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Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

S-Warren
Guide

What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

Netgear has so many products out right now it's diffiicult to know what's the best thing happening right now. Sometimes you just want the best regardless of cost but the most expensive doesn't always mean it's the best in terms of performance.

I'm interested in knowing what is the best Wireless Wifi Router that Netgear has available right now. I figure this is the best place to ask this question.

Message 1 of 23

Accepted Solutions
netwrks
Master

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@S-Warren  The R7000 (AC1900) really is the sweet spot for Netgear and Asus actually. Negear's latest R7000 firmware seems to be quite stable, (less complaints) and, also a variety of 3rd party firmware to choose. from . I have two of them, running 3rd party firmware. So far, so good, on the R7000 front. Try to select routers that have Broadcomm chipsets (which the R7000 is based on). They seem to be more stable and also, have better firmware.  Check ou the wikidevi site for router info. Just plug in the router in upper right search bar.    

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Main_Page 

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Message 9 of 23

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netwrks
Master

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

What are your requirements in a router?

Message 2 of 23
Kaveh300
Aspirant

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

Their top of the line for home router is the Nighthawk X6 AC3200 router. that being said, this router may exceed your needs. The AC3200 is meant for home who is data intensive such as gaming, straming, watching online movies simultaneously. it also has 3 wifi bands(1 x 2.4GHz and 2 x 5GHz) with load balancing and VPN capabilities. this is the router I have at home, it has been able to handle anything I throw at it. Here's the link to it.

http://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-routers/R8000.aspx 

Message 3 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@netwrks,

 

Thanks for the reply netwrks. Well I have a lot of devices logging into my AC1200 around 10 right now which includes Printers, HDTV's, Computers, Blu-ray DVD's and a PS4 but when my kids visit they will log in with they're cell phones and tablets and the number will jump to around 14 or 15. I haven't reached that number yet but I'm concerned how well the AC1200 will handle that many devices at once.

 

@Kaveh300,

 

Thanks for the reply Kaveh300. I checked out the specs for the Nighthawk and it looks pretty kick azz. I think it will handle anythiong I can throw at it plus some. I like that it features both a 2.0 and 3.0 USB port and boasts up to 3.2Gbps 600+1300+1300 Mbps Wifi speeds across those 6 antennas. This model makes my mouth water, I'm going to buy it, lol.

Message 4 of 23
netwrks
Master

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

Word of advice. Do your homework on the 8000 and 7500 firmware and USB usage wise.  It's best to check the forum first, or make sure you have an exchange policy..

Message 5 of 23
Kaveh300
Aspirant

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

The USB 3.0 is used for storage and media server, the 2.0 is used for sharing a wired printer. I've had mine for a while I've had no problems, in fact it boosted the speeds over my last router.
Message 6 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@netwrks,

 

I did some reading here in the forums on the 8000 and 7500 firmwares and it looks like there have been several updates to both but issues still remain with them. One poor guy say's he woke up one morning to a $300 brick. I am noticing that most issues people are having with Wifi Routers are mostly firmware related and not neccessarily defects of design. That being said it's a concern for me that the NightHawk is still having firmware issues after all this time.

Message 7 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@Kaveh300,

 

As awesome as the NightHawk looks on paper those firmware issues make me somewhat relunctant to fork over almost $300. I'm curious to know how long you have had your NightHawk because in some cases the issues folks are having didn't show up right away but only surfaced some time later after purchase.  So far I haven't had any problems with my AC1200 (knock on wood) but I just bought it a week ago. I can only hope it remains stable for years to come.

Message 8 of 23
netwrks
Master

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@S-Warren  The R7000 (AC1900) really is the sweet spot for Netgear and Asus actually. Negear's latest R7000 firmware seems to be quite stable, (less complaints) and, also a variety of 3rd party firmware to choose. from . I have two of them, running 3rd party firmware. So far, so good, on the R7000 front. Try to select routers that have Broadcomm chipsets (which the R7000 is based on). They seem to be more stable and also, have better firmware.  Check ou the wikidevi site for router info. Just plug in the router in upper right search bar.    

