NETGEAR - Nighthawk X10 AD7200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router - Black

Forgive the unoriginal title, but this router truly left me speechless. As a system administrator, I'm always using the latest and greatest technology, so I can keep up to date and be current with the trends. I had a Netgear Nighthawk X6, but noticed that it started slowing down when I added more smart devices to my network (I currently have > 50 wifi-enabled devices connected to my router at a given moment). This router answered my prayers - I was truly taken aback by the performance of this router. Plugging it in, I was amazed to see an amazing boost in performance, reliability, and range. I have a 3000sqft home, and I previously designed a mesh network to cover the entire house. With this router in my basement, the entire house has a strong wifi signal (Even outside in my front yard). Performance-wise, this blows the X6 out of the water. I have a few 4K TV's, and noticed slow-downs when trying to run multiple streams at once from Netflix (Even though my Internet is > 200mbps). When I installed this, I could watch 4K streams on all of my TV's at the same time, while using my smart phone and tablet to check up on my other devices/read the news - all without running into lag (MU-MIMO is most likely to thank for this). Streaming 4K content from my NAS drive is a piece of cake with this - the included USB 3.0 ports are also great for when I need to share content across the entire network (Eg. Family photos from a vacation, or movies on a hard-drive). By far, my favorite feature is the built-in Plex server. My Plex library has > 5tb of content (1080p & 4K, DTS-HD-MA) that I use to stream to my home theater system. I was previously using my custom built work computer, but even my i7 processor was sweating a bit when it came to transcoding videos in real-time. From my observations, the X10 can handle two simultaneous Plex streams at the same time without slowing down (Thanks to its quad-core design). Being able to shift the responsibility of transcoding videos to my router was a godsend that I didn't know I needed until I tried it out for the first time. Last point - 802.11ad. 802.11ad isn't supported by many devices yet, and has its shortcomings (Mainly range/penetration through materials). By VR ready, Netgear is saying that this router is capable of supporting 802.11ad VR headsets when companies start releasing them. At the moment, I can't gauge how the 802.11ad performs (As I don't have devices that support 802.11ad), but I'll be very excited to see how this beast handles wireless VR gaming. Be warned though, this router is huge, and will take up a lot of space on your desk (It's about 25-40% bigger than the X6), but that's to accommodate the massive heatsink that's needed to keep everything cool. If you have $500 to spare, and you're a media/technology enthusiast like myself, get this router - you won't regret it!

This Nighthawk X10 – AD7200 Smart WiFi Router (R9000) is simply incredible. It has everything you could ask for in a router, including the newest wireless standard 802.11ad. From the moment you begin to take it out of the box, it becomes very evident that NETGEAR put a lot of thought into this router. Setup and installation was a breeze with the NETGEAR UP installation app. I downloaded it to my iPhone from the Apple app store and the app began walking me through the installation process. Within a few minutes, the router was up and running smoothly. Subsequently, I spent a good amount of time walking through the numerous configuration options with this router, to ensure I set it up exactly how the way I wanted. During the installation process, the installation wizard will ask if you would like to install the NETGEAR “genie” application. This genie application assists you with configuring the router and allows you to access certain features of the router including the ReadyShare options and AirPrint (the ability to wirelessly print documents). Although I installed the genie application and looked through it, I am accustomed to using the traditional routerlogin.net admin screen and preferred to adjust the configuration settings using this method. It is nice that NETGEAR provides you with multiple avenues to configure your router, in order to optimize the experience. The router comes with three bands (2.4GHz b/g/n, 5GHz 802.11a/n/ac and the new 60GHz 802.11ad). The new 60GHz band works great and provides you with blazing speed but it does have a few downsides. It has a fairly limited range and requires that your devices have line of sight to the router. This is due to how the band functions and not a deficiency of the router. The router performs outstanding on the 60 GHz ad band. If you are close to the router, can see the router from your device and your device supports the 60 GHz ad band, I strongly recommend utilizing this band as you will likely get the fastest speeds. If you aren’t able to use the 60GHz band, the 5GHz band is more than sufficient. We have a 2,600+ square foot office and I was able to get the maximum speeds that our ISP provides throughout the entire office, no matter where I was. The WiFi signal strength indicator showed the maximum strength on all the devices I used, everywhere in the office. This router has fantastic range and is even better than the R8500 model it is replacing. The X10 comes with a 1.7 Quad Core processor, which is faster that most computers produced a few years ago! It also comes with PLEX media server built-in to allow you to store all of your media (music, videos and pictures) and access it from anywhere you have an internet connection. If you are utilizing this router for personal use, having PLEX media server built-in is an incredible feature, allowing you to view your movies in a manner that is congruent to Amazon Prime video or Netflix. The PLEX premium feature was included for free for the first 3 months. The X10 also comes with 6 gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a 10G LAN SFP+ port so you can connect several devices. It also possesses MU-MIMO technology which allows multiple devices to connect up simultaneously without decreasing the performance of the network. During our initial tests, we had ~20 devices simultaneously working on the network and did not experience any performance degradation. From the administration screen, you can configure a number of features to make your router your own. You can setup a guest network, enable parental controls to ensure your kids aren’t accessing content they shouldn’t and even setup a schedule for when your network is available. You can even go so far as to grant and block access by the specific device, if you want to get that granular. The admin screen also allows you to setup a ReadySHARE Printer, allowing you to print wirelessly while on the network. In addition to the wireless printing option, you have the ability to setup ReadySHARE storage in multiple ways. You can use the ReadySHARE Vault, which lets you automatically back up your files to a USB device (external HDD) for local access. You can also use ReadyCLOUD, which allows you automatically backup your files to a USB device (external HDD) and access the content remotely (anywhere you have an internet connection). There is even an app that allows you to access and manage the content from your tablet or phone. Finally, you can automatically setup your backups in the cloud with Amazon Cloud Drive, which is free for the first six months. We currently use a Network Access Storage (NAS) device to house the content for our office and collaborate on projects. With the X10, we have already seen a significant increase in performance with regards to the general storage of documents/media and with our daily backups. The speed and efficiency that this device affords us makes it an easy recommendation to users who frequently stream content and transfer or share large files. I would also highly recommend it for small businesses that need to share documents frequently between employees. I received the Nighthawk X10 from NETGEAR for free as part of NETGEAR’s First Look Review Program.

