It’s difficult for tech writers like me to get a comprehensive overview of a piece of tech in our day-to-day lives. Many of us live in small rental apartments in the inner city, which severely limits our ability to do comprehensive reviews of fixed devices like doorbells and security cameras. With mesh Wi-Fi, the technology’s biggest advantage is uniform coverage over a large area, so it’s difficult to get a good view in a small apartment. My solution with this modem router? Of course, I’m taking it with me to my dad’s big house in the suburbs.
Netgear sent me the company’s new Orbi 970 series mesh routers a few months ago, which represent the pinnacle of the company’s home internet technology (and are its most expensive). They’re among the first mesh modem routers to come with Wi-Fi 7, which offers improvements over Wi-Fi 6E. The most impressive of these is a shared SSID for both 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands—no more split network names!
I got the Orbis at a great time – my dad was having issues with the WiFi in his (much larger) family home. At the time, the smart home devices in his pool area, including the pump, lights and robot cleaner, required a 5GHz connection, which my dad’s old modem router couldn’t extend far enough across the property, especially with so many walls and obstacles in the way. Plus, the house was plagued with consistently slow speeds.
The problem was compounded by the fact that my dad’s modem-router combo was just plain old (God bless him, he holds onto tech as long as he can). It was so old that I remember using the same equipment over an ADSL2+ connection seven years ago when I lived in my family home. Certainly not ideal for Australia’s fibre-based National Broadband Network (NBN) or the 250Mbps-capable plan he pays for. I’d been advising my dad to consider mesh for some time, but he didn’t see how it would actually improve anything.
So how did the Netgear Orbi 970 mesh router perform? Perfect.
Let’s get meshy
Netgear says the Orbi 970 mesh routers can provide a consistent WiFi experience across 7,000 square feet with three modules (the standard allotment of devices) evenly distributed throughout a home. My dad’s property is 7,000 square feet in total, but considering that only about 2,000 square feet of that is the actual house, a single module would have worked just fine, as they’re each rated for 2,400 square feet.
The gateway module was placed in the garage where the access point is located (in this case the FTTP NBN box – or fibre to the building for those not in Australia). It works as a modem router system and is all we needed to get started, but this may be different for you depending on the type of technology used in your home.
We immediately ran into an issue that slowed down the setup. Netgear recommends that users stick with the app when setting up their mesh WiFi, but since my dad uses a PPPoE connection (which typically requires you to enter a username and password in the backend of a modem), we had to log into a computer using an Ethernet connection. Thankfully, the Netgear Orbi 970 mesh routers have this feature (the Eero 6 Pros, on the other hand, do not, as I previously discovered).
After that, pairing the Orbi modules with the gateway was very easy. We distributed the remaining two modules throughout the house to achieve the best WiFi quality.
It used the same SSID and password as the previous modem-router combo, allowing almost every device in the house to quickly reconnect without having to log in individually. Even without a separate SSID for the 5GHz band, devices that needed that connection could easily access the single configuration.
Ready for use quickly
Going from a modem-router setup to the most expensive commercially available mesh system available in Australia has worked absolutely fine. My dad’s office, which is quite a distance from the garage, reported a maximum speed of 30Mbps with the previous modem-router setup – but often much less (down to 2Mbps), but with these modules it went up to 266Mbps. I’ve experienced the same speeds throughout the house, with some of my dad’s older computers recording a maximum speed of 100Mbps.
The big takeaway wasn’t necessarily that this is the ultimate mesh router you can buy, but that you should really give mesh WiFi a shot if you want to drastically improve the WiFi quality in your home. My dad’s house is far from the biggest, despite the measurements listed in this article, but I can still safely say that this setup offers advantages over a single modem-router setup. Because the mesh modules use their own specific band to create even WiFi coverage between each other, this solution offers a much more consistent experience than, say, using a WiFi extender or simply a more powerful modem.
However, I’m not sure I’d recommend the Netgear Orbi 970 to make that Wi-Fi upgrade in your home. The staggering price of £2,199.99 / $2,299.99 / AU$4,299 for the three-module kit is enough to put many buyers off. It might be worth considering this device if you want Wi-Fi 7, but bear in mind that many devices don’t currently support that standard (the only one in my household with reasonably up-to-date technology is the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra).
Bottom line: Give Mesh a try. It could be the Wi-Fi upgrade you’ve been waiting for.
