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Upgrade from AC3000 to AX4200 or AX6000?

jonescasa
Aspirant

Upgrade from AC3000 to AX4200 or AX6000?

Hi- I am looking for input on if it’s worth upgrading our current AC3000 system to either of the newer AX platforms.

Few Facts:
1 RBR50 and 2 RBS satellites.
3000sqft house
Both wife and I work from home and do a lot of video calls.
1gb service through Xfinity.
We have about 50 connected devices (ranging from Sonos products and light switches to nest cameras)
We have newer laptops and Apple devices.

We are generally happy with our current set up, but occasionally run into issues if we are both on video calls at the same time and screen sharing.

We built an ADU in the side yard for my MIL and need to extend coverage to her new house by either adding another RBS50 or getting a newer system with 3 satellites.

Question is: do we spend the $200 on an additional satellite and continue to roll with what we have for another couple years or put that money toward the newer system (will we see real world improvements)?

Thank you in advance for turn input.
Message 1 of 4

Accepted Solutions
plemans
Guru

Re: Upgrade from AC3000 to AX4200 or AX6000?

Will you see real world improvements? Potentially. The AX systems are much more capable when you're getting up to the 1 gig speeds. 

But is that going to make a difference? Its tough to say. video calls don't take a ton of bandwidth. Its just that its a live stream as well as you need to upload. Most of the cable systems advertise 1gig speeds but those are download speeds. Their upload tends to be a fraction (usually 30-40mbps) of that. So the issue might not be the router setup. 

 

What I'd try doing? Buy from business in your local area that has a decent return system. I know best buy/costco have pretty good return policies. Try it out. See how well it works. Its a heck of an investment if it doesn't provide any actual benefits. If it doesn't help, return it and add another satellite to your current setup. 

 

Any chance you MIL suite is hardwired in? If so, you could always use the new system in your home and the older orbi setup in the MIL suite (in AP mode)

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Message 2 of 4

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plemans
Guru

Re: Upgrade from AC3000 to AX4200 or AX6000?

Will you see real world improvements? Potentially. The AX systems are much more capable when you're getting up to the 1 gig speeds. 

But is that going to make a difference? Its tough to say. video calls don't take a ton of bandwidth. Its just that its a live stream as well as you need to upload. Most of the cable systems advertise 1gig speeds but those are download speeds. Their upload tends to be a fraction (usually 30-40mbps) of that. So the issue might not be the router setup. 

 

What I'd try doing? Buy from business in your local area that has a decent return system. I know best buy/costco have pretty good return policies. Try it out. See how well it works. Its a heck of an investment if it doesn't provide any actual benefits. If it doesn't help, return it and add another satellite to your current setup. 

 

Any chance you MIL suite is hardwired in? If so, you could always use the new system in your home and the older orbi setup in the MIL suite (in AP mode)

Message 2 of 4
jonescasa
Aspirant

Re: Upgrade from AC3000 to AX4200 or AX6000?

Thank you so much for the response. We are going to try and hardwire in our laptops and one of the satellites to see if this solves our problem.

Message 3 of 4
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Upgrade from AC3000 to AX4200 or AX6000?

Netgear has set up a community forum specifically for the Orbi AX (WiFi 6) products. Might be more likely to find additional information for the question:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-AX/bd-p/en-home-orbi-ax


Please use this link to the main forum product list to review and choose where to make your posts. 
https://community.netgear.com/t5/NETGEAR-Forum/ct-p/en-netgear


Good Luck.

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