NETGEAR - Nighthawk R7000 AC1900 Smart WiFi Dual Band Gigabit Router

Most of the consumer systems advertised as mesh don’t require a cable i don’t think. I had a good experience with tp-link deco line 3 ap system a few years back. You could probably find a cheap used on ebay or marketplace in that price range. Plug n play basically. An older suggestion, but a tank of a router would be the R7000 with open source firmware like FT. More techy option, you could add one of these r7000’s and mesh it to your current wifi without needing a cable with a few tweaking and it also becomes a wireless ethernet switch as a bonus. The R7000’s was mine for ages then upgraded to the deco, now currently loving unifi. I really loved the R7000 and FreshTomato tho

I had tomato on my r7000 after the Netgear firmware just straight up stopped enabling the wifi radios. It was solid for ~4 years after that. I only upgraded to get wifi 6. Now I have an rax-80 in AP mode because I upgraded to opnsense as my router. No complaints on the AP mode nighthawk

That's what I'm leaning towards I think. Any suggestions on router? I currently have the nighthawk r7000, or something like that. It's a decade old. I've heard to avoid netgear now, should I look into tplink?

I’ve had the net gear R7000 for idk how long at this point and it hasn’t failed me ever.

Based on your post I think the TP-Link Deco BE63 would be good for a WiFi 7 upgrade. It has 2.5gb WAN and 2.5gb LAN ports, This should work well with internet speeds up to 2.5gbps. If you have faster internet then this system will throttle (reduce/limit) your speed to 2.5gbps max and you should consider something with 10gb WAN and LAN ports (which would of course be more expensive). I don’t think most folks need internet speeds over 1gbps, but that’s just my opinion. The BE68 is substantially more expensive but I think it is a partial solution. It only has a single 10gb WAN port on each device, then 2.5gb LAN and gigabit LAN port. So even if you had 5gb fiber internet and hooked that up to the 10gb LAN port, you’d still be throttled to 2.5gb on the LAN. So I suggest the BE63 for your use case. The mesh BE63 3-pack kit is on sale at Amazon as I write this. Instead of $499.99 it’s $419.99 with a coupon (shown on the Amazon product listing page). I know you stated you’re looking for something affordable, but this is about the price you could expect to pay for tri-band WiFi 7 mesh technology. If you wanted to save a bit you could opt for WiFi 6E instead (still gives you 2.4/5/6ghz bands), but you won’t get multi link operation and some other WiFi 7 only featues. You can’t take advantage of MLO for example on WiFi 7 unless your client devices support it, so I think WiFi 6E is a good system to purchase today. Still a bit early to get WiFi 7, as the tech is still improving and prices will continue to fall. If you want to buy WiFi 7 today, you will pay more. Meanwhile prices for WiFi 6E and WiFi 6 routers/mesh systems are very reasonable in comparison. A good TP-Link 6E mesh system to consider would be the Deco XE70 Pro. 2.5gb WAN and two one-gigabit ports on every device. The 3 pack is $239.99 at Amazon now with the coupon, $30 off normal price. The Deco XE75 Pro looks very similar, a little bit faster theoretical speed on the 5ghz band (perhaps it is 3x3 streams instead of 2x2, that would make it ‘faster’). It’s $269.99. If I were picking between these two I would get the Deco XE70 Pro. I doubt you would notice the speed difference between that and the XE75 Pro. If you want to save even more money you can buy most of those products in “Used - Like New” condition, just check the product listing. If you decide to do this make sure it’s sold by Amazon! That way if you have any issues you could easily return it within 30 days. A word of warning on “Used- Like New.” Sometimes it is a customer return (they didn’t like it, couldn’t figure out how to use/configure it, etc.) and then that is a great deal for you, as you get a like new product for sometimes $100-$150+ less money than if it were brand new. Other times the person who bought it and returned it maybe discovered it was broken, or they tried to apply custom firmware to the router and bricked/broke it. Amazon has no way to really test these devices when they are returned.. I am confident all they do is look and say, “Yup, looks like the product I see on the box. Seal it back up and sell it as ‘Used-Like New.’” So it is a bit of a crap shoot. I will mention I bought my current ASUS XT8 mesh system (WiFi 6) four years ago as “Used, Like New” and saved nearly $200 from the brand-new price. But I had to factory reset the router & mesh node as the prior purchaser’s wireless configuration was still on the devices (clearly they tried it, then decided to return it without factory resetting it). Easy for me to fix, just another step, 5 minutes. If you want something that will “just work” and don’t want to mess with potential issues, then just buy a brand new unit. Another point about cost: $419 may seem like a lot, but consider how long you will own it and the cost isn’t too bad. For example your current mesh system is about 5 years old. If the new system costs you $419 and lasts 5 years, then it’s only about $7/month (over a 60 month period) that you are paying for that product. Not too bad, it’s less than a trip to Starbucks, and most people get coffee more than once a month. I don’t recommend “prioritizing network traffic” as this requires the router to inspect every data packet, which can slow down all devices using the network. As long as you have a well-functioning network and sufficient bandwidth/speed for your devices, you shouldn’t need to bother with Quality of Service (QoS), device prioritization, etc. If my thinking on this is inaccurate, someone will helpfully correct me. Good luck and enjoy your new hardware!

