Will the XR1000 work for us?

[Mik4ll]

Hi to all,

I have only just joined so please accept a thank you in advance.

I'm seriously considering getting the Netgear Nighthawk Gaming XR1000 WiFi 6 Router

at the moment we have a sagemcom fast5364-3 talktalk modem/router that does ok-ish but think we could get better, we're running 3 samsung galaxy s9's, 2 iphone xr's, 3 chromebooks, 1 gaming pc, 1 PlayStation 4, and 5 xbox ones in our house. With a 500meg download speed and 70 upload speed lan but WiFi isn't very good/fast for the gaming side of things.
Will any of this conflict in anyway? on the Netgear Nighthawk Gaming XR1000 WiFi 6 Router as I don't want to spend £330 on a gaming router that has conflicts as we usually play in the same party's/chats and the same games from time to time. we also would like all 5 of us to have open nat on our xboxone's

thanks for any replies

mikall

[Netduma Fraser]

Hey, welcome to the forum!

I assume you can put the fast router in modem mode or add the XR to the DMZ so it won't conflict at all no. Did you get an open NAT on all devices previously? It's more difficult with that many devices but it should be fine. If you don't you can always post back and we'll help out.

[Mik4ll]

9 hours ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Hey, welcome to the forum!

I assume you can put the fast router in modem mode or add the XR to the DMZ so it won't conflict at all no. Did you get an open NAT on all devices previously? It's more difficult with that many devices but it should be fine. If you don't you can always post back and we'll help out.

Hi Fraser

By modem mode do you mean disable WiFi on the sagemcom fast modem/router then connect the xr1000 router via ethernet cable so that takes over all wifi signals? I can put the xr1000 into the dmz that, I know is possible on the sagemcom fast also all nat type is open at the moment but im a little worried if I buy the xr1000 WiFi 6 that it may cause more conflicting issues on our network? I'm not sure how it will behave at the moment? that's why I came here for advice before I fork out that sort of money on the xr1000 if it may not work for us all?

its also nice to see that people are willing to help out on the forum if I get stuck thank you. I just want to make sure it can work for us before I 100% go and by the xr1000 WiFi 6. as soon as possible.

[Netduma Liam]

12 hours ago, Mik4ll said:

Hi Fraser

By modem mode do you mean disable WiFi on the sagemcom fast modem/router then connect the xr1000 router via ethernet cable so that takes over all wifi signals? I can put the xr1000 into the dmz that, I know is possible on the sagemcom fast also all nat type is open at the moment but im a little worried if I buy the xr1000 WiFi 6 that it may cause more conflicting issues on our network? I'm not sure how it will behave at the moment? that's why I came here for advice before I fork out that sort of money on the xr1000 if it may not work for us all?

its also nice to see that people are willing to help out on the forum if I get stuck thank you. I just want to make sure it can work for us before I 100% go and by the xr1000 WiFi 6. as soon as possible.

Some modem/routers have a 'modem' mode that you can enable, this will essentialy disable the Wi-Fi, DHCP server and a couple other things. This means it's essentially just operating as a modem. That should prevent any double NAT issues, but if not putting the XR in the Fast DMZ should also stop any NAT issues from occuring.

Let us know if you have any further questions!

[Mik4ll]

On 5/7/2021 at 1:15 PM, Netduma Liam said:

Some modem/routers have a 'modem' mode that you can enable, this will essentialy disable the Wi-Fi, DHCP server and a couple other things. This means it's essentially just operating as a modem. That should prevent any double NAT issues, but if not putting the XR in the Fast DMZ should also stop any NAT issues from occuring.

Let us know if you have any further questions!

Hi Liam,

sorry for the late reply, I do have a couple of questions but I've looked all over the settings and advance settings in the sagemcom modem/router but I can't find a modem mode etc... anywhere. I think I'll have to go with the (dmz the XR1000 option).

we're not having any nat issues with the sagemcom so far and I dont think we ever will to be honest but will the XR1000 keep our network nat type to open the same way the sagemcom does?

