Sure enough, the Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers we've tested so far have been among the fastest mesh routers we've ever tested -- and at $230, the Netgear Nighthawk is the most affordable one yet. One other design upgrade of note: The Nighthawk mesh system adds a spare Ethernet jack to the back of the satellite, something that the dual-band Orbi mesh system lacks. The Nighthawk app is useless (basically for setup, updating firmware, and individually turning off internet access to your kids' specific devices without shutting down the whole network). That's useful to have in case you want a wired connection between the router and the satellite for faster system performance, or if you want to wire something like a media streamer directly to the satellite. More like meh, a new Nighthawk-branded mesh system into the mix, the fastest mesh routers we've ever tested, other surprisingly affordable Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers are coming soon, the recent dual-band, budget-priced version of the Netgear Orbi mesh system, Netgear's own Wi-Fi 6 version of the Orbi mesh system, a particularly fine upgrade for mesh routers. Subaru BRZ. But when I took it home to conduct my real-world speed tests, things were a lot different. At multiple points during my speed tests, the connection would fall to 2.4GHz speeds even when I was just a room away from the router and still well within 5GHz distance. Netgear's Nighthawk brand is a mainstay of the router aisle. The broad view is that this is a dual-band router with support for the newest, fastest version of Wi-Fi and lots of customization options, particularly if you want to use the thing to manage access to networked storage. This year, the company added a new Nighthawk-branded mesh system into the mix, complete with support … You'll have a much better experience with a well-developed mesh system that puts band steering front and center,. In other words, I think this router is probably overkill for most people -- and the shaky SmartConnect feature, which only did a so-so job of steering me from band to band as I moved around in my home, gives me some pause before recommending it for the rest of you. ft. shotgun house in Louisville, KY. Netgear pegs those speeds at 1,200 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 4,800 Mbps on the 5GHz band -- but remember those numbers are based on optimized, lab-based tests that don't take things like range, interference and physical obstructions into account. Netgear Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Router (R7000P) Review 3.5 The Netgear Nighthawk AC2300 (R7000P) is a dual-band router that offers good close-range throughput and a … © 2021 CNET, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. Both the router and the satellite include one spare gigabit Ethernet jack, which lets you wire the two together for faster system performance. It's a bit further from the router, but it's an open concept floorplan that connects with the living room, so there aren't any walls in the way. Boeing 737 Max. CNET may get a commission from these offers. Read helpful reviews … And, when I see a weirdly slow result like that in my tests, I'll make a note of it in my spreadsheet, then reset the connection. Speaking of signal strength, we test for that, too. The Nighthawk's signal strength was a little stronger than a comparably priced Wi-Fi 5 system like the Nest Wifi, but not nearly as strong as a high-end Wi-Fi 6 system like Netgear's Orbi. Expensive, triband Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers like Netgear's Orbi 6, the AmpliFi Alien and the Arris Surfboard Max Pro all averaged faster top speeds across all distances -- but at a distance of five feet (blue), the Netgear Nighthawk was actually the fastest mesh router we've tested yet. That said, the Nighthawk saw bigger speed drops than those systems as we increased the distance. The RAX120 includes four gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, two of which can be aggregated to support combined incoming wired speeds of up to 2Gbps. Positioned as a major upgrade to the previous R7000 … © 2021 CNET, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. About the size of a coffee-table book, Netgear's Nighthawk X6S is one of the largest routers on the market and is about one-quarter bigger than the Linksys WRT32X router. I alternate rounds of speed tests from the front of the house to the back, and then from the back of the house to the front -- on one of the latter rounds, where that close-range living room test is the last test in the sequence, my speed came in at 93 Mbps. So to actually get to all of the routers settings you must go to 192.168.1.1 address instead of … Still, the Nighthawk router did a lot better than I expected when we ran our own lab-based top speed tests. The Nighthawk has plenty of the former, but it lacks the latter. Significantly faster than comparable Wi-Fi 5 routers, LAN aggregation and multigig jack options support incoming speeds of up to 5Gpbs, Good VPN option via the Nighthawk web interface, So-so band steering via the SmartConnect feature, Slightly lower top speeds than our fastest-tested Wi-Fi 6 router, which costs less, Discuss: Warp speed from this Wi-Fi 6 router? ft. CNET Smart Home, where we set each mesh system up with the router and one satellite on opposite ends of the home's main floor. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Netgear Nighthawk AX6 6-Stream AX4300 WiFi 6 Router at Amazon.com. Still, the RAX120 does include its own Quality of Service engine, which you can customize pretty easily from the Nighthawk web portal to prioritize traffic to certain devices and use cases. But then I picked up my laptop and moved to a new spot -- the kitchen. In our own lab, where we wire each router to a local server and then download files wirelessly on a 2x2, Wi-Fi 6-equipped laptop from various distances, we clocked the RAX120 with a top-sustained speed of 1,263 Mbps on the 5GHz band. The RAX120 delivered fast download speeds throughout my home, but the numbers fell sharply in that back bathroom, the farthest room from the router. CNET may get a commission from these offers. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Netgear Nighthawk CM1100 DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem at Amazon.com. The San Jose, California based company is known for making high performance and reliable cable modems and routers for SOHO networks (home and small office) with a great example being the mesh Orbi series. Other mesh routers I've tested have all done a much better job of optimizing my speeds -- and other surprisingly affordable Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers are coming soon, so you've got alternatives worth waiting for. Netgear's Nighthawk app walked me through the setup process and my network was up and running within a few minutes. Netgear CM1000/CM1100/CM1200 Brief Review Netgear has been for a long time one of the best home networking brands. They're still an appealing upgrade option in 2020 -- particularly if you think you'll be able to get good use out of those multigig connection capabilities. 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