You’re welcome and thanks for sharing the news! Glad to know it’s working well for you. Appeciate the confirmation that you didn’t need to prioritize network traffic either. I’ll tip my hat to the Netgear Orbi for lasting 5 years. That’s good service. Too bad it couldn’t last a bit longer, but one never knows with hardware. I actually kept a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 router that I replaced 4-ish years ago with the Asus XT8 mesh system. I kept it around because it was a great little router and I didn’t have the heart to give it away or donate it. Fortunately I identified a use for it: I took it out of storage, dusted it off, factory reset it and set it up as a Wired Access Point in my current mesh network. The R7000 is providing wireless access to some finicky “smart plugs” which just don’t work well with WiFi 6 (either that or they really hate Asus’s firmware). When used with the Asus the plugs would drop off and on the network repeatedly. But with the R7000 (which is a WiFi 5/AC router), the plugs stay connected! Been about a month and the plugs are very reliable on the network, thanks to the R7000. Netgear makes some good hardware!

I just bought [this guy](https://store-us.gl-inet.com/products/flint-2-gl-mt6000-wi-fi-6-high-performance-home-router). It comes with OpenWRT out of the box. I'm looking forward to setting it up and replacing my shitty Nighthawk router. I have coworkers that say good things about the gl-net brand, and as a longtime Netgear user, I'm craving a solid stable experience as opposed to the weekly-to-daily wifi drops and router dementia every 6 or so months.

stay away from netgear they are good, but once they no longer support the router they throttle your internet speed so you can buy a new one. only way to fix it is buy reverting to an older update making you vulnerable to getting hacked. plus the spectrum routers are netgear routers, so you'll be in the same boat where it will goes down every day. I had a netgear nighthawk gigabit router and it would go down every day and then when it was no longer being supported with the last update it was throttle to 200 mbs. try out an asus router, I've got one of their cheap $60 routers two years ago and I have not had any issues with it. if it goes down it's on the spectrum side.

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.

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

they are awesome on a deal, and netgear nighthawk are fantastic... not that thing you linked...

Depends on your situation. If you have DSL or Coaxial Cable. You are likely going to have lag spikes due to the medium of connection. "Shared" mediums and DSL is just old teetering on ancient technology this point. That aside, I had luck with my Netgear Nighthawk back in 2015. I used it all the way up to 2020 when I got a legitimate Firewall. (Fortigate 70F) If you wanna go full blown firewall Route, I don't mind helping. Otherwise maybe look at the Netgear. (P.S. I hated the Netgear Nighthawk Smart App. Just in case you end up going that route. It should also have a built in web interface to be able to go around the app. Not sure about the Netgear Mesh boxes that they have out there now.).

