Looking for quality home router, not sure about ax, and is netgear safe?

[Gary B. Garland]

Hi all,
my first post - yippie!
I saw Tim's article about the 2 WiFi 6 routers he checked out in December, 2018 - lots of goodness there.
I have gone through routers over the years, and my last few have more or less been Netgear. My Nighthawk R7000 is wonky - not I'm not sure if it's the firmware or capacitors aging or what - I may have bought it 5 years ago, I just don't remember - the coverage is fine, just behavior.
If my R7000 is dying, as I THINK it is, then I need a new home router pretty soon. I would like similar coverage (at least) which reaches our pool area.
My kids stream (can you say fortnite?) and we stream netflix on some fire sticks, etc.
Yeah, there are no .ax devices out there - and i suppose my next ipad will have it, but otherwise i don't see us adopting ax anytime soon.
I'm jonesing at the Netgear Imperial shuttle router, just looks incredible - but the Asus seems compelling. I was going to wait for the Netgear ax12 to come out (but when) - I'd like to futureproof a while so i don't have to muck with the setup - but if there's better value routers now, maybe i should do that and then buy an ax router in a couple of years.
for those willing to still read - the netgear forums abound with folks complaining about the firmware. my first negative experience was years ago when the thing soft of dropped off - the firmware was introduced to take care of a memory leak.
Now, i have intermittent dropoffs, even after changing the channels to "empty" channels. We keep losing our nest (thermostats, cameras, etc.) and even my ipad loses connectivity - not just internet, but the wifi signal disappears. I'm convinced it's the router - i just don't know if a firmware downgrade might help, or as mentioned, it's hardware based. it doesn't support MU-MIMO so i figured i'd just "buy the best, cry once" but if there are compelling reasons to not get an .ax router i'm very easily convinced. Otherwise, if folks think Netgear is a bit asleep at the switch i'd just get the Asus and call it a day.
sorry to be so long winded, and i know a router choice can be subjective - for me, i'd like range and stability - i MIGHT set up QoS, etc. but basically, i just want the thing to work.
thanks for reading this far!

 

[microchip]

The most reliable NETGEAR router is currently the R7800. It has a few issues here and there in the firmware (like ping lag on .58 and .60 firmware; previous ones do not have it so let's hope NG fixes it quickly). Stay away from the R8000 and friends as they have many issues, not just software ones

The AX from NETGEAR is basically a "preview" for early adopters. If you don't want to be a tester, stay away from it. it's also based on a draft

 

[thiggins]

Trying to "future proof" Wi-Fi is a fool's errand (metaphorically speaking). You're buying a technology still in draft status at a top-of-market price.

I would second microchip's suggestion of the R7800. It supports the only thing Wi-Fi 6 routers currently have that some 11ac (ok, one, Intel's AC9260 internal adapter) devices can take advantage of: 160 MHz channel width.

 

[Gary B. Garland]

May many thanks, I’m looking up and doing the research. I can VERY easily be persuaded to go with another brand; if you think netgear is the way to go I’ll stay with them.
I just serviced my office switch today, netgear 48 port, had to replace all 3 cooling fans but now purring and rock solid, so I’m not a hater, though am squeamish based on my r7000 experience. If you say r7800 is the way to go I’m in; I get that it’s the most reliable NETGEAR router. Any other brands and units y’all like better? (I know may be very subjective). I’m interested in reliability first, range second, speed third (maybe reverse the last two). Thanks again!

 

[Dave Parker]

Some folks drive Ford, some drive Chevrolet. Both will get you from poind A to point B. I have no experience with Netgear routers. I have owned D-Link and Linksys. But having started with the Asus N66U, then to the AC68U, and now the AC86U I'm an Asus fan. The 86U is rock solid with Merlins 384.8.2 firmware and I think is comparable to the Netgear R7800. Maybe comes down to which is the least expensive, but for me, no question. The AC86U.

 

[Gary B. Garland]

Many thanks and point taken. Ironically, while looking up routers last night - my router "crashed" again - so i had to power cycle it and then it was fine (and then happened again an hour later) - not just internet, but everyone gets thrown off, my thermostats go down and say network not available, etc. (so that's more than just cable).
so, i ordered the r7800 last night. i was really thinking of the asus.
my very limited perception is that netgear does not do a bang up job on their firmware (as also evidenced above) - so maybe if the hardware was still good i could have installed WRT-DDT - i might still play with it, but i doubt it - i basically want this thing to work.
i will say about 6 months ago i started having trouble with my wifi printer and even DHCP reservations didn't totally solve - so maybe it's a hardware issue after all...i think if everyone with an R7000 was having my experiences there'd be a lot more outcry.
Thanks again!

 

[Dave Parker]

Well good luck with the R7800. If it's as good as other say, you should be in good shape.

 

[Gary B. Garland]

thanks. Step 1 is get something reliable. Step 2 is get something top notch - the gentlemen above talked me out of combining the two
i was definitely eyeing the top end Asus but again scaled down. I presume the R7800 should at least match the range of the R7000 - if not i'll replace in the summer. and then it's a matter of time of seeing when the clients come out that can take advantage of all the router goodness out there!
thanks again!

