Orbi Router to Satellite

Spiderman pointing at each other meme, only Spiderman has an Orbi router for a head. The Police paddy wagon has the Orbi logo on it.

I bought one of these Orbi RBR750 Routers on eBay thinking I could easily use it as a wireless signal booster for my existing Orbi network. Nope. Unless it’s connected to an Ethernet connection from the router, that won’t work. It’ll just show up as not connected to the Internet and not be able to be of any use if a device is connected to it. Why doesn’t Netgear (who owns Orbi) let you switch this on a router? It’s dumb.

So what to do? Apparently, some geniuses have come up with a way to upload the firmware of an Orbi satellite (RBS750, different than a router) to a router to turn it into a signal booster. The process is complicated, but what you’re basically doing is telling the router to accept a satellite firmware then updating the firmware on the device to turn it into a satellite.

You may need to install some things on your PC or Mac, such as (Homebrew if you’re a Mac user), Python and Telnet, as well as download at least one firmware for the Orbi (2 if you’re using the later v7 version of Orbi firmware).

Here’s what I did on my Mac. Windows or Linux users YMMV:

macOS instructions
  1. Install Homebrew
  2. Install Telnet
  3. Install Python
  4. *Roll back Orbi firmware to RBR750 (The second R is for router) to v4.6.14.3_2.3.12 (only do this if you’re on the latest firmware, v7 which does not allow telnet).
  5. Download Orbi firmware for RBS750 (S is for satellite). You will need this in the next section.**
  6. Download the Telnet Enabler. Unzip and right-click (Control-click) telnet-enable.py and choose to open with Python Launcher.
  7. Use the following syntax to upload the Telnet Enabler to your router:
    ./telnet-enable.py router.ip.address (MAC address)A0:40:A0:69:B6:30 admin ‘routerpassword’
    For example: ./telnet-enable.py 192.168.1.2 A0:40:A0:69:B6:30 admin routerpassword
  8. Wait for the python script to upload and do its thing on your router. I got a few syntax errors but when the command prompt came back, I was able to do the next steps.
  9. Do the following commands:
  10. telnet your.router.ip:portnumber (e.g. telnet 192.168.1.2)
  11. Enter admin as username
  12. Enter your.router.password (your password may not show on the screen)
  13. Type the following:
    cd /sbin
  14. board_data -r board_id  (This should show: ‘RBR750QV’ –note the second R is for Router)
  15. board_data -r hw_version (This should show: ‘RBR750QV’)
  16. Now let’s change the board ID and HW Version,
    type:
    board_data -w board_id U12H416T00_NETGEAR
    type:
    board_data -w hw_version RBS750QV
  17. Reboot the router. You can type reboot in telnet, yank the power cord or reboot it in the Orbi webpage.
  1. The router is now ready to accept the Satellite Firmware (from Step 5 above).**
  2. In a web browser log into your router.
  3. Go to Advanced > Administration > Firmware Update > Manual Update
  4. Click on Browse and select the satellite firmware (RBS750-V4.6.14.3-signed.chk)
  5. Click on Upload
  1. Click OK on the “Uploading a firmware manually…” error.
  2. Give the Orbi a few minutes to reboot. The LED on the front should stop blinking when it’s done booting. A couple reboots may be necessary.
  3. You may need to add it as a satellite in the Orbi router settings/app.

I had to reboot mine a few times before it worked as a satellite. In fact, I put it away because I thought it wasn’t working properly. The Orbi router identified it as a satellite after I added it as a satellite in the Orbi app. -Terry, October 2025

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