Best Security For Wifi Router (2025 Updated)

Bottom line: top-notch, customizable parental controls makes this an amazing router! I was able to use both the Synology RT2600ac and Gryphon AX, and purchased them mostly for parental controls. Both are highly rated with regard to parental controls, so I had high hopes with both.

I had a hard time deciding so I tried both. Setup: Synology was easier to set up out of the box, but Gryphons customer service was more responsive. Customer Service: It was harder to get in touch with Synology for help.

I was able to connect through chat, and that can be cumbersome and difficult. It did help, though. Gryphon also has chat and email, but I used their phone customer service quite a bit since I was a bit of a novice.

Their agents are super easy to work with, take the time to help, easy to understand, patient, and very responsive. I also got a few personal emails from the CEO when I had an issuethey do seem to bend over backwards.

Parental controls: Both were very strong. Gryphon takes the lead, however. They separate filters by more age rangestoddler, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult, unrestricted. Synology has child vs.

adult, so this misses a lot of nuances as kids grow up. Gryphon also allows you to pause certain devicesfor example, I can pause the Roku if I want my kid off it. With Synology, I had to create a filter group of my Roku devices and pause the entire class.

Gryphon does a better job filtering out content we might not even know we want to filter out. Gryphon also shows me all the websites my child has visited and for how long, and Synology just will tell me the amount of time spent on the internet.

I love that both offer free parental controls. The interesting upgrade Gryphon has is you can retain the parental controls on devices off your home or cellular network for an upgradeso it follows them at school or a friends house.

This is the second time I’ve bought this product. This first time, I really didn’t give them much of a chance and returned it. I purchased several others and returned them all not being happy with one thing or another.

However, I kept coming back to this one and thinking I might have made a mistake. This time, I took the time to figure it out and it does what I need it to do. It doesn’t do any on thing great but it does most things well.

I like having different profiles for each of my kids. I hate having to configure my iPhone to keep from getting multiple instances of Mac Addresses. I reallyI like that it keeps a browser history that my kids cannot erase.

I hate that I can only control my router through my phone app. It can easily grow with your needs by adding multiple towers to create a mesh system. I have two towers and they work well. The fact that I came back and gave them another try says a lot.

I’ve had it now for almost a year.

First off, I’m not a techie. have enough back ground to build my own computers and navigate through most technical devices but far from an expert. I bought two of these. The first was as a router and the second as an access point.

Both were easy to setup without any issues. I ended up buying two because the router was placed in an office on the far side of the house in a wooden entertainment center. That effected the strength of the signal, so I opted to buy a second one.

I hardwired it running Cat 6 in the attic and dropped it down in the living room to create the access point (you can do it wirelessly as well but want to get the full signal strength to the living room).

I thought about buying a regular access point, but when you start comparing the data speed and number of bands, you basically end up spending $300 anyway and getting less data speed compared to using this as an access point.

Plus, by treating this as an access point, it gave me 8 LAN ports to hardwire all my devices in the living room, so I thought it was a better deal. Also, fyi, I recycled an old 10 year router at best buy for a 15% off coupon.

When this went on sell for $319, I used the 15% off and picked it up for $271. not a bad deal saving $78! I won’t get into all the data speed measurements as it varies on usage, but what I will say is by having two of these on opposite sides of the house, I get my full 5gz/2gz speed through most of the house.

I also love the fact you get the option of splitting the ssid between 5gz and 2gz or combining it into one as well as the access point uses the same ssid to be able to hand off when walking across the house.

I have only started to use the product but enjoy the ease of seeing which client devices are connected to your network, the data usage of each device, the ease of turning on 160mhz on the 5gz band, etc.

I still need to play with the guest network, parent controls, and other security features. The only drawback for me is it didn’t have WPA3 or a WAN that supported larger than 1G speed. But, I figured the WPA3 is just a security feature and the likely hood that I would ever get (and afford) over 1G of internet speed is highly unlikely in the near feature.

I think I saw Comcast offering 2G for almost $300 a month, ouch! Anyway, this router find my needs and both units have been working flawlessly since purchase.

I bought AX88U because I can’t stand for the random reboot from Netgear’s RAX120v2, which is otherwise a fantastic router. I used to own AC86U, so I was hoping AX88U to be a familiar, stable and highly customizable router.

It didn’t disappoint. Unlike RAX120v2, this is a full Wi-Fi 6 certified router. I believe RAX120v2 lacks “Target Wake Time,” so it isn’t Wi-Fi 6 certified. Though I do want to point out that RAX120v2 offers much better throughput and noticeably lower latency on both wired and wireless connections.

