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Netgear mesh router wifi 68/5/2023 ![]() ![]() An Acer Aspire laptop we had with a Wi-Fi 6 card (AX201, driver version 22.40.0.7) was completely unable to connect to the router. Right off the bat, we experienced connection issues. Purchasers should factor this into the cost of the AX3600, because some competing products have network-level antivirus for the life of the product without an additional cost. Beyond that, you’re looking at an annual subscription for an additional cost of $69.99 (although it’s currently on sale for less). But while there is a free trial, it’s limited to 30 days, even on this top end mesh kit. ![]() The AX3600 does support network level antimalware security, which is termed “Netgear Armor” here. The list is lengthy, and covers MU-MIMO for simultaneous data streaming, explicit beamforming on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies, OFDMA for both uplink and downlink and seven-stream WiFi for 4K video streaming. Also, it is unclear if one of these is the backhaul between the router and a satellite, which would then be a bottleneck to the faster 5 GHz speed, unless directly connected to the router.Īt least on paper, the AX3600 does have all of the wireless features that you would expect from a higher end piece of home networking gear-the three-piece kit we tested currently sells for just under $400. This sums up to 3600 Mbps of theoretical bandwidth, hence the name of this kit, however it strikes us as odd to have two different bandwidths for the 5 GHz radios. ![]() The wireless is tri-band, that is Wi-Fi 6 AX3600 ( Mbps + Mbps + 2.4 GHz 600Mbps). Specificationsīoth the router and the satellite units use a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, and the router has 256 MB of flash memory for storage and 512 MB of RAM. Unfortunately, the light cannot be turned off, making this less than ideal for a bedroom application (unless you want to put a piece of black electrical tape over the LED). There is a single LED that glows blue when connected, flashes white when booting, and orange when ready to sync. While there are no external antennas, each unit has five internal antennas. But purist considerations aside, this setup promises to cover 6,750 square feet of wireless goodness with Wi-Fi 6 speeds. It consists of three pieces: a router and two satellites, which technically makes it a ‘Hub and spoke’ system rather than the ‘True mesh’ which has all identical wireless nodes. That’s what we’re looking at with the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh Wi-Fi 6 AX3600 (MK83) system. With a mesh kit, the manufacturer has done the heavy lifting, put multiple wireless units in one nice box that are all compatible and designed to work together out of the box,with a single set of directions to get it all up and running. But rather than going crazy trying to get all this gear to play well together, which can be a time sink even for a network expert and a significant challenge for novices, a simpler solution these days (though it’s often far from cheap) is a mesh networking kit. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.There is no shortage of wireless accessories to fix dead spots, including wireless extenders and powerline networks with wireless access points to get the signal where it needs to go. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. ![]()
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