Netgear Nighthawk AX6 (RAX50) review
Our Verdict
An excellent way to feed data to devices shut to the router, the Netgear Nighthawk AX6 (RAX50) combines 802.11AX loftier-speed operations with the best security enhancements that whatsoever home networking device includes. Unfortunately, it costs a lot more than other AX routers to get and use.
For
- Excellent shut-upward functioning
- Security upgrade
- Quick setup
- Customization potential
Against
- Expensive
- Security subscription lasts ane month
- Support lasts 90-days
Tom'south Guide Verdict
An splendid manner to feed data to devices close to the router, the Netgear Nighthawk AX6 (RAX50) combines 802.11AX high-speed operations with the best security enhancements that whatever home networking device includes. Unfortunately, it costs a lot more than other AX routers to get and utilize.
Pros
- +
Excellent close-upwardly operation
- +
Security upgrade
- +
Quick setup
- +
Customization potential
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Security subscription lasts one month
- -
Back up lasts xc-days
Netgear Nighthawk AX6 RAX50: Specs
Wi-Fi spec: 802.11ax/dual-band
Number of antennas/removable: four/Yes
Ports: 1 WAN, 4 LAN, USB iii.0
Processor: triple-cadre 1.5 GHz
Memory/storage: 512MB/256MB
Wi-Fi chip: Broadcom BCM6750
Size: 14.0 x 8.half dozen x 2.seven inches
Peak 802.11ac functioning: 1.38Gbps (at 15 feet)
Range: 85 feet
Estimated Annual Electricity Cost: $viii.50
Price: $250
The Netgear Nighthawk RAX50 shows that loftier-speed Net can exist used safely, pairing all-time-in-class home network security with speeds that pause through the one Gbps barrier. Expert for anything from online gamers to loftier-end media consumers, the RAX50'due south 2d generation Armor software can help make your network and devices more than closed by stopping malware before information technology does any damage and keeping your personal information from leaking out. Quick and easy to ready, the RAX50 offers a wide variety of customization options also as the pick between using a visually highly-seasoned mobile app or a more thorough connected browser.
On the downside, the RAX50 is i of the nearly expensive traditional routers y'all can become and it doesn't finish with the purchase cost. That's because the included Armor 2.0 security software is a subscription service with a 30-day trial and the support merely lasts xc-days, potentially costing more for these subscriptions than the initial outlay over the router's life.
Nevertheless, our Netgear Nighthawk RAX50 review shows that superlative speed and superlative security get manus in hand with the RAX50, making it i of the best routers for security-minded homes.
Netgear Nighthawk AX6 review: Toll and what's included
The Netgear Nighthawk RAX50 has a list price of $300 just if y'all store effectually, information technology can exist had for $250. This is about what the TP-Link Archer AX6000 costs. Unfortunately, that's double what the lower-performing Linksys MR7350 goes for.
In addition to the expected router, AC adapter, Cat half-dozen cable and a starting time-upward card, the RAX50 comes ready to securely fill a home with wireless data using Netgear's Armor ii.0 security software. On the downside, the included service is really a 30-day trial of the subscription service (more on that below).
Netgear Nighthawk AX6 RAX50 review: Blueprint
The jet blackness Nighthawk RAX50 has a rectangular instance, curved top and several gem-like facets. At 14.0 10 8.6 10 2.7, it should be able to fit on a desk, window sill or countertop. Information technology's in between the larger Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 and slightly smaller TP-Link Archer AX6000. With its four adjustable antennas raised the device is 5.5 inches taller.
A "V" shaped ventilation grille on tiptop and the router's passive cooling stand up in contrast to the Netegar RAXE500's cooling fan and the TP-Link AX6000's aggressive slat vents. That said, the RAX50 never broke a sweat at a peak temperature of 99 degrees Fahrenheit, much cooler than the Netgear RAXE500's 112 degrees F.
With individual LED lights for power, Internet, 2.4- and 5GHz activity, Ethernet and its USB 3.0 port, the RAX50 can light up like a Christmas tree when active. By contrast, the Linksys MR7350 has a single, discreet calorie-free bar that shows its overall condition merely less detailed information. By digging into the setup screens, I was able to plough the LEDs off.
Inside, the RAX50's dual-ring design uses the latest 802.11AX (Wi-Fi 6) protocol to push button information to the limit. Its abilities range from MU-MIMO (for servicing many devices) to beamforming (for tailoring the signal to adapt the device) to full 1024QAM operations (for peak speed operations). The router can back up several 160MHz high-functioning data channels and can motion 600Mbps over its 2.4GHz ring as well equally 4.8Gbps over the 5GHz band. It adds up to an AX5400 rating. That blows away the TP-Link MR7350's AX1800 throughput rating simply is behind the Netgear RAXE500's AX1100 rating.