AX88U also lacks a 5G/2. 5G LAN/WAN connector. These were in fact the reasons I bought RAX120v2, but it’s simply too unstable to use. Imaging waiting minutes just for the router to reboot.

I replaced a failing Nighthawk with this router. All as you would expect from TP-Link, easy to set up, good quality and probably reliable. Overall I like it and it is a good router. The interface is clean and modern.

It has QoS which improved my overall throughput on the Nighthawk, but is managed differently on the TP-Link, so I need a bit more reading to try that. However, there are a few issues I have with it. The range doesn’t seem as good as the older Nighthawk.

An existing TP-Link and newer TP-Link range extenders don’t pick up a signal where the old one was plugged in. They need to be higher up and about 3 metres closer to the router (I checked using an extesion cord for the extender).

When I switch on my PC, it seems to take longer to connect to the Internet than the old Nighthawk, but this may be a setting that needs changing, possibly not dropping the IP address when a device is switched off? Not sure but it needs some attention.

I’m also sure my old router reported everything attached, even items with fixed IP addresses but this item doesn’t. So fixing IP addresses for printers and NAS devices means you can’t see them on the client list.

I had a go with OneMesh and a new extender (RE605x) and it didn’t seem as good as my existing extender (also a TP-Link device, an RE650 v1). I’ll have to do a bit more work to see if I can get that working as well as the old device.

OneMesh also only seems to work on the main SSID and not the Guest Network, so you will need another solution for that (I use the old RE650). Time will tell if it is reliable and I can overcome the shortfalls.

None of the shortfalls would stop me from buying this product as it will work in most larger houses, as long as the router is sited centrally on the ground floor. If you have a long home and site it at one end, then you will need extenders or WAP’s to improve your access.

I have returned this router within BestBuy’s return window. The Good: Router performance was awesome, reached corners of ~4000sq house and a detached garage without issue. Easy to use, very fast, handled upper 30 devices with 4 kids streaming class work (streaming Microsoft Teams and Zoom), teacher wife doing virtual teaching one day a week and me working from home.

The Bad: WAN Port would randomly go to “unplugged” / “disconnected” depending on where you looked (iOS app or Webpage). When problem occurred, all devices would still connect to the Archer but the Archer would not connect to the AT&T provided router (1GB Fiber Arris BGW210-700).

Note this AT&T router has been in use for months and has been feeding my pre-wired house (only bypassing it to get better WiFi range). Regardless, I swapped cables, put a dumb switch between the Arris and the Archer but problem remained.

Contacted TP-Link Support and really didn’t get that far (was told to force 1GB Full Duplex or 100MB Full Duplex). Didn’t think a 4 day old router should require that. Unplugged the WAN port and plugging back in (either side) did not resolve, had reboot or power-off the Archer.

I really did like this router and wanted it to work, but after having problems and seeing other reviews with similar issues (some reviews indicated worked great for months then WAN port failed). I decided to return and go with a different brand.

Had a 4 year old D-Link router that was beginning to show its age. Wasn’t getting great signals, also had a D-Ling extender for my Ring devices but still had a terrible signal with the extender about 20 ft from the furthest device.

Almost made my Ring doorbell and camera useless. Got the AX6000, I work in IT and judging from past experiences, I decided to wait until Saturday to install it just in case something went wrong, which usually does.

I could have done this one morning before work! Setup was flawless and only took about 15 minutes. Used the same SSID so all of my devices immediately picked up the WiFi network! I had already configured my D-Link to be an access point, installing it was simple too.

Just connected it, changed the SSID to match my old extender and my devices connected! Love the 8 ports on the AX6000, I was able to dump my 4 port switch, 1 less device to think about. One device in particular was always losing connection to the WiFi, not anymore! Super fast, easy to set up and plenty of features that I will play with later.

Oh the device furthest away from my network, the Ring camera, is now connecting as if it were 2 feet from the router. Now instead of taking at least a minute to connect (horrible when the alert goes off late at night) it now connects in a few seconds!.

IšverstiShow in original languageBeing a gamer in a household that always has multiple streaming services running the addition of this router from a high end router that was nearing 5 years old was astronomical.

There are a multitude of positives to say in regard to this new router by Netgear with just one initial negative. Firstly, right out of the box this router is very sleek and stylish. Yes, it may not be the most inconspicuous, but having the fins cover the antennas is much more visually appealing than having a bunch of antennas sticking out of a box.

