NETGEAR - Nighthawk MK72 Dual-Band WiFi 6 Mesh System

Try the netgear nighthawk AX3000 mesh. That’s what I’m using and the coverage is insane. Works amazing.

In 220 sqm, you shouldn't need more than 3 nodes, unless you want more coverage outside, but with too many as you've already experience, they will sometime fight for the best signal, even more so when they are just wifi based. If you can get more Cat6 installed, the location of the router (primary node) becomes irrelevant since they will all share the same exact signal with the same bandwidth so you should be able to test it now and confirm better coverage. If you have baseboards, they make 1/4 round that has channels in them where you can hide the Cat 6, and if that's not an option there are some manufacturers who make flat cables. As for me personally, both system have been challenging but that is more related to my own person situation than the hardware. The Linksys Velop system started out great, but as my need for IoT devices grew, the system struggled a bit. I came to find out well after the fact, the nodes which I thought I set up as wired, someone defaulted back to wireless which impact my bandwidth for devices connected to it. I ended up giving them to my inlaws since the coverage at their home sucked and they have been working perfectly since. I moved over to the Night Hawk system on the recommendation of a friend who has their gaming router and overall it has been really good. It took a lot of additional setup and tweaking to get it up and running at full capacity. The biggest challenge I had (again my own issue, not product issue), was I forgot how many of my IoT devices only run off 2.4 gHz. The Night Hawk system (unlike the Velop) has a default SSID that combines the 2.4 and 5 gHz bands. The Velop had these automatically separate with different SSID's. Due to this, some of my IoT devices had trouble connecting and I regularly lost their signal. (see Ring Cameras, smart switches/outlets, etc) so this meant I had to reconfigure my network with customized networks. But on the Nighthawk system this works differently than I was used to. The main 2.4/5 ghz network will always remain, so I had to create a custom standalone 2.4ghz network and then reconnect all my IoT devices to that. This was a tedious effort, but again, this was my fault, not the hardware/software. Since I have finally got all of that figured out, its run flawlessly. I have a 1GB fiber line. If the device is hardwired, I will get 850 Mbps (up and down) on average (www.speedtest.net). On a wireless device it will vary from 100Mbps to 500Mbps which is dependent on how much bandwidth is being used at any give time. The coverage is better than the Velop overall. I have a few friends who have the Orbi systems and swear by them. Since I run a lot of wired, I wanted some more raw high performance in certain locations. (Night Hawk lets you prioritize devices better IMO) I both game and run a home theater server so I stream not only from the net, but also across the network from that service to 4 different locations in the house. Even if they are all running at the same time, the wired connection means they don't bog down and don't impact the wireless bandwidth that is remaining. The Orbi overperforms with wifi only based stuff and provides a stable network across a larger area. From what I understand the setup is also easier on the Orbi. If and when my night hawk system dies, I will seriously consider and Orbi system but thats not going to be for quite a long time.

Mesh kits are about as much as that one router or even cheaper, I'd recommend them over just a router. Usually you can get 3 devices for that price. This one has 6GHz, 5GHz, and 2.4GHz, I always recommend these for home users because the coverage is amazing and you can just plug up the one router on a reliable ethernet connection and the satellites perform really well. I used the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh system before I installed Access Points in my house (mostly for personal experience to add to my resume running drops and Ethernet to Access Points). That system was awesome and it was only dual band 5GHz and 2.4GHz. [https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Deco-AXE5400-Tri-Band-XE75/dp/B0B88T5RDY/ref=sr\_1\_3?s=electronics&sr=1-3](https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Deco-AXE5400-Tri-Band-XE75/dp/B0B88T5RDY/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&sr=1-3)

That is not using the term apartment loosely, the layout can be really different. I would recommend a mesh kit like the netgear nigthhawks, I tried those once and I loved them (they still in my garage, in storage, if I ever need a backup). The only reason I moved to ceiling mount Access Points, was to get real-world experience installing Access Points. Career reasons. But I found a nighthawk mesh kit 3 total devices (1 Router and 2 APs, before WiFi 6). I connected 1 over wireless like an extender and it ran great on 600 mpbs down and 20 mpbs up network. I was getting like 400-500 mbps.

Right, it shouldn't hurt. I used the nighthawk mesh system in the past and had a network switch connected to it via ethernet that ran my gaming PC and printer without issues.

Well sure if you buy a crappy router it might not last. I bought my nighthawk modem and router mesh system when we moved into our new house 3 years ago. I've more than paid it off at this point in comparison to if I would have rented and it's still going strong. I will say the only downside is when a new standard comes along (wifi 7 routers are rolling out now) I'll need to buy new equipment if I want to take advantage but I can def milk the current setup for the next 1-2 years and save hundreds additional vs if I would have rented.

Just did this - 7 people, 3 floors. Went through a few mesh systems (tplink be4800, be5000, XE75). Hated the way mesh worked, walked to another room device would hang on the further node and online games were choppier (higher ping and latency) than a single nighthawk (even had wired backhaul from main to second of the 3 nodes). Then went through multiple Netgear Nighthawks (rs200, rs300, rs500, axe3000). Ordered a refurbed RS700S for $349, its a beast but better coverage, better speeds, lower pings, less latency than any of the Mesh systems. Dead spots where we got 5-10mb/sec now getting 550mb. Using the nighthawk app I could see with the RS500 60% signal level in some of the dead spot areas, now getting 90+%. I've got a 1GB connection from Spectrum and they overprovision so wirelessly with iphone 17 getting over 1gb a floor above or under the router and up to a room away still. Wired to PCs getting 1.1-1.2 gb too. I tested speeds in every room of my house with each system to record speeds. I found a single, more powerful router to be a much better and consistent solution for 3 floors and 7 people.

Netgear nighthawk. Spend what you can afford for the coverage you need.

I dont know about this model but fuck Netgeat Nighthawk. I owned a different one few years ago that was supposed to be a a high spec version, and it caused me infinite problems, which all disappeared when I bought a different one.

I agree. I have tried numerous Netgear products, going back to a PCMCIA card, and all of them have had problems. The last Nighthawk I had constantly resulted in "Connected, No internet" for too many devices.

I moved from a Netgear Nighthawk router and extender to an Orbi network... Well worth it to me.

They were all WiFi 6. I used a Nokia linksys Atlas, a TPLink one and a Netgear Nighthawk. Except for the Nokia (wifi5), none of them even came close to the signal penetration I got from the GLinet flint 2. 

Yeah their speeds are terrible man! I swapped out to a nighthawk router for $300 at Best Buy has been worth it