Netgear Smart WiFi Router AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit (R6300v2)

Netgear Smart WiFi Router AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit (R6300v2)..

Grab Now Netgear Smart WiFi Router AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit (R6300v2) By Netgear

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323 of 347 people found the following review helpful.
Finally, the speed and range for HD needs! (R6300v2)
By klas
UPDATE 2/12/2014
I will no longer recommend this router. Only two firmware updates since the release and main issues are not addressed. I've upgraded to R7000 which has a lot more support.

UPDATE 12/26/2013
Recently purchased a few latest AC routers specifically Asus RT-AC68U, Linksys EA6900, Dlink DIR-868L, Netgear R7000 and ended up going back to R6300V2. None offered more range or performance of R6300V2 despite having external antennas. While most of these new high end routers had some additional features, some of them had really unstable firmware, especially RT-AC68U & EA6900. Netgear R7000 is probably the best of the bunch and I would've kept it if I didn't have R6300V2 already. It doesn't really bring more range or performance either and it barely has any new features especially for average user, but at least Netgear has more interest in keeping it up to date with frequent firmware updates.

UPDATE 7/30/2013
Bought R6300v2 to see if there is any difference. V2 now comes with dual core processor 800Mhz, 256MB of RAM and USB 3.0, it is also twice as small and comes with smaller power supply. All nice upgrades, but did it translate into better performance? In short, yes. For regular users, they may not notice the difference, but if you have gazillion of gadgets that use WiFi especially HD streaming you will be pleased that it offers better performance. I don't have any hard numbers to back this up, but overall this upgrade is totally worth it for my busy wifi network.

UPDATE 6/27/2013
My R6300 is now over a year old and it actually performs better then it did when it was initially released thanks to several firmware updates. I've tried latest AC offerings from Dlink & Asus and they just didn't offer as good range and reliability as R6300. Netgear might release a replacement soon, but for now this is still the best overall AC router despite what reviews say on smallnetbuilder website.

UPDATE 1/9/2013
I've been using this router for over half a year now and it hasn't skipped the beat. Performance has been top notch and it can handle 15 wireless clients with a few HD IP Cameras. It's been running uninterrupted for the past 3 month. Sure there are other new AC routers that came out since then, which I haven't tested, but this has been a wonderful router so far and I am not looking for another replacement at the moment. Not surprising that the price is exactly what I paid 6 month ago, which means the router is actually holds its value for being one of the best out there.

INTRO
My past 3 year history of routers include Netgear WDR3700, Cisco E4200 and most recently two Asus RT-N56u using wireless bridge, but I was never impressed with the speed of wireless and 5Ghz band coverage. This was about time for my next upgrade, so I bought 3 routers RT-N66U, Amped Wireless R20000G & Netgear R6300 and I kept the latter and here is why:

THE GOOD:

- Range/Speed/Performance in 5 Ghz band: Excellent! While not a huge leap forward it does perform much better than any of the previous and competing routers I've tried using this band. This was a major selling point for me. It is actually able to provide excellent download speeds in the opposite corner of the 1500 sq/feet townhome that none of the other routers could handle. Also with Mac Mini 2010 Broadcom wifi, I was able to achieve up to 22 MB/sec download speed from NAS at about 15 feet with latest firmware. Previously with RT-N56 it topped at 10 MB/sec at the same location. That's double the speed! I can't wait to try this out with AC clients!

- Range/Speed/Performance in 2.4 Ghz band: The range is excellent. It covers my entire home, but so did my previous router, so it's difficult to judge the improvement here. However, there is noticeable performance boost. Among several wireless devices using this band I have 4 HD (1080p - 720p) IP cameras and previous Asus router had trouble with handling all of them with good frame rate where with R6300 I am finally able to stream all of them at once. Also, your performance will depend on the client. Previously I was using 2010 HP Envy 14 w/ Intel 6200 which was showing download speed at 4-6 MB/sec, 2012 HP Envy 17 w/ Intel 6300 showing much better results at 6-8 MB/Sec at the same location. While Mac Mini 2010 w/ Broadcom WiFi shows speeds less then 1MB sec. Basically, older clients may have some performance issues.

- Setup: It wasn't complicated all and looks fairly straight forward for non-technical people as well.

- Plenty of features for basic and advanced users: Guest network, Wireless bridge etc... all there

I CAN DEAL WITH IT:
- Size: This router is about twice the size of any of the previous routers I've owned
- Guest Network: Yes, it's available, but it's very basic. I've seen Asus RT-N66U guest network control which lets you specify the time limit or expiration.
- Administration panel locks after about a minute of inactivity and you are prompted to enter your username & password again (very annoying when you trying to troubleshoot things!)
- Parental features. I don't like the fact that you need to install tool on your pc, there is no web administration on management in the web ui.