** I received this router for free as part of the NETGEAR review program in exchange for my honest evaluation of the product which is below ** Overall, when compared to the other routers I've owned and used, this router is as performant as any. It can easily serve my entire 2 story home, which is great as I've never been a fan of splitting access across multiple access points. Even when using the same setup on both to allow auto-switching, many of our devices tend to hang on to the poor connections. All that to say, this thing is a beast as a home router. That said, this device is not priced in the range of a typical home router. If it didn't perform better, the price would be impossible to justify. As it is, it is a great router, but it still may not be worth the premium to everybody. I would definitely recommend it to a small business owner who was looking for a stronger setup without wanting to go into a more full blown enterprise setup. When the package first arrives, you can tell that a ton of time and effort was put into the packaging. From the outer box to the way the items are packed, it feels like a premium device. The weight of the device itself is impressive and you can certainly tell that it has more to it than a typical router. This is certainly not an item that you can just throw in to an existing setup without any consideration of the footprint, so keep that in mind. One HUGE plus to this model versus some of Netgear's previous models is the bulid quality and attachment mechanism for their antenna. In the past, no matter how much I tried to tighten down the antenna bars, they would inevitably become loose and fall down. These antenna are much more rigid and much more substantial in size. They adjust easily, but there is enough pressured required that you can tell they are secure when you let go of them and they stay put. While the device is substantial, as I mentioned, I love the fact that it has a shorter front which houses all of the indicator lights. This works well for our home as we can stowe it behind our television, which is a couple inches off of the table on legs, and slide the front of the router under the bottom of the teleivsion. This keeps the bulk of the device hidden away, but makes it easy to glance at and tell if anything is going on (i.e. has somebody accidentally turned off WIFI). The setup app is very nice and makes it much easier than it otherwise would be. That said, I wish you could administer the device from the app. Once the device is setup, the app is still useful, but only to see what devices are connected along with the SSID/PW setup for the 3 WIFI bands. One note on the Plex Media Server - I was very excited about this router in part because our family heavily uses a local Plex setup. Unfortunately, this router can only be used for this purpose if you attach a HD. Our current digital library is already housed in a rack mounted RAID and I have no interest in changing that physical setup. The router does not allow you to point to a network location as the source for the material Plex serves, as far as I can tell and from what I've read online, which means that we're sticking with our current setup which offloads the PLEX handling to a NAS. It would have nice to be able to benefit from the transcoding power of the router, as our NAS cannot handle that load, but we only use PLEX locally so it isn't a game changer for us - certainly not worth purchasing additional drives and an additional housing to attach them to the device, which - as mentioned previously - already takes up a nice chunk of real estate itself. I do NOT have any devices that take advantage of the 802.11ad standard, which, in my opinion, WOULD be a potential game changer if making a decision for or against this device. I think that is important to note because much of the price on this device is going to be in things like AD and the PLEX server, neither of which served to benefit me personally at this time. I've never loved the software interface NETGEAR uses and that is still the case. I find that it is overly cumbersome, and in many cases it is hard to pin down exactly what I'm looking for. I LOVE the ASUS interface, by comparison. That said, there are plenty of solutions to this problem if somebody is interested in running separate software on top of their router. As for my recommendation - If you are looking for a router at home and don't need all the power or bells and whistles this device offers, the price point is probably not worth it - at that point, you're buying a very expensive router and not using it to its full power. I would say if you have the money to spend, want to make use of AD or PLEX or just want to make sure you have one of the most powerful consumer level routers around, this item is definitely the one to buy. It would also likely be a good choice for somebody that wants/needs a bit more power out of their router, but isn't ready to jump into a more robust infrastructure setup. ** I received this router for free as part of the NETGEAR review program in exchange for my honest evaluation of the product which is above **

