NETGEAR Nighthawk X10 Smart WiFi Router

After installing this router, I waited a couple days just to ensure it continued to work well before making any comments or rating about it. (nothing worse than when people rate something with one or even five stars and say they haven't used it yet, or will just update their comments later... Idiots. Why even comment and rate the product then in the first place if you have zero knowledge of how it actually works, first...?!) But, since I've been using this for awhile and have used sooooo many different routers over the last 41 years, I feel confident in commenting and rating this product with a 5-star rating, even though I had one issue (described below). I feel that issue is pretty irrelevant as a work-around in the type of installation was done in just a few seconds and made everything work just as well if not better than it would have otherwise. Maybe someone else has the same issue and cannot get over that issue affecting them - that will be between you and Netgear - for me - it's a non-issue and still gets a 5-rating. So - installing this thing. It comes with plenty of quick-start guides to help you with manually connecting to it (Ethernet) or using the WiFi (it has three frequencies and speeds that can be chosen!) 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz or 60Ghz. You can have all three operating at the same time so whatever device you are using can use the best signal that it physically can use - or you can shut them down and limit it to only two or three options. Whatever you want. There is also a GUEST WiFi connection that is set "OFF" as default - and if you do choose to allow strangers to connect to your WiFi, it blocks them from accessing other systems on the network automatically - and you can additionally choose to limit the amount of speed / bandwidth that the guest can achieve. Personally - always leave the "Guest" mode off, unless you're going to host a big party with lots of people and everyone wants to use WiFi at the same time and you don't want to give each of them your password. (that's actually rude of them so tell them to suck it up and use their cell data instead!) You can also set a different password for each of the three frequencies of the WiFi, if you want to. Since I have a modem from my internet provider, that is also a WiFi spot, I installed this in the back of the house for my desktop computer in my den as well as having better WiFi signals due to too many walls between the back of the house and the living room where the ISP's Modem / Router is located. The Netgear's setup suggested programming this router as an Access Point instead of as an additional Router, since we already have a router in the front of the house. The Access Point essentially creates an extension from your primary router. Well - that installation took over 20 minutes to configure (it's all automatic once you choose Router or Access Point setup). It locked up numerous times and I have to factory reset the thing twice - all for the WiFi antennas to still not broadcast or allow any connections. It was definitely ON, the WiFi button (on the front of the unit - to the far right under it's LED light (which is not referred to in any of the instruction manuals)) was confirmed ON and every light indicated that the unit was functioning perfectly. But zero connection to the WiFi portion of the router. The desktop, with the Ethernet cable plugged in, connected to the internet without issue (even though the Computer Network Icon kept saying there is no connection)... Some days you just have to love machines - other days, not so much. So, after fiddling with this router for another half hour, using troubleshooting guides, all firmware up-to-date, customer support assistance from Netgear on the phone and going through several bulletin boards - everyone was in agreement - Absolutely everything was set up correctly and configured between the desktop, the router, the cell phones (used to try and connect to the WiFi). Connections to the WiFi could be made - but zero data would go through it. I did another Hard Reset back to factory settings and just installed the unit as another Router, instead of an access point. In less than 30 seconds (literally), it was up and running, WiFi was working perfectly fine, the distance from the unit to the farthest point I walked to before I lost a signal was about 75 feet - and that's with several concrete and metal walls in between. I was able to pick up the 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and 60Ghz signals without any issue and data transfer rates were as they were expected to be - quite fast. The Netgear App on the iPhone also worked without issue, immediately after telling the device to program itself as a router. Even with 100 feet of cable connecting the Router to the living room's modem/router from the ISP, (using a Cat 5e cable), there is zero signal degradation. I have put this thing through some touch tests with multiple bandwidth-hogging programs all running at the same time, plus two PS4 units, two cell phones and a Smart TV connected to an Apply TV box - - that had EVERYTHING running, streaming, uploading, downloading and using live gaming. Not a single problem experienced after a few days. I pay for 250Mb connection - through the modem and this router, my desktop still downloads at 304Mbps and uploads at 38Mbps. And that was when it was having a full load of systems all demanding bandwidth and signal space through this one router and a 100' older-style Cat cord.