NETGEAR - Nighthawk AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 Router

Keeping this one really short. Great router. Plug it in, factory reset it, configure it, grab the firmware update, don't use the app. Then go into 192.168.1.1/debug.htm and turn on the dang fan so it doesn't overheat. The fan is supposed to turn on only under heavy load but I had to sleuth it because it was getting hot. The Netgear Forum is really driven by the success of the users, not the mods (unfortunately) and I hope this gets a LOT better once the whole covid hysteria calms down and support people can be support people again. I get the speeds I pay for with this router. I got the speeds I paid for with the RAX 8 but it died less than 24hrs later and I returned it. I did not get the speeds I paid for with the ax50 which is the router I started with because of firmware issues. So 3 routers later climbing up the product line for a 1200sq ft apt I land here and after paying a ridiculous sum of money for connectivity for work and home use (even though the ax50 SHOULD do the job), here I am with an office router in which the fan enablement was behind a debug query. So...this router is amazing today. Don;t know about tomorrow and do not know about later this week. Seems this is where we're going, in that inconsistency is the future. This router therefor is way too much for what I need but it was the only thing in the available product line that worked like it should (except for whole why did they not put the fan toggle in the main menu thing) Looks cool though.

This is the best by far router we have ever owned. It was a great purchase for our upgrade to 1GB internet service. I am not a tech expert, just a tech consumer who is completely satisfied with the setup and performance of this product. It manages ALL our devices with ease and reliability. I especially love the offered internet protection services and the app with it's seamless manageability. I do recommend this product for serious internet speeds and connectivity. I also love that it looks like an ALIEN ship at least to us. COOL FACTOR = 11

i Recently purchased this to improve my WiFi at my place of business. Running the video game party center in Randolph NJ- it helps power my internet connection of 30+ TVs and gaming consoles for birthday parties and summer camps. So far it has been an excellent addition to the Game Center. I would recommend this product.

This is my 2nd Nighthawk router only because I spilled Dr Pepper on the other so choose to upgrade a bit glad I did another excellent product much better than previous models love the app let’s you see everything running on the network definitely a must if you are running gig speed internet and have 20 devices running like I do

You got to love it - WiFi speeds keep getting faster and faster, and Internet Service Providers keep creating faster service packages for you to choose from. If you're one of the lucky people that have 1GB+ internet access - you NEED to make sure your routers can handle that much throughput as well as simultaneous streaming users. This Netgear Nighthawk AX12 router is PERFECT for that - arguably the most powerful consumer router on the market! Eight (8) antennas help to drive the WiFi on this space-ship looking router (which you can hang from the wall or set on a horizontal surface). Powerful enough to handle 4k UHD streaming while still handling up to 8 simultaneous stream AND providing the longest coverage I've seen from a single (non-mesh) router solution. For those of you that haven't kept up with the MU-MIMO (multi user-multiple input multiple output), the 8 streams means it can deliver to 8 devices all at the same time - versus older routers that can also deliver to 8+ devices, but only one at a time. With the older technology, you take turns receiving data, so the more devices you have that are receiving, the longer time it takes until it's your turn. Tough to notice unless your watching movies or gaming - but it makes a difference. This Nighthawk allows for 8 devices all receiving data simultaneously - like an 8 lane freeway vs a one lane road. For most home users, the features above are the most interesting, but there are a plethora more to the advanced users, like: multi-GB ports, Port aggregation, Stronger WPA3, Voice Control, etc. So what's is the downside? I haven't had any problems with the router as I seen other reviewers post. So far - it's been solid and consistent. I guess the only downside that is if you want the fastest performance, you need to upgrade to an 802.11AX wifi card in your desktop or laptop. The router is of course backward compatible to 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, so never fear - you don't HAVE to upgrade - but eventually everything will be 802.11ax - so why not start now? I did receive this product as part of NETGEAR’s First Look Review Program and have had a chance to review many of NETGEAR'S previous Wi-Fi routers, and for a single system - this is the best so far. I am looking forward to the possibility of testing the W-Fi 6 Orbi mesh system when it becomes available - that to me may be the ultimate home solution for large houses.