It'southward all built around Broadcom's BCM6750 Wi-Fi chipset that can service up to 25 devices at one time. Capable of moving 6 private streams of data, the router has a one.5GHz triple-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 256MB of flash storage for the system'south settings and firmware. Dissimilar several of its competitors, the RAX50 can't be set up in an Orbi mesh arrangement simply can operate as a wired access point.
The RAX50's connection console has more than the basics with an input WAN port capable of using 5Gbps streams from a broadband modem. There are 4 downstream Ethernet ports that can evangelize gigabit per second data, but none can be aggregated for higher performance. The TP-Link MR7350, by comparison, tin can pair whatever two of its Ethernet ports for peak speed.
If you want to add external storage to the mix, the RAX50 has a USB three.0 port. But plug in an external hard bulldoze or a wink drive to share its contents across the network using Netgear's ReadyShare software.
In improver to buttons for power and resetting the router to its factory settings in the back, the RAX50 has keys up front end for turning the router's Wi-Fi transmissions on or off and starting the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) process for quickly calculation devices.
Netgear Nighthawk AX6 (RAX50) review: Security
While the RAX50 matches most recent Wi-Fi routers with the ability to apply WPA2 or WPA3 encryption, two-gene authentication and Apple's Touch ID, it goes several steps further with its second-generation Armor package of security enhancements. The Armor two.0 package pushes more of the malware detection and eradication to the cloud while providing a layered approach to defending a family unit's computers.
Armor's defenses range from behavioral monitoring and machine learning to local scanning for malware with apps for Windows, Macs and Android systems. It tin even protect confronting attacks on smart devices throughout the firm, like thermostats and video cameras.
No other router company offers this extensive array of security measures but information technology doesn't come cheap. The RAX 50's Armor ii.0 software is a thirty-solar day trial. After that, the subscription costs $100 a year, just Netgear won't leave you high and dry if you don't pay up. The Armor software will continue to provide protection against Web attacks but won't defend against things like Fauna Force and Denial of Service attacks as well as baby-sit your personal information.
It adds up quickly, with the cost of maintaining Armor 2.0 surpassing the initial cost of the router erstwhile in its tertiary year. Nevertheless, it provides malware protection for an unlimited number of devices, making information technology a bargain.
The Armor subscription also provides access to Bitdefender's VPN service. On the downside, the basic service is express to 200MB a day of data period per device. Upgrading to unlimited VPN use costs an boosted $50 a year.
In addition to an overall security score and aid raising it, Armor now has enhanced protection with anomaly detection that looks for abnormal device behavior. Information technology protects against brute force attacks from bots and defend against new exploits too as deprival of service attacks.
Perhaps the biggest upgrade is Armor 2.0's protection of your sensitive data. The software monitors the data entering and leaving the router for indications your social security number, credit card accounts and other personal data are leaking out. This tin potentially save your online identity from existence compromised.
Netgear Nighthawk AX6 (RAX50) review: Performance
The Netgear Nighthawk RAX50 is one of the first AX routers to make the most of the high-functioning Wi-Fi 6 protocol. Over a week of daily use, information technology was reliable for things little (email and online shopping) and big (distributing 4K videos and online gaming).
In my 100 year old house, the RAX50 excelled at delivering lots of data when it was shut to the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro test system. Using Ixia's ixChariot network benchmark software, the test system registered 1.38Gbps of data flow with the software simulating x data hungry clients. That might not be able to touch the two.39Gbps that its older brother, the 802.11AXE-based Netgear RAXE500 router accomplished by adding a 6GHz link to its ii.4- and 5GHz bands.
Even so, the RAX50's throughput was 1-third more than the TP-Link Archer AX-6000 (884.4Mbps) and the Asus RT-AX86U (929.7Mbps). It'south also nearly 3 times the 478.3Mbps that the AX-based Linksys MR7350 achieved.
The router's available bandwidth barbarous off sharply when I moved it to a altitude of 50-anxiety. At this point, its throughput dropped to 133.2Mbps, putting it well behind the RT-AX86U (285.3Mbps) and the Linksys MR7350 (167.2Mbps). This makes the RAX50 more useful for same-room or adjacent-room coverage.
With the altitude increased to 75-feet, the RAX50 could move only 9.79Mbps. That's compared to the likes of the RT-86U's 250.1Mbps and the TP-Link Archer AX6000's 149.9Mbps. The Linksys MR7350's 15.3Mbps was closer to the RAX50's mark. The RAX50 had a range of 85 feet, matching that of the TP-Link but short of the Linksys's ability to push a signal to 90 feet.