Getting right into the setup though was by far the most difficult part as being someone that likes to think they are very tech savvy this was much more difficult than it needed to be. Downloading the app for setup is common and I did not having any qualms there, but in order to go this route the app needs to work fluidly.

This was where the issue arose as the app was not functioning as it should which resulted in a call to Netgear`s support line, which after a lenghty hold time someone was able to assist me with this issue and we were able to get the “bug” reported on the app and move forward with setup.

Once up and running the interface on the app is very user friendly and if I hadn`t have ran into a “bug” it seems as though it would have been a fairly seamless process to get everything setup. Once working though I elected to keep my same Wi-Fi name and password to ensure that all my connected devices simply moved over to the new network/router which couldn`t have made the change any easier.

Moving onto the actual useability in regard to the speed and the coverage of the router Netgear was able to provide everything I could have asked for. I have a 1 gig speed plan to which this was able to keep up with that and that is even overkill in my opinion so for the average household I don`t think you`re gonna be able to throw an internet plan at this thing that it can`t max out.

Additionally the range is phenomenal as the 2,500 sq feet is exactly as advertised. Previously I had to use a range extender to strengthen the connection in my basement, but with the addition of this router that is no longer needed.

The new 6 Ghz band was definitely fun to play with as it is extremely fast, but as expected the range is not very far so as long as you don`t venture too far from the router you can definitely benefit from this new major feature that helps sell this router in my opinion.

The other two minor items I wanted to touch on are the parental controls and Netgear Armor as these are both nice features that I utilized with the 30 day trial, but for the additional subscription fee I couldn`t quite bring myself to pull the trigger though for some it may be worth the added cost.

The free parental features allow you to assign devices to different profiles and stop internet access to specific devices, but the paid version allows you to set access schedules, set time limits, along with some other parental oversight features.

Then the Netgear Armor is essentially an antivirus software, but for your entire network so again for some you may find this valuable, but for myself I elected to not renew my subscription. Overall, after my initial struggle getting this router setup I have been extremely impressed with it`s performance and usability.

If you are looking for that router that will allow you to run multiple streaming services or gaming devices at the same time while being able to maintain coverage over your entire house then I would not hesitate to recommend this product!.

IšverstiShow in original languageI admit to being guilty of neglecting the benefits of a good router, as long as the internet is flowing then I don’t even think about my router. Having had some time to try out the Netgear Nighthawk Axe7800 I am prepared to admit there is a real benefit to a good router with good features…so I’ll be packing this router back up and rolling back to my old router.

In the box you get the Nighthawk router, an Ethernet cable, and the power cord/AC Adapter plus the usual setup guide (which is only to tell you to download the app to setup and diagram your router ports).

Setup was simple, in fact it was way easier than I expected/dreaded! Per the app instructions I took down my old router, plugged in the new one, let it run a process while showing me tips on features of my new router, and then it recommended I can keep my existing network name to avoid having everything sign-in on the new router.

I was skeptical about the ease of setup but darn it so far nothing hasn’t logged back in automatically! The router features four LAN ports, a 1G internet/LAN port, a multi-gig internet/LAN port, WPS button on the front, and a USB 3.

0 port to connect a network drive. So mostly what you’d expect but with that multi-gig port to allow for future proofing your router and a USB 3. 0 port instead of the standard Mini-USB which used to be standard.

The size is moderate without being large, instead of having an array of antennae to move around to get a signal this one has two wings that stick up approximately 105 degrees (90 degrees but out away from the router body).

Once it’s set up you get to access all the features of the router via the Nighthawk app: Device Manager, Security, built in Speed Test, Parental Controls, WiFi Analytics, WiFi Settings, Guest WiFi Network on/off, and a Traffic Meter.

As a parent who has battled with apps and programs that supposedly allow for time limits and curfews the Parental Controls was my first stop…and really 75% of my review score. Looking at the manufacturer website they talk about the Parental Smart Controls and all the options to keep kids safe and productive but they don’t talk about the annual fee.

Yes, you have built in controls to turn the network off for certain profiles (say putting kids devices as a group and adult or appliance devices on a seperate always on group) but those smart controls advertised are an extra monthly or annual fee.

Netgear Armor, the security options on the router? Another monthly or annual fee and it’s even higher than the parental controls! By default the Security menu only gives you a score of how safe your network is and a few ideas about making sure your password has a minimum length and special characters.

