Why Should I Upgrade to a WiFi 6 Router? - Blog

[Dustin_V]

The latest generation of WiFi technology, WiFi 6 (802.11ax), is designed to increase network capacity and improve the performance of you home network. Ideal for the smart home of today, a WiFi 6 router will let you enjoy buffer-free streaming, faster downloads, and add more smart home devices without affecting your network’s performance.

Here’s why you should consider a WiFi 6 router when upgrading your home network:

WiFi 6 provides the highest level of performance in busy multi-device households

With orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), WiFi 6 routers experience an increase in network efficiency to allow several devices with various bandwidth requirements to connect to your WiFi.

WiFi 6 provides the fastest real-world speeds & range

Number of streams matter when it comes to speed. WiFi 6 increases that number to a high of 12 streams, which provides higher connection speed so that client devices have more paths to communicate with your WiFi 6 router.

WiFi 6 is designed for the Smart Home

The average number of smart home devices continues to grow. Each of those devices constantly send and receive data and can put a load on your WiFi network. WiFi 6 routers are designed to handle the increase in devices without impacting your WiFi experience.

WiFi 6 routers are ideal for 4K/8K UHD streaming

Streaming UHD video requires a consistent high-speed connection and can put a load on your network. With ultra-fast processors, increased memory, and increased radio streams, WiFi 6 routers are designed to let you stream buffer-free and worry-free.

WiFi 6 clients are available now

Products like the latest Samsung Galaxy smart phone are already on the market and support WiFi 6. Users are now able to experience faster WiFi speeds that NETGEAR WiFi 6 routers offer!

For more detail, click here to read the rest of our Blog article

Click To learn how WiFi 6 makes your WiFi feel young again

[ninja661]

I have a question and hopefully there is an answer here - why upgrade to a WiFi 6 router when Netgear can’t get it right the first time? I’ve had Netgear products from an old Prosafe Firewall/router and the PS101 Parallel port Ethernet print server - these were 2 devices that worked as delivered but over the years i’ve had the WNR2000 v2, the R6300 and lastly the R8000. These all 3 routers have been nothing but major hardware fails and Netgear tells me after my warranty was still in effect on all of these devices they want me to subscribe to their extended warranty services - why would I feed money to a broken machine that never gets fixed? Nothing ever gets resolved with Netgear Support - always being routed overseas and techs always wanting remote sessions via my desktop. I have from past experiences to never let a Remote Desktop session unless it’s someone you trust implicitly. That said, why would anyone pour money into a broken machine? Netgear has a lot of convincing to do before I will ever consider one of their ‘routers’ again and the experiences I’ve had with Netgear routers I would have returned this R8000 within days after purchasing it and asking for a refund. One piece of advice to consumers - never trust reviews about hardware they are like driving a first model year of a new car out the showroom doors - expect a zillion bugs and hope they will get fixed. (Not the case here.)

[ninja661]

In Dubai? Are you serious? I am in the US not even close to the UAE.

[myersw]

Why would I want to buy one of these when Netgear cannot get the firmware right for the existing product line. Had ongoing issues with firmware with r8000 and r8000p and went else where. Netgear does not seem to have any QA in place for firmware updates. Have the same issues update to update. I will not recommend a Netgear router to anyone after my recent experience with the r8000 and r8000p. Have moved on to Ubiquiti Unifi. Now I never have issues with my network, unlike when using Netgear products. 

David Henry in the other video obviously has not followed the forums or he would not indicate all you need to do is configure and forget your router. That is the way it should be, however that was not my experience with 2 of the "flagship" routers. The r8000 and r8000p had same issues update after update. JUNK!. 

[Dazzamatazz]

My RAX80 Nightmare has been returned to Amazon. What a useless piece of junk it was. Constant disconnections, passwords that were accepted at time of entry then would throw 'incorrect password' errors randomly.

I couldn't even register my router for support because the error message said that my 90 day support had expired at a date 90 days in the future! I sent n email to "customer services" explaining the issue, and after 14 days have not recieved a reply.

I don't know what happened to Netgear as a company, but quality control is zero and support is useless. I will never trust or buy anything from Netgear again.

[myersw]

@Dazzamatazz 

Welcome to the Netgear haters club. They had been my go to company until firmware issues with a r8000 and r8000p. Moved away from consumer grade routers of any brand. 

[Dazzamatazz]

I managed to pick up a Cisco cisco 3800 (AIR-AP3802I-E-K9) for a reasonable price off eBay. I hope once I get it going it will last for years without issue.