I will start by stating that for the last 4 or so years I have been using an older nighthawk router, up to about 2 months ago. I then switched over to the 3 pack Google Mesh (GM) wifi system. I have been using the AX12 for about 1.5 weeks now. The only reason for the switch to the GM system was because our household was hitting, or coming very close to our 1TB comcast data cap. I wanted better software (companion app), that could break down data usage per device over a given period. The GM system doesn’t let you set a date range, but it gives you 4 options. 1, see current data usage. 2, see usage in last 24 hours. 3, see data usage this week. 4, see data usage in the last 30 or 31 days. Each of those options shows the total data used in that range as well as a break down by each device. That’s how I learned 4k video streaming eats more data then I could have possibly imagined. You can blame it on gaming…. That’s one of the lower data hogs. Since I brought up the app/software lets talk about that first. I do like that I can still log into the routers interface just like most other routers by logging into its IP address. (you can NOT log into the GM interface through a web page/IP address). Though, the software/page you log into is pretty much exactly like every other netgear product for the last 5 years. It does have a makeover in terms of its façade but feature wise is the same. This is good if you love their current/older offerings. But for me, I want more tools in tracking data usage. Or just an interface that says “dang, that’s a 2020 interface right there”. Now this latest router also offers their netgear mobile app, which you can set to connect to even when not home. This is a great step, but the app is lacking compared to GM. I can see the currently connected devices, I can see if they are wired or on wifi, and I can see their link rate (if on wifi, hardwired is assumed gigabit link rate). But that’s it. The only other option I have is to disconnect the device from the network. Though that could be a nice tool for a parent to block a childs xbox/pc/ps4. The app does have a speed test app, its nice, but more time making more meaningful tools would have been better. It also will let me enable/disable the guest wifi from the app, though personally I won’t need that tool. The last feature is the traffic meter. Again, this is a great start to what can be an awesome tool, but it is lacking in features. It only shows the raw data amount used in “today”, “yesterday”, “this week”, “this month”, and “last month”. That is a great start, but I also want to know how much each device used, and I would like to set a specific date range; for example to see how much data was used over the last weekend. In comparison to the GM system, its falls short, though the GM system is not perfect either since I cant set a custom range. Though GM lets me see total data used per device. I also noticed GM picked up host names a bit better. In the netgear app I had a few more devices titled “n/a”. gm seem to find more device names, though it too would show some generic devices as “android device”. I like knowing as much info about device since I live with roommates and we all have MULTIPLE devices. It wouldn’t make sense for me to have each of them turn on 1 device at a time so I can manually update every device I see connect. I used 2 android apps to test wifi, using a Samsung Note 8. One called “network tester” its logo is a globe with a green check mark. And the ookla speed test, which to be honest I don’t trust as a reliable consistent tool. But I figured people might want to see the numbers anyway. For reference. I live in a 2 story house. The router was placed in the back of the house, bottom of the 2nd floor (aka top of the first floor), just above the stairs. I tested in 2 location, the backyard (which is close, but through closed doors and in the open. And in the downstairs living room which is in the front of the house (furthest you can get from the router while being inside). The GM system has 3 routers, the main being in the same location. Another placed on a wall in the front downstairs living room and another upstairs towards the front of the house. The GM app said the 2 secondary routers had a “great” connection to the main one. Below you can see they went back and forth in higher scores, though the mesh system seem to maybe be a hair better in average. I want to add that these tests were only ran once each. And this test really isn’t fair since to truly see the advantage of an AX router you NEED AX devices. I hope to do more testing when I get the Note 10, I hope it has a better wifi antenna (AX preferred) for more drastic results with the netgear router. Additionally, this router will also shine if the comparison would have been using 5+ devices all transferring data at once. I don’t have the man power to test that in depth and consistent. But if you are like me and have a NAS in your home, with multiple people transferring files, streaming movies and gaming at once, this should keep that data moving without a hiccup. Its hard for me to do standardized testing for something like that. I will say when I had my older nighthawk I would get complaints from roommates about wifi devices seeming to have bad connections, even when in the same room as the router. I have NOT had one complaint about that issue with this beast. Having this router makes me want to upgrade my internet to the unlimited Gigabit package…. Just not sure if it’s worth the extra $100 or so a month it would cost. If we keep hitting our cap, I guess we will have to. And if I do, I will try to add more to this review. In the end I will keep the AX system in place because I am trying to future proof my network a bit. This router also has a 5gb ethernet port, and I run my gaming PC’s and consoles hardwired. I would also need a 5GB or 10gb (5) port switch, which I don’t think exist yet in consumer grade. My PC’s only have gigabit ports, for now. I build a new PC roughly every 2 years, I just built one this year. Hopefully by the time my PC itch comes back, there will be consumer motherboards with 5GB or 10GB ports built in. Aesthetically, this thing looks awesome. I want to stick some lego star wars guys in it and fly it around my house! Its pretty large and possibly the heaviest router I have ever held. Maybe one physical feature that would have been nice would have been mounting holes. Google Mesh Backyard Network Tester: Host resolv: 14 then 4 ms TCP connect: 22 then 26ms 10kb d/l = Infinity KB/sec 100kb d/l = 282.76 KB/Sec 1MB d/l = 898.37KB/sec Netgear AX Backyard Network Tester: Host resolv: 5 then 3ms TCP connect: 23 then19ms 10kb d/l = 3081.71 KB/sec 100kb d/l = 288.51 KB/sec 1MB d/l = 640KB/sec Google Mesh Down Stairs Living Room Network Tester: Host resolv: 3 then 4ms TCP connect: 19 then 22ms 10KB d/l = infinity KB/sec 100KB d/l = 291.90 KB/sec 1MB d/l = 998.29 KB/sec Ookla: Down = 26.7Mbps Up = 6.29Mbps Ping = 15ms Jitter = 5ms Netgear AX Down Stairs Living Room Network Tester: Host resolv: 54 then 44ms TCP connect: 42 then 28ms 10KB d/l = 9245.12 KB/sec 100KB d/l = 255.13 KB/sec 1MB d/l = 484.95 KB/sec Ookla: Down = 7.95Mbps Up = 2.23Mbps Ping = 14ms Jitter = 2.23ms I attached an image of the Network Tester app so you can see how it gave me the data. This screen shot was from when I tested the downstairs living room using the netgear router

