Nighthawk X8- R8500 Tri Band Quad Stream WiFi Router

[ForceTouch]

I'm interested in finding out whether the R8500 has better range than my R7000, given the new antennas, as I live in a large house.

I looked at Amazon reviews, but someone pointed out there that all the 15+ reviews are from people in a Netgear friends and family program who got the router for free, and all of them gave it 5 stars. A bit shady IMO. I'd be interested in hearing from unbiased people who bought this router themselves and have compared the range to the R7000.

 

[pege63]

Just read about one on FB that he was not so happy with the range said it was same as his R7000

 

[Adam64]

I'm interested in finding out whether the R8500 has better range than my R7000, given the new antennas, as I live in a large house.

I looked at Amazon reviews, but someone pointed out there that all the 15+ reviews are from people in a Netgear friends and family program who got the router for free, and all of them gave it 5 stars. A bit shady IMO. I'd be interested in hearing from unbiased people who bought this router themselves and have compared the range to the R7000.

I bought the R8500 specifically to see if it would have more range than my R7000. It didn't, so I took it back.

 

[bobsilver]

The R8500 will not have greater range then the R7000. I just swapped an R7000 in AP mode with the R8500. Seeing the same range as before. Where the R8500 should have better range is in receiving lower power signals from clients such as phones, tablets etc. This is a hard one to pinpoint. It should show up as quicker response on upload data. At this point with just 1 day of service I cant comment. But in speaking with Netgear Product Management they confirmed that this would be the benefit of the active antennas. Maybe Tim can find a way to test this.

Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

 

[pege63]

If you need better range buy a Netgear EX7000 that helps

 

[thiggins]

I would expect higher receive gain to extend range since lower client device transmit power is often cited as the weak link in the AP <> STA connection.

This should show up as improved uplink performance in the profile curves, moving the curve up and extending the connection drop point.

NETGEAR hasn't shipped a review sample yet. Also waiting on the R7500v2 and MU-MIMO devices to test with it.

 

[GrinningShark]

I just picked one of these up at Best Buy a few days ago. They did not have them on the floor and the guy checked the back and brought one out, said they just got them in stock and had not put them out yet. I plugged it in and upgraded to the latest FW on the Netgear site. This has been pleasant surprise. We have a ton of wifi devices (>20) and I love that I can now split the newer stuff and the older stuff between two 5ghz bands (have my AC devices on one band and the rest on the other). It has only been a couple days, but it has been stable and I'm very pleased with the performance and range in my two story house. I also love the fact that is has 6 gigabit ethernet ports. Will have to check in down the road with an update.

Did I mention that this router is huge? Makes my old AC68U look small.

Wanted to mention mine has been up since I first posted my comment on the 8th. Been solid as a rock and am very pleased with it. I have noticed uplink performance does seem better than my prior router, I noticed this when copying files to a separate NAS (I don't use the USB capabilities of the router). Haven't done anything official to time it, it's just something I do a lot and just noticed. Nobody in my house has complained about problems... so that is a good thing. My kids aren't shy about complaining when their internet isn't working.

 

[RMerlin]

and MU-MIMO devices to test with it.

Speaking of MU-MIMO clients,. the wifi support integrated in the Snapdragon 808 processor supports MU-MIMO. Now the question is whether Google will use the SD808's builtin wifi solution or replace it with a different implementation in their Nexus 5X. I remember one of the past Nexus device did just that. The official specs for the N5X do not mention MU-MIMO, only MIMO.

If they did use the SD808's wifi implementation, that means at least one mainstream smartphone coming to market this month would have MU-MIMO support.

 

[mediatrek]

Speaking of MU-MIMO clients,. the wifi support integrated in the Snapdragon 808 processor supports MU-MIMO. Now the question is whether Google will use the SD808's builtin wifi solution or replace it with a different implementation in their Nexus 5X. I remember one of the past Nexus device did just that. The official specs for the N5X do not mention MU-MIMO, only MIMO.

If they did use the SD808's wifi implementation, that means at least one mainstream smartphone coming to market this month would have MU-MIMO support.

Nothing that I can officially show as proof, but from what I have heard the Nexus 5X has a MIMO-only Broadcom chip in it.

The Nexus 6P (model H1511) that uses the Snapdragon 810 v2.1 and the full platform supports Qualcomm's MU-MIMO solutions w/ a QCA chip has a BCM4358 according to the Wi-Fi Alliance certification for the phone (see http://www.wi-fi.org/content/search-page?keys=H1511)

 

[avtella]

Apparently even the older SD801 chipset supports MU-MIMO according to Qualcomm's own website. As for it being enabled by OEM's, that I am not sure.

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/processors/801

 

[RMerlin]

Nothing that I can officially show as proof, but from what I have heard the Nexus 5X has a MIMO-only Broadcom chip in it.

The Nexus 6P (model H1511) that uses the Snapdragon 810 v2.1 and the full platform supports Qualcomm's MU-MIMO solutions w/ a QCA chip has a BCM4358 according to the Wi-Fi Alliance certification for the phone (see http://www.wi-fi.org/content/search-page?keys=H1511)

Thanks. I guess we'll know for sure once people start receiving their preorders and technical reviews start appearing. My 5X is expected to ship around October 22-29th. But it could make sense for Google to drop MU-MIMO from their "lower end" model.

I guess MU-MIMO clients will remain a rarity for quite a few more months then.

 

[doubleroll]

Picked one up this weekend and so far it is very stable. Replaced an Asus RT-AC66R finally. I do get the max out of my 150/150 Fios service, but got it with the Asus as well. Haven't had time to test much as it is so new but I was pleasantly surprised with the stability at least. I do see some slightly better signal numbers however. The biggest improvement was on the lan side as well as with the lacp ports and my Synology NAS. No jumbo frames so I had to back all my NICs back to 1500...only thing I do see is wireless speed test results seem to be a bit erratic, sometimes over 150Mbps to low 100Mbps on both up and down. I returned an Asus 87R and Netgear R8000 prior this this one. Overall looks like a keeper...So far.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[doubleroll]

Something definitely wrong with the R8500. Downloading from a wired PC causes wireless to slow down and also extremely high latency. Speed drops from 150 Mbps to 2 or less. My AC66R did not exhibit this slow down...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[GrinningShark]

Something definitely wrong with the R8500. Downloading from a wired PC causes wireless to slow down and also extremely high latency. Speed drops from 150 Mbps to 2 or less. My AC66R did not exhibit this slow down...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Not seeing this with mine. Are you using the latest firmware update?

 

[thiggins]

Run the .42 firmware posted on the Support page. .50 was pulled back due to problems.

 

[doubleroll]

Run the .42 firmware posted on the Support page. .50 was pulled back due to problems.

Thanks just did! Let's see if this resolves my issue. Wanted to give Netgear another try with this router...especially with LACP support out the box.


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[NightOwl326]

Thanks just did! Let's see if this resolves my issue.

Well did it?

 

[hackintoshsr]

.50 actually solved a lot of my slow connection issues, luckily I grabbed it when it was up

 

[doubleroll]

Well did it?

Nope same issues when downloading large amounts of data the system slows down quite a bit on both wired and wireless clients. Sending logs to Netgear for eval.

 

[aublumberg]

The wired speed is shockingly low, get ~350 to 400Mbps compared to ~900+ Mbps on the Asus 3200.