connected to WiFi nowadays.

As remote working has become increasingly common, the demand for strong and stable connections increases. The growing size of data that businesses tap into, with rich websites, documents, streaming services, communication platforms, teleconferencing and telecommuting, an exponential increase in smart devices that use the local WiFi is ever-growing.

What we liked about the Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Triband Mesh System:

1. Up to 4 independent SSIDs:

• With large businesses operating multiple departments, having the ability to generate different SSIDs for different users is a key aspect in maintaining data-security, as well as preserving enough bandwidth for each department. Each individual SSID band broadcasted is physically separate, ensuring absolute cyber-security for users on other SSIDs. This is extremely beneficial if you want to offer one SSID of the company WiFi to walk-in clients and customers during meetings or appointments, and still want to use the same internet line for your back-of-house accounting, sales, and marketing departments.

• The ability to setup separate SSIDs also ensures privacy on connected devices between various departments, and if any malicious software is found on any one network, the other 3 networks are safe and isolated.

2. Dedicate one SSID for 2.4Ghz frequency

• This is a new feature that previously has not been seen in most WiFi products and is a game-changer when it comes to Orbi. With the ability to dedicate one of your SSID channels to purely 2.4Ghz, you can choose to dedicate one SSID purely to older legacy devices that work off 2.4Ghz networks, with larger range and fair data speeds. This is essential for companies that are looking to upgrade their network infrastructure, but do not want to have to upgrade all their WiFi devices like older printers, copiers, or fax machines and other smart devices in the workplace.

3. Bandwidth Allocation across SSIDs

• Orbi Pro’s smartphone-app based management system, you can set and regulate bandwidth across SSIDs to ensure that each SSID is getting just what they need. If your accounting team is using more intranet and less internet, you can decrease the bandwidth for them, and pump the rest to your sales and marketing departments. If you don’t have too many customers in your office, you may choose to provide lesser bandwidth to your customer dedicated SSID network, to allow your staff to enjoy faster speeds. Everything is at your control, using the Orbi Pro management smartphone app. This is a power features which we valued very much.

4. Add up to 6 additional satellites and cover up to 20,000 square feet of office space

• If in the rare occasion you find your WiFi isn’t reaching to far spots of warehouses or distant meeting rooms or lobbies, all you have to do is add on a satellite, which is as easy as powering it up, and pressing the sync button. Follow a few steps in the smartphone or tablet app to synchronise the new satellite, and you’re good to go! No need for IP configuration, or expensive wiring and trunking, or addition of network switches and extenders. Simply plug-and-play with up to 6 Orbi Pro WiFi 6 satellites for increased coverage and bandwidth and manage the entire configuration from your smartphone or tablet, under the same pre-existing SSID network and internet configuration. It really just takes a few minutes to set up, and you don’t need to worry about hiring a tech team, technicians, installation crews, or IT specialists. Therefore the ease of use is another plus point for the Orbi Pro.

The Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Tri-band Mesh System provides the latest generation of WiFi technology to deliver increased capacity, advanced security and enhanced speed for employees, customers and guests of businesses and office environments. Featuring the latest WiFi data security standard, WPA3, along with 4 SSIDs and VLAN support, the Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Mesh System provides a secure network while also isolating connections for separate activities, making it the ideal solution.

Companies of all sizes can stand to benefit from the barrage of advantages and tools that the Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Mesh system brings to the table. Workplaces like lawyers’ offices, architecture firms, accountancy offices, cafes, restaurants, wholesalers, shopping malls, or any workplace that employs anywhere between 5 – 100 employees, and need an effective WiFi solution for extensive data traffic, can stand to benefit from Orbi Pro’s numerous advantages and plus-points.

With the Insight remote management solution, business owners are also empowered to manage their network from any location via the Insight app on a mobile device, without incurring the added expense of IT overhead. The Insight app also provides for a quick and easy installation of the advanced WiFi network, eliminating downtime and creating dedicated separate and isolated WiFi channels for employees, guests and administrative purposes.