OTHER THINGS:
- First router that I see without WEP setting.
- Some of the older clients (specifically HP Envy 14 w/ Intel 6200 card) had connection issues with sleep/restart. I've upgraded my laptop since then and have not had this issue anymore
- Mine appears to be defective where the activity lights at the bottom are not lighting up, except Netgear logo. (UPDATE 7/10 I've gotten a new one without this issue)

PREVIOUS UPDATES:
UPDATE 10/13: This is probably going to be my last update since I really don't have anything else to add other then this has been a wonderful router ever since I upgraded to 1.0.2.36_1.0.28 version. I've been running without reboots for a month now and no problems with performance whatsoever.

UPDATE 9/6: 3 month later and still loving this router. If you live in a large home and have wireless coverage issues with 5 Ghz band you should definitely give this one a try. Overall it's been rock stable for me with only one nagging issue related to 5Ghz band (see my previous update). Netgear support got a hold of me and I've been helping them to troubleshoot the issue by sending router logs. They provided a beta update for me that fixed the issue which they will be releasing in September.

UPDATE 7/10: Month later the router still performs very well. I am hoping for new firmware soon to improves performance and compatibility with older devices. Still have issues with Envy 14, Mac Mini 2010 and also HTC Sensation phone. They all exhibit different issues. First one takes a long time to connect, second one has very low speed on 2 Ghz band and last one occasionally unable to connect. There was also one hiccup. I was running uninterrupted for 2 weeks straight using latest firmware and 5Gh signal degraded from Excellent to Poor and 4 to 2 bars at the same location. I've rebooted the router and everything went back to normal.

UPDATE 6/13: 2 weeks now with the router. Sold my two Asus N56U that I used as a wireless bridge and that were once highly rated at SNB. I honestly do not know why SNB posted terrible results with R6300, they must have defective unit but that's still not the case for me. I am perfectly satisfied with R6300 and it delivers excellent performance/range throughout the house without the need of any bridges or extenders which I once had to use. I do have defective unit where I don't get any activity lights, so I might exchange it at some point. Did I mention, this is an awesome router?

UPDATE 6/7: Netgear released new firmware which enables Guest network that caused so much noise and negative reviews in the initial release, the were no other fixes listed, but upon my own checking I noticed they added "Performance boost" option in the Advanced > Wireless settings. I performed my usual download test which showed a slight increase in download speed on 5Ghz band, but it's hard to say if it was related to the firmware or not.

UPDATE 6/4: SmallNetBuilder released preliminary test results that compare performance R6300 with a few other N routers that show that it doesn't perform as good as expected in some cases. Also mentioned my results in the process when compared to N56U. I only had R6300 for a few days now, but my experience for the most part has been positive even with a rough firmware. Also, I usually base my router purchases by SNB reviews, but in this case I am having different results, so I'll stick with R6300 for now.

107 of 120 people found the following review helpful.
A bug-ridden product with terrible support, not a good combo.
By William G. Finley
I've been giving Netgear support a few days to deal with my $200 paperweight but they are pretty much non-responsive to my problems so you gentle reader get my scathing review.

I was a previous Netgear die hard, I used them almost exclusively before the N standard. When Belkin brought out a Pre-N router I jumped to them and have really liked their products and have been there for a while. A new larger home now provides new challenges so I wanted an updated router. I started shopping the AC routers and poured over reviews and specs for a couple of days before jumping on the R6300 (the Belkin AC solution being generally panned using 2 streams instead of 3 for AC).

This is certainly a feature-rich router, the Genie function generally works well. The software for the desktop and mobile devices is decidedly "dumbed down", you need to use the web interface to control anything significant but it's nice and the web interface is well done. Other than a few hard locks Genie has successfully restored connections which, I'm afraid, it has had to do often. It was very easy to install, I find it pretty attractive and when it works it is indeed fast (blazing fast with the AC USB adapter) with a very nice range.

Let me preface my comments by saying I'm an IT professional and a decided nerd -- this is not my first rodeo setting up a router or troubleshooting bleeding edge gear. There was a perfectly functioning Belkin N600 Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router (Latest Generation) that played nicely with my DSL modem/router before I fell victim to faster speed and more powah! I have now torn my hair out for the past few days. Some of the obvious:

* Initially refused to let iOS clients stay connected, after a firmware reset and some tweaking I believe this possibly related to DHCP conflicts between the R6300 and my DSL modem (I should note the Belkin had no such trouble). Once I switched the R6300 to AP mode (let the DSL router handle DHCP and the R6300 acts as an access point) this seemed to go away. Netgear initially has tried to blame this on Apple, if you check the Apple discussion forums though you will see it is Netgear across several products, also, see below regarding other platforms.

