RAXE500 - Missing Circle support / comprehensive parental controls
From what I've found online, both the RAX200 and RAXE500 routers sport the Broadcom BCM4908 processor, and my understanding is, is that the only really major difference between the RAX200 and the RAXE500 is the third 5ghz radio on the RAX200 being swapped out with the new 6ghz radio in the RAXE500.
The RAX200 has support for Circle Smart Parental Controls, and I've had a previous online chat with the Netgear support team who have told me that this feature was coming to the RAXE500, but they gave no firm timeline and committment as to when.
I'm curious if the product team at Netgear understands that this is a MAJOR feature lacking from the RAXE500 unit. Those of us that are happy to pay for the latest and greatest capabilities expect that we'll not be losing features and functionality when we upgrade, and this is a **HUGE** downgrade on the parental controls.
Outside of this specific issue with the parental controls being virtually non-existent . . I absolutley **love** the performance of the RAXE500, but without a further committment from Netgear as to when this capability is going to be a reality in the RAXE500, I'll be returning my RAXE500 and buying another RAX200 and using it until there is a lot more support for the 6ghz band out there and this feature is a reality in the RAXE500.
Respectfully, I would love for the Netgear team to chime in with an explanation and help us understand what the roadmap and timing for the RAXE500 is to get software feature parity with the RAXE200 and get Circle Smart Parental Controls support to make this truly the best router out there on the market.
Re: RAXE500 - Missing Circle support / comprehensive parental controls
Your not going to see someone from netgear "commit" to a timeline. To many things impact rollouts of added features.
And it might not seem like much of a change but the underlying drivers from even broadcom are changing regularly on the RAXE500.
The RAX200 is coming up on its 2 year anniversary of release versus the RAXE has only been out a couple months. Usually netgear gets a device stable and running well before adding complexity to it.
Maybe @Altsai has more details and the time to chime in.
Re: RAXE500 - Missing Circle support / comprehensive parental controls
Understandably . . maybe "commit" is too strong a word. They've said it's coming, maybe they could give us a year and quarter it'd be released in?
I've done some embedded work myself and understand some of the issues working within a vendor ecosystem like Broadcom or Cavium (now Marvell). Maybe I can't see the bigger picture in this particular case, but your argument (to me) is somewhat analogous to not being able to use something like iptables . . because of a network driver tweak . . which makes no sense to me, respectfully.
The RAX200 and RAXE500 units both are essentially using the same guts (sans the 6ghz radio) . . so your comment about the release dates of the units really doesn't make any sense to me either. You have a solid platform and software stack developed and evolved in the RAX200 that I'm sure the Netgear team used as a springboard for the RAXE500.
If there was some instability that introducing the 6ghz drivers produced, I just can't see why you'd pair back functionality like Circle, but that could certainly be my lack of understand on how that specific feature works and the hooks it uses (e.g. how low level does it get).
Things could have also been rushed to be able to still show the RAXE500 off at CES and other venues too.
I'm not asking really for all the details from Netgear, but just saying we'll give you this feature when we get to it, isn't a good answer at all in my humble opinion.
Re: RAXE500 - Missing Circle support / comprehensive parental controls
There isn't always a field to hook up with. I would either need to surrender the use of the XR500 as a router and use the XB6 cable modem as the router rather to read this post. The connectivity is all WiFi primarily based.
Re: RAXE500 - Missing Circle support / comprehensive parental controls
I just bought the RAXE500. On the sales page, it shows an image stating it supports Netgear Armor and Netgear Parental Controls (NPC). If you scroll down, there is a huge section talking about NPC as well. Well - they lied to me. It's not there. It's not supported. No one via support chat or via phone can answer me regarding why it's marketed as being available when it's not. Now I have to return this thing and consider it a lost weekend! Ugh!
I've included a mobile screenshot of the page. You can see it in the image and if you scroll down, you can see the entire section. Really frustrated.
Re: RAXE500 - Missing Circle support / comprehensive parental controls
Netgear has set up a community forum specifically for the SPC/Circle product. Most of the people who watch that forum are more likely to have experience with SPC and Circle. Might be more likely to find someone who has a solution if the question is posted there: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Circle-Smart-Parental-Controls/bd-p/en-home-circle
Re: RAXE500 - Missing Circle support / comprehensive parental controls
Just wanted to update this thread: As of today, Feb 8, 2022, the RAXE500 does not support Netgear's Parental Controls or Circle despite it being advertised as it being available. The Netgear support folks, after waiting on hold almost 30 minutes, told me it was an error in the marketing. The Support staff (I talked to a few) all said it would likely be added eventually since it's the flagship model, but the Engineer I spoke with could not give me an ETA.
If you want parental controls, do not buy a RAXE500 currently despite what the product page says. Check with someone in the forums first who owns one and is running the latest firmware. That is my best advice. Don't make my mistake and believe what Netgear has printed as available features on it's product page.
PS - the RAXE500 also does not currently support QOS despite it being listed as a feature on the product page. Again, check with someone who owns one. At least with QOS, there is a BETA firmware with it, but it's unstable and the latest BETA firmware has removed it again.
Re: RAXE500 - Missing Circle support / comprehensive parental controls
I just wanted to post an update. With the latest firmware (V1.0.10.82_2.0.39), the RAXE500 now supports SPC (Parental Controls). I had to wait 5 months since my initial purchase but it's finally there and working as intended. It's a little basic -- I wish it stored history longer than 24 hours for example, but at least it is there. It comes with a free 30-day trial for new users.
QoS was also added in V1.0.10.82_2.0.39 -- which also seems to be working as intended. I only mention this because it was also a common complaint as both were listed as supported on the website when I made my purchase.
