Broadband Hardware

What does the Netgear Orbi light mean?

Netgear Orbi lights
Those lights are trying to tell you something...

Mesh Wi-Fi networks are all the rage at the moment and the Netgear Orbi is currently the best-selling mesh Wi-Fi product on Amazon UK. So what do the different colours actually mean on the Netgear Orbi light?

The light means different things depending on which piece of Orbi hardware you’re talking about: satellite or router. The Orbi router is clearly marked when you remove it from the box, as is each satellite.

Note there will either be one or two satellites in the box, depending on whether you bought a 2-Pack or 3-Pack version of the Orbi.

Netgear Orbi light on the router

The ring LED is located on the top.

netgear orbi light

Pulsing white. The router is booting or someone pressed the sync button.

Off. The router finished booting and is working normally.

Solid white. The router is resetting to factory default settings.

Solid magenta. The router can’t connect to the internet.

Netgear Orbi light on a satellite

Again, the ring LED is located on the top.

Pulsing white. The satellite is booting.

Solid white. The satellite is ready to sync to the router (press the sync button).

Blue for three minutes. The connection between the satellite and the router is good.

Amber for three minutes. The connection between the satellite and the router is fair.

Magenta. The satellite failed to sync to the router.

Off. The satellite synced to the router and is working normally.

Netgear Orbi light next to the power button

The power LED is located above the Power On/Off button on the rear panel. Note: the wall-plug satellite doesn’t include a power LED.

netgear orbi light

Solid green. Power is on.

Solid amber. The router or satellite is booting.

Blinking amber. The router or satellite is resetting to factory default settings.

Blinking red. The firmware is corrupted. Visit this Netgear support site for advice on how to download new firmware.

Off. The router or satellite isn’t switched on or doesn’t have power.

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About the author

David Artiss

Works for Automattic Inc., the company behind WordPress.com and Tumblr. Tech geek, international speaker and occasional PC Pro podcaster. Lover of Lego and video games.

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  • My Orbi cable router keeps dropping the upstream and down stream connections. Is this an inherent problem with this router?

      • For amber light on the satellite, what does “fair” mean when they say “ the connection between the router and the satellite is *fair*” – for example can devices connected to the (amber led) satellite stream videos / Netflix etc ? Or would fair mean you can basically expect to do emails and browse Amazon etc??