The Orbi Pro WiFi 6 maintains the proven and successful tri-band dedicated backhaul WiFi system design of the Orbi Pro. Through this wireless backhaul superhighway, it will support up to 6 satellites, covering a total area of about 1,700 square metres or 20,000 square feet. The Orbi Pro WiFi 6 provides 4x the capacity to support more device connections than that of the original Orbi Pro unit, enabling businesses to serve more customers with improved speeds and less congestion. With the Orbi Pro WiFi 6’s capability to accommodate greater capacity, the home office and places of business become better equipped to handle multiple video conferencing streams, large file transfers, IoT and security devices.

Experience high performance and improved speeds with WiFi 6

With advanced features such as dedicated quad-stream WiFi 6 backhaul, OFDMA and MU-MIMO, customers will receive the highest performance WiFi for years to come. Business owners will be able to continue to add more connected devices on their business WiFi network over time, without any slowdowns.

High performance also includes robust wired connectivity. With the versatile 2.5Gbps Ethernet port on the router and on each satellite internet speeds can be maximised even above gigabit. Each satellite, as well as the central router, also allows for more wired device connections for faster file transfers with 4GbE ports on each, two of which can be combined for Link Aggregation. The Link Aggregation feature can also double the bandwidth between the Orbi Pro WiFi 6 node and its connected client device by aggregating two Ethernet cables to form a single logical link.

By adding the Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Mesh System to a network, customers and employees will gain access to the best WiFi with higher speeds, less congestion, greater device density and increased battery life for WiFi 6 smartphones, tablets and laptops.

• 4x more client devices and 100% higher speed per router and satellite unit compared with the previous generation.
• Tri-band 12-stream WiFi 6, 4 streams on 2.4GHz and 8 streams on 5GHz. Each unit delivers up to 6Gbps of data throughput.
• Works with the latest iOS and Android WiFi 6 mobile devices and backward-compatible with WiFi 4 (IEEE 802.11N) and WiFi 5 (IEEE 802.11AC) standards.
• Includes one 2.5G Ethernet port for multi-gig wired network connectivity per node. Ideal when connected to NETGEAR multi-gig Ethernet switches.

The Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Tri-band Mesh system is designed specifically for the type of environment where customers and guests are using the network alongside employees. The new mesh WiFi 6 system includes security enhancements that help to keep employee networks isolated from the guest networks.

Unprecedented WiFi Security for Businesses

Small and medium-sized organisations can now enjoy enterprise-level security without the enterprise cost. NETGEAR Insight remote management solution makes the configuration and maintenance of network security easy. For the highest level of WiFi connection security, WPA3 has been implemented to provided enterprise-level encryption.

Remote Cloud management with NETGEAR Insight

Orbi Pro WiFi 6 is purpose-built for those small business owners who want to quickly set up and manage superb WiFi for both employees and guests with the help of the NETGEAR Insight app for remote cloud management. NETGEAR Insight enables ease of installation, even for those that are less technically inclined. With the Insight app from a smartphone or tablet on both iOS and Android, business owners are also empowered to easily monitor and manage their networks anytime and from anywhere with a quick glance at the app dashboard from a mobile device.

Unique and advanced management features include:
• 1-Year Insight subscription included with Orbi Pro WiFi 6
• Instant discovery and setup of your Orbi Pro WiFi 6
• Remote monitoring and management of your Orbi Pro WiFi 6 through the Insight app o Single pane-of-glass multi-device, multi-network, and multi-site remote monitoring and notifications

In summary the Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Tri-band Mesh System provides the latest generation of WiFi technology to deliver increased capacity, advanced security and enhanced speed for employees, customers and guests of small businesses and small office environments.

Availability:

Distributed via Kaira Global, Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Tri-band Mesh System (SXK80) – (SGD $1,299.00) is available on NetgearStore.sg.

Add-on satellites are also available – Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Add-on Satellite (SXC80) – (SGD $639.00)