20 Best Wireless Router For Apartment (2023 Updated)

The Orbi router was easy to setup and gives great Wi-Fi coverage in our home. For those of you who believe they need to separate the 2. 4 and 5ghz bands, here is what I did for my setup. Before I did the setup of the Orbi, I created a list of items connected to my old router on the 2.

4 band and another list of what was connected on the 5ghz band. When I set up the Orbi I used the 5ghz band SID and password from the old router and then setup the guest network on the Orbi using the 2.

4 SID and password from the old router. After the Orbi setup was complete I took the lists I created from the old router and checked to see if everything connected. Everything connected including all my Ring equipment and an old wireless print server.

Over the next few days, I gradually moved everything off the guest network I created and now everything is on the one Orbi SID. Having everything on one SID will make setting up new items on the network easier instead of having separate SIDS for the 2.

4 and 5ghz bands. Love the Orbi and so far, it works great!.

Had an old Netgear router with tons of WiFi smart switches connected to it. Some would either randomly lose connection but eventually recover or stays disconnected. For the ones that stay disconnected, I would have to power cycle those devices for them to reconnect.

This would happen randomly every couple week. I decide to give this Google Nest router a try. So far, I haves 0 disconnected device within the pass month. Setup was seamless using the Google Home app.

Found out you can also use Google’s other app called “Google WiFi” which gives you more information about your network. You can use it to setup the nest router, view network setting, view all connected devices, or make network setting changes.

The app itself can run a speed test but it seems inaccurate. Google app shows +200Mbps download speed vs SPEEDTEST app showing ~50Mbps download speed. Currently speed differences are not as important as has long that the network maintain a stable connection, which it has!.

First of all, setup is a complete breeze. As long as you have an existing modem, whether personal or supplied by cable provider, you simply follow the steps on the google home app to configure the initial node, followed by plugging in the other two nodes throughout the house.

There is a three minute video on youtube called “how to install and set up google wifi” that makes setup even easier. All told, it took about 10 minutes to get all three nodes set up. That being said, This item would be good for those that do not use a VPN – you can’t install android VPN apps on the router (even though Google owns Android).

There isn’t even a manual setup option for PPTP or L2TP connections. Most major router brands have some for of 3rd-party router firmware that can be flashed (installed) if you have a little technical know-how.

Popular firmwares like DD-WRT and ASUSWRT-Merlin allow you to unlock extra features, including VPN connectivity. Unfortunately there is no 3rd-party firmware for Google wifi at this time.

Full disclosure. I purchased NETGEAR Orbi 753S from Costco not Amazon, because Costco offered 1 year of Free Technical Support not NETGEAR’s 90 Day standard Technical Support contract. After Unboxing and setting up, I already had my first call into Technical Support, as the product was not plug and play like advertised.

Many devices that use 2. 4G not 5G had issues trying to connect to system. Trying to get help from Tech. Support is impossible! After long wait times on hold (30 minutes to over 1 hour) you will hit a call center based in a foreign country, so language barriers exist and are quite prevalent.

The system seems to be very quirky, as it may work for multiple days and weeks flawlessly, but then for no reason, quite working altogether or have satellites drop in and out causing your wi-fi connected devices to stop functioning properly.

The system is set up with warning lights on the router and the satellites to warn you of issues with the system, but unfortunately ghost lights do occur according to Tech. Support, and they have no solutions to fix the issue.

Costco 1 year Technical Support is not worth the paper (Box) it is written on, because after the 90 days I have spoken with multiple technicians who want to charge you on a per call basis to fix the issue, which never really seems to get resolved.

Unless you are a programmer, or no something about programming, Technical support often leads you through going to a login, and completing multiple steps (writing code) which is supposed to fix the issues, but never does.

NETGEAR is interested in the initial sale of the Orbi, and then signing you up for a service contract after the free 90 days of support that can cost anywhere from $140 to $220. That may work for you, but when you have a product that is warranted for 1 year, try getting your product repaired or replaced for free when Technical support won’t even talk to you because you have not signed up for their service contract.

This is pure extortion on NETGEARS part because they know that they have a product that will need Technical help at some point, and if you are unwilling to pay for it, you basically have a paperweight not a router with Wi-Fi extenders.