I have an asus AXE7800 that works well. In the like 16 months I've had it, I've rebooted it once, but i suspect it wasn't even the thing that needed rebooting, it was more of a "might as well, I'm rebooting everything else". It replaced a netgear nighthawk that was nearly ten years old and still in GWO, but i wanted that 6G. I am generally a fan of Netgear as well. Both companies are capable of shanking an individual product tho, so just do a little due diligence looking at reviews and googling before you pull the trigger. You'll be working on substantially better odds. So long as it's the typical nitpicking of configuration interface, it's performance attaching a drive to it for NAS, etc? You'll be good, that's a sign that they're looking at normal things and got past basic operations. For VR we don't need much in the way of features, we just need it to be stable, reliable, and fast. If it's a product that's been out for a year, give or take, and googling it doesn't give you a bunch of hits about it being garbage, having actual systemic problems etc, you're good. Just know that you can get the most flawless amazing and user friendly router and someone's gonna have a hell of a time setting it up, configuring something, or just not understanding that maybe they got a defective unit and need to use their warranty lol But yeah in general I find Netgear and Asus networking products to be worth their extra cost

use their modem, go get urself a nighthawk router, thats what ive got, and have no issues

Couple ideas… Try another router. My netgear nighthawk is working fine. Put a wireless ap right near your bedroom. Sounds like you would have line of sight from the router to the ap, so that should work well. Run an Ethernet cable along the ceiling from the router to your bedroom and put a wired ap there. This gives you wifi and you could also run a wired connection out from the ap. Wired is going to give the fastest most reliable result.

I appreciate that. Youre spot on though this really does seem to a complex problem to solve since we all want and need something different. I’m using a nighthawk modem and a nighthawk router I can’t remember the models. The modem is great since it gives me multiple ports out instead of just one so I can bypass the router when I want to. This wasn’t really a requirement just a nice qol feature. The router though, I really wanted the ability to manage the devices connected to it and prioritize certain devices and applications. The one I have handles things the way I wanted. Both pieces were bought a 2-3 years ago when 1gb speeds hit our market. I refuse to deal with the isp equipment because it’s nothing but headaches to everyone here and I can’t manage it. Looking at the home network prices it still feels like a good set up for me at $400 total.

I’ve tried a few 5g routers but have not found any that are great, I’m using a Netgear NightHawk connected to my existing home network witch is as good as I’ve found but they’re not cheap. Have not come across any 5g routers with wifi 7 at all. The TP-Link 5g routers aren’t great, Teltonika are solid but not cheap because you need to get antennas and power supplies seperate for them. Not sure on the Nokia units that some carriers use for their 5g home plans but might be worth a try but they’re not wifi 7

My last router was a Nighthawk but it died, less than 5 years old. Beware!

I'm only going to tell you what I think you shouldn't buy, based on my own experience. Don't buy Netgear. I had a Netgear Nighthawk router that ended up getting a bug in it after a firmware upgrade. The bug didn't allow me to filter by MAC address. I had to end up actually editing the HTML of the router page to get it to work. It was a known issue on Netgear's website for years, but they never fixed it. I will never buy another Netgear router.

Also, I have the 1gb internet and had their router, and I still ended buying a netgear nighthawk router. Their router kept causing my internet connection to go in and out.

Wifi 7 is too... Expensive and quest isn't supported... Get a Netgear nighthawk in Amazon por 130usd

I got one of the netgear nighthawk brand, had it for 3 years now and it never has failed me and it’s a very capable router. Remote play to xbox sx (xbox wired) with 5 ping on iphone, very playable, all while wife and son are streaming something on tv/phones/tablets all on wifi.

I have a netgear nighthawk router also and I get my full internet plan speed (1gb down and up) over wifi through my fiber connection. Plus it can handle a lot of devices and almost never needs a reboot.

I got one and saw the same thing. After following the instructions to upgrade my firmware, it was peaking at 80% of Ram usage with cpu at 20%. I also could not get my 5ghz channel to connect to any device other than my iPhone. It was a nightmare to troubleshoot and it’s going back tomorrow. I brought back out my Nighthawk and it’s business as usual. 

