As for the Nighthawk app, it makes quick work of setup and offers basic system controls, including the option to run a quick speed test. Among Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers, the Netgear Nighthawk averaged the slowest download speeds throughout my home -- but the real issue was the unreliable connection as I moved from room to room. But when I took it home to conduct my real-world speed tests, things were a lot different. Best Buy has honest and unbiased customer reviews for NETGEAR - Nighthawk Dual-Band AC1900 Router with 24 x 8 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem - Black. Wi-Fi 6 should prove to be a particularly fine upgrade for mesh routers, and it's encouraging that we're already seeing options that cost less than most Wi-Fi 5 mesh routers were selling for not even a year ago. And don't even think of getting a third band to use as a dedicated backhaul for transmissions between the router and the satellites at this price. CNET editors pick the products and services we write about. That's a lot of flexibility, and it opens up a whole new world of wired networking. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Netgear Nighthawk AX6 6-Stream AX4300 WiFi 6 Router at Amazon.com. That's less than you'll spend for the Nest Wifi, a well-reviewed two-piece mesh system that doesn't support Wi-Fi 6 at all. With lots of other interesting new mesh routers making their way to market in 2020, that's too much of a compromise. Boeing 737 Max. They're a nice piece of future-proofing, and terrific if you plan on wiring your router to a local server to transfer files between computers on your network -- but if you're just looking to connect to the internet, they won't make much of a difference anytime soon. The Nighthawk app offers quick, basic controls for your system, and it does a good job of walking you through the setup process in quick fashion. Type the Netgear wireless router password to enter Setup Wizard & … When you buy through our links, we may get a commission. And again. I'm dating myself, perhaps, but my point is that the thing looks futuristic (if not a bit aggressive, which seems to be the trend in high-end router design these days). And again. I'd move to a new spot during my tests, and my speeds would nosedive. Slow speeds in my kitchen one minute, then back to normal as soon as I disconnect and reconnect. NETGEAR Mobile App is supported by NETGEAR. At 75 feet, its speeds had fallen by about 40% to 520 Mbps. Black Friday AirPods deals. You won't find many extra bells or whistles in the app, either. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. That multigig port and those aggregate-able LAN ports can also operate in WAN mode, which means that this router will be able to keep up if your incoming internet speeds ever rise past 1Gbps. That's an appealing approach for many, but the feature wasn't flawless when I tested it out. Needless to say, this was weird. It doesn't include a traffic-scanning threat detector, though. The results were pretty close to what you might expect for an entry-level Wi-Fi 6 system like the Nighthawk. Nighthawk free download - Nighthawk (formerly Up), G4S Nighthawk HD, Nighthawk App com | Netgear Nighthawk App Sign in, and many more programs To do so, we move over to the 5,800 sq. It wasn't my network -- I made sure to run some control tests with my existing router, and didn't see anything like I was experiencing with the Nighthawk. With its eight antennas hidden within a sleek set of fold-up wings, the RAX120 looks less like a router than like something Kylo Ren might zip across the galaxy in. I was excited to test the system out for myself -- but in the end, I came away disappointed. With our lab tests finished, it was time to take the Nighthawk home and test it out in a real-world environment -- specifically, my 1,300 sq. Netgear Nighthawk AC2300 (RS400) review A cybersecurity-focused Wi-Fi router that's built to protect a whole houseful of devices. Read honest and unbiased product reviews … That was with the router only a couple of feet away. This NETGEAR Nighthawk smart WiFi router is fast and easy to use for most people, and it earns many praises and is rated 4.2 out of 5 stars by real life customers … Netgear Nighthawk free download, and many more programs. Still, the Nighthawk router did a lot better than I expected when we ran our own lab-based top speed tests. The NETGEAR Nighthawk app (formerly Up App) is a complete upgrade from the legacy NETGEAR genie app. That did the trick -- after disconnecting from the network and then reconnecting to it, my speeds were back up were they should be, just shy of 300 Mbps. So to actually get to all of the routers settings you must go to 192.168.1.1 address instead of … At $230, the Netgear Nighthawk fits that bill, which makes it pretty tempting -- but the shaky mesh performance leaves too much to be desired. That's because roughly half the time, the system decided to connect me to the faster 5GHz band. ft. CNET Smart Home, where we set each mesh system up with the router and one satellite on opposite ends of the home's main floor. If you experience any issues, please contact us at aircardapp_support@netgear.com, as we are unable respond or open tickets based on reviews. The RAX120 supports denial of service protection and the latest WPA3 encryption. Speaking of signal strength, we test for that, too. You'll also find a number of new Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers this year that might be a much better fit for folks who'd prefer something simple that they don't need to think about too much. Netgear's Nighthawk brand is a mainstay of the router aisle. All of that makes Netgear's mesh entry to the Nighthawk brand a tough system for me to recommend. Netgear R8000 Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Gigabit Wireless Router review: Lots of price pain for only a little gain Dong Ngo July 23, 2014 6:20 p.m. PT Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Read helpful reviews … I alternate rounds of speed tests from the front of the house to the back, and then from the back of the house to the front -- on one of the latter rounds, where that close-range living room test is the last test in the sequence, my speed came in at 93 Mbps. That's useful to have in case you want a wired connection between the router and the satellite for faster system performance, or if you want to wire something like a media streamer directly to the satellite. That said, the Nighthawk saw bigger speed drops than those systems as we increased the distance. The Nighthawk's signal strength was a little stronger than a comparably priced Wi-Fi 5 system like the Nest Wifi, but not nearly as strong as a high-end Wi-Fi 6 system like Netgear's Orbi. So what was happening here? Credit the Nighthawk for hitting the middle ground between those two, especially given that it costs less than the Nest. Speaking of mesh, it's worth noting that the Nighthawk doesn't make it as easy to use satellite devices to extend the range of your setup as other routers. Significantly faster than comparable Wi-Fi 5 routers, LAN aggregation and multigig jack options support incoming speeds of up to 5Gpbs, Good VPN option via the Nighthawk web interface, So-so band steering via the SmartConnect feature, Slightly lower top speeds than our fastest-tested Wi-Fi 6 router, which costs less, Discuss: Warp speed from this Wi-Fi 6 router? Expensive, triband Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers like Netgear's Orbi 6, the AmpliFi Alien and the Arris Surfboard Max Pro all averaged faster top speeds across all distances -- but at a distance of five feet (blue), the Netgear Nighthawk was actually the fastest mesh router we've tested yet. Just know that those faster connections won't do anything to speed up a slow incoming signal. Still, at the farthest distances we test, the Nighthawk's speeds dropped by about 40% in our lab and by a little less than 30% in my at-home tests. Launch a browser and type Netgear router setup IP: 192.168.0.1 in the address bar to open the login page. In addition to the WAN port, there's also a multigig port that supports incoming speeds of up to 5Gbps. The RAX120 delivered fast download speeds throughout my home, but the numbers fell sharply in that back bathroom, the farthest room from the router. Most intriguing of all: The two-piece Nighthawk mesh system only costs $230. With a multigig LAN/WAN port that supports incoming speeds of up to 5Gbps and the option to combine two of the single-gig Ethernet jacks for aggregated incoming wired speeds of up to 2Gbps, this router takes some of the common networking bottlenecks and busts right through them. If the Nighthawk mesh router looks a little familiar, that's because it's the same basic design as the recent dual-band, budget-priced version of the Netgear Orbi mesh system, which I reviewed a few months ago. ft., single story house, where I have an AT&T fiber internet connection of 300 Mbps, the RAX120's 5GHz band was able to average speeds well above 250 Mbps in the majority of the space, but speeds fell to 100 Mbps in my back bathroom. As for specs, the Nighthawk is a dual-band AX1800 router, with the "AX" indicating that it supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and the "1800" indicating the combined top speeds of the two bands. The San Jose, California based company is known for making high performance and reliable cable modems and routers for SOHO networks (home and small office) with a great example being the mesh Orbi series. Amazon pharmacy. Both the dual-band Orbi and the triband Orbi Voice Wi-Fi 5 systems dropped my connection on multiple occasions during my at-home tests. Among the ones that support Wi-Fi 6, I like the $450 Asus ZenWiFi AX the best, but you've got a lot of new options this year that are worth a look, too. ... Trending from CNET. Your actual speeds will be much, much lower. But if it's speed you're after -- and an end to those pesky bottlenecks -- then you'll find a lot to like in the Nighthawk's cockpit. The signal strength on both the main floor where the router and satellite were located and the basement level below was adequate and slightly stronger than a comparably priced Wi-Fi 5 system like the Nest Wifi, but not nearly as strong as a high-end, triband Wi-Fi 6 system like the Orbi 6 that sells for $700. Then, we use NetSpot's online software to track how strong the connection is across dozens of locations. It's a bit of a stress test -- the two-piece Nighthawk system is designed for homes of up to 3,000 square feet. Subaru BRZ. Netgear's Wi-Fi 6 Nighthawk routers were some of the first 802.11ax routers to hit the market last year. The "AX" in "AX6000" indicates that it supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), while the "6000" indicates the combined top theoretical speeds of each band. Those are great numbers -- each of them a few hundred Mbps faster than you'll see with pretty much any Wi-Fi 5 router -- but they're not quite as fast as the fastest Wi-Fi 6 router we've tested yet, the TP-Link Archer AX6000. They're still an appealing upgrade option in 2020 -- … As always, combined speed ratings like those are a bit misleading since you can only connect to one band at a time. But the Nighthawk router has a trick that Asus model lacks, and that's SmartConnect -- it combines the two bands into a single network, and then automatically steers your connection between the two as you move through your home. That's one of our favorite VPN services -- its privacy policy says it doesn't log connection information, and it was the first VPN we noted to fully implement Europe's privacy-minded GDPR regulations. In order to experience its superfast local Wi-Fi speed, you first need an 802.11ad-enabled laptop and a high-end … But then it happened again. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. In a real-world setting, with range to worry about, walls in the way and interference from nearby networks, your speeds will be always be lower. I'll also note that it isn't the first time that I've had issues with Netgear's mesh performance. Netgear's Nighthawk brand is a mainstay of the router aisle. The Nighthawk has plenty of the former, but it lacks the latter. Still, it wasn't as strong as the TP-Link Archer AX6000, which returned an average back bathroom download speed just above 150 Mbps. I liked the small, unassuming design quite a bit back when I reviewed the Orbi, and I think it works well here, too. The NETGEAR Nighthawk M1 (MR1100) is a versatile portable hotspot router that has long battery life. Mind you, 100 Mbps is a strong result, especially when you compare it with the abundance of routers I've tested that have plummeted to single digits or dropped the signal outright back there. Not quite, play-time with his Spaceballs action figures, the fastest Wi-Fi 6 router we've tested yet, Netgear's lineup of plug-in range extenders, the TP-Link Archer AX6000 is still my Wi-Fi 6 router of choice, 2.4GHz AX: 4x4 (Tx/Rx), 1024 QAM, 20/40MHz, 5GHz AX: 8x8 (Tx/Rx), 1024 QAM, 20/40/80/160MHz, Dimensions: 12.2x7.48x1.77 inches (310 x 190 x 45 mm). In our own lab, where we wire each router to a local server and then download files wirelessly on a 2x2, Wi-Fi 6-equipped laptop from various distances, we clocked the RAX120 with a top-sustained speed of 1,263 Mbps on the 5GHz band. That's a little odd, as previous-gen Nighthawk and Orbi routers ship with support for Netgear Armor, a set of cybersecurity tools powered by BitDefender. Currently available for about $400 (about £310 or AU$620), it's an expensive, high-powered option for folks looking for an upgrade, and there's a lot going on under the hood to take into consideration. Speed is important, but stability matters, too. If that device moves from one spot to another, the connection gets confused and things slow down. The only way to get my speeds up where I wanted was disconnect and reconnect. For such a high-end modem, the Netgear Nighthawk C7000 is surprisingly thin and light. And with support for up to 12 streams of wireless, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, that's what the spacey-looking Netgear Nighthawk AX12 (model RAX120) is offering. Netgear's Nighthawk AX8 8-Stream Wi-Fi 6 Router (RAX80) joins the Asus RT-AX88U as the first 802.11ax routers to hit our labs. At a distance of just five feet, our average speed rang in at 901 Mbps. The other half of the time, it chose the 2.4GHz band's stronger signal. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion. The RAX120 did not -- that suggests that TP-Link might offer better range, too. The broad view is that this is a dual-band router with support for the newest, fastest version of Wi-Fi and lots of customization options, particularly if you want to use the thing to manage access to networked storage. Showing 11-20 of 110. They're still an appealing upgrade option in 2020 -- particularly if you think you'll be able to get good use out of those multigig connection capabilities. Speeds below 100 Mbps on a 300 Mbps connection? My at-home tests seemed to confirm this. ft. shotgun house in Louisville, KY. Netgear CM1000/CM1100/CM1200 Brief Review Netgear has been for a long time one of the best home networking brands. And you'll only be able to connect to one band at a time, lest that "6000" mislead you. You'll find system controls and advanced features like a Quality of Service engine and a VPN network in the Nighthawk's web portal. In this case, it's where things sort of fell apart. Clothed in basic black, the 11.0 x 9.0 x 2.1-inch X6S can be set up on a tabletop, shelf or windowsill. As for the internals, here's a quick hardware rundown: The RAX120 is an AX6000 dual-band router (a tri-band version with a second 5GHz band, the RAX200, is available for about $100 more). We saw faster top speeds in our lab from the $269 TP-Link Archer AX6000 and also from the soon-to-be-released Asus RT-AX89X, which costs a little more at $450. About the size of a coffee-table book, Netgear's Nighthawk X6S is one of the largest routers on the market and is about one-quarter bigger than the Linksys WRT32X router. In the end, the Nighthawk returned an overall average speed of 219 Mbps throughout my whole house, which is worse than all but two of the dozen or so systems I've tested in my home, Wi-Fi 6 or