DO NOT BUY! This issue seems to be prevelant on all NETGEAR Routers and Extenders!.

I bought this system to provide wifi for our small church. We have roughly 5000 sq. ft. of space, so I purchased the 2 satellite version, but one may have been enough. I was getting pretty good coverage before plugging in the second unit.

Setup is not complicated, but it is helpful to read the instructions to understand how the system is designed. The units all look the same. The router is identifiable only by the stickers on it. Each unit has its own set of LAN ports.

By default, it comes with profiles for each of the 4 SSIDs that indicate how each might be used: Administration, employee devices, Internet of Things (IOT), and guest. The guest setup assumes you will want to obtain and agreement for terms of use before proceeding.

The network shows as unsecured. The password you set it taken as part of the agreement process. There does not seem to be a way to change this behavior, but it may be that I missed it. The Virtual LAN (VLAN) profiles can be changed for each SSID, and that determines the level of access each client has and whether it can see other clients on the network.

Since I did not want to use the agreement process at this time and we don’t really need a separate employee network, I applied the guest profile to the employee SSID to create the standard wifi password connection I was looking for.

The routers interface is easy enough to use, but one should be aware that when configuring the wifi profiles changes must be applied before leaving the tab for that network, and the process of saving the changes seems to take much longer than it should, apparently due to the way that the router shares it’s configuration with the satellites.

The router does have features for virtual DNS and remote management if desired, as well as facility for creating a DMZ for Internet facing servers. We have not yet put any real stress on the network, but throughput seems to be good.

I may need to update this after we’ve had more time with it, but so far it seems like a solid system. I will be considering a Netgear product the next time I need a new router for my home.

We have subscribed to Gigabit internet service for a couple of years and since my home office is the furthest distance away from the wifi router, I would struggle with much slower speeds and internet stability/connectivity issues during video calls.

I started researching mesh wifi router systems which led me to the Orbi WiFi 6 system (RBK750 series). Initially, because we live in an older home with plaster walls and other physical obstacles (i. e.

the plumbing, tile and porcelain in bathrooms all likely add some interference), the wifi mesh did help my internet reliability, but it did not help my download speeds. After two cable company visits and more research, it became clear the solution was putting a wifi mesh satellite in my home office and then using an ethernet cable to connect my laptop directly to the satellite.

Even though the signal to the satellite is still coming over the mesh wifi wirelessly, the speeds coming directly out of the satellite via the ethernet cable are VASTLY improved! Before this solution, I was averaging 100Mbps to 150Mbps and a ping of 14 to 18 (using speedtest.

net) to now averaging 500Mbps to 600Mbps and a ping of 9 to 12!! The other satellite in our system with a more direct site line to the main wifi router is averaging 800 Mbps using this same connection setup!! Now that everything is set up, it is working flawlessly and I am very happy with the results!.

This system and experience is OK, but for the price, it should be great. The router and satellites mostly work as advertised, but they do occasionally “drop” internet service. What’s really troubling, is simple, yet necessary things such as firmware/software updates can cause the router to crash, have slow connectivity, or no connectivity.

This is the warning part. the warranty AND live (human) tech support for this product is only for 90 DAYS from date of purchase. Once that has expired, you are on your own for figuring out problems, or you have to pony up even more money(!) to get live tech support Now, for free, Netgear will guide you to their online forum/ web page for tech support, but good luck.

You must post your problem/issue, wait for a response (here’s to hoping the online tech support people know what you are asking/describing the first time), then try to figure out if that solution fixes your problem.

If that solution doesn’t work, it’s back to the drawing board and the online forum. For people that are not tech savvy, this could pose a huge problem. Also, with some of the tech support responses, you will be made to feel like you just fell off the turnip truck or that you are talking to a bunch of “homers.

” The entire tech support process is an unnecessarily drawn out, arduous process that could be made better, by talking to a live person, for FREE. The Orbi app apparently is hit or miss as well, because updates pushed through using the app can cause problems.

In summary, the price does not meet the expectations of what this product should be able to do and the support that should be given. For the price, I feel that I bought great looking sports car, with a 4 cylinder engine.

