Very Quick
"If you ask for escalated support, they ask when to call back or tell you sometime tomorrow----and don't No really, they failed to call me twice."
"Having said that will start with the one or two things that are good about this router (and that is being kind) A point that I need to bring up first, my ISP is Xfinity so I put their cable modem in the bridge mode so I could use this router/ap to hand out IP address and do my own network management since Xifinity's modem/router/ap is pretty much useless."
"I politely declined and explained to the fellow that for that kind of money i can just buy a new router and there's nothing compelling me to buy Netgear again since I saw their idea of customer service."
"But right from the start, once I switched the modem, upped the download speed, and started using the Netgear XR500 router, there definitely seemed to be an uptick in audio quality from the Auralic Aries G2: more depth, quieter yet backgrounds, and more carved-in-stone imaging, more focus, greater clarity, and seemingly less distortion just a "cleaner" sound."
"It's beyond 30 days so I can't return it to Amazon and if I spend hours navigating a support system directing me do do all the troubleshooting I have already done I might eventually be able to return it for exchange."
"Buy some other Netgear router that at least supports open source loads; or buy a router that does VPN in a secure way, but not this one."
"Simply put, you can't VPN into your network out of the box because Netgear doesn't seem to have fixed this issue with its encryption."
NETGEAR R6700 Nighthawk AC1750 Dual Band Smart WiFi Router, Gigabit Ethernet (R6700) (Click to Compare Deals)
Quick
"If you ask for escalated support, they ask when to call back or tell you sometime tomorrow----and don't No really, they failed to call me twice... If you place your files on the drive by-passing the feature, you are good to go--but why pretend to offer a feature that really isn't useful?... She would read back my concern and miss about 1/2 of the details because she was not trained in any technical capacity and lacked a broad enough vocabulary to comprehend what I was asking."
"Having said that will start with the one or two things that are good about this router (and that is being kind) A point that I need to bring up first, my ISP is Xfinity so I put their cable modem in the bridge mode so I could use this router/ap to hand out IP address and do my own network management since Xifinity's modem/router/ap is pretty much useless... It hasn't crashed, it handles IPv6 just fine (it even sets it up on its own which ok I don't get to play with that but it works I'm happy), the firewall is lightyears better than this thing and even though they are hidden I can change the DNS settings. Seriously after my experience with this router, I would never by another piece of Netgear equipment again and I am planning to get rid of the Netgear switches I have in my house (that is how disappointed I am)."
"My expectations are quite low calling into level 1 support usually anyway, everyone knows you have to be patient and work through it with the person on the other end whose job it is to listed to people complain all day... They will then be able to work with you to issue an RMA request if it's found that it's a warranty issue, at which point they'll refund your money back. I politely declined and explained to the fellow that for that kind of money i can just buy a new router and there's nothing compelling me to buy Netgear again since I saw their idea of customer service."
"The logical upgrade was to the X10, but initially I decided against that one given a considerable number of negative comment (about dropping connections) on Amazon plus the inclusion of the as-yet-and-probably-forever useless 60 Ghz short-range ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi protocol in place of one of the two 5G bands of the X8... That router has great software if you are into gaming, I suppose, but for general surfing and streaming and with the type of bandwidth I now have, the special features of its software are really not helpful... But right from the start, once I switched the modem, upped the download speed, and started using the Netgear XR500 router, there definitely seemed to be an uptick in audio quality from the Auralic Aries G2: more depth, quieter yet backgrounds, and more carved-in-stone imaging, more focus, greater clarity, and seemingly less distortion just a "cleaner" sound."
"Rebooted, power cycled, reset to factory specs, flashed new firmware, direct connected computer to the modem(to verify the modem wasn't in some way failing) and to each lan port through brand new cat 5 and cat 6 cable... It's beyond 30 days so I can't return it to Amazon and if I spend hours navigating a support system directing me do do all the troubleshooting I have already done I might eventually be able to return it for exchange... There is a filter switch near the review stars that lets you see only confirmed purchasers of this specific router-and that is lots less."
"Today, 6/25/2018, Netgear released an updated firmware load for the R6700v2 that has fixed the VPN problem: It's no longer using the breakable MD5-signed certs... The idea is: You're sitting in a coffee shop or airport with your cell phone, tablet, or laptop, and you'd rather not have various malicious types look at the plain-text of what you're doing... Buy some other Netgear router that at least supports open source loads; or buy a router that does VPN in a secure way, but not this one."
"For advanced settings, opening up the ports I need for my Plex server as well as giving me the ability to ssh into other devices on my network was straightforward enough... Simply put, you can't VPN into your network out of the box because Netgear doesn't seem to have fixed this issue with its encryption... For a router where everything else is incredibly simple to setup, I'm surprised Netgear hasn't gotten this feature worked out yet."
Less Quick
"* You will deal with repeatedly checking to see if you are 'entitled' to support (their word) like you are doing something wrong... If you ask for escalated support, they ask when to call back or tell you sometime tomorrow----and don't No really, they failed to call me twice... I configured everything (it does read mac HFS+ well) and wanted to rename strange network share names and tidy the configuration... If you place your files on the drive by-passing the feature, you are good to go--but why pretend to offer a feature that really isn't useful?... I find that with cable internet, speed had never been a problem even with my old Airport Extreme... My phone calls felt like, "Oh no, how do I get this friendly woman to escalate my call or we are not going to get anywhere". She would read back my concern and miss about 1/2 of the details because she was not trained in any technical capacity and lacked a broad enough vocabulary to comprehend what I was asking."