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Main_Page 

Message 9 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@netwrks,

 

The more I read about Routers the more I learn. The experts are saying that in order to take advantage of the speed offerings these latest round of Routers offer, you need a compatible client. What do they mean by compatible client, is that a Modem or some other hardware/software?

Message 10 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@netwrks and @Kaveh300,

 

I'm curious to know what kind of bandwidth you are getting from your ISP. I have Comcast Blast which is decent but for some reason it seems like the speed is better if I plug my modem in directly without the Router in play. You think I might be getting speed lag through the Router? IDK, it just seems that way to me. I'm considering bumping up my bandwidth a little higher.

Message 11 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@netwrks

 

Looks like the Netgear R7000 edges out Asus, D-Link and Linksys in the AC1900 catagory from the comparisons I just looked over. With a host of 3rd party firmwares to choose from along with the Netgear firmware the R7000 looks like the safer choice for me. I just wish the NightHawk AC3200 didn't have all the firmware issues, I really do like the AC3200.

Message 12 of 23
Kaveh300
Aspirant

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

I'm getting around 20 Mb down from AT&T, personally I have not run into firmware issues on my router. What kind of issues are you having? You might have had a defective one it seems like it's an isolated problem you might be having @netwrks

Message 13 of 23
Kaveh300
Aspirant

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

I've had my Nighthawk since last November, I have never had any kind of issues with it either hardware or firmware.
Message 14 of 23
netwrks
Master

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

TYpically, thet are talking WIFI client. 

Message 15 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@Kaveh300,

 

At 20Mb down from AT&T are you able to stream movies ok? I'm paying 60.00 per month for Xfinity Blast but if I can stream at 20Mb down I'll switch over to AT&T.

Message 16 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@netwrks,

 

Oh ok I got, it's the standard each device supports as in Wireless B vs G vs N vs AC. That's enough to make my head ache.

Message 17 of 23
Kaveh300
Aspirant

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

I'm able to stream movies and play online games at the same time, no problem. The 20 Mbs may be in my area. You have to see what's available in yours
Message 18 of 23
netwrks
Master

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

@S-Warren I have actually relegated my R7000's  with me, to AP mode, and my other R7000 is running in router mode, in a different location. 

Both routers are have 100-120mb (not in the US) to play with. Both R7000's are running an Xvortex/ Merlin  firmware port. The R7000 that is being used as a router has an Xbox directly connected to it, going pretty well all the time and supports Mac and Intel wireless clients. 

What router do you connect to now, where you see that it seems slower than your modem?

 

Message 19 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?


@Kaveh300 wrote:
I'm able to stream movies and play online games at the same time, no problem. The 20 Mbs may be in my area. You have to see what's available in yours

Wow that's awesome. I was figuring at 20Mbs your streamed movies would skip and freeze, not too shabby.

Message 20 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?


@netwrks wrote:

@S-Warren I have actually relegated my R7000's  with me, to AP mode, and my other R7000 is running in router mode, in a different location. 

Both routers are have 100-120mb (not in the US) to play with. Both R7000's are running an Xvortex/ Merlin  firmware port. The R7000 that is being used as a router has an Xbox directly connected to it, going pretty well all the time and supports Mac and Intel wireless clients. 

What router do you connect to now, where you see that it seems slower than your modem?

 


Your hardware setup is kick azz runnung dual R7000's sporting both Mac and Intel clients sounds heavenly, you have the best of both worlds. I'm going to look further into the AP and Router modes, that sounds interesting.

 

My imagined slower speeds was due to a router misconfiguration on my part. Once I reset back to factory default everything is running quick and smooth. That'll teach me to not fiddle with things I don't know much about, lol.

Message 21 of 23
Kaveh300
Aspirant

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?

It means the client need to be AC compatible. You can't expect the maximum speed out of an AC router if your laptop or any device your using has a G or N.
Message 22 of 23
S-Warren
Guide

Re: What's The Best Netgear Wireless Wifi Router Available Today?


@Kaveh300 wrote:
It means the client need to be AC compatible. You can't expect the maximum speed out of an AC router if your laptop or any device your using has a G or N.

Dang it I didn't even think of that. It makes perfect sense and none of my clients are AC compatible.  What on earth was I thinking. lol  Thanks Kaveh for pointing that out.

Message 23 of 23
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