We have a total of four PS4 consoles, five laptops, 8 phones depending on who is at the house, and sometimes a few tablets connected at one time. The router handles the workload phenomenally, better than others at its price point.

But the whole reason I got it was for the satellite, and things are very buggy when we have it active. Devices connected to it get kicked or have very low speeds despite the satellite having Ethernet backhaul, possibly due to it not being sure which orbi to connect to.

May get a different satellite eventually.

Works perfectly for what I need. I rent a room and have my own internet, but the modem/router from my ISP sucks. Got this to use in place of their wireless. What a HUGE difference! With the help of some YouTube videos, I was able to tweak a couple settings for my needs.

Only two complaints so far. First, I didn’t like how Armor automatically installed itself. I didn’t want it to begin with. After a few Google searches, I found out how to turn it off. Second, is how bright the LED indicator lights are.

You could SOS from the moon with them! Yes, you can go into settings and turn them off, but that defeats the purpose of seeing what’s working and what isn’t. Would be wonderful if in the settings there was three more options for the LED brightness.

Normal, medium and low. Not sure if that’s a firmware or software thing, but it would be nice to have! Other than those things, I’m glad I bought it! I have a few friends that have Nighthawks and they love theirs too.

4 stars for the auto install of software that I didn’t want and the ungodly brightness of the LED indicator lights.

I am SO happy that I bought this router. I pay a ridiculous amount for 200mbps internet speeds but the router provided by Spectrum was so terrible, it could not give out more than 60mbps WiFi, even if you stood next to it the highest it would go is 60-65mbps, I was on the phone with spectrum customer service DAILY for months because of slow speeds and constant connection interruptions.

Finally I had enough and went online to find a router, the Nighthawk caught my eye immediately with its sleek and stunning design, it happened to be on sale for only $70 so I bought it, and let me just say.

this was the best $70 I ever spent, this router not only looks cool but it performs better than I ever imagined to be possible. It puts out 200-300 mbps WiFi without ever slowing down or skipping a beat, and the range is incredible, my spectrum router would give off 10-20 mbps unless you were in the same room it could get up to 65mbps MAX, the nighthawk? It puts out 200 in every room of my townhouse and beyond, it reaches as far as the parking lot and the speeds DO NOT REDUCE no matter if you’re next to it or 70 feet away.

Since I have plugged the router in none of my devices have lost internet connection, not even once. None of my devices have got stuck on a loading screen, not even once. I’ve never been happier with my internet, I’ve even tried to test the nighthawks limits and turned Netflix/Hulu on All 3 of my tvs, 3 iPads, and 3 iPhones and my laptop all at once, had videos streaming on a total of 10 devices simultaneously and it did not slow down the internet at all.

This router is simply amazing, and to think it’s the smallest one of the netgear nighthawk line. I can’t even imagine the capabilities of the other nighthawk routers. Anyway to sum it up, if you have problems with connectivity, or not getting your full internet WiFi speeds, the nighthawk AC1750 will absolutely solve your problems and then some.

Buy this router and you will never have to deal with the stress of losing connection or waiting on loading screens. This router is simply amazing.

Product came earlier than was predicted. The box was a bit beat up as if it had been sitting somewhere for a while but the interior and its contents were pristine. The system is a snap to set up using the Orbi app.

I was up and running after plugging in all three nodes around my house in about 10 minutes. The app is easy to use and quite functional. One is able to see who is on the network and any user can individually be shut off with the app.

The app also shows network speed. While I would not have bought the security piece they include it free for a year and so far I like that function too. It alerts you when security (spam) issues are blocked.

I have a fairly large home (6000 sq ft) and my old Apple Time Machine router and an add on extender were not cutting it. I now have 5 bars wifi reception everywhere in the house. I chose this unit over the Orbi WiFi 6 option because of the huge cost difference and the fact that one need 1G service (I have 400 MB) to benefit from WiFi 6.

WiFi 6 is also useful if there will be lots of users. We never have more than 6. The Orbi RBK53S also has the fastest back haul of any non-WiFi 6 unit meaning that the band the system dedicates to the communication and speed of each node is incredibly fast.

