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 page....
2 questions. Interesting question about my current set up, I have a Intel ac9260 wifi card in my notebook that is used with my Netgear Nighthawk R7500 v1 listed above... I have my router set at channel (?) 161 thinking for some reason... .the card is a 200mhz card I guess in all my reading I just happen to pick that... Im getting around 300mbps down on 5g wireless.. is there a different I should change my router for faster speeds?
Today I ordered a Intel AX210 card to replace the 9260 card is there any downside to that .. I am trying to decided on getting a new router (probably a Wifi 6 Nighthawk .... Should I just wait to install the new card until I get the router?
One last comment for kicks I set up a trendnet 1900 ac just to test things... with that router... I was getting over 500mbps, almost as if my notebook was hooked directly up to Ethernet... Strange and I can't explain what is going on with that.
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
That router's 5ghz is a 4x4 antenna that supports "up to 1733mpbs". so 433mpbs over each antenna. That intel card is a 2x2 antenna device. So its max connection link is 866mpbs. Actual throughput (your actual speed) tends to be 55-65% of link speed. So you should be able to get 500mbps ish out of it. Try changing what channel you're on. Also make sure to test at close range as 5ghz speeds drop of quickly with distance/obstruction.
I would stick the AX210 card in the laptop. It won't hurt anything to have it installed.
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
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
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
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
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
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.
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
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
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
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!
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
I'm in snowy minnesota currently.
One thing to be aware of is the AX210 does support 6ghz (6E) but only on windows 11. Windows 10 doesn't support 6ghz. There's a few workarounds that have managed to get it working but if you have still the option to upgrade to windows 11 for free on the computer your putting the AX210 in, it might be worth it and easier.
You might see a bump in speed as the AX210 might be a little more efficient. That's the key difference you see with these things is a little better efficiency between certain cards/wifi modules. And intel/apple are both pretty good on that. Its some of the other brands that are slower and lower efficiency.
Mesh is a whole nother thing. 🙂 I used to hate the combined ssid as when it first came out, I preferred setting it myself. After getting used to it and using it, I'm fine with it. Its actually your device (phone/tablet/etc) that decides which band to connect to and not the router. so sometimes my phone will be on the 2.4ghz and the next on 5ghz. It depends on what it needs both in terms of connection and speeds. And IoT device makers have gotten better at allowing your phone to be on 5ghz during setup for devices that only have 2.4ghz. there's still a few that cause problems but usually there's work arounds to get that working.
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
Evening.... Wow, snowy Minnesota Now that is Up North and really Really Cold 🙂 Nashville isn't too bad, although this year we got hit pretty bad... the good thing for us, we were in Sacramento Ca for Christmas... bad part, we got caught in all the Southwest Airlines issue and delayed 4 days coming home! The other bad part, we both tested positive for Covid 2 days after we got home.... Oh well! We survived so far.
Now you just threw me a huge curve.. Window 11 and that right now is a big deal killer for us, I am not ready to make a move to Windows 11 for many reasons . That kind of bums me out but we have some special applications that are not Windows 11 and won't be anytime soon... I guess I had thought that when I looked at AX210 they had drivers for Window 10 and 11 so I thought ok.. . I'm good to go... I am up to date on Windows but it's windows 10.
I guess this changes my ideas big time at this point... guess it better to know now before I invested a chunk in to a new router at this point....
The good thing is that I did run all our house with hard wire and my guess with hard wire I'd still be able to work with the fiber at 1gb. I am not sure if I need to update my wifi card at this point .
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
Yes they do have drivers for windows 10 but thats just to get the cards 2.4ghz/5ghz working. The 6ghz won't work in 10.
Sad to say. In windows 10 the AX200 and AX210 are basically the same. But it doesn't hurt to have in case you do upgrade in the future. Or if you dual boot at some point. Some versions of linux support 6ghz
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
After I had written my last note I started thinking... .Ok well put the ax210 card in and even upgrade the router, Like you mentioned I'd probably get a pretty good bump from 1730 of my current to 2400 on a new 5g band... and your right as I upgrade our equipment and devices that handle the Wifi 6 (or even 6e) I'd be set. I wish I'd get an install date for fiber so far all they say is "It's coming" but they seem to look at the interest and then install the lines ... so its a wait and see! I did notice that United router they offer with satellites are only WiFi 6, they would install the router and a couple of satellites for about $15 -20 a month but I can get a mesh system that is Wifi 6 fairly inexpensively and not worry about 6e at this point..
So many choices and unknowns. I should get my additional 16gb of ram in a few days and they I may just go ahead and install the wifi card and us it on my wifi 5 set up ... can't hurt! All in all, I am guessing any of my hard wired devices will handle the 1GB just fine and that's 95% of our devices today.
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
Good Evening I thought I'd bring you up to date on my system decisions. I had a long talk with Intel and they were really nice and provided me with everything I needed to install an AX200 card in my Dell Laptop... I replaced the Intel AC 9260 (those small antenna connections sure are tricky but I finally got them installed... turned on my Laptop and my notebook found the drivers and updated both my bluetooth and wifi .and I'm glad I did.
Using my R7500 router I use to probably average 250 to maybe 300mbps ... the first test with the AX200 came in at about 426 and then increased to 487.. .I've seen some tests over 500 . (these speeds are with my current Netgear router. I can see the link speed has increased and I'm a happy person right now...
After doing a load of reading and looking at an AX6 router I finally pushed the buy button on a Asus AX88U ... and I feel that this will be a good choice for me... . Netgear is a big company and offering 90 day support is shameful their recent marketing changes of charging for services that use to be free kind of irks me... I even noticed that my current router that us to give me some parental control (which I never need) they now are making me pay a subscription. Crazy!
I will be hooking up the now router hopefully this week and I am going to upgrade to Spectrum 1gb down (35 up) perhaps this week.. it's a no brainer they want to change out my modem ... Long story short I've not got any info on when United Communications will get to our area so.. I'll try Spectrum if I'm not happy... Ill change... but the biggest plus is I do not have to do any installation changes where I will have to with United.
Spectrum has offered me a 3 year promo which is about half of what I pay now and they are also talking to me about Spectrum Mobile but my biggest concern there is do they really have the coverage that I have with Verizon!
Anyway just thought I'd send you a note and update you were I am with my research
Re: Netgear Nighthawk 2350 v1 router set up question with intel AC9260
The new card is doing great and talking to the router with wifi6 I am linked at 2.4ghz and getting some fantastic speeds....
I really like the Asus so far my big mistake was not changing the router IP address to 192.168,1,1 the Asus is 192.168.50.1 and that screwed up my plex and Nas systems so I have to go back and do quite a few redirects.... but at least I'm getting through it and I am sure it will all work out in the long run, just a bit of a pain... Other than that it seems stronger wifi signals, my wifes phone shows Wifi 6 (mine isn't but not worth buying a new phone)
I really got irritated when I read that Netgear went back and changed some of the features of the older routers even my R7500 then 90 tech support and 1 year warranty... just kind of soured my taste for them... My router was $250 which was in line with some of the Netgear I was looking at... but I have to tell you the Asus web GUI is fantastic.....