I also want to ask "because most of our devices are wifi 5 will the WiFi 6 really make a difference to my network?". Meaning will we either get the coverage we all need or the main thing we all want is good speeds.

I ask this because im getting mixed answers in what im reading online about switching from WiFi5 to WiFi6, on some reviews it says it wont get much better, then on the other reviews say it will be better as long as you have enough WiFi-6 devices on the network. I have 5 devices that are wifi-6 in my network is that enough?

Most importantly another question i wanted to ask was " if my WiFi-5 devices can only do wifi-5 will they be able to run on the wifi-6 network if so? how smoothly will it run?.

thank you for the reply.

mikall

 

[Netduma Fraser]

Yes it should keep the NAT open as well - if it doesn't I have a potential firmware I can provide which will definitely work. 

The WiFi is very good so whether they're 5 or 6 it doesn't matter too much as they should have stable speeds and connections regardless. 

[Mik4ll]

thank you for clearing that up.so both wifi-5 and wifi-6 run on the XR1000 at the same time.  

also will our Wifi-5 devices be able to use your software/firmware features with wifi-6 meaning things like geo mapping etc ....?

with no glitches or is there some sort of compromise?

[Netduma Fraser]

Yes absolutely there will be no problems, WiFi standards are backwards compatible so b/g/n devices can use AC WiFi routers etc, the device itself is the limiter but as they will be AC devices you'll get good speeds and stability. 

[Mik4ll]

5 minutes ago, Netduma Fraser said:

Yes absolutely there will be no problems, WiFi standards are backwards compatible so b/g/n devices can use AC WiFi routers etc, the device itself is the limiter but as they will be AC devices you'll get good speeds and stability. 

can AC and AX devices be used at the same time on the XR1000? I think I maybe getting a little confused, sorry for any inconvenience.

thank you

[Netduma Fraser]

No inconvenience! Yes absolutely they can, all your devices will work with the WiFi the XR1000 provides

[Mik4ll]

thats it then, I guess I'm buying the XR1000.

Thank you for all your help and advice. I might be seeing you if I get stuck on how to set it up 🤣 in a few days.

[Netduma Fraser]

Great to hear it! You're very welcome, hopefully not but if you do we'll be here and ready to help

[Mik4ll]

hi I've had a little look at the NetgearNighthawk AX12 12-Stream WiFi 6 Router (RAX120) but cant seem to make my mind up between the ax12 or the XR1000.

which one would be better for gaming?,wifi range and strength?

also does the AX12 have geo mapping like the XR1000 and The other software features that come with the XR1000?

Also which one is the most recent release date?

thanks in advance

[Newfie]

52 minutes ago, Mik4ll said:

hi I've had a little look at the NetgearNighthawk AX12 12-Stream WiFi 6 Router (RAX120) but cant seem to make my mind up between the ax12 or the XR1000.

which one would be better for gaming?,wifi range and strength?

also does the AX12 have geo mapping like the XR1000 and The other software features that come with the XR1000?

Also which one is the most recent release date?

thanks in advance

The RAX120 has very good range, it’s processor is very powerful and it’s hardware spec is superior and thus the price difference. It has far more coverage than the XR1000 however it does not have Duma features and it’s QoS is basic. It’s a basic router, meant for a simple setup and forget. 
you can game on it like any router but you don’t have any of the features of Duma so no geo filtering, the QoS including CC, no Duma related features.
If you want the Duma features then the XR1000 is the only AX router to have those. 
 

Wifi is a strange beast, it has many variables involved including the clients ability to talk back to the router. A client may have 17dbm where the router has 20dbm so the router can connect to a client at range but the client at the same range will struggle to talk back hence why mesh or multiple AP placements are used. If a client is too far away you end up with retransmissions which increases the airtime that device uses which slows down network performance. This also effects battery life of devices. 
There is so much that has a say in WiFi performance that it’s unique for most and impossible to say how one router will work in your property to another router.

heres where it gets interesting, AX has standards. The RAX120 has DL OFDMA but no UL OFDMA, no TwT and does not have full BSS spec. There are 2 versions also with the version 2 having the updated Qualcomm chipset that does support the full spec but is reliant on if NG add it.