What is free with your generous purchase of this router? Well the Guest Network is nice so you can set a simple password for when company is over and otherwise turn it off, it’s on other products but feels simpler and more binary here via the app.

Speed test and WiFi Analytics are cool for times when you’re checking if you’re being throttled or just have more traffic on the network (I never felt like the network was overloaded like I have with my old router, so another point for Netgear).

The Analytics even lets you get base readings from each room and compare them so you can see where the internet is having a hard time reaching and where its best (ironically my back bedroom was better than the living room near the router!).

Maybe I’m asking too much but the amount this router costs should cover parental controls at least, if not the network security advertised on the box. We have enough monthly fees with streaming services, video game subscriptions, cell phones, internet providers, satellite radio, online shopping clubs, etc.

For a premium product this feels cheap and scammy! That’s not to say that as a device to connect your home to the single internet modem it fails at its job, far be it. I think as an internet networking device it was easy to set up, the app is simple and easy to understand (although I’m tired of all the apps I have for each appliance I buy, this one is worth keeping), and its providing a better signal than the router I got years ago.

It comes down to what your internet is worth and if you’re OK with bells and whistles listed on the package being an extra charge once you get it hooked up out of the box. For me, that is bad business and I’m marking it down for that.

If you just want internet everywhere in your home with no hassle then I highly recommend it.

IšverstiShow in original languageThe Netgear Nighthawk RAXE300 router featuring WiFi 6E looks like a Star Wars spaceship. The fins are 6 preoptimized antennas for the 2. 4, 5 and 6 GHz bands. At this point the 6GHz band has less traffic but like all of the higher bands – the higher the band the shorter the wavelength so shorter range and the possibility of it being blocked by household objects.

The unit comes with multi-Gig wired connections with a1Gps and a 2. 5G Ethernet port or 2Gps link aggregation plus 2 additional Gigabit Ethernet ports. So in total, you have five LAN ports available, or four if you want to aggregate, which is about on par for the current Wi-Fi 6E router market.

Unfortunately, I only have 1Gps internet at this point but next year I should have 2. 5 with Google fiber coming to town. It also has a USB 3. 0 connector to hook up a shared storage device. With speed up to 7.

6Gps and up to 40 devices for its WiFi this is the middle of the road for Netgear’s new RAX RoutersYou get a limited free subscription to Netgear Armor a security shield from Netgear and if you have kids Netgear’s Smart Parental controls which helps in their management for time and accessibility.

The box also has screw hold on the bottom to allow for wall mount but you will have to put it high up to get the antennas out of the way. Setup is easy and one can accomplish this with Netgear’s App or the traditional web browser access.

Network access is available through the direct wire, traditional WiFi setup or WPS. I have one WiFi 6E device and I was pleasantly surprised at the speed available on the 6GHz band with this device. It is fast enough for HD movie streaming and some non competitive gaming with speeds up to 7.

8 Gbps. The USB 3. 0 storage was simple to set up. Netgear claims the RAXE300 can cover up to a 2,500 square feet home, I didn’t have any coverage problems and it was unphased by local network interference my neighbors generated.

The App is straight forward to use. You will still need the router page for more advanced controls like QoS and port forwarding, the App can do other things the router page can’t. In particular, I found it handy for testing signal strength while optimizing the RAXE300’s placement.

Bought this router at the beginning of 2022 after reviewing 25 other routers. I’ve been in the IT business for 30+ years and needed an ultra-reliable solution for my business network without having to migrate over to NOC level aspect.

The cost for this router was comparable to other high end routers. I also purchased the CM2000 Modem and discarded my ISP’s equipment due to their unreliable functionality. Unpacking and setup was very simple and all equipment appeared to be brand new with easy instructions to get started.

Changing the default login info was effortless and I was able to configure the entire process with no problems. Updating the firmware was also unproblematic and the phone app installation when well too.

Several months after the initial installation, I had some issues with the phone app. The app would not sort the list of devices connected and the reset function would not work on the app. Shortly thereafter, the phone app was updated and everything worked fine again.

A couple more months later, I ran into a few new issues with the router. First, I cannot change the QOS function. If I try to define my internet bandwidth – the router interface does not save the setting and reverts back to the “SpeedTest” setting.

Second, the “Security” says it is not enabled on the Home page of the router after logging in. Even though there is security setup on the routher and the phone app, it still says that it is “Not Enabled.

” Lasty, I am unable to turn OFF the “WPS” function and button on the router. The “LED Control Settings” just turn off the lights on the actual router device. This is not what I need. The WPS button can still be pushed and a device can be connected.

