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Forum Discussion
Differences between models?
I need to extend my wireless network primarily to improve the video streaming experience on my smart tv and address the buffering problem due to a weak wi-fi signal. I am looking at the EX3920 and EX...
Well apart from the obvious, or not, fact that the EX3920 comes with two extenders (two EX3700 extenders, to be exact), they only have a 100 Mbps Ethernet port. The EX6100 has a Gigabit (1000 Mbps) Ethernet port. The Wi-Fi capabilities of both models appear to be the same. You have to decide whether you need one or two extenders and whether an Ethernet port is needed at all.
Thanks - that part was obvious to me and the Ethernet port is not important for me.
The 'compare models' differences indicate that the EX6100 has the following capability: FastLane™ feature provides high-speed WiFi on both wireless bands and is ideal for HD gaming and video streaming but the EX3920 does not.
However the EX3920 user manual indicates that this feature is supported. Not sure which one to believe.
The web page for the EX3920 lists FastLane™ as supported, so that's probably not a differentiating factor. FastLane™ merely dedicates one of the two Wi-Fi bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz) to communicating with the router and the other band to communicate with devices. This is great if all your devices are either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. It's not so great if you have a mixture of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz devices. This seems to be an area where Netgear may be lagging by competitors. Linksys has a similar feature, called Cross Band, that can dynamically use both bands to simultaneously communicate with the router and devices in a way that is more efficient that standard wireless repeating. But do your own research on its effectiveness; it may not be all that much better.
Yes, but the 'Tech Specs' tab for the EX3920 does not document the support for Fastlane and it does for EX6100.
The technical marketing folks at Netgear need to do a better job of providing product descriptions - they are making it hard for consumers to decide because of the ambiguity/inconsistency of documentation.
Hopefully someone from Netgear can provide a definitive answer on the differences between these two models.
Thanks.