The first shipment arrived, the overall visual impression convinced all along the line, the router has been connected and I wanted to start to establish him.
From my desktop PC (wired LAN adapter Realtek family) was the almost impossible, I constantly saw the ring (charge icon) in the middle. Furthermore, I was shown the wrong time (anything with 2003), so I wanted to contact the Support ...
Netgear advertises a free telephone support - the first 90 days after purchase that this call but not free (from the telephone charges forth) should be mentioned. So was chatting with the support - requirements: patience and the English language to be powerful. . After a total of 4 different supporters (everyone Disconnect the router, because he had to perform many reboots) the solutions were not bad, but not helped me, finally I was warmly recommended to swap the Router - sooner said than done! Once again kudos to Amazon for speed
With the router no. 2 because it ran much better, the router was the correct time, the charging circuit-of-death caught me now more rarely via wired connection of my desktop PC. If I can there very quickly and reliably juggle all the settings GUI Views via WLAN device. The solution is not really perfect, but for a stable WiFi, it is sufficient, you have not even ran daily to these settings. The transmission rates in the 2.4 GHz (about 8 MB / s) and in the 5GHz (approximately 17MB / s) network are much higher than with the first router.
Yesterday there was a new firmware updates, etc. were improved stability and range of the wireless network, you can now activate or deactivate the LEDs on the router itself, etc. Since the update I certainly have bad problems in the 5GHz network to distribute large amounts of data, because the connection quasi pulsating, shall be called within 2-3 seconds the transmission speed increases from zero to maximum, and then falls back to zero, so you push its data packets. When I copy the 2.4GHz network the speed is constant and thus the bottom line also much faster than in the 5 GHz network. I'll make myself at times clever if I can play back easily the old software version again. The permanent update message is then indeed there again (this time is really an update is available, but only one media server on the network will be shown to me. In the latest software version can this no longer seems to disable correctly.
Now I come times to the really important things :):
Stability:
The longest period without rebooting were previously 1.5 weeks with me. The restarts were due to me, not because the router fault produced. A weekly automatic restart function of the router I would still want. My TP Link 1043 began after ner good week always at herumzuspinnen, this celebrated (via the internal functions) every day at 3 o'clock in the morning a "new beginning". Much nicer it would be natural that the router is running as stable and works without any reboots - Anyway, I'm in good spirits, as regards stability and have so far found nothing negative.
Coverage:
The range is higher than all other routers previously (previous best range - TP Link 1043), but only in the 2.4 GHz network. I was sort of shocked how little equipment found the 5GHz network at all. So I donated my notebook (Win 8.1 64-bit) Intel Dual Band Wireless AC-7260 adapter - can make these problems was aware, for me everything went smoothly - now also the 5GHz network was found. The coverage of the 5GHz network is rather disappointing, but this is not attributable to the router.
Technology:
Dual Core Processor, theoretical 600 Mbit / s in the 2.4 GHz band, theoretical 1300 Mbit / s in the 5 GHz band, USB 2.0 and 3.0, WPS button, etc. Key data from the coarse view, it is, in my opinion, the best currently at a reasonably affordable price.
Streaming is thus practically very possible. Many devices I set a fixed IP address - this is not a problem for the Nighthawk.
Speed:
Jeh further one course away from the router, the lower the transmission speed, the 5GHz band, it is more evident than in the 2.4 GHz band. I am in the same room as the router, up to 32MB / s (867Mbps - 5GHz), or 12MB / s (300Mbps - 2.4GHz) achieved. In the living area (2 walls + kitchen appliances in between), the speed in the 5 GHz band as good as halved in the 2.4 GHz band will lose only one-third. Two walls further I get no 5GHz signal more, the pace, the 2.4 GHz band is not consistent enough to post representative results here. On the whole I would have expected a little more, I must confess. Compared to the currently similar devices, the values are but quite acceptable - which can be read as.
GUI:
The surface was kept quite clear on the whole. From laptop + mobile phone (HTC One) made it reacts quickly and reliably, from the wired desktop PC GUI is however much slower and sporadic, here I suspect some incompatibility.
The settings are also here quite diverse, dynamic manual has been involved with and is very useful if you absolutely with all the settings a bit can not begin. The service I find very intuitive. The pity is that the router is highly restarts, even after minor changes. Thanks to the system + dual-core processor of the router is relatively fast again accessible.
Network Genius:
This is the program / app from Netgear for devices with Windows, Android, etc. The adjustment range is lower than with the GUI, all the important things one finds there however. Highlighting one should mention the clear presentation of "connected devices". In all, the app is a fine gimmick.
Finally, I am quite happy - even if it could have been much better. For the price you get even a decent piece of hardware when the teething problems of the software have been overcome there from me five stars!
Support is friendly and eager ideas as Network Genie are exemplary and software updates regularly.
The potential is there to be one of the best router on the market - I would want Netgear to land such a hit - as long as the wrong delivery (my first router) really was just an exception and not one of the desired quality standards.