The XR1000 I believe does have the full spec but I can’t say with 100% confidence as it can be hard to find out what’s what. Of course these features are AX so you need AX devices to see the benefit and even then would you see a gain. Same with WPA3 as it has less going on in the background. You can see how confusing it gets when you start to dig into the spec.

both routers offer AX but both offer different network controls and that’s where you need to see what would suit your network and what level of control you want. Off course if you went fot the XR1000 you can add an AP to help coverage if your property is large and the same with the RAX120 but the biggest difference is software. 
 

[Mik4ll]

Hi Newfie

I think i want the XR1000 as I know it's the better option for gamers, but how far is the actual range of the wifi that it extends to without an AP? sorry for the questions.

thank you

mikall

[Newfie]

10 minutes ago, Mik4ll said:

Hi Newfie

I think i want the XR1000 as I know it's the better option for gamers, but how far is the actual range of the wifi that it extends to without an AP? sorry for the questions.

thank you

mikall

That’s an impossible question to answer as it depends on the property, the materials, placement of router, the walls, EMI, RFI, what other neighbouring channels are around you. 

as it’s based on the RAX50 NG quote 2500 sq ft but as above a lot depends on your environment. 
 

If that’s fine for your inside of the property but you need coverage outside then it is always best to look at an AP to cover outside areas. 

 

[Mik4ll]

so realistically and considering the walls,EMI,RFI, etc... the range is significantly lower than 2500 sq ft.

the problem i may have is the attic room where 2 xboxone's live are about 20metres/65ft away from the router.

[Newfie]

41 minutes ago, Mik4ll said:

so realistically and considering the walls,EMI,RFI, etc... the range is significantly lower than 2500 sq ft.

the problem i may have is the attic room where 2 xboxone's live are about 20metres/65ft away from the router.

It’s a hard one because the further away you are the less throughput you have and off course 5ghz which offers the best connection does not have the coverage of 2.4ghz. There’s also the transmission side of things but that’s complex. That would be the same with all routers to be honest but if possible you could wire up an AP or a switch in the attic and feed the wire back to the XR router you would gain lan performance on a switch.

some APs that offer WiFi also have built in ports but a simple switch would be the cheapest way.

The range NG quote would be the max for 2.4ghz I would imagine. 
 

the fun starts with when you add say a wireless AP. It has to connect back to the router so it needs to sit where it has a good connection between router and devices. Normal extenders cut the bandwidth in half but some have a backhaul channel to keep the throughput however any wireless extender will increase latency hence why wiring up would be best.

[Killhippie]

The XR1000 is I would say underpowered, it has a triple core 1.5Ghz CPU with one core being solely for DPI. So really its a dual core machine running two lots of firmware (netgear and DumaOS) The RAX120 has a 2.2Ghz 64 bit quad core SoC and a 1.7Ghz 64 bit dual core Soc for DPI and networking tasks for say Bitdefender Armor, which isn't really basic as it scans all your devices and has real-time updates for malware, phishing and ransomware ect, it also blocks malware at the router level, but you need to use the app.The R2's are not available in the UK at this time, things may change on that device as both versions run the same firmware at present. It's a onboard AV basically. None of the Netgear routers apart from the RAX200 use up and DL and UL OFDMA or BSS or TWT. The XR1000 has Netgear Armor but that does not play well with DumaOS. Honestly go for a XR500 or an  Asus RT-86U the XR1000does not have all the DumaOS features either.

 The XR500 is a better bet even though its Wi-Fi 5. It ll depends what you want, gaming or security really. The RAX120 also has the best coverage of all the devices and is the only router that can do 4K and 8K TV streams and handle 12 AX streams simultaneously. UL OFDMA has issues on all AX devices still, hence its not important, in fact OFDMA is not really worth having at all, like MU-Mimo which never really caught on.

[Mik4ll]

I'll might have to do a little more digging before my final choice i shall be back at it after work.

thank you for all your advice, ill return probably with some questions 😊.