When I opened up the box, my first thought was, this thing has a heatsink fan on it. When NetGear built this router, they were not fooling around. I first heard of the X10 from a Plex e-mail. I have a large Plex library and was keen to try this router out. I came from the Netgear X4 (pretty good router) and then the Orbi. This time I was replacing the X4. The X10 is just bigger in every respect. After opening the box, I found that I had just enough space to place it in the computer room. I took the X4 out of band, put the X10 in - changed a few network settings, and everything was up and happy again. My network is not a normal network, so I as pleasantly surprised. As an additional plus, NetGear also prints in a big font, for you to upgrade the firmware. I did this twice, and it makes the admin experience so much more enjoyable. So - After the router up and running, it was time for be to kick the tires. Like I said previously, I have a big Plex environment. I was able to get this router up and running with a small USB drive, but my current environment leverages a NAS and some other x86 systems. I was looking around, but could not find a way to NFS mount the storage. Right now the router wants you to hook up the drives to router itself, not something I'm too jazzed about. I'm really hoping as Plex and Netgear keep on pushing out code updates, that this will be something I can change. Gaming, Video streaming, a HUGE IoT setup (I have multiple devices), a Satellite receiver, this router is currently handling them all without sweating. The MU-MIMO works like a dream, and the Amazon Drive functionality, though I just set it up, seems to be working just fine as well. I'm very pleased with this router so far. There are some elements that I can't test right now (10G interface, 802.11ad) which is the only reason I'm giving the X10 a 4 star review. If I can get some of that tech in my home, I'll revise this review. Overall, if you want to lower your computer footprint at home, and want to have a fast router, with the ability to transcode your Plex library I would recommend that your buy this router. It collapses a lot of different pieces of what you would need laying around your house. With the power, ease of setup and ease of use, this router can't be beat.

This router has been running fine for the past few weeks. I'm mostly pleased with it. This router is more of a "prosumer" product with a lot of bells and whistles. It has a ton of features that most users will probably never touch. This NETGEAR Nighthawk X10 is probably overkill for most networks. It is also quite expensive. My reason for purchasing this router is that it supports IEEE 802.3ad LACP link aggregation. This allows a device that has 2 or more Gigabit NICs to share network traffic and i enjoy an increase in bandwidth and availability. My server's network interfaces were getting saturated and Link Aggregation has remediated the issue. It also has a 10GB LAN SFP+ Fiber Connection port for future that will allow for growing my network. One of the caveats of this device is that it has a wireless band that hasn't seen a lot of wide adoption. It is the 60 GHz 802.11ad radio. It's supposed to get up to 6GB per second, but there are very few devices that support this standard. The 60GHz radio also requires line of sight to actually maintain speeds and the device needs to be in the same room. This wireless standard has already been superseded by 802.11ax. The file server functionality of this router is a little on the hinky side as far as Time Machine support is concerned. It will corrupt HFS+ volumes. Otherwise, it works okay with ExFAT and Ext4 volumes. The LED's are also bright. They light up the room. They can be turned off with the exception of the power light. That light is also somewhat bright, but tolerable.