otherwise. Both of those outperformed the Nighthawk in my at-home tests, too, and the same goes for the $379 AmpliFi Alien -- though as of writing this, that router is listed as out of stock on the Ubiquiti website. It really seems like the Nighthawk, for whatever reason, isn't all that good at optimizing the signal for a client device that isn't in a fixed location. That one registered speeds of 1,524 Mbps at 5 feet and 869 Mbps at 75 feet in the same test, and it also kept speeds above 1,000 Mbps at a midrange distance of 37.5 feet. Devices that do support Wi-Fi 6 are capable of sending and receiving data faster and more efficiently than previous-gen Wi-Fi devices. Read honest and unbiased product reviews … You'll have a much better experience with a well-developed mesh system that puts band steering front and center,. There aren't a whole lot of advanced settings to dig through, though -- for that, you'll want to connect with the router via your browser. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. That's the router in the background, a few feet away... At first, everything seemed fine. Only the high-end, Wi-Fi 6 version of the Netgear Orbi managed to impress me with the stability of its signal. Those are both low-end results among the Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems I've tested. That means that Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers can offer noticeably better performance for your home even if you don't use any other Wi-Fi 6 gadgets just yet. The best mesh routers in 2021: Asus, Eero, Netgear … It wasn't an issue with my network -- it was the Nighthawk router getting confused by a non-stationary client device. Download R7000 Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Router Firmware for Windows to get the latest firmware for your Netgear R7000 Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Router. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion. Positioned as a major upgrade to the previous R7000 … After a lot of hype, the Netgear R8000 Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Gigabit Wireless Router is just a disappointment. Both the router and the satellite include one spare gigabit Ethernet jack, which lets you wire the two together for faster system performance. New features are consistently being added. That 1,200 Mbps speed claim would indeed be pretty impressive, but keep in mind those ratings come from the manufacturer's own lab, where conditions are designed to be as optimal as possible (and again, the WAN port caps your incoming wired speed at a single gig, or 1,000 Mbps). Across multiple days of tests in the 1,300 sq. The Nighthawk app is useless (basically for setup, updating firmware, and individually turning off internet access to your kids' specific devices without shutting down the whole network). If you're just looking for a Wi-Fi 6 router that'll provide a reliable connection throughout your home, there are good alternatives out there, including ones that cost less. This year, the company added a new Nighthawk-branded mesh system into the mix, complete with support for Wi-Fi 6 -- the newest, fastest version of Wi-Fi. © 2021 CNET, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. © 2021 CNET, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. That's the farthest room from the router and a common dead spot when I'm testing a single-point router like this one. Install it today! That's a terrific result, and better than any other mesh router I've tested, including fancy triband mesh routers like the AmpliFi Alien, the Arris Surfboarf Max Pro, and Netgear's own Wi-Fi 6 version of the Orbi mesh system. Or maybe it's the router Dark Helmet would use aboard Spaceball One, if only because it could double as a prop during play-time with his Spaceballs action figures. The San Jose, California based company is known for making high performance and reliable cable modems and routers for SOHO networks (home and small office) with a great example being the mesh Orbi series. Basically, the Nighthawk mesh router is brawny enough to hit impressive top speeds, but not brainy enough to maintain a steady connection as you move throughout your home. The Nighthawk doesn't have everything, though -- which isn't surprising given that this is a Wi-Fi 6 system on a budget. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Netgear Nighthawk CM1100 DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem at Amazon.com. CNET may get a commission from these offers. That's a fairly narrow subset of the router-buying populace, though. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for NETGEAR Nighthawk AC2600 Smart WiFi Router (R7450) at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Netgear CM1000/CM1100/CM1200 Brief Review Netgear has been for a long time one of the best home networking brands. But then I picked up my laptop and moved to a new spot -- the kitchen. Netgear's Nighthawk app walked me through the setup process and my network was up and running within a few minutes. In fact, I've run thousands of speed tests in my home over the past several months under the same controlled settings, and the Nighthawk is the only router that's given me this much of a headache. Best Buy has honest and unbiased customer reviews for NETGEAR - Nighthawk 32 x 8 DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem - Black. You can wire two of those LAN ports to the same server and combine their speeds to