A few of my friends have recommended either Orbi or Eero as wonderful Wi-Fi devices.
However none of them have home automation hubs or run zigbee devices so I was curious if anyone in his form has either which do you recommend and is it worth replacing my Nighthawk 6700 router?
Question is based on this forum Samsung goes after Apple at home with new Connect Home hub
First question, leaving your friends aside for the moment, why do you personally want to consider Wi-Fi mesh for your home? Do you have a number of Wi-Fi dead spots or a particular critical spot that doesnât have enough Wi-Fi?
The biggest advantage of Wi-Fi mesh is for office buildings where people are walking around and donât want signal to drop as they go. But in Single-family homes, people more commonly stay put while they are using their Wi-Fi device, whether itâs to watch Netflix or play a game. It would be unusual for them to walk out of range while in a single application. So itâs more commonly sold to households as a way of getting rid of dead spots, Not removing a slight stutter when you switch from one Access point to another.
From a home automation standpoint, how many zigbee devices are you running and where? Weaker Wi-Fi makes for happier zigbee, So sometimes less is more, particularly if nothing is really âbrokenâ with your Wi-Fi right now.
And yes I have read your zigbee overview before I posted this 
Yes I have deadspots around my house. I have a DD-WRT Router bit it isnât working in the area.
I have 5 Zigbee lights. I have 2 Zigbee osrams and two gardenspots. I have 3 Loweâs smart plugs and a few SmartThings motion sensors.
If you have (or could pull easily through basement/attic) Ethernet cables around key locations in house, take a look at the Ubiquiti UniFi system www.ubnt.com . I have the USG wired router (~$110) and 2 AC lite POE WiFi access points (~$80 each). Works great, doesnât waste wifi bandwidth on the âbackhaulâ. One or 2 of the mesh systems can do this too but I forget which.
The pro/con of UniFi system is that each piece only does one thing (but does it well). I wish they would add 4 POE gigabit ports to the USG to simplify wiring (wouldnât need POE injectors)
No I canât otherwise Iâd run cat to each room.
@BBoy486
I recently purchased the Orbi system and love it. Check out reviews of all the products before you buy to get the system that is right for you.
Brian
I have google wifi. I got the 3 puck set at best buy on sale. My internet is great with it. I have one puck as my main router. It connects to my ISP and then also connects to a 8 port GigE switch for the homes wired network. The second puck is attached to the homes wired ethernet and provides a wired connection a a streamer (Nvidia shield) the last puck is completely running wireless to the other two, but has two computers connected to it. It acts like a wifi card for those computers and then is a mesh for devices near it as well.
I have been very impressed with it so far and I love the fact no more seperate networks for 2.4 and 5ghz networks.
What do you mean no separate networks
Allot of home network gear that allows both 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands need them to run on seperate SSIDâs. That is why you see allot of default setups that show something like xxxxxx and xxxxxx_5g.
The Google wifi doesnât do that.
But certain devices donât run on 5ghz so donât you need both so you can choose?
I did but they donât talk about Zigbee mesh and wifi interference.
@BBoy486
Not with google wifi. It makes them both avaliable and devices connect to what is best for them at the time. I have a mix of 2.4 and 5ghz devices and they all connect fine. And both frequencies are avaliable
The TP-Link Deco M5 mesh system works in the same way. Devices choose which frequency they want to join. It works well for me.
I have noticed that there seems to be a new Deco M9 system on the way that acts as a Zigbee hub too.
First off most mesh systems require a active internet connection to configure and operate. Google and other just become dumb APâs when the internet is down or their cloud service is not reachable. That is why I choose the Oribi system, I have a 3 node system and have it configured hub in spoke and has options for ethernet home runs and a to b to c chaining also.
Sites such as Wirecutter has said this is the best for most that have larger homes with dead spots. Here is the link:
That is a bit of a exaggeration isnât it. The main difference between a router and a network switch/ap is simply some intelligence to run a few services like DHCP, DNS and Nat for your internal network. Those donât and never should run remotely. A device connecting to the network should still see other devices on your local network even with the internet out.
You do lose the ability to change the configuration though. But then how often should we really be changing the configuration
You should review the comments on that article. There are allot of people unhappy with Orbi. Not saying it is any worse then others, but it is interesting reading reviews like that.
As I indicated in my previous post, each system has its own pros and cons. I chose the Orbi system simply because each satellite has 4 ethernet ports which I needed at least one port for my three Arlo base stations to get the strongest signals to my Arlo cameras. The system also has software to manage the settings, while simple, it gets the job done. I also liked the fact that I could either daisy chain or spoke pattern my router to satellite connections.
I have had no problems with either my Orbi systems or the Arlo cameras, even though if you read many of the reviews, you would think both systems are junk. They have worked as advertised for me.
Brian
Thanks for all the feedback. Still need to know how this works with the Zigbee band and any issues it might cause.
@BBoy486
The Orbi system, (and I assume the other systems are the same), are strictly Wi-Fi using the 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz frequencies. There is no Zigbee component to them and as such, there should be no issues. The Smartthings hub transmits and receives the Zigbee signals.
Brian
Brian thank you so much for your reply please scroll up to see the post I linked to where @JDRoberts explains on how Wi-Fi interferes with zigbee.
So my question is if anyone running orbi has had any issues with their zigbee devices.