All tri-band systems have a dedicated band solely for communication among the nodes. Dual Band systems have no such dedicated band and therefore the communication between nodes eats into the bandwith the system uses to provide wifi (meaning internet speed drops as a result of sharing bandwith with the back haul).

I did not buy the Eero WiFi 5 system for this reason (it is dual band). The Eero WiFi 6 is tri-band but costs $1000 for three nodes (like the Orbi WiFi6). So for $550 less than the WiFi 6 systems, this Orbi was the overall best and more than meets my needs.

This was a great upgrade from my decade old modem. With just the router I have the max provider internet speed of 300 mb/sec everywhere in my 2700 square foot house. I put one satellite unit in my detached shop (with metal doors facing the house).

I then had reliable but slow (10 mb/sec) wifi. When I placed another satellite in the room in the house closest to the detached shop the speed in the shop went to the provider max of 300 mb/sec. Because the ORBI unit will automatically work in a dasy chain configuration the unit in the shop does not have to connect directly to the router.

The dedicated wifi backhaul channel ensures high dasiy chain speed.

Even the packaging is well thought out. As far as the components themselves, the Eero system was easy to set up using the Android phone app my smart phone. No surprises. Although there is no web interface and the phone app is not as capable as my old Netgear Orbi, it’s far better to have a mesh router and beacons that are reliable than to have bells and whistles for a system that is not 100% reliable.

Eero provides a strong signal as well as excellent coverage with no dead spots. I did end up buying an unmanaged switch (TP-Link TL-SG105 5 Port Gigabit Unmanaged Ethernet Network Switch) to provide more outputs but that was inexpensive and easy to do.

Picture shows the Eero router sitting on top of the switch.

I replaced all of my plugs/bulbs and many receptacles with Smart versions so I have about 65 things connected to my WiFi router. I was having trouble with my old one so I bought a Netgear Nighthawk X6 which was supposed to be one of the best.

I fought for 2 years with it dropping connections on the 2. 4GHz devices and it would require a hard restart before it would work again. I finally decided to replace it and got this eero Pro and eero beacons.

I couldn’t be happier. I have not had one problem with my smart devices, 2 streaming TV’s and various cell phones/tablets. Not one single hickup. The router is awesome and I highly recommend it.

FINALLY! I thought I’d never stop the decades-long cycle of hopping from brand to brand in hopes of finding a wireless solution that just WORKS — consistently fast data transfers, reliable uptime, easy maintenance, and a kind of equivocal sense of genuine dependability.

I grew tired of jumping on the latest and most expensive flagship devices, so I was flat-out shocked by the performance of the eero Wi-Fi system. The sense of ease sets in from the start. Unpacking was a peripheral benefit (clean, minimal branding and packaging can do no wrong), but the installation process was intuitive and breezy — trust me when I say that I hate dealing with tech setups usually.

The app guides every step and a cursory glance at the wireless configuration after the fact showed that everything was running properly off the bat. My boyfriend has been my designated IT guy for years and he is so pleasantly surprised that the setup is easy enough for somebody like me to handle.

He mentioned that he can confidently purchase an eero system for his parents and not fear a Saturday morning spent configuring archaic router interfaces and guessing why those dead spots persist. Back to our office, though.

This thing is a miracle. It’s a pleasure to use the app, and I’ve made it a bit of an obsession to use the speed test feature in different spots (and at different times of the day). We’re getting consistent download speeds in the 80 – 90 MB/s range throughout our office — in enormous ranges.

This has never happened before, despite having spent dropped considerably more money for last generation’s “best” solutions. Absolute game-changer, and I no longer worry about the routine router resets and ambiguous downtimes of yesteryear.

Despite having purchased Fiber service years ago, we finally feel the modern Internet experience as we always dreamed it should. Thank you, eero!.

My husband and I couldn’t both use the internet at the same time for years and he mentioned that it might have something to do with our router but I kind of dismissed the idea. Fast forward 10 years and we’re living through a pandemic and the landscape of our internet use at home has drastically changed from browsing the internet for pleasure to me working full-time at home doing data analysis and my daughter doing school full-time at home too.

We are both on Zoom calls at the same time and need the internet to work. I did some research, including trying to understand what a router actually does, what the different numbers mean, what a family our size needs and what a house our size needs.

