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Slow internet speeds
I was told by Best Buy that for the price this was a good router for gaming on. It also is advertised as that on Netgear's website as well as in reviews on websites. I'm starting to believe I was lie...
JohnDoe1111 wrote:
My only concern is now I have outdated firmware and am afraid I'm vulnerable to attacks.
It is reasonable to want to keep up with security improvements, me too, but it might be worth putting this into perspective.
Many "security fixes" are for things that are uncovered in research labs and that rarely appear "in the wild".
If it is a balance between having a router that works and one that protects me from rare security loopholes, I know which I'd opt for.
Unfortunately, Netgear rarely says what a security fix does. There is a good reason for being silent on this, revealing this information would tell hackers the holes that remain open.
I'm not into third party firmware – never had the need to go down that road – but you may find that someone has come up with a better alternative to whatever Netgear has cooked up.
By the way, if you spend any time looking at forums that support other makes of router you will find depressingly similar messages. After all, they all use the same small range of network chips. The main difference is that Netgear has a more active community than most, with many more unpaid volunteers trying to provide genuine help for fellow users.
JohnDoe1111 wrote:
I was told by Best Buy that for the price this was a good router for gaming on. It also is advertised as that on Netgear's website as well as in reviews on websites. I'm starting to believe I was lied to. Netgear will not help me as I'm out of the 90 day window (payed $200 for this and now I'm being asked to purchase support tickets?! Money grab).
Makes sense. But Netgear does not pitch the R7000 as a gaming router. It is a mid-range router with little in the way of special features.I am surprised that Best Buy advocated it for gaming. Maybe they have some they want to shift. Or it could be the "for the price" restriction.
For gaming, think XR450 or XR500. These routers are based on existing hardware – the R7800, a more powerful device than the R7000, is the core for some of them – but it has firmware written for gamers by DumaOS. Dead flashy and a tweaker's delight. The snag is the cost, probably twice what you paid for your R7000.
I chip in only to add one word of warning. The bit about being asked to pay for support may be a scam.
If you called a number that you found with a web search, that almost certainly had nothing to do with Netgear.
Netgear itself does not provide paid for support. It farms that out to GearHead Technical Support.
Web searches deliver that screen "Netgear support" at the top but that turn out to be anything but. Using them can be dangerous, for your network and your bank balance.