NETGEAR Nighthawk 12-Stream AX12 Wifi 6 Router (RAX120) – AX6000 Wireless Speed (Up to 6 Gbps) | 3,500 sq. ft. Coverage

Features

• WORKS WITH ALL INTERNET PROVIDERS: Replace your existing WiFi Router (separate modem or gateway required). Compatible with any Internet Service Provider up to 2Gbps including cable, satellite, fiber, DSL and more.
• EASY TO SET-UP AND MANAGE: Connects to your existing cable modem and sets up and customizes in minutes with the Nighthawk app – easily manage your WiFi settings at the device and network level, test your Internet speed, view speed history and monitor data usage.
• USB CONNECTIONS: Share a storage drive with any connected device and create a personal cloud storage to access from anywhere using the 2 x 3.0 USB ports.
• ADVANCED CYBER THREAT PROTECTION: NETGEAR Armor (powered by BitDefender) is network-wide anti-virus, anti-malware, fraud/phishing/ransomware security on an unlimited # of devices and network/data protection for $69.99/year with a 30-day free trial.
• WIRED ETHERNET PORTS: Plug in computers, game consoles, streaming players and other nearby wired devices with 4 x 1G and 1 x 1/2.5/5G Ethernet ports.
• WIFI 6 – STREAM EVERYTHING AT EPIC SPEED: Simultaneously stream uninterrupted movies, games, video calls or download/transfer files at 6Gbps WiFi speed. Works with existing and new WiFi 6 devices like iPhone 11, Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy S10.
• LOADED WITH ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY: Designed with a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, Dynamic QoS, 1024-QAM, Smart Connect for one WiFi name, Beamforming technologies and Amazon Alexa Voice Control. Supports WPA2/WPA3 wireless security protocols. Includes Guest WiFi access, DoS, Firewall, VPN and more.

Description

Nighthawk AX6000 12-stream Wi-Fi router is powered by the industry's latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard with 4 times increased data capacity to handle today's and tomorrow's growing home network. Blazing-fast combined Wi-Fi speeds up to 6Gbps and ax optimized 64bit 2.2GHz quad-core processor powers Smart home applications, ultra-smooth 4K UHD streaming, online gaming, and more. Ax Wi-Fi features orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (ofdma) that dramatically increases network capacity. Plus, eight high-performance antennas on the router amplify Wi-Fi signals for maximized range and Reliable coverage. Nighthawk AX6000 12-stream router is also the first home router to have a 5G Multi-Gig port.

Wireless Type 802.11n, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11ac

Brand NETGEAR

Series RAX120-100NAS

Item model number RAX120-100NAS

Operating System 0, Microsoft Windows 7, 8, 10, Vista, XP, 2000, Mac OS, UNIX or Linux,

Item Weight 2.99 pounds

Product Dimensions 12.2 x 7.48 x 1.77 inches

Item Dimensions LxWxH 12.2 x 7.48 x 1.77 inches

Color Black

Voltage 100240 Volts

Manufacturer Netgear

ASIN B07P3FGKYD

Date First Available April 9, 2019

Customer Reviews 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,377 ratings 4.3 out of 5 stars

Best Sellers Rank #2,218 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories) #135 in Computer Routers

