Customer Ratings & Reviews

I bought one of these a while back and when my oldest son went to college, this is what he wanted for his apartment. He really likes it

Netgear never lets me down, I’ve always used their routers and never have any issues!

Very strong signal. While using this router we never had connectivity issues and it works all the way in the back of the house.

Well, this may be a long review, but I want to share with people who may be frustrated with their internet provider/router/modem and, especially, are gamers. Not all of us are tech savvy and this review may help some out there. I have been a long-time Comcast subscriber and still am, but have always been plagued with disconnects and I could never figure out why. Like you, I would hop on the internet and check forums, but there are so many different opinions out there it's hard to pinpoint what your specific problem may be. I thought it was my modem, then my router, and what about cabling? Maybe my internet service provider sucks?? It's hard to tell. My setup had been a Netgear CM1000 modem, the Nighthawk XR500 AC2600, and the standard cabling that had been installed in my house since I bought it. Sometimes my connection would work without a fault for weeks and then, all of a sudden, I would be plagued with frequent micro disconnects, longer disconnects, etc. I would have to restart everything and, sometimes, even go back into the router and reconfigure it. I wasn't sure which part of my internet was the culprit. In my case, there were a couple of items that were the culprit, which I recently figured out. I decided to wait until a time when I started getting frequent disconnects with the aforementioned setup. Once that happened I began isolating equipment in an effort to see which piece(s) were responsible. That time came and I powered down my XR500 router and ran my ethernet cable directly to the CM1000 modem. When I did that, my connection was stable. When I hooked back up to the XR500 I began getting frequent microsecond disconnects - just enough for you to lose connection and have your internet/game hang and require you to logout of your game/internet and back in again. Other times, the disconnect would last a while and would require a complete reboot of all equipment. I was frustrated. Looking up online about the XR500 I saw many complaints about disconnects with this router but, again, it's hard to know what your specific issue is. However, after performing the troubleshooting steps above, I highly suspected the router. So, being the type of person I am, I just had to see if that router was really the culprit - or part of my issues. I ordered an ASUS gaming router that had great reviews and replaced the XR500. My connection was stable for quite a while and, once in a while, I would get a disconnect. However, this disconnect was different because I could see in the CM1000 event log that a "new" issue was arising from my outbound power levels. I always had "dynamic range" violations and the power levels on my inbound signal were also too high. In addition, I had always had a high number of "uncorrectable codewords", which pointed to cabling issues. I took issues into my own hand and researched the causes of these two issues. Comcast had come over and installed an attenuator on my cable line to reduce inbound power levels to my modem. However, that attenuator also forced my outbound (upload) power levels to increase - enough of an increase that my modem would reboot because the power levels were out of range. What I needed was the inbound (download) power levels to drop and my outbound power levels to remain as they were. Therefore, I bought a "Forward Path Attenuator" that reduced my inbound power levels by 6 db and left my outbound power levels as they were. This fixed a great deal of issues and I could see my power levels were fine now. However, more issues plagued me. Continue reading on. Now that I could see the XR500 was responsible for the very frequent micro disconnects I was having and that my power levels were ideal for both inbound and outbound for the modem, I wanted to see if the cabling in my house was a problem, because I still had a large number of "uncorrectable codewords". If you have a house that was pre-wired for cabling, it's difficult to see what is happening in the walls or above the ceiling and if there are splits, etc., that could be messing with your signal. I went to the cable box outside and made sure that only one cable was attached to the cable from the Comcast box that was fed from the street. Previously, there was a large splitter and about 4 cables that routed to various parts of the house. I removed this splitter and only allowed the cable to the basement to be attached to it DIRECTLY. However, I could see on the outside of the house that there was a patch cable as it entered my home. You would think that such a connection would be weatherproof at the connection, but I suspected it. Also, as I traced the cable in my house, it made some unusual bends that made it hard for me to see if it was splitting off somewhere else. I was getting frustrated with all of these disconnects and ordered brand new cabling so I could attach it myself to the cable box outside and then route it DIRECTLY to my modem with no splits or splices - it was a 100-ft cable. I ran it along the exterior of my house and secured it with clips, and then routed it through my window well, bought some air-conditioning foam for sealing large gaps, ran it through the window, shut the window as tight as I could with the foam compressed in it, and then put a window lock on the inside. It was completely weatherproof. Now for the big test: To check my modem event log and see what I could see. After running for 4 hours - No "uncorrectable codewords", no disconnects, nothing in the event log. My heart was pounding that this was too good to be true. After running one week, no disconnects, ZERO "uncorrectable codewords", some dynamic range violations (but doesn't result in a disconnect). My issues have been solved. So, summary below. - The XR500 does have well-known issues with frequent micro-disconnects (I would stay away from this gaming router) - Check your modem inbound and outbound power levels (inbound in the range of -15 to +15, but the closer toe ZERO the better; outbound not above +50-55). If your inbound signal is too high but your outbound is fine, buy a $10 "Forward path attenuator" and install it right at the modem connection. - Check for "uncorrectable codewords". If you have a lot it's probably your CABLE in the house. Usually that issue is the result of physical cable connections. My suggestion (if you use wireless and don't use your internet for TV) is to run a SINGLE cable directly from your cable box to your modem. Hook it directly to the cable from the street that enters the cable box. Use wireless in your house from your router to power Netflix and any other wireless service. Avoid splitting the signal from your internet provider (Comcast, etc.) and avoid any splices in that cable - run it directly to the modem. I use DISH network for our TV for this very reason. I have a DEDICATED service for internet only (no TV, no splits to other bedrooms, etc. - they can all use wireless from the router). I did buy an ASUS GT-AC5300 router and have had no issues with it whatsoever. You don't need this router, but make sure you buy one that has no review history of customers saying they get disconnected once in a while. The XR500, on the other hand, has a well-know history of disconnects. I hope this review helps. I was a frustrated gamer and took matters into my own hand and solved the issues I was having. Sometimes you just have to take the time to figure it all out yourself and be dependent on technicians who really don't know much about your issue and just propose some "fix".