* Lets connections die on a regular basis, one moment you are connected, the next you are getting no traffic even though you are connected. Did this on iOS, OS X and Windows clients. Sometimes you can cycle your adapter, it usually means a router restart is needed though.

* Loses its internet gateway daily, usually Genie will fix this, other times it requires a hard restart as the web interface will stop functioning.

* When the router was first fired up my Mac Pro using a TP-Link Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter with 3 x 2dBi Antenna (TL-WDN4800) saw the 5 GHz SSID, after upgrading it to the latest firmware (1.0.2.36_1.0.28) it no longer sees that SSID. My MacBook Air and iPad (3rd Gen) see and use the 5 GHz SSID without issue (when the router works).

So, after these many frustrations I went to the Netgear support site and opened up a ticket as I had read some users had gotten settings that worked. I registered, gave all my product info, filled out a very long and detailed form and zipped it off.

The response from first level support? "What version firmware are you using?" My response was "I put that in my initial report but here it is again".

Next response from Netgear? "Download this firmware." What firmware is it? Why the version I'm already running of course! I have now sent back for a third time the firmware I'm using, a very detailed description of the problems and, just for good measure, a screenshot of the configuration screen indicating I'm using the latest firmware.

I am giving them a chance to rectify this as there are portions of the product I really like but my patience is wearing thin. I suggest you look at the other AC options out there or stick with what you have before making the leap.

**JULY 2013 UPDATE**

So it's been 7 months but I just retired this router. First, with succeeding firmware updates over the past seven months this router has gotten quite a bit better. I too found that turning off the guest network avoided a lot of the trouble (although that feature was one I wanted) and it's been fairly solid. I still found that rebooting it every couple of weeks improved performance and I really wish it had a self-healing reboot that I could set to do this type of maintenance work. Genie still doesn't function right most of the time in bridge mode, I have to put in the IP to get to it.

With Apple's new Time Capsule though I've decided to retire this router, whether I sell it or use it as an extender I don't know yet but we shall see. It does seem that Netgear continues to work on the firmware to get this router where it should have been from the start. Rating revised to 3 stars in current state.

82 of 91 people found the following review helpful.
My best router
By Moe
Disclaimer: I received this unit as a beta tester and am an active Netgear beta tester.

I've used many routers in my years as a network enthusiast. I thought that Netgear's WNDR4500 last year was the best I could do with a wireless router in my house. I live in a 3500 sqft house which is a decently large house but not enormous as many of the McMansions in my neighborhood. Note, my house is wide with several standard sheetrock walls, not tall, so my router has to go further horizontal distances to reach my laptop and computers rather than vertical. Antenna direction can really effect signal strength based on horizontal or vertical positioning of clients.

The R6300 beat the WNDR4500 by about 40-50% in signal strength in "difficult" areas of the house. Everywhere in the house where I had a weak signal with the WNDR4500 went to a moderate signal strength with the R6300. Even the guest bedroom which is on the first floor away from the rest of the house received a moderate strength signal. This is significant because I could not receive and maintain a signal strength strong enough to stream video using the WNDR4500 but it is strong enough with the R6300.

Using an Intel Centrino Ultimate 6300 wireless NIC in my laptop, iPerf results came in at >100Mbit/sec with the R6300 on the 5Ghz band.

I, like some of the other reviewers am able to set up two of these units, one as an Access Point and the other as a wireless bridge. Connected to another desktop in my family room set up as an HTPC, I get regular iperf transfer rates of an eye popping 270-300MBits/sec on the ac band between the AP and bridge. A huge step up from the 60-70 MBits/sec I had using the WNDR4500. To be fair though, I wasn't using two WNDR4500s like I am with the R6300s so it's not an apples to apples comparison.

I've tested Readyshare printing with a Brother MFC8840, Brother HL-2040, and HP LaserJet2600n. All work well using the Netgear utility.

2 USB ports allow me to attach both a printer and an external harddrive to the router at the same time instead of to my desktop.
Netgear has addressed the Guest Network issue with a new firmware upgrade so that is no longer an issue. Guest network is really nice if you're having people over for the afternoon or out of town guests that are staying longer.

Finally, I absolutely love the way this router looks. I have it sitting right next to my flat screen tv. The LED "NETGEAR" lights really gives it class. It doesn't have a lot of super bright LED lights that flash with network activity in the front, and if anything, the power and wireless network lights are a little too dim. Netgear must have tried to listen to the home entertainment crowd on designing the outward appearance of this device cause it's really a good looking router.

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