I would say look at another nighthawk, you got 5 years roi out of it, and they’re relatively inexpensive compared to other brands. Do you need a new modem too? They’re different pieces of hardware. You can also consider getting something called a gateway that combines a router and a modem together into one piece of hardware.

Yeah, I gave up on consumer grade crap too, after I had a Netgear Nighthawk system that would randomly start spazzing out and start dropping packets on the wireless network and need a full power cycle every once in a while. Ended up going with Ubiquiti a few months ago and I've been pretty happy with it so far.

Another vote for Nighthawk, it's been great for two years solid

Either nighthawk or Asus routers. Asus i like because they last much longer through custom firmware support for long term updates. Dual band is a must, tri band is better and Quad band I suggest if you have tons of devices. Make sure to get at Least Wifi 6E. However I suggest future proofing and going for wifi 7. Avoid wifi 6 and below like the plague. Also avoid TP-Link. Wifi 6e and wifi 7 have major technological advantages. TP-Link is very buggy in terms of their software and may be banned from USA because of mediocre security.

I love how they look crazy now I have an old nighthawk somewhere lol

Personally I think nothing beats a Nighthawk for converting your internet service into home WiFi. It's got great range, is super stable, and you can run 2.4 and 5ghz at the same time.

With a descent router wireless is nearly as good as wired these days. I speak as someone who was once a 'wired network' purist for the same reasons as you, and also someone who works from home. A good router, set in a centralized place will probably be a cheaper and simpler solution than wiring everything together. I use one of those nighthawk routers with four antenna. Alternatively, doing data cabling runs throughout your house can be in DIY territory. It would be much cheaper than hiring a contractor and you could be done with it in about a day depending on how many rooms you want patched in and how much you care about wire enclosures being visible. Lots of people just put cable mounts in the corner near the ceiling and run them outside the wall.

This. Omg this. I found this out the hard way. I got U6 and it has an awful signal transmission that feels like can't even penetrate paper. Too late to return it for me. I had to plug my old Netgear nighthawk router to use as AP for the unifi router which has 4x4 and has probably x3 performance of the U6. I ended up using the U6 for the IoT devices and my nighthawk as AP for everything else. Now I am looking into wifi 7 access point/mesh network to compliment my unifi router.

This. Omg this. I found this out the hard way. I got U6 and it has an awful signal transmission that feels like can't even penetrate paper. Too late to return it for me. I had to plug my old Netgear nighthawk router to use as AP for the unifi router which has 4x4 and has probably x3 performance of the U6. I ended up using the U6 for the IoT devices and my nighthawk as AP for everything else. Now I am looking into wifi 7 access point/mesh network to compliment my unifi router.

I had an older version, and it was terrible performing and died in less than a year. Got a Nighthawk instead and couldn't be happier.

You can use any, but I'd suggest at least Wifi 6 or 6e, if not 7 - depends on your devices too. The Nighthawk routers are really nice.

I had a netgear nighthawk for a while. I liked that thing. Haven't found a good router since that had 2x2.5Gb port aggregation.

ASUS any day of the weak, had nothing but TPLink and it sucked, immediately switched out for the Nighthawk routers and loved it

Nighthawk But let’s be very clear about something. When thinking about buying Wi-Fi six or seven you should understand that the higher speeds are only going to be beneficial when you are transferring data between devices on your own home network. So these higher and routers really only are advantageous to businesses. The only way you might ever need such a thing in your home is if you live in some kind of mansion full of people. The reason why they are available to you and me as average, ordinary, every day people is because that helps keep the price lower for the routers across the board.

I use eeros for my mesh wifi and it works great with my OPNSense setup. I just dropped it into bridge mode. I physically segregate my LAN / Home WIFinetwork from my Guest and IoT via a 4 port nic and Firewall rules. My IoT stuff runns off a Nighthawk and the Guest also runs off another Nighthawk. BOth running OpenWRT firmware since stock is garbage and insecure.