All reviews pointed to this router as the best one. I was not expecting the price but it is well worth the money. Unlike another reviewer saying installation was difficult, I thought this was super easy to install and probably took 15 minutes when all was said and done.

Very happy with our purchase. Have had the router for about a month no with no issues.

I have been using the Orbi 4g router for almost a year now and have to say that I love it, the security is amazing. The functionality is incredibly user friendly and the best part is I can take it anywhere in my bag with my laptop and have 4g high speed internet anywhere I go.

The user interface is very easy to manage and understand. I would recommend this 4g router over every other on the market based on my knowledge of most of the others out there solely because of how secure it actually is, and it’s useability user friendliness.

I have been repairing electronics for about 20 years now and I highly recommend this router to anyone who wants the ability to have high speed internet where you might otherwise not be able to get it, or simply because you travel and this can be used in a vehicle quite easily with only an inverter.

I use this product daily and for streaming music nonstop as well as using it for movies and tv occasionally. Highly recommend product.

I already had an Orbi RBR20 and one RBS20 satellite which was working pretty well. I wanted to add a second satellite to get a little better coverage at the far corners of my house where I have a Wi-Fi enabled sprinkler controller on an outside wall and two Wi-Fi enabled garage door openers.

Starting at the result, I got just what I was looking for namely much improved signal strength at the far points from my router. So I am very pleased. I do have to say that the Netgear Orbi RBR20/ RBS20 system can be frustrating in set up.

It’s just hard to believe how much difficulty the router can have finding the satellites. When I first set up this router system two years ago I had difficulty getting the router to locate the satellite which was sitting 25 feet away with no obstacles, walls or appliances in between.

After a dozen or so attempts I ultimately I unplugged the satellite and moved it next to the router and tried to pair them again; that worked. Then I unplugged the satellite, moved it back where I wanted it and plugged it back in.

Low and behold the router found the satellite, mission accomplished. Fast forward to this month and when I got the new satellite I tried the setup as the Orbi app instructs and had no luck. It was the same as last time.

So I moved both satellites nextto the router, reran setup and there they were. I then moved them to where I wanted them and they found each other when plugged in again; mission accomplished. The speed throughout my house including outside at the sprinkler controller and garage door openers is amazing.

Indoors I can watch shows I have recorded on distant recorders with ease. Streaming is a breeze and there are no weak spots in my network.

I bought this for a friend who had an AT&T LTE hotspot. The hotspot barely could reach 8MB download and upload was abysmal. He had it inside his house and placed it everywhere he could, but to no avail.

The AT&T hotspot also had poor in-house coverage in his 1200 square foot house once connected. I bought the AC2200 router and an additional outdoor antenna, coax, etc as we thought the issue was building penetration and antenna gain on the AT&T hotspot.

We received the AC2200 and proceded to install it with the Orbi app as instructed (took a while to download over the AT&T hotspot but we perservered). We installed the AT&T SIM into the AC2200, followed the instructions and crossed our fingers.

The AC2200 recognized the SIM and connected to the AT&T network immediately. We answered a few questions on the app and were up and running with a WiFi connection via LTE before we knew it. Using the Oribi app, one can see the “number of signal bars” that the AC2200 “sees” for signal strength from the AT&T tower.

We hadn’t installed any outdoor antenna at this point. Inside the living room, without a clear view to a window, etc, we had 2 bars of signal strength and the OOKLA speed test came back at 8MB. My friend was estatic as the AT&T modem had spotty coverage there.

I then placed the AC2200 near a window in clear “view” of the AT&T tower (there are web pages on line which show you where the towers are, what LTE bands they use, and their coverage so I knew where to “point” the AC2200).

Immediately, after a reboot, the AC2200 showed 4 bars of signal strength! We ran a few OOKLA speed tests and they consistently showed downlink speed at 50 MB or higher and uplink speed at 8 to 10 MB.

I told my friend my cable supplied internet only does a bit better. Smiles all around. We chose to not install an external antenna as the performance was outstanding without one. Kudo’s to the Netgear antenna and radio engineers (I design wireless systems and antennas for a living) for an incredible job well done.