abunda_amazon_reviews It looks great, right? It has a quad-core 2.2Ghz CPU, Qualcomm chipset which supports WPA3, OFDMA, etc... I was really excited to get this router, but was really disappointed when it arrived. As shown in the attached pictures, the listing advertises down and uplink OFDMA, however the box says otherwise. Concerned, I reached out to Netgear support asking if they plan to roll out upstream OFDMA or any other wifi 6 features mentioned such as target wait time in a future firmware update and I was told twice "I cannot promise that it will or it won't." After paying hundreds of dollars for this router, I was extremely disappointed in both the misleading advertisement and the response from Netgear support. It appears their RAX models 80 and 200 with the Broadcom chipset support both down and upstream OFDMA, but this one does not. So I had to take this for face value and assume the disclaimer on the box was the final verdict. After further research, their product advertisement for the RAX120 on netgear.com only lists OFDMA, while the RAX80 specifically says downstream and upstream OFDMA. I find it very interesting they'd not only release the RAX120 with only downstream OFDMA, but advertise having both down and up in the Amazon listing. Maybe I'm being petty, but that was enough for me to return the product before opening the box. If they told me they plan to add features as they become available, I'd probably be open to keeping it. It's probably a great router, but I feel let down and misled by Netgear.;;Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2019;;2.0 out of 5 stars;;Misleading information in listing...;;reedness;;;I've had the NIGHTHAWK AX12 12-STREAM WI-FI 6 ROUTER (Model: RAX120) for roughly a week and have tested it extensively. My setup includes the details below and everything is wired by either CAT 5E or CAT 6, WiFi 5 or WiFi 6: 1. Gigabit Up/Down Fiber Connection (WAN) 2. All Ethernet Ports Used EXCLUDING Multi-Gig 5G/2.5G/1G Ethernet Port 3. 1 Port Connected to a 8 Port Gigabit Switch – 8 Port Gigabit Switch Connected to 8 Devices/Locations thru Ethernet Throughout Home 4. 1 Port Connected to a 8 Port Gigabit Switch thru Family Room Ethernet – Family Room Ethernet Connected to 8 Port Gigabit Switch and 6 Devices Connected thru Ethernet 5. Smart Home w/ 38 Devices in Total Connected thru WiFi 5 and WiFi 6 Speed Test Results (Picture Attached) thru Router & WAN are: 1. 843 Mbps Maximum Uplink Bandwidth Ethernet Port Status (Picture Attached): 1. 5G Ethernet – Link Down 2. WAN - 1000M/Full 3. LAN 1 - 1000M/Full 4. LAN 2 - 1000M/Full 5. LAN 3 - 1000M/Full 6. LAN 4 - 1000M/Full 7. WLAN b/g/n/ax – 1147M 8. WLAN a/n/ac/ax– 4803M The WiFi on all bands tested work perfectly and run at high speeds, and the WAN and Ethernet Ports from 1-4 are all running at Gigabit speeds. However, the Multi-Gig 5G/2.5G/1G Ethernet Port is faulty and either does not work or runs below the advertised threshold. Below are my test results: 1. Using the Multi-Gig Ethernet Port for the WAN and Changing the Setting in the Router Settings Results in No Internet Connection 2. Using the Multi-Gig Ethernet Port for Some Ethernet Connections Results in No Connection at All 3. Using the Multi-Gig Ethernet Port for Some Ethernet Connections Results in 100M Speeds Instead of 1000M Therefore, I completely lose the utilization of this port, resulting in a total of 4 useable ethernet ports. I’ll also never be able to take advantage of the 5G/2.5G/1G Ethernet Port speeds in the future when Multi-Gig fiber is rolled out in my area, which is already planned. Because of this, I deducted 1 Star for the unusable port, 1 Star for future proofing at this price point, and 1 Star for the amount of time I spent in the forums and researching/troubleshooting. I will respond to any questions.;;Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2019;;2.0 out of 5 stars;;Multi-Gig 5G/2.5G/1G Ethernet Port Unusable;;Ryan Pierce;;;Purchased two of these so I can run one as a bridge to a home theater on the other side of my house. Setting the first one up was impossible using their recommended method of: 1) Install the app on my smart phone, 2) scan a QR code, and 3) going through the steps. The Android app absolutely would not connect to control panel of the router, despite my phone's wifi having connected to the router's wifi. OK, so I opened chrome on my phone, went to 192.168.1.1, and logged in with the default passwords. This brought up the control panel with little to no effort. Initial setup will greet you with series of pages prompting to change the admin password, download the latest firmware, set the SSID/PW, to register the device with Netgear, etc. It eventually dumps you on one of Netgear's advertisement websites instead of loading up the admin control panel, which is a nuisance. Fine. Just browse back to 192.168.1.1 and you should be able to access it straight