The “WPS Wizard” get to a point when it asks to input a “PIN Number” if chosen not to use the recommended “Push Button” option. If a 4-8 digit PIN is not entered, there is an error requesting that a PIN be entered.

And at this stage, nothing more can be done to disable the WPS feature on the router. So, minus the listed issues; it is a good router but I think I am going to go with the NOC network option and hopefully there will be no feature holes or discrepancies.

I bought this to replace an equivalent Linksys WiFi router that I purchased about 12 years ago (where has the time gone?!?!). It turned out that the old unit wasn’t compatible with the new remote log in set up we have at work, so I order this unit and had my wife go pick it up.

In a word – WOW! This was a brand recommended by our IT people, so I found this on sale (thanks Best Buy). Once I got it, I assembled it (you need to put the antennae on), followed the setup instructions in the box and I was in business.

A word of caution here: Netgear supplies you with a temporary router password so you can log into the router to make adjustments and get connection info. You MUST replace this with your own new password.

I discovered this during my review of available WiFi routers. It’s a minor annoyance but that’s part of living in the “digital age” people and it ensures your home network security. Once set up, the connection is astonishingly fast.

Much faster than the previous one. I downloaded a Netgear Nighthawk app on my smartphone and went from room to room checking signal strength. Nothing less than 500 Mbps anywhere. What you get yourself will depend heavily on how fast your service is and the size of your home; you may need local repeaters to ensure top speeds.

Reconnected all of our devices and smart TV (now THERE’S an oxymoron), and we were back in business again. This far exceeded my expectations and I am well pleased. I highly recommend this unit for someone looking for a quality WiFi router.

To begin: This is not a long term review as I just purchased and installed this yesterday. This is more to review the set up process and how is has been running in the brief time in which I have owned it.

Prior to purchase I did a lot of research and heard some worrisome things about the setup process using the app. Most of the negative reviews I had read which I was concerned with were with respect to the setup process, wireless range and durability.

While I cant speak to durability yet, the app was painless to use to set up my router. Given the reviews my first attempt to set up my router was to use the website but I couldn’t find the proper link and the Netgear website took me into the deathloop trying to find a proper link so I just installed the app to install and set up my router.

The app was really straight forward and my router was up and running within 20 minutes and the walk through was very easy to follow and understand. The signal strength is exactly what I was looking for.

Our house is about 3000 Sq ft and the router is set up next one exterior wall and there is signal right across the property which is approximately 10000 square ft. So far I give this item five stars.

If I run into any durability issues in the future I will edit my rating and leave more clarification with that respect.

I bought this device to replace the one I was renting from xfinity to cut back on my monthly costs. It was very easy and quick to set up and activate with xfinity, and I am not educated at all when it comes to this technical stuff.

I did it all through the Netgear Nighthawk app. If you set up the network with the same name and password you used with your previous setup all of your devices will reconnect as though nothing had changed.

My only issue (which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5) was after the initial setup, while watching streaming video, I received a message on my TV that I had lost internet connection. But it resolved itself on its own in less than 2 minutes.

It happened one more time a few hours later but hasn’t happened again since, and I have had it set up for about a week now. If I don’t receive the internet connection error again I will change my rating to 5 stars if I am able to.

I would recommend anyone who is renting equipment from their provider to buy their own equipment, specifically this device, since it is so easy to set up and is working well. You can set up a monthly plan and own it in less than a year while paying less than you currently are to rent it.

After you own it you start saving about $15/month. It’s worth the investment. I wish I had done it sooner.

Our ISP informed us that the router we were using was not giving us the speed of internet our package was capable of delivering. The demands of the internet usage on the system pushed me to get a modem.

The modem, unlike the previous one that was 8 years old, did not have the router housed in itself, so I also needed an external modem. My last modem/router was a NETGEAR one, and the current router is NETGEAR as well, so I thought I would keep it in the family.

I bought the router, and set up with the Nighthawk app was TERRIBLE… it was so bad as it took six hours and a call to customer service for me to realize that the router itself had a software issue that prevented the set up from occurring.

The unit was brand new. Went to return it to the vendor and decided to just get an exchange instead of giving up on it. Thankfully, I didn’t. After setting up the router, internet was had in about 20 minutes or less.

It was a much better process and I haven’t had service interruptions so far (as was the case for the last modem in its last days. ) I only gave this review 4 stars because of the inconvenience of returning the first unit, and just the set up process with the Nighthawk app.