LTE antennas have to cover a large frequency range and be small enough to fit inside the AC2200 package. Awesome performance. I would, in a heartbeat, buy this product again. (I did actually, and two of my friends neighbors have placed their orders after seeing the performance.

) You may not have the experience I had if you live far from an AT&T tower. My friend is at least 5 miles from his tower and the land is flat. I do think that using an outdoor antenna in places with poor coverage will help a bunch (put the antenna above your roofline so it can see all around).

The antenna I was going to use is a Wilson 4G Omni Plus Building Antenna (they sell on Amazon for about 50 bucks, well worth it, great antenna). We didn’t need it, but I’m keeping the antenna for another day when the AC2200 needs help and we have to install an outdoor antenna on someone else’s house.

I’m a big Netgear fan. I’ve bought a lot of Netgear products over many years and have always been a happy customer. The AC2200 is a great product, well designed, and a great performer. The best part of the whole experience this time was seeing my friend’s wife’s face light up when she said, “WE HAVE WiFi?”.

Priceless. Several days have passed and each day I get a thank you email from either my friend or his wife. BTW. The WiFi coverage of the router is incredible. They have a 1200 square foot house. The AC2200 is placed in one corner of the house (so it “sees” the AT&T antenna the best) and my friends wife’s computer room is in the opposite corner of the house.

The WiFi on her MAC shows 4 bars, and she is getting high LTE data speeds on her MAC. The AT&T hotspot would WiFi would barely cover one room when connected to LTE. Again, your mileage will vary with the LTE experience, but if you want to try an LTE connected WiFi router (and you have AT&T or one of the providers Netgear’s AC2200 has been approved for) you can do no better than the AC2200.

It may cost a little bit more than some of the others out there, believe me, it’s worth it.

I will keep it short, because the problem is rather narrowly defined (at least in my case). For basic everyday people, who know nothing about networking, the R8000 Nighthawk router may seem to work well.

However, there are a lot of people like myself, who are neither expert or beginner, that do like to customize the router through the user interface. The problem with the firmware/software that I am referring to is the ability to re-name your connected devices through the “attached devices” tab.

The instructions at the bottom of the attached devices page tell you to highlight the device and click edit. THERE IS NO EDIT BUTTON and you can’t highlight the devices. I did a lot of research online and it turns out that this has been a problem for years, not just with the R8000 router, but with all their routers.

The word on the street (in forums) is that Netgear is fully aware of this problem and will not/can not fix it. I then read on a Netgear forum that you can use the Netgear Nighthawk App on your mobile device to rename devices.

I tried that and it failed too. Quite frankly, the app seems to be rather basic and has limited functionality. Several years ago, I had a Netgear N900 router, and I do remember being able to change the device names, so it did work back then.

I am also reading that if you go backwards many firmware revisions, that you can get the device renaming to work. I am not doing that. I have about 30 connected devices and not being able to re-name them makes it impossible to see what is running on my network and is a security issue, because I can’t determine if I have intruders.

I also run a Netgear R6700 V3 on the same network as an Access Point. I am not able to re-name the devices listed on its attached device tab either. Netgear, why is this issue never fixed?? I am not a software engineer, but one would think that the people who make the device should be able to correct the issue.

I would love to hear from someone on this.

I’ve had this router for four years now. No problems and could stream and do what I needed to do with no problems. I live by myself in a single story, 2 bedroom home. I started getting some Internet speed fluctuations.

The internet company said it was most likely the router and said to update the firmware. I updated the firmware and seems to be functioning better now. So my recommendation is get the nighthawk app and make sure up update the firmware.

I don’t rate like a normal person is why it gets 4 stars. A 5 star router we mean I’ve never had a problem with it and the strength is superb where anywhere in my yard I had a signal. That’s not this.

3 stars would be this is an average router that produced results equivalent to what an average router would. This is a 4 star router which means it produces better than the run of the mill router, but if you are looking for the best or something top notch, this one probably isn’t it.

My old Netgear dual-band router had seen better days and so I decided to give the R8000P a go. The initial highlight of the features for me was beam forming, which helped me overcome WiFi dead zones in my home.