away. After that, I un-boxed the second router and did the above process again. Going into the advanced settings, I was able to set it to Bridged mode and enter the necessary SSID and password, then watch it reboot. Pleasantly, it booted right up, and bridged mode just simply worked. Everything in the home theater had internet. Great! Now that the physical setup was complete, I log back on to the main router's control panel and began to configure a few things: QOS, VPN, and so on. That's where things started going south. Adding any QOS settings for devices using MAC rules (to prioritize the home file server above all the other devices, for example) caused the server to disappear from the router's connected devices list. Permanently. Even deleting the rule wouldn't bring it back, even though the server retained full internet connectivity the entire time. Ponderous, but not a deal breaker, assuming the QOS rule was actually working. Anyway... Having read that the AX12 was capable of VPN connections before purchasing, I went through several menus trying to figure out where to put in my VPN provider's connection info. Here's the rub - You can't.** You can use the preconfigured "PureVPN" service Netgear has installed, but that's it. Doing some homework revealed that PureVPN's mailing address is in China, and the company was founded in Pakistan. (Check the Wikipedia article.) NO. Not going to happen. Netgear - you really need to rethink this. Users should be able to configure OpenVPN, or at a bare minimum, a static L2TP, PPTP, or Socks connection. None of this is available at all! Routers which cost 1/10th of the AX12 have this. A feature like this missing from a flagship device like the RAX120? Shame on you. **Please don't confuse this with the other VPN settings on the router, which will allow you to configure INCOMING VPN connections - so that you can access your home network from the external world. Those settings are front and center in the control panel and seem pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, I don't want to connect to my home network from the airport. I want to be able to secure my home network's OUTGOING internet communications while I am at home. This, apparently, was barely an afterthought for Netgear. Continuing on, I went into the control panel again to disable their ReadyShare feature. I don't use it, and don't want someone plugging a malicious usb in and having bad things served up to everything on my network. Here's where another big issue occurred. Going into Advanced > ReadySHARE > Advanced Settings and disabling all ReadySHARE featured caused internet connectivity to die. Dead. Nothing I did would allow internet connectivity to resume, even enabling the ReadySHARE features again. The control panel showed there was an internet connection, and the internet light on the router never went off, so it thought everything was just fine - but nothing in my home could hit the internet. The fix was to completely reset the router, and set it up again. This also brought the home server back to the connected devices list. I guess that's good? A little gun-shy, I figured I'd try this all again, and experienced all of the problems detailed above a second time. Queue emotional music. Hero dies. Antagonist exits stage right. Another router reset performed. Fade to black. Clearly, the firmware needs work. On the bright side, I can report the following positive traits of the AX12: * The radio is amazingly strong. Dead spots in my garage are gone, and I can finally use my Riva Festival smart speaker out there without the music cutting in and out due to spotty wifi. * The network feels like it is twice as responsive as my previous setup. I have 2 Google hubs, a Nest thermostat and camera, Ring doorbell, about 12 smart lights, 2 smartphones, a laptop, a server, 2 Nvidia Shields, 2 smart TVs, and a few computers running in the house. Nothing seems to be waiting, hanging, or suffering from laggy behavior like it did on my last wifi setup. The AX stuff seems to be working as advertised. (If you told me 10 years ago that people would have over 30 networked devices in their house, I'd have laughed at you. Now look at me. *sigh*) Fundamentally, the product works to take a ton of wifi connected devices and make the network run better. It does this very well, in fact. However, if you dive deeper into the firmware, it starts to fall on it's face. Any DD-WRT based router will still perform extremely well, and cost you pennies on the dollar compared to this. I know AX/Wifi 6 is still pretty new, and these are the pains early adopters have to face. With that said, I have (had?) confidence that Netgear would have a much more polished product out of the gate. I hope further firmware revisions bring more.;;Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2019;;4.0 out of 5 stars;;Strong radio, extremely fast, with misc issues (especially for VPN users);;Elnrik