Fibre Setup

Hello.....

I've just ordered Full Fibre 900 from BT and have a confirmed install date next month.

What I want to know can I use my existing mesh wifi (Netgear Orbi) without using Smart Hub 2?

I assuming its an ethernet connection when plugged into the ONT?

I only live in a small flat but would prefer not to change my existing setup I have with Virgin (being in modem mode and allowing my own router setup). OF course I'm getting rid of Virgin given I have ordered this with BT.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If your Orbi can do PPPoE over an Ethernet WAN port then yes

If you have the Orbi Tri-Band Mesh WiFi Router (RBR20) then yes it supports PPPoE.

https://kb.netgear.com/31072/Does-Orbi-support-Point...

You may or may not receive the full 900mbits speeds with the orbi on wireless .

Be prepared to only get around 450-550Mbps over WiFi despite link speeds of 750-950Mbps

Yeah I struggled to see the wifi spec on the netgear's website. Gigabit speeds can really bring network issues and bottlenecks to light

In reply to a post by oldskool:

Be prepared to only get around 450-550Mbps over WiFi despite link speeds of 750-950Mbps

Yes, those are raw wireless bits-per-second and don't take into account framing overhead, and that wireless is simplex (each transmitter has to take it in turns). As a rule of thumb, I'd say half the raw bitrate is the maximum you can expect to achieve in practice.

My Unifi AC Lite has a 5GHz speed of "867 Mbps" when wide channels are selected, but in practice I measure about 350-400Mbps to a local server from an AC-capable laptop.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by oldskool:

Be prepared to only get around 450-550Mbps over WiFi despite link speeds of 750-950Mbps

Yes, those are raw wireless bits-per-second and don't take into account framing overhead, and that wireless is simplex (each transmitter has to take it in turns). As a rule of thumb, I'd say half the raw bitrate is the maximum you can expect to achieve in practice.

My Unifi AC Lite has a 5GHz speed of "867 Mbps" when wide channels are selected, but in practice I measure about 350-400Mbps to a local server from an AC-capable laptop.

You are correct, you'll never get over half the rated speed because wifi is half duplex. Best case scenario is around 98% of half the rated speed (if that makes sense). So in the case of 867 it'd be 425mbps.

I have the original Orbi and I believe it does support PPPoE. I'm not so worried about the wireless speeds I understand the limitations of that. Its just I would rather it compliment my existing setup than completely changing it.

Thanks for the input, really appreciate it.

Fair enough. As long as you are aware of that caveat. Good luck on your install