 

[microchip]

The problems with the older R7000 are all due to firmware. NG has done a great job in introducing new issues and barely fixing old/existing ones. Many people at the NG forum have issues with the couple last firmwares for the R7000. However, that model has great thrid-party firmware (Tomato/DD-WRT/OpenWrt)

 

[Gary B. Garland]

thanks - i may fiddle with DD-WRT - it's a shame that an end user needs to - i'm not a power user when it comes to home networking - it SHOULD be setup once, set and forget and ignore - but alas it's not.
i thought i saw some folks posting on other sites that they were having issues with the router even with DD-WRT which then becomes a question of hardware. I get that components get old - gamma rays, fatigue, whatever - my guess here is that it IS in fact firmware, though again, you'd think the engineers would have taken care of this. thanks again. i'll try the r7800 over the weekend if not sooner.

quick question - i did save the cfg file which i am sure would not import into other models or platforms - but is there an easy way to print or save my current settings in a way i can see and then redo? i.e. i set up the internet on it years ago - i'm not sure what settings, and i'd look, but i don't want to forget soemthign important.
i also have my dhcp reservations (which were necessary because of the behavior) but that i can screen capture.
thanks again for any help or guidance.

 

[microchip]

you can take screenshots on your computer of the interface pages of the firmware. that's one way of doing it

 

[Gary B. Garland]

Thanks, had a ton of problems with the 7800 as well. Rolled back firmware to .52 and has been rock solid since. I wonder if I rolled back my 7000 if the problems would have disappeared. Bad netgear, bad bad bad!

 

[microchip]

NG just released .62 and apparently there are reports that the 5G wifi is finally fixed

 

[Gary B. Garland]

Yippie! The questi9n becomes how long to wait to hear it’s stable versus being a beta tester...thanks, I didn’t know it came out, how do I track that,and r7000 upgrades (if I reuse the r7000...

 

[System Error Message]

netgear is safe, i mean it wont explode .
When the r7000 was first released it was pretty reliable, i wonder what is it that caused things to fail. Even my consumer netgear gear isnt reliable.

 

[Gary B. Garland]

i'm convinced it's the firmware - i THINK the hardware is fine on my R7000 (not sure) - if i roll back the firmware maybe that will resolve what was going on -- but i mean, i don't want to go through the hassles of losing connectivity to equipment - i was calling it wifi whack-a-mole - where device A would finally work, at the expense of device B - and in my case, the biggest concern to me are my nest cameras that i had installed outside at an elevated height - i need the handyman to come back because i didn't realize i needed a QR code or 6 digit code to re-add them to the system - i'm using DHCP with them (or was) - my R7000 was pretty decent for years, although even early on i'd have to reboot it every month or so - and for the past year it would keep dropping the printer even with a static ip address on the printer, and a dhcp reservation.
i think it's their firmware - and each newer version seems to introduce or keep the bugs of the prior.
my R7800 seems to be rock solid at .52 (no speedtest or QOS, but i'm okay with that for now at least) - the .60 firmware was as bad as the R7000.
pretty disappointing actually - not sure why their coders/engineers can't get it right.
my first firmware upgrade with the R7000 had to do with i think a memory overflow error. again, why didn't they get this right years ago?

 

[microchip]

you can install FreshTomato on your R7000. It's very solid firmware. I once had an uptime of 100 days without a single glitch. This was on Tomato Shibby but it seems he stopped for now and a few guys took his firmware and continued development. They call it FreshTomato

for your R7800, try the just released .62. If it doesn't fix your issues you can revert to .52

 

[Gary B. Garland]

thanks, i've oft relied on rotten tomatoes i'm not even sure what i'd do with the r7000 at this point - my house isn't as wired as i'd like or i'd use it as a bridge or access point - maybe blasting using my MoCA setup, otherwise just curiosity.
do you think keep using the R7800 with .52 until the next firmware hopefully fixes the issues of the current new firmware? i read .62 seems to have all the same problems (speedtest might work) - i'd go tomato or dd-wrt if that's the play - i really just want to set it and forget it - but netgear has made that an impossibility.

 

[microchip]

there are conflicting reports on NG's own forum. Most say the wifi issues are fixed in .62 but there are others that still have them. Maybe a factory reset is needed, I'm not sure

 

[Gary B. Garland]

thanks - at this point i can wait until .63 or .64 or .99 - just wish they'd get it right - otherwise i'll go third party but again, i'm not a router power user - nor should we NEED to be (i get it if we want to tweak, etc.) but for core functionality you'd think the manufacturer would, i don't know, have their devices work...
thanks again!
ps i notice in your signature you're using the R7800 stock (not sure if your signature is up to date) - if you are, can you advise which firmware number, and if it seems to be functioning properly? Again, the .52 seems to be doing it for me, but i now have almost no 5G connections (i don't know if the protocol is "dumb" or the firmware is - i'd imagine the devices and router should be able to negotiate frequency but maybe it's only at the time of power cycling?)
thanks again!