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Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
Just trying to make things work better and I know a lot of you folks on here have dealt with this... I know I've got a lot of questions but better to ask a pro than try to sort through Page after pa...
Piemans, Thanks so much for your input... I've been testing a few MTU speeds on the 5G band and I put in 1468 this morning and am seeing a speed of Almost 450 down and I think it will go higher once everything settles in... Amazing what a few tweaks can do. Spectrum only has 20mbps up and I am passing that. I'm sitting about 20' from the router.
When I run my ethernet cable I am at almost 560mbps down... rock solid.
I have been doing a lot of testing lately because I am waiting to find out if I can get fiber to our house...united communications is starting to hang fiber (we live in the country) and have only had Spectrum up to now and I have the 500mbps service.
In anticipaton of getting 1GB fiber I have been looking at new Wifi 6 router set ups ( I have read many tech reports on the Mesh type set ups but I think I'll pass... we have Cat 5 running to all the rooms and I have 99% of our devices connected to Ethernet and we actually only have a handful of Wifi connections. Saying that... in 2005 when we built this house all cable installed was Cat 5 and not Cat 5e so the down fall is that I am seeing a limit on the device to device transfers to items like my NAS units that are hardwired. I know folks say I need to change the cable... No way, it's a 5,000 sq ft house and all cables are already run and I am not about to try to change them at this point... The one area we seem to spend most of our time and use the wifi happens to be about 20' from the router so I am thinking if I get a Wifi 6 router I can at least run Cat 6e to the new router from the fiber and get the use of the wifi locally.
The Intel card should be here today and I'll try to change it out this weekend... but the limit will be the current router... it seems that Netgear never offered a 4x4 client to take advantage of the 4x4 router design... and with that I'm capped at 1730 at this point. I am thinking by going at least Wifi 6 I will get a bit more speed on my Wi-Fi
Netgear doesn't make the wifi cards/chipset. Those tend to be intel/qualcomm etc. There were a few 4x4 cards made but there were pretty expensive. The 2x2 devices do fine.
Its nice to shoot for faster speeds but its something to keep in mind the cost/benefit ration. Most streaming services only need 25-40mbps to stream 4k. So the vast majority of people don't really see much speed difference once you're above that 300+mbps unless you truly have a ton of streamers in the home. The only reason I have gigabit speeds is for testing routers and my media server. Or I'd be dropping my down.
Just something to keep in mind since you're hitting pretty decent speeds.
I would watch for mesh systems when you do upgrade based off the size of your home. I didn't think it'd make a difference in my home (3.2K ft) but it did. Much better coverage at the peripheral. And your home is even bigger than mine. It doesn't have the same peak performance of flagship routers when you're close to the router but at the edges, its much faster and more stable.
It might be worth holding off a little on purchase if your current device is working well as we're starting to see talk of wifi 7 routers. Not saying to buy one but when they start being released, you tend to see the wifi 6 stuff marked down a bit. Might get a 8 or 9 series orbi for pretty reasonable
Your right on the cards, I knew it was Intel and if Netgear every offered something it probably would have been with Intel chips...
We have kind of a crazy set up.... actually all the rooms upstairs are hard wired and we are not up there often enough to worry... our router is so locally positioned in the middle of the house we get acceptable levels for the little wifi use we need. We have a recording studio that is the whole floor above our dethatched garage...right now I just had a cat 5 cable installed and put a Wifi AP out there for folks that come in and to connect to our HVAC controller ... I'll keep a look out on the Orbi systems but like I said it may be more than we need (it's just my wife and I) all or media run on hard cable connections. With just the 2 of us, we are probably way over kill anyway...
We have the Fiber company offered us 1 gig up and 1gig down for 49.00 per month for 3 years .. .my 500mbps spectrum cable is now 80 per month going to $100 in august so, hopefully we can get the fiber in before any price increases... As for use... with the studio from time to time I have some HUGE files to transfers to other studios from time to time and with a limit on 20mbps upload it is a hassle, with fiber it will no doubt make that chore a lot quicker to complete.
I see you have the Nighthawk RAXE500, that was one of the routers I am looking at... I probably would not need the E, but just a Wifi 6 but then again having the 6E may be interesting to experiment with. The Intel AX210 is compatible with 6E correct... it would give me some options.
I'm usually not a new adopter as you can see... so, Wifi 7 isn't something I'd jump in to at this point.
The 1gig up/down would be a nice upgrade considering its cheaper. for sure worth it if you get it.
The RAXE500 quite a beast of a router. but you pay for it. Especially for what you're doing. If your max is 1gig and you don't use the wifi a ton, you could get by with a lower priced device that still hits gigabit fine.
6ghz has been a bit of a bust for me because in mesh (my RBKE963), its the device (phone/laptop/etc) that determines which to connect to. and 6ghz has a weaker signal so most of my devices still end up on 5ghz. My laptops I can force to 6ghz but the phones, not so much. but with the RAXE you can separate them out to force devices to connect to it.
If you don't mind renewed devices, you can get some from amazon for pretty darned cheap. the AX5700 on there has been pretty nicely priced. You can't search by model number for that specific one (its the RAX75). there's even a few orbi's on there if you did want to look at mesh.
I've also use and have a Arris W31 that is a pretty solid router that gets overlooked a lot and is pretty cheap
Good Morning Plemans, Hope your weekend is going well... I've been doing quite a bit of reading while waiting for my AX210 card to arrive (I noticed you help a lot of people with the Netgear questions) and I am starting to figure this stuff out.. I am convinced that manufacturers intentionally label and name product to create confusion ...LOL
I had originally ordered a AX210 card on Amazon but in reading more about that vendor it seems they update from a ZX200 somehow to a equivalent AX210 , I happen to see one post that the card is actually labeled as a ax200..... What the Heck... So, I went up and ordered a true Intel AX210 module and I will return the first card. I have downloaded the Windows 10 drivers already and have them on the hard drive. Hopefully Amazon delivers early enough in the day so I can install it on my laptop..
At this point I still have my Netgear Nighthawk R7500 v1 so it will be interesting to see if I see any performance difference. Right now with my notebook and the 9250 card I am getting in the high 300mbps and at times almost 400 range... My wife is seeing about 420!
Your comment on your mesh set up about not being able what band to choose seems to be pretty consistent on the mesh industry which is weird... recently I have been to friends homes to check out their systems and there is no way to select the 2.4, or 5ghz range, it seems like the router is doing it for them... that is just weird to me.. with my current notebook and router I can name and select the devices I want and where! I also was ordering can legacy AP's from other companies be used in a Netgear Mesh set up . I currently have a Trendnet AP and Router connected via hard wire .... I'm not sure you can do that with a Mesh system.
I also have started to look at Asus, it seems like they have a lot of technology at a lower price and the longer warranty they offer is a real advantage... I can't believe Netgear only offers 90 day support... that can be a problem for me as sometimes I don't have the time to get right on an issue and to be told I need a credit card to get help is concerning me especially since I am making such a big change.
I am looking at the New setup as a balance of performance and cost, if I were to get a router that does have 6e then I'd be pretty much protected (until 7 would come along) and honestly jumping in early can end up to be a real issue... so, if anything I'd probably transition to 6e for a couple of years 🙂
By the way, where are you located? I am in the Nashville Tennessee area.
Finally, I am waiting to hear from United Communications on the fiber install.. I was at a friends house yesterday where they have it installed and it is really fast!
Ok I'll be around today waiting on amazon and doing more reading on routers!
Thanks so much for all your help.