A Wi-Fi screamer, the RAX50 pushed 1.01Gbps through a wall twenty feet from the router. This was ane-quarter amend than the TP-Link Archer AX6000 (744.7Mbps) and 60 pct alee of the Linksys MR7350 (408.8Mbps). When it came to connecting the router with the examination car set up a floor above, the RAX50 moved 748.1Mbps of data, more than double the Linksys's 312.3Mbps and alee of the TP-Link'south 671.4Mbps.
The RAX50 passed our informal saturation test where the router distributed data to support viewing videos on an iPad Pro, listening to an Internet radio station on a Samsung Galaxy S7+ tablet while streaming a 4K movie on a Dell XPS 15 as data was being read and saved to a RAID file server with a Lenovo ThinkPad T470. The video and sound were skip free with neither freeze-up, drop-outs or artifacts.
At 7.4 watts of power, the RAX50 is a miser only yet uses more than the Linksys MR7350's five watts of power. If it'south left on 24/vii and yous pay the national average of 13 cents per kilowatt hour, the RAX50 should cost about $eight.l a yr. Others, like the TP-Link Archer AX6000 and Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 can toll as much as $11.30 and $13.70, respectively, per twelvemonth to use.
Netgear Nighthawk AX6 RAX50 review: Setup
Getting the Nighthawk RAX50 online can be accomplished either with the Nighthawk app for iPhones and iPads or Androids or with a connected browser. I chose the latter choice. The routine started with me screwing in the unit's four antennas, connecting the router to my broadband modem and plugging in the AC adapter.
After creating a Netgear account, I continued my examination arrangement with the router using the randomized Wi-Fi name and password printed underneath. Before any configuration took place, the router insisted on changing its IP address to 10.0.0.1.
It and so checked the Cyberspace connection and asked me to enter an administrative password. So, I answered ii verification questions if I lost the countersign.
Finally, I renamed the router and added a personalized passcode and registered the hardware online. It connected on the first attempt and yielded 181Mbps of data from my 200Mbps connection and took all of 5 minutes to go from a sealed box to a fully operating dual-band home network.
My next chore was to gear up the Armor security system. Using my iPad Pro, the procedure started with me activating the one-month Armor trial.
Once the software was alive, Armor gave me an embarrassing security rating of 77 out of 100. Information technology listed the items that needed to exist changed, like installing the included Bitdefender security software on my devices.
Next upwards, I created profiles for my children to screen out the worst the Web could throw at them. Then, I set limits on their screen time.
Netgear Nighthawk AX6 (RAX50) review: Configuration
Similar other Nighthawk routers, the RAX50 can be configured using a connected browser for lots of options or via its Android or iOS apps, which is more visual merely less consummate.
Either way, the main pages offering a skilful overview of the router's setup and current duties. While the browser approach shows the Net status, how many devices are connected and a ticker of the network's name and passcode, the apps add together how much time remains on the Armor subscription and the status of the Parental Controls.
Both offer a speed reading of the network'southward performance and in that location's a Traffic Meter that shows the overall data menstruum for aid in reducing interference. At whatever point, limits tin be placed on downloads, uploads or both.
On the other paw, the browser let yous customize a variety of performance parameters not included with the app, such equally Fragmentation Length, Long or Brusk Preamble and the ability to turn the WiFi transmissions on or off according to a schedule.
[[rax50 preamble]]
Like its competitors, the RAX50 comes with a i-year warranty but information technology can be doubled for a reasonable $30. Netgear provides 90-days of personalized support, although the Spider web site has lots of cocky-serve items on the product support page. Two years of support and a warranty extension sells for $80.
The downloadable manual is a must-read considering the RAX50 can do so much to turbocharge a home network.
Netgear Nighthawk AX6 RAX50 review: Verdict
By combining a fast Wi-Fi 6 router with some of the most effective security software, Netgear has created i of the best routers on the market. The Nighthawk RAX50 can not merely satisfy a family'southward thirst for data but keep them safe at the same time. It is also one of the most customizable routers on the market place so that it can be tuned to the environment and employ.
With a suggested toll of $300, the RAX50 can be had for $250 if you lot shop around. That'south twice the cost tag of the lower-performing Linksys MR7350 but one-half that of the Linksys Hydra 6E or Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500, which utilise the newer Wi-Fi 6e protocol that pushes functioning by adding 6GHz transmissions. It'due south the router to get if yous care as much as online prophylactic as you lot practise about Wi-Fi performance. The RAX50 checks both boxes.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/netgear-nighthawk-ax6-rax50
Posted by: emersonroince.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Netgear Nighthawk AX6 (RAX50) review"
Post a Comment