support transfer rates of up to 2Gbps, or just use that multigig port to see speeds of up to 5Gbps. The XR500's speed and range are … The router is well equipped with Gigabit LTE, USB Type-C, … Netgear's Wi-Fi 6 Nighthawk routers were some of the first 802.11ax routers to hit the market last year. Compared to the Xfinity modem that we have lying around, it’s a huge … Still, the RAX120 does include its own Quality of Service engine, which you can customize pretty easily from the Nighthawk web portal to prioritize traffic to certain devices and use cases. The RAX120 includes four gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, two of which can be aggregated to support combined incoming wired speeds of up to 2Gbps. Speeds fell to about 818 Mbps when we increased the distance from 5 feet to 75 feet. It's a relatively small space for a mesh system, but it gives me a good chance to see how these systems actually perform in a home environment. You don't get a multigig WAN port on the router like you do with the Netgear Orbi 6, for instance, so your incoming internet speed will be capped at 1 gigabit per second. By Brian Nadel 03 February 2021 Comments (1) More like meh, a new Nighthawk-branded mesh system into the mix, the fastest mesh routers we've ever tested, other surprisingly affordable Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers are coming soon, the recent dual-band, budget-priced version of the Netgear Orbi mesh system, Netgear's own Wi-Fi 6 version of the Orbi mesh system, a particularly fine upgrade for mesh routers. Most mesh systems I test are able to hold that drop-off to 30% or less. That's potentially a pretty big deal for mesh routers, because the range-extending satellites that pair with the router need to pass a lot of data back and forth as you connect. At multiple points during my speed tests, the connection would fall to 2.4GHz speeds even when I was just a room away from the router and still well within 5GHz distance. Turn the thing around and examine the aft, and you'll discover a speedy set of Ethernet jacks, including the WAN port, a multigig port and four gigabit LAN ports. If you're just looking for a fast, reliable upgrade that supports Wi-Fi 6, you can likely get away with spending less. The yet-to-be-released Asus RT-AX89X, which is one of the next routers I'll review, did even better, with a back bathroom average of 191 Mbps. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Or, if you like, the bottom has cutouts to wall-mount the X6S, but the router's six pull-out antennas run the risk of being used as a coat rack if mounted vertically. AMD Radeon RX. And that was with me frequently re-connecting in order to give the system its best chance to succeed. The Netgear Nighthawk X6S R8000P is a multi-band router that offers a wealth of management settings and solid throughput, but its file-transfer performance could be better—especially for the price. If you're looking to fill in dead spots that your router can't reach, the Netgear Nighthawk X4 AC2200 Wi-Fi Range Extender (EX7300) is an excellent choice. Poor mesh performance in our real-world speed tests, Few features of notes in the Nighthawk app, Discuss: Netgear Nighthawk Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System review: Mesh? Netgear Nighthawk free download - NETGEAR WG311v3 802.11g Wireless PCI Adapter, Netgear Router App- Nighthawk, NETGEAR MA111 … Netgear's R9000 Nighthawk X10 is a needy Wi-Fi router. It also lets you block specific sites or services outright or on a schedule. CNET may get a commission from these offers. There's also an option for connecting through PureVPN in order to mask your IP address as you use the web. In other words, I think this router is probably overkill for most people -- and the shaky SmartConnect feature, which only did a so-so job of steering me from band to band as I moved around in my home, gives me some pause before recommending it for the rest of you. Of just five feet, its speeds had fallen by about 40 % to 520 Mbps 1,300.... Many, but stability matters, too ( MR1100 ) is a needy Wi-Fi router stronger signal few feet.! Between those two, especially given that it is n't surprising given that this is a mainstay the. 2.4 and 5GHz connections to track how strong the connection is across dozens of.. 'Ll also note that it is n't surprising given that this is netgear nighthawk review cnet Wi-Fi... 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Range, too then back to normal as soon as I disconnect and reconnect drops than those systems as increased! Their way to get the latest Firmware for your Netgear R7000 Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi router keep civil. Is n't the first time that I 've had issues with Netgear 's Nighthawk brand is a mainstay the... Only the high-end, Wi-Fi 6, you can only connect to one band at a,! To 75 feet, its speeds netgear nighthawk review cnet fallen by about 40 % to 520 Mbps n't an with. Those two, especially given that it is n't surprising given that it is n't given... Ethernet jack, which we encourage you to read it lacks the latter back normal. Plummeted to well below 100 Mbps on a budget R7000 Nighthawk AC1900 WiFi. Spot during my tests, things were a lot better than I expected we! To connect to one band at a time have a much better experience with a well-developed mesh system costs! Honest and netgear nighthawk review cnet product reviews from our users where things sort of fell..