XR300 worth upgrading to XR500

[Taylordrift21]

Hey guys, just looking for some advice, I’ve had a XR300 router for around 3-4 months, other than getting to the bottom of the QoS issue I did find a way round it. However I noticed over the last month, my xr300 has been doing random restarts, wireless devices are disconnecting etc. Anyway I was wondering before I return the XR300, should I pay a little extra and get the XR500? I know there isn’t much difference if at all in the Duma OS part but my thinking is with the hardware being a little more powerful would it still be worth upgrading?

Thanks 

[Newfie]

Yes and no. 
the 500 is if my memory serves me right based on the D7800 with a few differences. I’m not sure it’s worth it but that’s down to you.

personally I found that hardware wise the 500 was a pain as I found the coverage seemed flakey and I struggled to connect devices even to the point I was using a work around to solve it. I might have been unlucky as mine lost its 2.4 ghz channels so could have been iffy from the start and it’s been replaced which was very easy to do I may add under warranty. I’ve not tried the replacement yet. To give you an idea on coverage I have 2 ex8000 extenders, I struggled to get a 900mbps connection to the router but now I’m getting 1733mbps. Of course in real world I doubt it made much difference but I did have to purchase the extenders. 
 

I guess you just need to weigh up what improvement you would see in the real world to justify the extra outlay. A personal choice I guess.
 

It might be worth if you have warranty to run through it with Netgear, I too found devices dropping and it boiled down to my 2.4 radio was having issues where I lost channel 11 and devices would disconnect and reconnect. Run a Wi-fi scanner and watch to see if any channels are dropping.

 

 

[Taylordrift21]

Thanks for your reply.  Main issue for improvement which I was hoping would help is that the xr500 has better hardware compared to the xr300. I was hoping the xr500 would handle high usage a little better than the xr300. I also find (whether it’s a fault with hardware) that when I have a lot of devices using the internet, it seems to lock up and restart it self. Wirelessly yes I would like improvement there as well, also maybe hoping it would also handle the QoS/anti bufferbloat  better with having better hardware. I suppose I won’t know until I upgrade which is why I’d post here first as I wouldn’t like to upgrade if I don’t see any improvement at all if that makes sense. It hasn’t crossed my mind that I could try a different router/different brand but I really do like the geo filter function. 

[Newfie]

I’m still with Netgear, just a new router as I wanted to try out the new Wi-fi 6 model while I sent my XR500 off for replacement. 
 

I guess it’s finding a reply from someone who has upgraded and to see if they felt it was worth it. 

[Guest Killhippie]

On 1/21/2020 at 11:51 AM, Newfie said:

Yes and no. 
the 500 is if my memory serves me right based on the D7800 with a few differences. I’m not sure it’s worth it but that’s down to you.

personally I found that hardware wise the 500 was a pain as I found the coverage seemed flakey and I struggled to connect devices even to the point I was using a work around to solve it. I might have been unlucky as mine lost its 2.4 ghz channels so could have been iffy from the start and it’s been replaced which was very easy to do I may add under warranty. I’ve not tried the replacement yet. To give you an idea on coverage I have 2 ex8000 extenders, I struggled to get a 900mbps connection to the router but now I’m getting 1733mbps. Of course in real world I doubt it made much difference but I did have to purchase the extenders. 
 

I guess you just need to weigh up what improvement you would see in the real world to justify the extra outlay. A personal choice I guess.
 

It might be worth if you have warranty to run through it with Netgear, I too found devices dropping and it boiled down to my 2.4 radio was having issues where I lost channel 11 and devices would disconnect and reconnect. Run a Wi-fi scanner and watch to see if any channels are dropping.

 

 

It was the R7800 Newfie, which was a great little router, still going strong as a router and on SmallNetBuilder with Voxels updated Netgear firmware fork its a great router to use, I would have gone for that if on a tight budget, it has streamboost for QoS, works well gaming as it was and is a gaming router and has excellent Wi-Fi and Wan to LAN throughput for gigabit lines, Esata as well as USB 3, I would say its better than the XR500 tbh, which never had such good Wi-Fi as the R7800, they changed the antenna on the XR500 new shape and not so tall but whatever else was changed it never worked so well over 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz as the R7800 for some reason. Sometimes less is more I guess.

[Netduma Fraser]

For the restarts, how is the router connected to power? Is it via an extender or direct to a wall outlet? If an extender try direct to the wall as that can sometimes resolve the random reboots.

[Taylordrift21]

22 hours ago, Newfie said:

I’m still with Netgear, just a new router as I wanted to try out the new Wi-fi 6 model while I sent my XR500 off for replacement. 
 

I guess it’s finding a reply from someone who has upgraded and to see if they felt it was worth it. 

Hey Newfie, I’m sorry to say but I will be the guinea pig on this one, I returned my XR300 and got the XR500. Early days yet but first impressions are good so far, Wireless is stronger/more range, for wireless device at the furthest away point in my home I can still achieve my full download and upload speed (Exact same for wired device) where as on the XR300 I couldn’t. I find the web GUI for router settings much quicker to navigate -XR300 was slow at the best of times. I also had Multiple wireless devices and my hardwired PC streaming and all devices played fine. The XR300 could do the same but I found 1-2 devices would be really slow to start streaming. Anti-Bufferbloat works well so far using pingplotter for a few tests last night. Still got more tests to do but for now I’ve already seen improvement. As I say it’s early days yet, I will need to see how it plays out over the next few days and put it to work 😊. I’ll report back soon. Hopefully it will have been worth the extra spend otherwise my wife may divorce me lol. Thanks 

[Taylordrift21]

15 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

For the restarts, how is the router connected to power? Is it via an extender or direct to a wall outlet? If an extender try direct to the wall as that can sometimes resolve the random reboots.

Hi Fraser,  the router was directly plugged into the wall. I have returned the XR300 and got the XR500 😊 time will tell but so far so good. Thanks 

[Newfie]

56 minutes ago, Taylordrift21 said:

Hey Newfie, I’m sorry to say but I will be the guinea pig on this one, I returned my XR300 and got the XR500. Early days yet but first impressions are good so far, Wireless is stronger/more range, for wireless device at the furthest away point in my home I can still achieve my full download and upload speed (Exact same for wired device) where as on the XR300 I couldn’t. I find the web GUI for router settings much quicker to navigate -XR300 was slow at the best of times. I also had Multiple wireless devices and my hardwired PC streaming and all devices played fine. The XR300 could do the same but I found 1-2 devices would be really slow to start streaming. Anti-Bufferbloat works well so far using pingplotter for a few tests last night. Still got more tests to do but for now I’ve already seen improvement. As I say it’s early days yet, I will need to see how it plays out over the next few days and put it to work 😊. I’ll report back soon. Hopefully it will have been worth the extra spend otherwise my wife may divorce me lol. Thanks 

Good to hear you like it. If we don’t hear back we know your wife has taken charge 😂