Hi,
I'm new to Netgear, but I've had a lot of routers before to test, and I can say this is not what I expected.

Starting with the Android Nighthawk App — it connects to the router and detects the firmware version, but when I search for a new one, it says that no update is available.

This is wrong because Netgear hasn’t fixed this issue, even though the Nighthawk app has been updated at least three times since I bought the router.

I also think the speed test feature in the Netgear app is not accurate, because every time I run a test, it shows the same speeds.

Additionally, through the app, I cannot access the router's full interface on my phone. I can only activate the Guest Network and view or change the network password — nothing more advanced.

To see all the settings, I need to use a browser on my phone and access the router’s IP address.

Regarding the router firmware, I had to revert to version 1.0.7.96 because with version 1.0.9.6 (the one before 1.0.9.16), the channels were set to manual but didn’t stay on the channel I selected. I also noticed that the 5GHz and 6GHz bands were not very stable. I only connected a few phones and one laptop — no heavy downloads, just regular web browsing.

From the router’s web page, when I search for new firmware, it cannot find it, even though the new version exists. I don’t know why there are tabs in the firmware page that don’t work.

I had some TP-Link routers before that were cheaper than Netgear, and I didn’t have these problems. Their Android app also works very well. From the TP-Link app, I could access all router settings without using a browser or typing 192.168.1.1 (or the default IP).

I think Netgear needs to take a few notes from Chinese manufacturers and at least make sure the app works correctly — especially when checking for new firmware. This is basic functionality and not very complicated to fix.

Forum Discussion

Nighthawk App problems