Then a few other features stood out and impressed me. The ability to check the speed at the front end of my network, the improved logging with attack identifications, and the level of network control and information that’s available from within the Nighthawk app.

On top of those things, I was also pleased to see the same familiar web interface that I prefer to use while implementing more complex router configurations such as subnetting, vlans, address reservations, and internet/WiFi scheduling.

I’m still in the process of testing Netgear Armor during the free month trial that was offered, but I can say that I already like it and will be purchasing a full year subscription. Previously, I was paying for a Fing subscription to analyze my network and help to find/track vulnerabilities and issues.

But now, my Nighthawk has the same abilities built into Netgear Armor. One feature that I would still like to see is the ability to receive notifications when a device goes offline. The Nighthawk app also has the option of utilizing Circle for parental controls, which includes managing your child’s internet usage, device time and content restrictions.

Something I plan to work with more moving forward. Overall, a Nighthawk router is a worthwhile upgrade and has convinced me to spend more on my home networking in the future. The features and performance differences are honestly worth it.

Overall, the router itself is very good. I’ve pretty much used Netgear products exclusively in the past, and I bought the R8000P to replace an aging Nighthawk R7000 (which is now set up as a wired access point in the basement).

The speeds are great, and the tri-band is useful for segregating the kids’ streaming/gaming from the business use. So overall, it’s a good product. The issue came when the firmware was updated to version V1.

4. 1. 50_1. 3. 10. As documented on several online forums (including Netgear’s own Community Support forum), once this firmware was installed, it prevented any future firmware upgrades/downgrades, even with a factory reset or attempting to flash a new firmware via TFTP.

Even though the router is currently functioning well, it poses a security risk, as future security holes will not be patched. The only known fix is an exchange for a new unit, and NOT allowing V1. 4.

1. 50_1. 3. 10 to be installed. For newer units, this likely won’t be an issue. However, I would probably disable automatic firmware updates – at least initially – to make sure this version does not get installed.

The larger issue is Netgear’s support and warranty. By default, upon registering the product, the buyer receives a free 90-day support window (from the purchase date). The product has a 1-year warrantee.

I encountered the firmware issue in the 3-6 month timeframe. As a result, the only way Netgear would even CONSIDER a warrantee replacement was for me to purchase an extended support contract, so one of their support staff could evaluate the issue and determine if it needed to be sent in or replaced.

As this is a well-documented issue that Netgear is definitely aware of, there should be no evaluation necessary – it’s a simple warranty replacement. What good is a 1-year warrantee if you need to pay a fairly large fee to get them to process it? Some users on the forums did pay for the extended support, and received replacement units.

Others were denied a replacement for unknown reasons. I chose not to gamble, and did not purchase the extended support. I will be putting that money toward a new non-Netgear router, likely an ASUS. Once again – so far, this seems like a good router.

However, if you are going to have any potential warranty issues, hopefully they will happen during the first 90 days. Otherwise, it will cost $50 or more for Netgear to even consider a replacement.

I recently upgraded my wifi from a Medialink router to the Netgear. I began to notice a definite drop in my internet speed. When I should be getting 200mbps I was only getting about 30mbps. I had the cable techs come and check my lines and they said everything was good to go.

Having that information led me to believe it was my wifi. I ordered my Netgear that day and it arrived 2 days later. After setting it up and downloading the app, I checked my speed. I was now getting 230mbps and the coverage in my 5,000 sqft home was way beyond expectations.

This wifi router sits in my basement office and can hit without loss of strength to my top floor. I would encourage everyone to consider the Netgear Nighthawk AC4000 as an upgrade or new router.

I can’t get into the technical details of our issue, but hoping this review may save someone money. We bought our Nighthawk router in ~May of 2020 after a few months of struggling with our wifi when we both started working from home.

While it was an improvement over our Apple Airport (yeah, it was old), we’ve still had spottiness with our wifi and significantly lower speeds than when hard-wired. We even tried changing our internet provider and started paying for increased speeds to see if that was the issue, but we’re now convinced it’s the router.

Less than 2 years later, my partner is currently out purchasing a different router. Given the price tag, we were completely underwhelmed with it’s performance and frustrated at having to replace it in such a short time period.

