NETGEAR Nighthawk

This review is for the Netgear Nighthawk AX12 12 Steam AX WiFi Router (Model Number: RAx120)MY BROADBAND PACKAGE:Virgin Media Fibre Optic Cable. 220MB Download and 20MB upload broadband plan. Using Virgin SuperHub 3.MY HOME SETUP:Large 4 bedroom detached property (very wide) over 2 floors (No brick internal walls). Furthest internal point in house, from the router is approx 15 meters.I have approx 15 devices connecting to the WiFi network.THE VIRGIN SUPER HUB 3:The only time I ever received Virgin’s advertised upload and download speeds was when I connected my MacBook Pro directly to the router using an Ethernet cable. Great - if you don't mind cables running all over your house.The WiFi was horrendously slow 90% of the time - I was often getting download speeds of just 20MB and that was in the same room as the router. In other rooms or upstairs the WiFi signal would degrade further still, to the point that it was often unusable - frequently I would get faster downloads using 4G (on my iPhone Pro Max). I tried all the usual stuff - turning the router off and back on again - turning off the mobile devices and laptops - and resetting the router back to factory settings. Even resorted to tweaking the router settings, to no avail.Occasionally, the router would give me a faster WiFi connection when turned off and back on again (maybe reaching 70MB) and then within minutes or a couple of hours it was back to the usual slow speed connection. I tried WiFi extenders etc.. nothing seemed to work, and as I work from home, I would end up using ethernet cable during the day to ensure I had a fast and constant reliable connection.Fed up with the slow WiFi and having an ethernet cable running over 10 metres to the study I started to research the Virgin Super Hub 3 router online. If only I had done it sooner. The reviews for it are terrible (and that's from official reviewers - not your average lay person). In view of this and already have spent a small fortune on other devices (extenders etc) I started to look at reviews for the NETGEAR Nighthawk router. Initial reaction was expensive, but the reviews for it were generally very good. Having had enough of my current unworkable setup, I decided to purchase the router.THE NIGHTHAWK NETGEAR ROUTER REVIEW:Arrived within a couple of days via Amazon Prime.Downloaded the app to my iPhone, launched it and followed the step-by-step instructions to complete the router setup. It was an absolute breeze. I had the new router up and running within half an hour of getting it out of the box.Note: If you're using the Virgin Super Hub 3, you will need to change the Super Hub 3 from "WiFi Mode" to "Modem Mode", before you start setting up the Nighthawk router, which can easily be done within the router's settings.During the set-up, you're asked if you want to keep your existing Network SSID and Password... Select "YES" as this means all of your existing devices will automatically connect to the new router (once set-up), otherwise you'll have a New SSID and Password, which you’ll have to set-up on every device you wish to connect to the WiFi. This worked perfectly for me.Post setup, all of my existing devices connected perfectly. Note: The 5G network has shorter range but faster connection, whereas the 2G network has further range but slower speed connection. I managed to get all of my smart devices (TV's, mobile phones, iPads) to connect to the 5G Wi-Fi network without any issues or signal drops anywhere in the house. There are 5 ethernet ports on the back of the router, which I also used to connect some devices (e.g Lounge TV, and PS4).Here's THE BEST BIT ... THE SPEED... WOW - this has totally blown my socks off!!! Most of the devices are connecting to the WiFi at almost full speed (220MB download) most of the time. In the furthest corners of the house I can still gets signals as fast as 210MB. I'm totally impressed and wish I'd bought this sooner.The Nighthawk Phone App is great. It allows you to see all of the devices connecting to the network either via WiFi or wired connection. You can 'pause' internet to individual devices if you like. You can also check the internet upload and download speed between your Router and ISP, which is handy. You can also turn on a "Guest WiFi" network if you wish to give house gets access to WiFi but not 'your' personal WiFi. There is also a traffic meter, if you wish to track how much data you're using .IN CONCLUSION:This router isn't cheap, in fact it's one of Netgear's most expensive. It does however have the latest WiFi standard (WiFi 6 aka "AX") which the latest iPhones, Samsung Devices, iPads can make use off. It is also backward compatible with all previous WiFi standards. It is quick and easy to setup and doesn't require any technical knowledge. Most importantly is the WiFi speed which I've been completely amazed with. You might also be able to get great results with other cheaper Netgear Routers (I didn't want to take the chance based on the amount I'd spent cumulatively on other products trying to sort my poor WiFi signal), however, I can wholly recommend this router if you have the budget, want ultra-fast WiFi speeds, and are looking to ensure any new smart device purchases can make use of the very latest and fastest WiFi.

I share a house with 4 others, all of which have a mix of mobile phones, tablets, laptops and streaming services, all running at the same time. I also need a reliable broadband connection for home working. I have to say, whilst this is an expensive product, it has absolutely blown me away with both the reliability and strength of the signal throughout the house. The router was configured in around 15 minutes using a guided process in the Nighthawk app, after setting the broadband router (VM Hub 4) to modem mode. I have 1Gb broadband from Virgin, which was previously connected to 3 mesh routers that could supply around 50-75Mbps in the furthest corners of the house. This has now risen to a respectable 250-300Mbps, through several walls and a flight of stairs. When close to the router, this often exceeds 1Gbps, so I'm finally getting what I'm paying for! One thing to bear in mind, this is a huge router. With the antenna attached it has roughly the same footprint as a 15.6 laptop, so bear this in mind when placing it. It does have a very sci fi look to it, and the leds can be disabled in settings if you have it on show. I have now been able to run the entire house off just the router alone, so in my opinion, if you want fast, reliable and future proofed WiFi, this is worth the initial outlay. Wired connectivity is also catered for with 4 2.5 Gbps Lan ports and two USB 3.0 ports.

Bought this on the premise of the DumoOS software and the notion of their Geo Filter.To start, the GeoFilter etc does work, it will connect you to certain servers you specify however if you expect "easier" games, it's not going to happen. The version I bought, at the time of writing, dosen't even have their HybridVPN which features on the native Netduma Routers, this feature has seemingly been in development for over 2 years with no production deployment in sight on the Netgear routers.I will be returning this router though. My previous router was a Netgear Nighthawk, an older model, however, it is by far better for my network even with no tweaks. The Netduma would kick off devices for minutes at a time, induce lag on some of the main protected devices producing buffering on sites such as YouTube. The wireless quality is nothing to shout about, I'd say it's okay, nothing exceptional.Smart devices that prefer the 2.4Ghz band seem to hate connecting to this router and will only comply when the 5Ghz band is disabled. Did not have this issue on my previous router even when both bands were operational at the same time.Logging into the Router and the responsiveness becomes an issue. It takes an age to load the DumaOS UI and even longer to apply changes. Better yet, you can't toggle the inactivity timeout so if you leave it open because you're testing changes etc, you're going to get logged out constantly which becomes incredibly annoying.Overall, a product with lots of potential but severely flawed. If Netgear implemented the desired features into their base product without this DumaOS layer, I'd imagine we'd have a significantly better product.