Customer Ratings & Reviews

When back to Linksys TRi-band instead It found my network it has a strsnge Ip 10.26.243 everthing wwork well i could net gear to find them

I had hoped this would solve my entire home coverage but it did not meet that need. I returned it.

Bought this router to replace a time capsule. Well it isn't any better for distance. Only gain is I can plug more devices into it.

Some devices get horrible speed on the 5gh band on this router ( >4Mbps). I can plug another router in right next to this one, and those same devices (multiple , all windows 10) connect full speed. Having intermittent drops on wired network connections as well now. I will update after support calls me later in the week to work on this.

It took many call to tech to get it working and they wanted to me to call Comcast said it their problem Tech was not very good

I have a 3 story home and I don't like it. I bought this one because it was recommend, but for me it was a bad choice

First of all it should be known that I replaced a pretty decent router to begin with but what I was looking for was better download speed at the far end of the house. I live in a large rambler that required an extender to hit better performance at the far end of the house. After installation, which took about 10 minutes because I went through the process a few times, I ran my speed tests. My Old router used to hit 9.9 MGBTS download speed a the far end of the house when I didn't use the extender. This new AC5300 hit 56 Mgs tonight AT THE FAR END OF THE HOUSE. I had to yell that in caps because that was exactly what I was hoping for. As a result of the performance I can now place my extender in the garage to help wi fi performance while we're out front. Installation was pretty uneventful but you will need to be aware that the unit itself is pretty large. I would place it in a room that is seldom used or on a rack in your utility room if you have one. You can't stack anything on it as the top has a pretty unique wavy design. Not sure if that is meant to make it look good or to prevent you from stacking things on it but either way it's hidden from view and sitting alone. The unit has 4 pretty substantial antennas on it which give it that great distance reach that we were looking for. I've owned it for about a week and have had only 1 minor issue connecting to it with my first generation Ipad. Everything else has connected just fine. The 2 G band is better for longer distances so they recommend you connect to that band when at the far end of the distance range. Up close to the router the speed is obviously maxed out to what you purchase from your provider but just to compare - I wasn't able to tell the difference in my speed test weather i was 90 feet away or standing next to it. Overall, I would recommend it to everyone - No doubt a great new model for net gear.

Had this thing for two months. It seemed to work okay. Less than two months later stops and constantly reboots.

I received this router free through the Friends and Family Program. I am a standard at home/small business user. What I have noticed about this router is that even a non-expert like myself could easily set it up from the very simple instructions provided. Compared to my previous router the AC5300 is a serious machine. The speed and range are incredible. We operate a small farm and our employees can use all their Wifi devices while working in the Barn even though the router is in the house. It is nice to have the additional ports which we look to utilize for office desktops.

If you buy this router, make sure you get a protection plan on it. I purchased one three months ago, and two days ago it just stopped working. I brought it to Best Buy and exchanged it. I didn't even get through the setup of the new one before a new firmware update came, and now the new one is continuously restarting itself. I called Netgear support, and after two hours they said it should be fixed. And it was, for about an hour, then it automatically tried to update the firmware again, and now it doesn't work. I'm going back to the store today and getting a while different brand. When it did work, it was excellent; very fast speed with the wired connections, and a good wireless signal throughout my house; my old router only managed to cover half the distance. I'd recommend it, but Netgear support is worthless.

But I could not use them S it would not connect to my Verizon fios. The older model has no issues connecting.

Bought this router to extend my ATT U-verse gateway. Wasn't as easy as I thought to setup and connect.

Not as good as I expected for the price. Had to buy a $179 range extended to get it to work in my house.

I was hoping with the powered antenna it would be able to reach the area i wanted but it was unable to.

Wouldn't recommend, it wouldn't stay connected to our devices.

I received this Netgear R8500 router for free in exchange for an honest review. Setup of the router was extremely easy. The router prompted me to upgrade to the newest firmware, and logging in to the router settings has also been simplified compared to previous routers I have owned. I especially liked that connecting a hard drive to the router and using Time Machine to back up my Mac was very easy to set up. This router features beam forming, which means the range is better than typical and the signal will be strong despite walls, which typically degrade the signal. It also supports MIMO, so individual devices should also have a faster connection to the router. It has a USB 3.0 port, so connecting a fast USB hard drive to use as backup or network storage would be an option. The router is slightly heavier and larger than a typical router. However, it does feature holes on the underside of the router to mount it vertically against a wall, and the router looks sleek. There is also an option to turn off the LEDs, so you can turn the lights off so it won't disturb you. Despite the beam forming features, and using the antenna placement recommended by the Netgear instruction manual, the signal did drop 1 (out of 3) bars in the basement of my house. However, it maintained that signal strength, instead of dropping out like my previous routers have. My signal also increased significantly in terms of horizontal distance - so much so that while in my driveway, I get a full signal. None of my routers had even been able to reach that far before. While I have only been using the router for a week, I have had no issues with it thus far. I have not needed to reboot it, and all of my devices have been able to connect to it flawlessly. There were many features I did not get to try - VPN access, wireless printing, and accessing USB storage remotely - however, I have no doubt based on the ease of setting up and using other features of this router, that these would work well and be easy to set up. I would recommend this product to people who need to cover a huge range, or need their Wi-Fi to work through a number of walls. If you need the most up-to-date technology, this would also be the router for you.

Returned, Read reviews & changed my mind. Can get same results w/ something that cost a lot less.

We had nothing but problems with this router from the start. Kept having issues with it staying on and then staying connected. After messing with it for hours, could only get it to stay on 30 seconds at a time. Then did reviews and noticed same issues. So returned it.

Bought this device to take care of wifi issues but can not handle the wifi on the 2nd floor

BLUF: Best router I have owned to date but with a hefty price tag. The Nighthawk X8 (Model R8500) was a dream come true in regards to wireless capability in my household. I had the Netgear R6300 and it worked very well but ended up getting kicked off after too many devices being online at once. Still was a good router, just wanted an upgrade and decided to go all in and pay around $400 for this puppy and wow, what a difference. With the Tri-Band, I am able to accommodate two Xbox ones on the 5 GHZ streams and a PS4 on the 2.4 GHZ stream (yes my family is nerdy). Our Macbook Pro does not interfere when doing research over the 5 GHZ stream while the Xbox is up and running Netflix at 4K streaming. Before this purchase I had bought a Linksys 1900AC (from Office Depot), even though I was overcharged, and I was having physical hardware problems right out of the box. I then contacted support, in which that was a pain, and ended up returning it and with the intention of purchasing the Nighthawk X6 (Model R8000) but saw this one right next to it, I couldn't be happier. If you are looking for a small router with power; turn the cheek and opt for another router. This Nighthawk is called the Nighthawk for a reason; very big as if you have an F-117 in your home. If you have the real estate to accommodate this monster, it's well worth it. I have it mounted near my staircase and at night, the blue LEDs of the Active Antennas are eye catching.