We are not interested in purchasing another Netgear product after this experience.

Designed as a wired base router with a pair of wireless remote nodes the Nest system was easy to install and the configuration was straightforward tho not automatic. This system (2200 series) will operate with the earlier generation 1200 series.

Easily supported 200 MB service. For my use the only downside is the 2200 series does not permit Ethernet backhaul from the main router to the remote units. For that reason I added a pair of 1200 series nodes as the previous version does offer wired backhaul.

Management and configuration is done via an app, and mine performs well on my iPhone.

I bought this router in 2017 as a backup for the router I was using died. Well, that day came yesterday and I set up this new router today. First router I have been able to set up by myself without calling my ISP provider for assistance.

Took literally minutes with connectivity specs being preprogrammed into the router & my desktop was wirelessly on the ‘net so quickly. Took me far longer to get all my google mini voice activated ‘smart’ plugs, outlets, connected.

If this 80 year old woman can connect quickly, you can, too. Will only ever buy Netgear routers if necessary in the future.

Once we finally got it installed, the NETGEAR R6220-100NAS has been great. I bought it initially because I was hoping it would speed up our wifi, which was from our phone company and really slow (rated for 7Mbps and was always lower).

But it was frustrating to install because the only instructions it came with were to download the Nighthawk app and use that to install the router, but the app tried to locate our existing wifi (our old modem/router from our ISP was still installed) and couldn’t find it.

There was no alternate way to install, and I don’t know what people were supposed to do if they didn’t already have wifi in the house to begin with. Maybe the problem is I was confused, but anyway I set the Netgear aside, intending to return it.

Then COVID-19 came along and we had to get on Zoom and our existing wifi was too slow for that, so we changed our ISP to the cable company. The cable company only provided a modem, not a router, so we needed a new router that was not also a modem.

Good thing I hadn’t gotten around to returning the Netgear router to Staples yet. The new ISP’s installer who came to our house also set up the Netgear router for us. Problem solved! Our new internet is rated for 100Mbps speed via ethernet, though one should usually expect wifi to be slower than the ethernet speed.

The Netgear consistently gives a speed around 42Mbps on the 2. 4Ghz wifi and 117Mbps on 5Ghz. Woohoo!.

I bought this Apple AirPort Extreme 802. 11ac to complement the other one I use as my WiFi access point and router. Effectively I’m using this as an extender. I have the 2 linked by ethernet over powerline to avoid loss in speed — Apple allows you to extend the network wirelessly but there is a significant drop in performance.

It’s an excellent piece of kit, rock-solid and I almost never have to reboot it — compared to the Virgin Media Super Hub 3 that I was rebooting 1~2 times a week. I set the VM SH3 to Modem mode and let the AirPorts do all the work (so WiFi, Router, DHCP, etc.

) and they do it admirably and without fuss. This is an “old” piece of kit (it was released in 2013) but still holds its own admirably compared to other WiFi routers and it gives me rock-solid WiFi with excellent performance.

However I would still totally recommend it. They actually look rather nice too — far less obtrusive than normal routers and sit there quietly in the background blending in with everything else. Very easy to setup and use with the AirPort Utility piece of software.

Am delighted!.

Highly reliable, and flawless wireless networking. There aren’t many features, but if you are heavily apple-ecosystem, these routers/access points are great for “good enough” wireless networks. My house has 4 of them, setup with ethernet backhaul, to create one single WIFI network.

transition between devices is flawless, even with wifi calling and video chat sessions actively flowing data. I have 5xstreaming devices for TVs, including one 4K streamer, and all work great.

The Air Port Utility did the whole set up for me. The other day the light was orange and I thought it strange since it had been operating very well. It said it was over heating, but I went to the Air Port Utility and I noted that a file sharing buttomn was checked to file share and I didn’t want that – I turned it off and it wanted to “update” so I clicked that to occur and after two minutes everything was good again and the light was green.

I called my brother to check his Aip Port and his was orange. He said his Aip Port Utility wantred a firmware update and then his light went green after a few minutes. Strange. I think that was what my Aip Port Extreme needed, as well.

I have had no glitches with this Air Port Extreme but that incident which – was a firmware update.