I didn’t know I would be required to download an app that I really don’t need, but here we are. Otherwise, it is a decent product.

Had this router for 1 year and 2 months exactly and what do you know, stopped connecting to the internet. I have a seperate modem that I connect to this router. When it worked it was alright, wifi speeds are really slow to be honest.

Seems to be a trend with netgear products. I have never had one last more then a year or so. Anyway, the r7000 was receiving internet from my modem but not sending internet to any devices. Tried power cycling and factory reset and still nothing.

Ended up buying a new router and everything works great again so clearly the netgear r7000 was defective after 14 months of use. and for the price point I would hope to get more out of it. I have been a loyal Netgear user for years but this was the last straw.

Bought a Linksys product this time around. Netgear has just consistently been an OK product when it works and they also stop working after about a year of use. Waste of money, look elsewhere.

IšverstiShow in original languageNot only does this wifi router LOOK like a stealth bomber, it delivers stealth bomber like speeds. As soon as I plugged in this router (which connects beautifully and seamlessly to my Nighthawk cable modem and I highly recommend you pair up both for maximum results), I saw instant speed upgrades of at least 500 Mbps.

Depending on the time of day, it can go up to 550-600 Mbps. Although Comcast promises speeds of up to 1200 Mbps, unfortunately this is a combination of marketing and overpromising, as this is not available yet in my area.

I was hitting speeds of 850 Mbps though, which needless to say, is a SIGNIFICANT upgrade to what I was seeing before with my old cable modem and old wireless router. While this router is a bit pricey and on the more expensive side of current routers on the market, I feel it is worth the investment (in the short term and long term), and especially as Wifi 6 becomes the new Wifi standard, it feels like this router is already futureproof.

I also love that I can easily utilize 3 wifi streams (up to 8 available!) that I can allocate to my different devices, i. e. laptops, mobiles, tv (2. 4 GHz and 3 5GHz currently). All in all, an excellent router, and I highly recommend! You are guaranteed to see a major speed boost, and I was very pleased with the results.

All hail the Nighthawk, the new king of aviation! And of wireless routers!.

IšverstiShow in original languageLike most folks, we have been stuck with the equipment supplied by our cable company. It is typically just above minimal function level and with two cell phones and laptops and two Chromebooks for school at home, we just keep getting disconnected.

Rather frustrating to say the least. I’d heard it may be necessary to upgrade the modem itself to get the best out of our paid internet services, but in fact this router has done just that for us. The tri-band option has been a huge plus with multiple devices, especially with my laptop connecting to my work’s internal server and downloading and uploading all day long, but also with the two kids both streaming over zoom or google classroom, YouTube videos, all while I’m on a conference call using our Roku as a second display screen.

It’s fantastic! I’m so thrilled! Plus the security settings let you set bedtimes and select specific devices to pause internet access. It’s fantastic. With WiFi 6 and two 5G bands, I can use one for just my laptop and let the two kids use the other.

Such a breeze. The convenient app you can use on the iPhone is simple and really easy to access. I’m very pleased.

IšverstiShow in original languageAs someone that works in IT daily, I expected something in this price range to be a lot more feature packed, and not require a 3rd party subscription to utilize the network security function of the router.

The wifi coverage is fantastic and the speeds are exceptional, however, false DDOS attacks are the plague of this things existence and Netgear should definitely be looking into doing a firmware update on their routers.

My girlfriend does online sales/marketing, which means a lot of social media use. Unfortunately, this router sees a considerable amount of network transactions with facebook(and other large datacenters) as a DOS attack and it brings the router to its knees momentarily, often at the least convenient times.

I cant recommend this router in good will due to those issues. If a firmware update is released that resolves said issue, and security features would become free, I’d recommend this router, as well as comparable Netgear routers over and over.

Until then, there are considerably cheaper options and comparably priced mesh systems that will likely perform better for your average wifi user.

GC is a fantastic piece of hardware. Wifi connect no issues around the 3000 sq. ft. home no weak spots. We have been using the tower over 2 years and have a good experience on the hardware. The app from a parental control perspective is good however overall capabilities have to be improved as it lacks a lot of advanced features.

The target audience seems to be novice users then it is OK from an easy of operation however does not catch the attention of average to advanced users. a good product overall.

I spent several weeks researching all router reviews to get the best fit for my home replacement system router. I decided to go with synology RT 2600 AC based on the majority of positive feedback. The product came in two days well packaged and included a brief quick reference document for installation.

I followed the instructions three times 30-40 min each without success then called my Internet provider who confirm that everything was working properly through my modem but could not evaluate the router.