Installed it last night ,I have the Netgear CM600 modem as well Docsis 3.0 cable Modem,excellent modem btw.The Router is big in size has a giant heat sink with fan,you can see through the vent/grill,no you can't hear the fan run even when you put your head close to it..The antenna's were already mounted to the router.The install was a breeze,just plug and play comes with six gigabit ports and one ten Gig port as well.I took full advantage of all of the ports except the 10 gig.That was nice the extra ports, old router only had 4 ports.I have over 25 devices connected in house hard wired/wireless ect,,xbox's, ps-4's, ipads, phones,lap tops, and so on. The antenna's light up blue and there not bright good thing , and the info lights in front can be easily turned off with a switch on back nice feature to have so you dont have to see all those flashing lights in your room/living room.I replaced a two year old router that was rated top router at the time,ASUS model,at times it would not stand up to the task with everything in house running,(causing lag game play and movies not running smooth.Not the case with this new beast!!! OMG is all i can say it is laughing at what we are throwing at it,wireless speeds are great from basement to second floor and signals strong everywhere even out side in driveway and back deck.The kids are gaming happy and all devices are doing great,yes I am very pleased with this router, complaints only that its 500 bucks oh well guess you get what you pay for and this so far seems to be worth every penny it better be for the price!!.If your paying for 200-300 mbps internet speeds take advantage of it with this router.

First off I have been building PCs, and setting up networks for friends and family for the last 16 years. I have Verizon Fi@s Gigabit service and decided to try this as in my house there are a few weak spots. When installing this router I first updated the firmware, and used the "app" to install and set up the router. First of all if someone is dropping $400+ on a router making it need to be set up via app on a smart phone is dumb. I want to be able to plug the router in and do everything from my main wired computer as this offers the best connection by far. Once installed it gives you options to import previous wireless setting etc. Its all pretty easy and straight forward. Everything was all set up and I tested everything that was connected and everything worked perfectly. I used my main wired computer to watch youtube at which point came the first hiccup. After about 2-3 minutes of video internet lost connection, and the router was "offline". I had to restart the router and after 2 mins it was up and running again. This problem persisted for 2 days, even full resets and reinstalling software made no difference. It would also tell me after a reboot 50% of the time, IP addresses currently in use, resolve the problem with the net genie app and after 10 minutes it MIGHT fix itself. After calling customer support , they tried to tell me it was an issue with the firmware not updating all the way, and would be indicated by a blinking power light. Nope the power light was constantly on, but was told it was an issue I caused. When I brought the router back to BestBuy the girl was great, it was funny as she actually said whats wrong with it? keep losing connection ? When I said exactly, how did you know. She said shes seen a "bunch" of people return it for the same issue. I just chose a refund and will be getting a different router in the future. Reading on Cnet and other forums many other people have experienced the same issue. Sorry but if I am dropping $400 on a router, the Quality control should be top notch. Not happy with netgears customer service either. 2 Stars for the wife range and strength when it was working. But if I have to manually go reset the router once an hour, the router isn't doing its job.

Quadrupled my speed at home. There are four essential points I'd like to make: 1) All these years I paid for a 50mbps speed from my cable company. I had an older Netgear from 2009 which has served me well all these years (and still works), but I decided it was time to upgrade. Typically I was getting only 12-17mbps through my wi-fi (for example, to my iPhone6). After getting this Nighthawk Router, I now understand 57mbps on the same iPhone. All of my devices are much faster now... PS4, iPhones, iPads, Epson Printer, Baby Monitor, Tablets, Roku 3 box, Roku Streaming Stick, etc... 2) Cables .... Please note, one other thing I did in addition to getting this router is that I also bought all new cat6 wires (from Amazon Basics), and that has helped the router to connect well to the cable modem. From the router itself, I have a few wired items (Roku 3 box, PS4, my PC). And note that I tested the Roku 3 box, PS4, and PC wirelessly as well. In all conditions, wired with Cat6 cables and wi-fi, this Nighthawk router has delivered the speeds I was missing for years. 3) Interface.... Also, I like the interface for setting up and using the router. I love that you get two options of 2.4ghz or 5ghz connection. One thing to keep in mind is that some older devices can only use 2.4g, so it is that old device itself that limits the connection speed (not your wi-fi necessarily). Newer devices are 5g capable and can maximize the speed capability. 4) Security... I also like the "Access Control" feature so that you have to permit a device to connect to your wi-fi. For example, when I got a new iPad this Christmas, I logged into my wi-fi network and put in the proper password, but it wouldn't connect to the internet. Then I went to the Netgear interface on my PC, and it displayed that the iPad had been blocked (because Access Control is turned on). So then I simply hit a checkbox to "allow" the iPad onto my home network, and then it connected. Finally, I am not a tech person; I just try to read up on things to the best of my ability. I hope my review helps some of you. 5 STARS