NETGEAR's implementation of SmartConnect does not support band-steering. So there is no benefit other than not having to remember two SSIDs.
Nighthawk X8- R8500 Tri Band Quad Stream WiFi Router
- Thread starter NETGEAR Guy
- Start date
avtella
Very Senior Member
I found having 2.4/5Ghz with same SSID can be detrimental for things requiring high bandwidth such as file transfers to a NAS or another computer on the network as you maybe on the 2.4 Ghz band and not the 5Ghz band. However you could set your adapter properties to 5Ghz only, but then might have issues at very long ranges in comparison to 2.4Ghz.
Does the r8500 intentionally try to place devices on whichever band is most optimal? That is, how does the unit decide whether a device should be on 2.4 or 5?
And does it know to assign nearby devices to 5ghz and then switch the devices to 2.4ghz if they are suddenly moved farther away? Or is all of this just totally random when 2.4 and 5 SSID's are identical?
Thanks so much
And does it know to assign nearby devices to 5ghz and then switch the devices to 2.4ghz if they are suddenly moved farther away? Or is all of this just totally random when 2.4 and 5 SSID's are identical?
Thanks so much
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Looks like they are matching Best Buy's price that came out in the store mailer today which is also available online.
connorm
Senior Member
i know i am not who you asked
but for me its the only tri band router that doesnt look stupid
im actually interested in this product, the only other router then R7000 i would consider replacing it with would be the RT-AC3100 or the X8 - R8500, have also been considering new UBNT AC Lite ( i have not been a fan of asus router design since RT-AC66U)
this 6+ antenna designs are starting to look very silly if i do say so myself, certainly not anything i wanna look at every day
netgears new antenna design is very smart, and putting the other 2 radios on the inside is perfectly fine with me, its not like you need a second 5GHz with the same range as the 1st, and its not like internal 2.4 isnt gonna outdo external 5GHz, so 2.4GHz might be hit, but i dont wanna use 2.4GHz anyway
i also heard RT-AC87U isnt that great and IMO that router was a big fail on asus part and scared me away from new asus product, i would have probably ripped out all my hair by now waiting for the 5GHz radio to start LOL
sm00thpapa
Very Senior Member
Nope get the 88U the 87U is history.
NightOwl326
Senior Member
Well?
What cipher are you using in your OpenVPN tests?
Ok, that's the ideal cipher then. OpenSSL has improved performance with that cipher. However I think Netgear is still using an older OpenSSL version which lacks the recent ASM-level optimizations for AES. That would explain part of the lackluster OpenVPN performance. They need to update to OpenSSL 1.0.2 if they haven't done so yet.
Well, I've been itching to try a tri-band router and pulled the trigger at $285.98 from newegg. The $400 was way too steep. Even at $286 I feel like I spent a bit more than I should have.
It was somewhat sobering to read the review. Tim, thank you for taking the time to test it. I feel like I could have saved $100 by getting a standard AC3200 instead of this. Maybe future firmware updates will help? Anyway, it's good to know that the better performance is on the lower 5GHz band and stick with putting devices that are closer to the router (xbox, laptops) on the upper 5GHz and cellphones on the lower 5GHz for better range.
It was somewhat sobering to read the review. Tim, thank you for taking the time to test it. I feel like I could have saved $100 by getting a standard AC3200 instead of this. Maybe future firmware updates will help? Anyway, it's good to know that the better performance is on the lower 5GHz band and stick with putting devices that are closer to the router (xbox, laptops) on the upper 5GHz and cellphones on the lower 5GHz for better range.
5G uplink and downlink max throughputs are both less than 600Mbit/s when doing 3x3.
I assume both r8500 and ac88u based on the same brcm platform. The above throughputs are quite contrary to some ac88u users are experiencing. They are seeing more than 750Mbit/s throughout.
Would be interesting to see if that's illusion or indeed asus gets something more right..
Thanks for the detailed write up. Waiting for the asus one.
sm00thpapa
Very Senior Member
This is why you don't run out and buy something new without any reviews first. Something I learned years ago. I want the 88U but I will not buy it until Tim's review.
NightOwl326
Senior Member
Does your testing method answer the Netgear claim for this router that the active antennas would be of benefit to low powered clients such as smart phone?
Thanks....Scott
sfx2000
Part of the Furniture
Some thoughts from someone that has actually designed router/AP's...
1) Injection Noise - been there, done that - four antennas on the radiated package across 3 radios - they're basically desensing each other, and the "active" amps on the one 5G radio aren't helping things there...
2) See issue one above - it's an analog RF issue - been there myself with devices with multiple radios and limited antennas...
3) The USB3 perf isn't bad actually, just pales perhaps to some others...
4) Routing performance - no issues there, pretty much same as any AC1900 and higher - we're pretty much at saturation point with current Cortex-A9 (and similar) SoC's...
5) OpenVPN perf - might be a tuning issue with the libraries - OpenSSL has done some updates, and perhaps Netgear hasn't pulled them in - this is an easy fix for them
6) MU - I think Netgear has likely made the right choice here, putting off the feature for a bit on a flagship device - there's plenty of interop issues that still need to be sorted between the different vendors from an AP/Device perspective...
sfx2000
Part of the Furniture
I think it proves that it's an engineering dead-end...
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