I then called Synology tech-support who did very little but to repeat what was in the quick reference pamphlet and then said the problem must be with my modem. So I spent an hour and a half with my modem tech-support who reinstalled all the factory settings without any change in the routers ability to install and link with my modem.

I then spent another two hours with The extended warranty tec service group who was very patient to retry reinstalling and finally said that it was the router that was not recognizing my modem and trying both auto install and manual install was not working properly and finally authorized a return.

Trying to get technical support from the routers manufacturer synology is both a waste of time and totally unproductive long wait access time and no help beyond what was written in the quick install document so I restored my old router and returned the RT2600 AC.

I have no I’ll will for the product but it does not work in my system and no one could fix it!.

The Synology RT 2600 AC may not be the fastest dual -WAN wireless router but it is the most complete and easiest to use for non-network users. The heart and strength of this router is its user interface.

If one can use Windows or Mac OS then then managing the RT 2600 AC with the Synology Router Management (SRM) software is just as easy. For those who wish to take advantage of this router’s many networking features but aren’t learned in networking this is as good as it gets.

Several add-on software modules are available for specific functions. The only limitation is the small number of LAN ethernet ports but if you have lots of wired devices a simple inexpensive wired switch is your friend.

Couple the RT 2600 AC with one or more Synology MR 2200AC units to establish a good strong mesh system. Essentially plug them in, allow them to link up, and done.

My slight arachnophobia had always kept me away from some of the higher-end routers out there, looking like biomechanical spiders from some twisted future. Fortunately, the Nighthawk AXE7800 eschews traditional antennae in favor of two large fins on either side.

As I unboxed the device and showed it to my wife, she said it looked like a robot stingray. I told her that I thought it looked like a cool space ship that maybe Darth Vader or the Emperor would shuttle around in.

She said “that’s fine, it can go live with the Star Wars toys at the top of the cabinet. ” It’s a good thing that it does fit right in with my large statuette of Boba Fett escaping the Sarlacc pit and the Darth Vader coin bank, because otherwise I don’t know where else I would put this thing.

Due to the size, it can only really be in one orientation, laying down with the fins folded up and out, which makes it take up a space of about 13 inches wide by just under 6 inches tall. Quite the footprint for something that’s basically supposed to stay out of the way.

At least it looks cool up there with the giant C-3PO. The phone app is pretty bare bones when it comes to any actual administration. I can’t set up static IP addresses for my various devices through it.

Setting up port forwarding similarly requires you to do it through a web browser. It does have a built in speed test. I just wish it had more features besides being able to reset the password to the various hotspots.

There is some kind of subscription to a set of security features called Netgear Armor that you also get a 30 day free trial for. I’m not sure what will happen after that. The subscription’s regular price is $99.

99 per year. I do like that the router is smart enough to recognize my various smart devices, and show me what they are instead of just the MAC address. My smart lights, thermostats, phones, video game consoles, computers, tablets, and printers all showed up as their brand names, which made it super simple to reconfigure the various services and automations that I have set up that have IP address hard-coded in.

With as many devices as there are on my network, and the proliferation of streaming not only movies and music, but now entire video games that are played over the cloud, the Netgear Nighthawk has been performing well, making sure that all the devices in every corner of the house have the necessary bandwidth.

Although I have been satisfied with my current router it is now over three years old and I have been looking for a replacement so that I could benefit from the next-gen WiFi access available on my newest laptop and cellphones.

I also wanted the ability to connect to my LAN faster than the 1Gb that I was limited to by my existing router since I have two NAS units that offer port-bonding and/or 2. 5Gb ports. Finally, in addition to my current dual-band (2.

4GHz and 5GHz) access I wanted the option to expand to the 6GHz band to bump up the speed. The Nighthawk checks all the boxes for me. Setup was straight forward and everything you need is in the box.

I like the style of the device with its pop-up wings that eliminate the spider-leg like antenna array of my existing router. The overall aesthetic is sleek and somehow reminds me of a Star Wars spaceship! There are no proper setup instructions in the box, only a quick start card that advises you to load the app on your phone.

It was easy to locate and install on my Android device and immediately launched into the setup routine. This went OK. However I had to go through the steps twice before my cellphone connected to the router and even then it chose 2.

4GHz even though my Pixel 6 supports WiFi6E. I had to complete the last part of the installation manually. After everything loaded and was setup the app upgraded the firmware and rebooted. This process took long enough that I was beginning to worry but it did finally come back on-line and I was able to connect with my phone and also with my laptop (5G).