I purchased this router to replace my Orbi AC3000 mesh system in hopes of getting faster wifi speeds now that I updated to 1gig internet. The AX12 was faster at close range, but I was still only able to get 646mbps vs. 575mbps with the Orbi. That is a solid speed rating but I was hoping to get closer to 800mbps + at this price. I ended up returning it not because of the speed but because of the range. I live in a single level 1900 sq ft ranch home and the router was placed pretty close to the center. I did before/after speed tests to compare the Orbi 2 router mesh vs. the AX12. Close to the router the AX12 had faster speeds, but once moved further away (maybe 20-30 feet) and it had to go through a wall/door or two the loss of speed was significant. For example, I got 412mbps with the Orbi in the master bedroom which is probably about 25 feet from the router and with the AX12 my speed dropped to 35mbps. That is really bad at such a short range away. I ran it 3 times because I couldn't believe the drop but it was real and is the reason I ultimately returned it. I will be sticking with my Orbi AC3000 for now but also be sticking with a mesh setup for my house when I do upgrade.

I took one star off for the vertical mounting design failure. It looks like their original model didn't even include holes to mount it to a wall, but mine does so that's appreciated. However, unless I'm overlooking something there doesn't seem to be any way to get the "wings" (antenna surfaces) to stay in place once flipped up. So when you put the router against the wall, they kind of fall forward a bit which doesn't look right nor ideal. So I taped them on place, which is kind of a hokey work around. That all aside, functionally this thing is great. I had to upgrade my router and my cable modem to support my new 400mbps service. My old Nighthawk R7000 should've been able to support it, but a known firmware issue from a few years ago cut its max speed basically in half and netgear never fixed it. I was also starting to have disconnection issues with it, which I suspect was related to the number of IoT etc wireless devices I have. But now, with this wifi 6 support I'm future proof again for a whole and I've noticed the speed difference as well as connectivity stability. The price is high, but other than that one little mounting design flaw I think you pretty much get what you pay for and I'm happy with the purchase.