The features provided through the DumaOS are top quality. I like being able to monitor network traffic and usage as well as prevent buffer bloat with their QoS features.

This is a bit dated. Bought this product 2 years ago. It’s fantastic. Internet speeds are fast and consistent. Recommended

Incredible speeds with my wired ISP. Granted I’m on a gigabit network, but I was pulling 948mbps hard wired through my router. Perfect for destroying people on Fortnite!

Pricey but ultimately worth it if you need a router to handle a load. Have had a month and it seems to be holding up.

Every day around the same time the router would boot all devices and lose connection until it was restarted. Tried many settings but no luck. Might have just been a bad unit but this is the second bad netgear router I've run into so might be time to switch brands. If not for the resetting it was lightning fast and the app for the settings was great.

This router was recommended by the Spectrum service manager to accommodate our streaming needs with 5 phones - 2 Xbox's and 3 TV's...seems to be up to the task.

Originally bought this product to work at home. The speed is amazing and my son is really enjoying the speed in which his games download.

Easy to put together and easy Installation. With this device you have control over your whole internet, best thing I’ve bought.

Excellent router I have 1g up and down and live in a 200sqft house and have wifi speeds 890+ on the other end of the house.

I love it! It boosted my internet rage. I live in a town home and I am able to get my full internet speed through out the whole house.

Great router - internet was lagging when my son was gaming. This router has greatly improved internet speeds in the house.

This router is awesome handles high speed Internet , and i get wireless Internet through my whole house.

This is a powerful router that works great with 2 gaming pcs at my house since I am not allowed to hard wire the pcs due to parents.

Best gaming router you can buy. With the built in OS you can control everything and get lightning fast speeds.

No more lagging. I have 2 PS4 systems and a PC playing at the same time with each other and the lagging has stopped with this router. Great product!

This router is fast! I have over 20 items connected at the same time and it does not slow down. I would definitely recommend this product!