Netgear Armor with RAX200

[BBearJB]

Good Evening Negear Community,

 I wanted to upgrade to the netgear armor. I have a netgear r8000 as my norton subscription comes to end next month.I have a number of devices and have had bitdefender in the past. Recently however, my home network has not been able to sustain my families new internet needs. While working with my ISP: I have upgraded my internet speeds, bought a new modem ($200),  and a new router ($500). This is due to the fact that my old cable&modem router from netgear with the R8000 could not sustain the traffic daily. My ISP stated that with new improvements coming to our area. Should i get these equipment models now. I would be set for the now and future needs. I therefore have completed the upgrade.

After getting everthing installed I found that the RAX 200 was not supported by the netgear armor system. When i originally called and spoke to netgear support (1 of many, many calls). They stated that I could activate the armor on my R8000 and add my RAX 200 to the Netgear Armor account there by giving my RAX 200 the features of the armor. However, I was corrected by another representative that I spoke with on another call that this is not possible. When I asked if Netgear could assist in helping me find a way to use the my R8000 in line with my RAX200 and CM12000. That would still allow the link aggration or features to be able to be used. I was not given an answer. I was transfered to Netgear Armor T2 team. I was told that in order to have the protection of the netgear armor for my devices I would need to have all devices that I wanted protected by the netgear armor connected to my R8000. When i asked if I could use my brand new RAX 200 in some for of Access point mode, so that i could still have the benefit of the system. As everything i have used it for so far (the RAX 200) has been wonderful the wifi, the lan speeds, the port aggregation, and the usb sharing.

Eventually i would like to do an NAS and plan to take full advantage of the port aggreation as well. I was told that I could not use my RAX 200 and that any device connected to it would not be able to have the netgear armor installed through my R8000 and be protected. I asked what could be done for this or if Netgear could recommed some kind of set up with either my existing equipment or if additonal purchases are necessary so that I could use my RAX 200 and have a Netgear armor protecting my network. They stated no, as my R8000 was already a very good router and they could not recommed a better product for the features and capabilities i was using. I asked if I returned my RAX 200 against the advisement of my ISP. Does netgear have a product with better performance then the r8000 that supports netgear armor? The agent I spoke with could not advise or recommend. They stated I would have to call Bitdefender and speak with them about the netgear armor.

As per the agent I spoke with: Netgear only handels the subscriptions and payments and anything different is solely the responsibility of Bitdefender. What model routers they are compaitable with, what features they roll out, and how the products can be used.

I am not sure if it is my phrasing or wording causing a breakdown in communication between me and Netgear support. I have done calls and chats. Spoken with both the Netgear Store Support and Techanical support. I have been on hold probalby over 8 hours not including just waiting for a representative. I have numerous case numbers. I have spoken with representaives that one after another told me the information they are giving me now is the correct information and apologies for the previous repesentative. Only for the very next agent to state the same words to me again. I have spoken to a T2 team and a number of T1 agents that assure me that they have clarified the information and that this is the correct information going forward.

I ask you the neatgear community for help. I am tired, I am worn. Even thought they have some amazing features. I only want to be able to work from home adquetly, while meeting the demands my family is pacing on our network by being home and using much more internet.. Something I hope you all can understand. If anyone has any ideas on what can be done to either keep the equipment i have (but setup a configuration that will work with Netgear Armor), If it is not too long I can get an exension for my norton (but with all that I have spent I would like to try and prevent more if possible)

I have talked to Bitdefender and they have no idea where the idea came from that they decided which, when, and how the netgear armor product line expands. They recommed a BOX 2 from them, but it does not support link aggration. The recommend doing a managed switch off the modem, then running those cord from the switch to the router and BOX off the switch. They could not be sure if this would work but it is what they could guess would be the closest solution.

I come to you today Netgear community as my last effort to try and resolve this with out spending a large amount more and to try and figure out the once and for all answer that even Netgear support themselves do not, cannot, and/or will not state. I thank you all for reading this and i apologize if this sounds like a rant. This has been a many day and headache process.

TL:DR: Will my current equipment work with Netgear armor? If it does how can I get it to work properly? If it will not work, what products should I get that will allow for Netgear armor, have Wifi 6, and USB sharing?

CC: @DexterJB (i know you are with netgear and I have seen you on the armor posts. If there is anything you can do to help it would be appreciated)

[DominicanMacPro]

@BBearJB I'm in the same boat, I have rax120 ,cm1200, and gs810em. I'm super pissed I can't use my subscription on the newer router. I have wan aggregation setup but I hate knowing I'm not really protected with this newer router. Why hell netgear give us bull**bleep** lines that it can work with the newer ax router when apparently doesnt. I look at other companies high routers and modem they provide security protection like bitdefender. I'm considering going with UNifi product such as the dream machine or dream machine pro which they offer commercial grade firewall protection and security. I truely hope next gear has plans to add some security protection in the the feature. I will contact bitdefender support to see if they can help I have a point of contact from my pervious issue I had when I setup armor. I think it's more on netgear end though. The engineers really need to get this together in get the app upgraded with more additional control features so that we don't have to log onto the web interface which makes me feel unsecure have to go there to make certain changes. And I tried setting rs400 first then rax120 but then I can't really take  advantage of aggregation features like I want