NETGEAR Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 System

Days after my Netgear Nighthawk purchase, Netgear started trying to sell me an upgrade to the newer and better Orbi system. I was looking for a high end system in the first place, not an obsolete one. Thinking about how this happened is pretty aggravating.
The security software that comes with the router is intrusive and difficult. The Parental Control Software is worse. My old network printers stopped working after checking out the security software.
You need Netgear’s smartphone to manage your network. Connecting through your web browser won’t give you the full functionality you need. That is reason enough for me to not buy this.
It is not a bad router system when working properly. Regretfully, things stop working too often and I need to restart the system about once a month. I would not trust this system where high reliability and availability is needed.
For information, I am using this for my home network. There are generally 10 to 15 wi-fi devices connected and up to 2 ethernet devices connected at any time. So far, I have not had any issues with the ethernet stuff.

This is literally my third Netgear product in the past 10 years that just can’t hold a stable connection no matter what. About 90% of the time, the satellite router works okay, but occasionally, and almost always when I’m in the middle of something important, the light turns amber and the connection stops. I have to either wait, or restart both units for it to work.

If I unplug the satellite router, I have a 4/5 bar connection downstairs, which is where the satellite router is. I have both units out in the open and at table height.

Why would I need the satellite router then? On top of wanting a stronger connection downstairs, I also make use of the Ethernet port on the satellite router for devices that don’t have great wifi antennas, like my desktop PC. So when the satellite router goes out, so does the internet connection to those devices.

My TP-Link routers never had any of these issues. It’s just the Netgear systems. I should have never bought this.

Love how easy it was to set up. Going to buy more to extend my wifi through to the upstairs.

I ordered this mesh system to improve coverage at my home which has a detached garage. My previous wireless was able to reach but would become less reliable during the summer months. The Netgear Mesh system does a fantastic job at resolving coverage issues as signals throughout the home are all good/great now. All devices are able to connect without issue, and overall, connectivity has been good.
My main issue with this system is consistency. While I get great coverage for web surfing/media consumption, I cannot say the same for gaming. When gaming I will experience periods of lag which can make competitive play unbearably frustrating. This is while being directly wired to the satellite mesh which is working without issue when doing anything but gaming. From what I have read, this may be an issue with QOS settings, but as of yet, I have found no workable solution. Furthermore, a common problem with mesh systems is which device a wireless user connects to. My wife’s computer is about 12 feet from the main hub, and yet here wireless signal becomes unstable at times as if it was connecting to the one located in the garage. I am unsure what can be done to address this as I hear this is somewhat common with mesh systems.
Hopefully, with some tweaks/firmware updates, these issues can be resolved. I may decouple the networks (making 2.4 and 5gHz bands separate) to see if that helps at all.