Hub 3 and modem mode

[Ron53]

Just curious. I have a Hub 3 and use an ORBI (Netgear mesh product) with satellite (I am about to upgrade to wifi 6), I originally set this up with the Virgin box in modem mode as per the instructions. A while back I was still having wifi issues so reverted back to try the Virgin box in its normal router mode. Was no better, so I added the ORBI setup again. This time I did not initially put the Virgin box in modem mode. I was surprised to see that now both wifi networks are visible and both work, seemingly independent of each other. I am curious as to why bother with modem mode if this works anyway...or is there some intrinsic problem with having both wifi hubs visible that is not obvious?

[Tudor · Accepted solution]

Modem mode is always much better. The low powered hubs, when in modem mode, do not have to do NAT, switching, routing or wireless and normally gives a much better service. One thing though, if you have circuit problems it does not matter what mode you run in.

[prowl]

You can either have your
Hub 3 in modem / bridge mode - The Orbi handles everything.
Or
Orbi in Bridge mode - The Hub handles all the traffic and the Orbi just does wifi. If you do this you can have 2 Wifi networks, but they can end up clashing on the same channels.

[Ron53]

Thanks for the replies. When my new wifi 6 ORBI arrives, I think I will put the Virgin. router back in modem mode....Hub 4 to replace it arriving soon too.