NETGEAR Nighthawk Tri-Band WiFi 7 Router (RS280S) - Security Features, BE9200 Wireless Speed (up to 9.2 Gbps) - Covers up to 2,500 sq. ft. - 2.5 Gig Internet Port – 1-Year Armor & Free Expert Help

Exellent

Great router but not necessarily plug-and-play. Replaced previous Netgear that we had for 14 years but wanted to upgrade due to adding several WiFi devices. When we first plugged this router into our cable modem, the router turned on and we had WiFi access, but no internet. Turns out for our cable modem, the traditional method of turning on the cable modem first, then router did not work. We needed the router on and connected to the modem and then performed a software reboot on the cable modem. At that point the router was able to get an IP address and the internet starting working. Speeds (especially at 6Ghz) are incredible.

Easy to install and activate. Suppose to have 6G signal strength, so we will see. Seems better already. Too bad I had to reset everything connected to internet like smart plugs/devices, etc. Hopefully this will provide better and more consistent access and connectivity to the internet. I have many smart devices so I have to have a robust and secure system. Love that there is a separate login for parental and guest controls. It seems to be compatible with everything in the home so far. Crossing my fingers. I was generally satisfied with my old Nighthawk but received notice that it was no longer supported. I knew the connection was not always the best and that was probably why.

Recently purchased and set up this router for my home, and here are some thoughts. First of all, on the specs themselves, I thought this was a steal at $188, compared to the RS300 at $280. I did a lot of research and these are practically identical routers, the only difference being the 2.4Ghz band does not support WiFi 7, so it's 500Mbps instead of 600Mbps, which seems completely trivial. Anything you need high speed for should be using the 5Ghz or 6Ghz band anyways. Setup: I did run into an issue when setting it up. After it asked me to name the network, it then needed a firmware update. The firmware update completed fine but the network name reverted back to the default name, even though in the Nighthawk app it still showed the new name I gave it. The only way to fix this was to turn off the smart connect feature that merges all the SSIDs into one, and once there were three different SSIDs, the names showed up correctly. Performance: So far the performance is good, but hasn't blown me away. The range for the 2.4/5Ghz bands is pretty much the same as the cheap TP-Link AX1800 that this replaced. The 6Ghz band range is terrible. There's no other way to put it. It pretty much only works in the same room. I was sort of expecting it to be worse based on what I've read online, but it's worse than I thought. Additionally, it's actually a littler slower than the 5Ghz band on the one device I have that currently can use the 6Ghz band, which is my new phone I just got that has Wifi6E. I tested both bands while standing right in front of it and the 5Ghz band outperformed the 6Ghz band by about 5-10%. I bought this for future proofing, so we'll see if Wifi7 devices will work better with it in the future. My desktop PC has a wireless AC card in it and was able to max out my internet's bandwidth at 800Mbps on the 5Ghz band no problem, so that was great (I upgraded my modem at the same time, which was previously bottlenecking me to 130Mbps no matter the device or band). Other: I have noticed at times that my phone will connect to the 2.4Ghz band instead of the 5Ghz band, so I made my phone forget the 2.4Ghz SSID to force it to always use the 5Ghz band. I suppose if the smart connect feature had worked, it would have fixed this (but I can't say since I never got to test it out). Conclusion: Definitely not perfect, but still good overall for the 2.4/5Ghz bands. For the price, I think it's a good deal and hopefully will work well with Wifi7 devices in the future.

Strong signal, easy to set up and like the scan feature to allow it to connect with a 2.4, 5 or 6 band depending on component; HOWEVER, it will not connect to my HP Officejet printer. Help is so-so, they cannot get it working either. Printer says the router is preventing it from connecting but might be able to connect IF, I could manually enter the MAC address, but router will not allow. Again, their help is there, but so far no way to get it to connect. My brother printer connected with no problem. Netgear stated a new firmware update may prevent this problem; however, NO date for release if it even happens. Waiting to see....have until Jan 31 to return. Do not want too, but hate to toss a printer or donate.....