Costco Netgear R6900 - AC 1900 router

Hi all,
Saw this on sale at the local Costco store. How much is this unit different than Netgear's own R7000? Is this something that Netgear did specifically for Costco's private label or did Netgear took away some of the features usally found on the R7000? Thanks.

Seems to have 1 less USB port at least.

Costco has some pretty good deals at the moment, but be wary of the Linksys EA8350 AC2400 @ 149.00...

The EA8350 is the Quantenna chip of doom

Looks like Linksys is blowing out old inventory thru the warehouse channel (Sam's Club, Costco, etc...)

For the R6900 - the datasheet is here - looks similar to the R7000

Thanks sfx2000 and Pierino for your prompt replies. I was considering getting a faster router to improve bufferbloat rating as reported on DSLreport speedtest. After replacing my failing 4 year old XyZEL Q1000z modem/router with the newer Technicolor C2000T, my bufferbloat is a "F" or "D" grade. It was rated "A" or "B" before the switch.

I did not have QoS enabled before but maybe I need to now. Currently on 12/0.6 Mbps CenturyLink DSL service. The desktop that I am typing from is hard wired ethernet into the modem's LAN port and I still get poor bufferbloat rating. Just curious if I am heading in the right direction by getting a better router? Thanks.

Technicolor for WiFi ???

At 12Mbps, a $50 router should be fine. I use/suggest ASUS.
Can you afford/get cable modem service instead of last-century poky DSL?

jsluk said:

Thanks sfx2000 and Pierino for your prompt replies. I was considering getting a faster router to improve bufferbloat rating as reported on DSLreport speedtest. After replacing my failing 4 year old XyZEL Q1000z modem/router with the newer Technicolor C2000T, my bufferbloat is a "F" or "D" grade. It was rated "A" or "B" before the switch.

I did not have QoS enabled before but maybe I need to now. Currently on 12/0.6 Mbps CenturyLink DSL service. The desktop that I am typing from is hard wired ethernet into the modem's LAN port and I still get poor bufferbloat rating. Just curious if I am heading in the right direction by getting a better router? Thanks.

Click to expand...

I have to agree about getting speedier internet, most likely broadband instead of DSL. Anyways, I have 3 nice speedy routers and they all get "F" for bufferbloat unless I turn on QoS specifically for that. Then they get an "A". However, I'm not a gamer, so the poor performance on the bufferbloat test makes no apparent difference to me in perceived speed on the internet, and I've never been one for trying to get good grades just to have good grades *smile*. What really does matter, though, is my download/upload speeds, that makes a much larger difference in perceived speed on the internet.

Nothing wrong with getting a better router, but what I'm saying is that you won't see any benefit from that unless your current router just isn't doing the job. You do say that it's failing, so sounds like it's time to upgrade. Wouldn't worry about getting an expensive router for 12/.6 internet download speed, though...unless you plan on upgrading your internet speed in the near future *smile*.

stevech said:

Technicolor for WiFi ???

At 12Mbps, a $50 router should be fine. I use/suggest ASUS.
Can you afford/get cable modem service instead of last-century poky DSL?

Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestions. Technicolor C2000T is the new modem/router all in one unit that I purchased to replace the old XyZEL unit. It is almost doing everything for our needs other than the F grade bufferbloat rating and reception on the very far end of our house. Sometimes we will get slow down with web page loading or HD video buffering while streaming to the htpc. The wifi on this unit is single band 2.4Ghz n class only. We have 3 iphones, an ipad, a macbook, a Windows 8.1 Pro htpc, and a HP LaserJet P1102w on wireless. I am typing from my Linux Mint desktop hard wired to the modem.

I don't know enough about router equipment/brand names and capability. The Technicolor modem is pretty new. Perhaps an all-in-one modem/router unit will never out perform a separate router. Even an older $50 one. I just wonder how much better performance I could possible get if I can have a more robust router with dual band capability plus AC wireless? Perhaps none since I am on 12/0.5 DSL service.
We live out and the country. Initially when we built the house 18 years ago, DSL was the only game in time. We can get Comcast broadband now but I hear their customer service is worse than CenturyLink.

stevech said:

Technicolor for WiFi ???

Click to expand...

They're pretty popular as carrier provided equipment for broadband modem/gateways...

someone over there bought the technicolor trademark?

RogerSC said:

I have to agree about getting speedier internet, most likely broadband instead of DSL. Anyways, I have 3 nice speedy routers and they all get "F" for bufferbloat unless I turn on QoS specifically for that. Then they get an "A". However, I'm not a gamer, so the poor performance on the bufferbloat test makes no apparent difference to me in perceived speed on the internet, and I've never been one for trying to get good grades just to have good grades *smile*. What really does matter, though, is my download/upload speeds, that makes a much larger difference in perceived speed on the internet.

Nothing wrong with getting a better router, but what I'm saying is that you won't see any benefit from that unless your current router just isn't doing the job. You do say that it's failing, so sounds like it's time to upgrade. Wouldn't worry about getting an expensive router for 12/.6 internet download speed, though...unless you plan on upgrading your internet speed in the near future *smile*.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I also do not game so a bad grade on bufferbloat does not appear to affect my internet use such as web pages, email and streaming HD content to the HTPC. I tried QoS on or off but there appears to be no change.
This is the new modem/router that I just bought. The old one which I had for 4 years started to overheat and would have to blow air on it with a fan. Otherwise, I lose the internet. Funny thing was that the old unit (XyZEL Q1000z) would always gave an A or B grade for bufferbloat.

What do you mean when you say that the current router isn't doing the job? The new unit I have is single band 2.4 Ghz n wireless. I can get wireless coverage for the whole house except for the reception is quite low at the very far end of the house. I just wonder how much better the reception would be with dual band where I could separate the new and older client devices? Also, I wonder how much better are the radios on the separate routers? May be worth a $50 purchase just to find out? What do you think? Best regards.