I've found out that it does come with challenges though. I've ordered a USB Console Cable with FTDI Chip to connect to the console. Then I have to convert it to run with Mobile Express software instead of CAPWAP in order to be able to use it without a dedicated hardware controller. To download the firmware from the Cisco site, I need a Cisco support contract, so I've had to find the .tar files elsewhere...

Fun and games, but I hope it will be worth it. Anything but consumer-grade junk!

[Retired_Member]

I too did the RAX80 and the first one updated to the .62 firmware and did not get the disconnects but couldnt get to the web interface on the local network.  I could get to it remotly with the app to reboot it.  I thought it was a hardware issue so I exchanged it at Best Buy.  The second one would work to get into the GUI for a few hours then stop.  I worked with Netgear support for a few hours and they got me to downgrade the firmware to about three earlier version.  This seemed to get the GUI working but then kept looing the 2.4 band.  With all this said I shouldnt have but I ended up exchangeing and going with the RAX120.  Best Buy has $100 off of the RAX80 and RAX120.  Still on the top end of the price range for consumer routers.  I have liked Negear in the past is why I wanted to stay with them.  I have had the RAX120 for a few days now and it has been great.  I have not had any issues and it has been stable.  The only thing that I have notice is that the thing never gets warm enough to turn the fan on. This could be a good thing but would like to see the fan at lease spin up on startup just to make sure it works.  I really like the way the router is designed.  I just hope this AX is not like the AD and just never go anywhere.

[robledrew]

I went to the RAX200 from the R8000 and am learning the same thing. 

As a tech industry professional, my advice would be to not invest in Netgear for your stock portfolio or your home networking needs. Not until they get their act together and start producing products that have been through QA and actually work as advertised!

[April1]

I had bought RAX75 earlier but didn’t get the speed. Netgear service agent told me that’s the max speed (200 mbps) I can get. I returned it and bought RAX80. It works great but keep losing 5G once in a day. Fan get on frequently. Appears to be a heat problem in the router. No one from the Netgear service is able to help me. Agents come and advice to perform factory reset and wait for a day. Nothing has worked so far. I work from home so reliable connectivity is a must for me to survive.

Netgear is not saying yes to replace the router possibly they are not sure if the next one will work ok

[schumaku]

RAX75 (AX5700) and RAX80 (AX6000) are essentially sharing the very same hardware, even the firmware is (internally) identical. The only difference is the max. link speed on 2.4 GHz which is firmware-limited to 300 Mb/s less:

RAX75 (don't be confused - the marketeers still claim it 920Gbps....)

• 802.11ax Dual Band WiFi (AX5700)

• 2.4GHz AX: 4x4 (Tx/Rx) 1024 QAM 40MHz, up to 920Mbps

• 5GHz AX: 4x4 (Tx/Rx) 1024 QAM 160MHz, up to 4.8Gbps

RAX80:

• 802.11ax Dual Band WiFi (AX6000)

• 2.4GHz AX: 4x4 (Tx/Rx) 1024 QAM 40MHz, up to 1.2Gbps

• 5GHz AX: 4x4 (Tx/Rx) 1024 QAM 160MHz, up to 4.8Gbps

Wonder what hero claimed the RAX75 can only do 200Mb/s - under whatever unclear conditions - probably becuase of some limitations resp. the technology in place on a wireless client.

Fan can come up if the device - or some components - are running hot, cloud be a hardware thing. I'd push them to send a replacement unit (up front).

[mayeen12]

YOU SHOULD NOT UPGRADE TO WIFI 6 router,  NETGEAR can't even support the WAN speed.
My house have MANY wifi 6 devices.. I can't even take full advantage of it, becuse of netgear WAN limitation of 500 MBPS.

[mhau00]

WIFI specs are promising, however you shouldn't upgrade to a Netgear WIFI6.

Why? Since their Firmware is absolute rubbish.

I've had nothing but trouble with my new Netgear RAX40.

Intermittent outages several times a day.

The only way to fix the outage is to restart the box which is painfully slow (up to 5 mins)

compared my old R7000 (rouhgly a minute)

And nothing Netgear suggests will help.

Stay away from Netgear if you want working kit.

[itsmehuey]

Netgear and their RAX range of routers are absolute trash and so is their support (or lack there of).

I wish I had never bought my RAX40. Can’t even return it...

[psychopomp123]

^^^ My RAX200 works a treat. Best router I've ever used 🙂

[itsmehuey]

I guess you are one of the select few. One of the lucky ones. Unfortunately so many of us aren’t so lucky...