The app itself is not as full featured as the web interface but still provides a number of useful administrative and reporting tools. As I began testing I noticed that my browser was being blocked from several sites that I commonly connect to and I discovered that the only way I could correct the problem was to turn off the built in security via the app.

I did some extensive testing and am pleased with the results. Connecting to the 6GHz band has resulted in some amazing speed increases. Even the devices connected via 5G are noticeably faster and the range is slightly improved as well.

Overall, this router is a perfect fit for my requirements. Given my past experience with Netgear products I expect that it will get even better with time and I look forward to using those new features.

I am not an internet expert. I don’t understand the intricacies of wireless internet. I would say I know as much as the average American. So with that said, this review is targeted for those with my same level of understanding.

This router has been giving me hell since I plugged it in. I purchased it Feb 2021 and its now July 2022. For the first 6 months I had it plugged in and set up, I wasn’t even using the product. I had a modem router combo and despite me following the exact guidelines on how to use this router with my existing setup, it didn’t work.

I wasn’t having any trouble with my existing setup, but we’d been playing more online games and I was being proactive when purchasing this product. So, since there were no issues to begin with and none that followed after plugging this thing in – all was well.

UNTIL I realized my mistake. So, I get a new modem and explained to my cable company that I had my very own router. A nice one at that!! I couldn’t wait to get it rolling. I downloaded the app (which is why I’m giving 2 stars and not one.

The app is nice) I setup my new password and WiFi name. Updated the nighthawk software. All that good stuff. And at last, I was connected. Low and behold – my internet speed was TRASH. Both wireless and connected.

I do some quick research everyone on the Netgear forums said to roll back the software to a previous version and I would have better speed. So, I rolled it back and yes – I did in fact have higher speed! But, it came at a steep price.

My internet would randomly cut out. Meaning I had to go to the Netgear router and hit the power button, leave it off for 10 or 15 seconds, then power her back up. As a matter of fact, my 7 year old just came to me and said he’d be restarting the router because his Fortnite game crashed.

I had to copy this review and paste it in my notes app so I wouldn’t lose it when he restarted. This is the third time today. Which is what prompted me to leave this review. I guess I’m going to update the software today and suffer with mediocre internet (even though I pay a small fortune for the highest level Gigabytes my supplier offers).

I may sell this thing and never look back. I will never purchase a Netgear nighthawk product again.

To summarize, I’m not thrilled with this thing. Pros: It looks pretty cool. Wifi signal is stronger than my Linksys. Cons: Wifi is slow. How slow is it? It’s so slow that I currently have my old Linksys router plugged in to the R7000 and transmitting wifi just so I can get fast speeds.

If I rely on the R7000 my speeds drop to 40-80 Mbps. (My internet without this router is 400-500 Mbps. ) I checked the configuration and it is configured to go full speed, so there should not be any throttling happening.

The QoS “feature” is supposed to make everything run faster by prioritizing usage based on the type of data being transferred, but it made everything worse. I mean, way worse. Connections failing and unusable speeds.

The control panel is a pain because it logs you out way to frequently. You cannot adjust the timeout. It is set permanently. Relatively minor changes to the configuration cause it to fully reboot itself, making internet go out in my house for everyone.

It doesn’t warn you. It just starts the process and there’s no turning back. Finally, it needs to be rebooted frequently. For no apparent reason it just stops allowing connections and must be rebooted.

I’ve tried updating the firmware without success, and then (just in case) I tried downgrading the firmware to an old version. Nothing helped.

BUYER BEWARE – These (I am on my second R7000) age worse than milk. The first router I bought and used for 3-5 months worked great. One day the router dropped all wifi signal to all devices and refused to reconnect.

I went through all the diagnostic steps I could find online (besides reverting back to a previous SW version). If I was lucky, a reboot would get it back up and running. for an hour or so. I then called Netgear and spent around 20 hours (across multiple days) on the phone with them trying to get them to replace their product that was less than 6 months old.

I don’t think I need to walk through how the phone calls went as I spent more time on the phone with them trying to walk me through the same steps that I did already (they are probably using the calls for training by now).

After a lot of hours spent with them on the phone, they finally sent me a replacement. and it’s worked great. until today. which has been around 3-5 months since I received the “fixed” R7000. Like another person said in the 1-star feedback, if you want to reboot your router every hour and deal with poor customer support, this router is for you! Side Note: Don’t expect Best Buy to support a product they sell.