Top positive review
3 people found this helpful
This IT Gal is truly impressed.
By M'anne on Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2015
I replaced my DLink DIR855 Dual Band router with this product. With a teen hogging bandwidth for his phone games, I need something for my IT and home office to work efficiently; all the while, allowing my husband to have his internet too. So many devices hooked up to our home networks that it's impossible to keep routers for more than 4 years - technology is ever evolving and fast too. That said, this router is AWESOME!!! I originally had my eyes set on the DLink DIR895L with it's availability supposedly this year, it's been months and no sign of it being live for purchase. Therefore, I bought this beast and it is worth every penny I paid for it, $355.64 and got free same day delivery for my PRIME Account. My download speed almost tripled at 127 mbps and upload is 12.5 mbps with devices using bandwidth: streaming netflix, 4 smartphones, 1 laptop. I have not tested the speeds without any devices using the router, I'm sure I'll get off the chart speeds if I did kick all devices off for a moment! My internet plan is- Cox preferred internet service alloted 50 mbps download / 10 mbps upload. the UI is simple and packed with many features. I have a Surface Book with Windows 10 Pro and could not install the Genie app (needed for parental control) on my desktop, it is not compatible. So I just use my Samsung Note 4 and downloaded the Genie app via Google Play until Netgear can make it compatible with Windows 10 Pro. My teen now has full bars upstairs in his room. it has not dropped the signals on any of the bands, I've dedicated the 2.4 ghz for my teen and older devices. The 1st 5 ghz band is for my husband and other wireless devices; and the 2nd 5 ghz for my IT and Home Office, the Admin band is what I say it is. I do Advanced Home Networking, Business Consultant for NonProfit, Development of Corporate Administrative Infrastructure, Ministries, and I also do Real Estate Transactions while running a small RE firm for a broker virtually! So I do alot of work at home and also travel much so I do a lot of remote accessing of my Network as well! I do not have an elaborate IT set up and do not use any servers, I use what is quality, within my modest budget (I barely get paid for my services - except with RE work), and utilize cloud based free services as much as possible to keep mine and my client's costs down. I will eventually need to create a workgroup network to keep things separated, but I'm holding out on that until I can start getting decent pay for my IT & Business Consulting work. Anyway, I'm glad I can easily monitor and control my home network with efficiency and ease. Previously using DLink and Cisco UIs, the NetGear UI is simple. The 5.3 Ghz wifi speed is top notch. My Note 4 was downloading the genie app and before I can exit out to wait for it to do its thing, it was already finished. Literally took 2-3 seconds to download a 100 mb+ app on Google Play, I couldn't even blink yet and it was done downloading. I love the aggregate ports, I can now use one for my DLink Green Switch and room for an NAS. I also like how it has the 3.0 usb and 2.0 usb ports which can be used for system backups (the 3.0 usb that is). Below are all the devices I'm running on this beast of a router on a 2 story plus a garage below and 1402 sq ft townhome again with Cox preferred internet service (50 mbps download / 10 mbps upload). You won't regret this router! And if you are in IT like me, you will appreciate it's advanced capabilities along with it's simple UI for your clients if you recommend the product. Devices I have on the network: Samsung 60" Smart TV (Wired via cat 6 switch) Samsung 50" Smart TV (Powerline via cat 6 on Switch) Samsung 55" Smart TV (Powerline via cat 6 on switch) Samsung S5 (5 ghz wifi) Samsung Note 4 (2ndary 5 ghz wifi) Samsung Note 3 (used for streaming att uverse app on the Samsung 50" TV) - 5 ghz wifi. Samsung Phone (2.4 ghz wifi) LG Phone (2.4 ghz wifi) iPhone (2.4 ghz wifi) Surface Book (i7, 8gb ram) 2ndary 5ghz wifi HP All-In-One Desktop (i7, 8 gb ram) 5ghz wifi. Toshiba laptop (i3, 4gb ram) 2.4 ghz wifi Samsung Slate tablet (i5, 8gb ram) 5 ghz wifi. Canon Pixma (2.4 ghz wifi) Kindle (2.4 ghz) XBox 360 Modern Warfare Edition (Powerline via cat 6 on Switch)
Top critical review
76 people found this helpful
Buggy rebooting piece of junk
By KeithL on Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2015
I had a few routers that were all a few years old. With all the wifi devices I have now, iPads, phones, laptops, FireTV, myQ garage doors, alarm system and on and on the mesh of different routers was a mess. None could handle the throughput needed, most were connected to old 2.4 b/g and my only old Netgear 5GHz was only n so it was time for an upgrade. I wanted a triband router and actually ordered a Asus AC3200 at a great Black Friday deal of $197 at a competitor, but then stumbled across this new Netgear AC5300 X8 Nighthawk and saw rave reviews and at a Black Friday prices of $299 on Prime I could not resist. Got it setup and tweaked and this thing screams. Hopefully it will be as reliable as my old Netgear router and the interface is the same so I love their advanced settings. All the devices are getting excellent signal and throughput. It is a bit iffy at the far end of the house 2 floors up, but I picked up a TP-Link C7 as an access point for the single device up there. This thing is huge, but my guess is they needed the size to avoid fans for cooling and all the components needed to support 3 bands, 6 Ethernet ports, 4 external and 4 internal antennas. Looks like the Asus will go back as soon as it arrives. 1/16/2016 Update So after 2 months of ownership I wanted to update my review. This is still an awesome router. It does have a few quirks. First the UI gets sluggish which should not be the case with all the processing power this beast has. Also the UI does not always show correct status of the LAN ports as they are up, but the UI shows them down. Also anytime you make adjustments to the overall QOS settings (not devices) the router basically reboots, very annoying. And the most annoying bug is I have several Roku devices hardwired and if you videos on the CNET channel on Roku the router reboots, basically rendering the CNET Roku app useless. 2/3/2016 Update. Well I am dropping this to 1 star. Netgear has been unable to resolve the issue and is incapable of understanding the issue. This has become a $300 boat anchor and I will be exploring options for another brand. Too bad I have been a long time Netgear owner of various products. 2/14/2016 Update Netgear has been jerking me around for weeks (4 to be precise) and unable to fix this piece of junk. Works for very basic things, but watch any online video services and this thing will randomly reboot and it takes like 2+ minutes to reboot. Netgear is clueless and while their support tries they do not succeed in getting it fixed. They refuse to refund my purchase or replace the router. Update 10/2016 Router is now fairly stable, but QOS is a dog on performance and buggy as hell. Also still no MIMO support, last Broadcom based router I will buy and last Netgear as their support is bad. Update 12/2016 Finally added MIMO support, but this router is a pig. UI is slow and bloated and now newer devices like iPad Pro can't be set up in QOS as it doe snot know what to do with the device. After years of Netgear routers this is the last one. Bad support and buggy bloated code, not to mention huge security hole in all their recent routers. [...]
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