"* The only way to put a review was to give it more than 2 stars so I could edit this back to the 1-star rating this router so richly deserves... Having said that will start with the one or two things that are good about this router (and that is being kind) A point that I need to bring up first, my ISP is Xfinity so I put their cable modem in the bridge mode so I could use this router/ap to hand out IP address and do my own network management since Xifinity's modem/router/ap is pretty much useless. Once you get that done you can just plug this router/ap into the modem, connect any network cables, power it up, walk through the setup program and be done with it... I bought a Linksys AC4000 EA9300 router that has almost all the functionality that this router has and my download speed improved dramatically and has been rock solid (not up down and sideways) for a week now... No stars Lastly for the last 2 weeks if I made any changes to it (see the first line, I am an IT person so I like to mess around with things and then fix them) it would crash after I made the smallest change and I mean CRASH as in reboot itself... It hasn't crashed, it handles IPv6 just fine (it even sets it up on its own which ok I don't get to play with that but it works I'm happy), the firewall is lightyears better than this thing and even though they are hidden I can change the DNS settings. Seriously after my experience with this router, I would never by another piece of Netgear equipment again and I am planning to get rid of the Netgear switches I have in my house (that is how disappointed I am)."
"It has started having issues with the 5Ghz radio and not broadcasting SSID/dropping connections... My expectations are quite low calling into level 1 support usually anyway, everyone knows you have to be patient and work through it with the person on the other end whose job it is to listed to people complain all day... You see netgear will provide you with free, "good" support for 90 days after your purchase... They will then be able to work with you to issue an RMA request if it's found that it's a warranty issue, at which point they'll refund your money back. I politely declined and explained to the fellow that for that kind of money i can just buy a new router and there's nothing compelling me to buy Netgear again since I saw their idea of customer service... Either you pay nothing and send your unit in (you pay for shipping) and they send you a replacement out, pay 15-20 to get a replacement and a return label for your broken one or pay 20-30 to get an overnight replacement and a return label. I get it, businesses are built to make money but this just didn't seem like a good way to do it."
"I also decided that it might be time to "upgrade" my Netgear Nighthawk X8 R8500-100NAS router which is now discontinued since it is "ancient" at about three years old. The logical upgrade was to the X10, but initially I decided against that one given a considerable number of negative comment (about dropping connections) on Amazon plus the inclusion of the as-yet-and-probably-forever useless 60 Ghz short-range ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi protocol in place of one of the two 5G bands of the X8... That router has great software if you are into gaming, I suppose, but for general surfing and streaming and with the type of bandwidth I now have, the special features of its software are really not helpful. Except for one facet: the software is able to show, in real time, both the overall bandwidth demand of all devices on your network on a moment-to-moment basis, and the instantaneous demand of any given device... What I didn't really expect, given the cushion in available bandwidth that even my prior 100 megabyte per second download capability provided, was any increase in subjective sound quality provided by this new internet equipment and speed boost... But right from the start, once I switched the modem, upped the download speed, and started using the Netgear XR500 router, there definitely seemed to be an uptick in audio quality from the Auralic Aries G2: more depth, quieter yet backgrounds, and more carved-in-stone imaging, more focus, greater clarity, and seemingly less distortion just a "cleaner" sound... Also, until I killed off the 60 Gig radio and the USB port connections on the X10, there was a real lack of stability, necessitating several reboots the first couple of days I owned it."
"My home LAN is a mix of wireless and ethernet devices-two computers, a printer, five NAS devices connected through switches, some phones and tablets... One bright May morning I looked at the router and noticed that the LAN ports LED indicators had changed from white to amber... Rebooted, power cycled, reset to factory specs, flashed new firmware, direct connected computer to the modem(to verify the modem wasn't in some way failing) and to each lan port through brand new cat 5 and cat 6 cable... The router management software reported and speed tests confirmed that the ethernet ports were under 100mbps, not even close to 1000mbps... It's beyond 30 days so I can't return it to Amazon and if I spend hours navigating a support system directing me do do all the troubleshooting I have already done I might eventually be able to return it for exchange... One thing I did learn is that the 21,500+ reviews are not necessarily for this router. There is a filter switch near the review stars that lets you see only confirmed purchasers of this specific router-and that is lots less."
"Today, 6/25/2018, Netgear released an updated firmware load for the R6700v2 that has fixed the VPN problem: It's no longer using the breakable MD5-signed certs... The idea is: You're sitting in a coffee shop or airport with your cell phone, tablet, or laptop, and you'd rather not have various malicious types look at the plain-text of what you're doing... Yes, https// web sites can help, a lot, with this kind of problem; but VPNs are another layer of security... The OpenVPN software that Netgear strongly suggests be used on Android/iOS/Windows/Linux has been complaining about this state of affairs since 4th quarter last year. OpenVPN states that they will no longer support VPN connections with MD5 after the end of April... I like the router overall; it's a lot better than the WNDR5700 I used to own before it died of old age... Buy some other Netgear router that at least supports open source loads; or buy a router that does VPN in a secure way, but not this one."
"I'm quite happy with the router but given the issue I talk about below, I couldn't justify that rating... It took longer to unpack it from the box than it did to get everything connected to the internet... For advanced settings, opening up the ports I need for my Plex server as well as giving me the ability to ssh into other devices on my network was straightforward enough... This level of encryption is highly exploitable and, in fact, the latest version of the OpenVPN client (which you use for VPN with this router) doesn't allow MD5. Simply put, you can't VPN into your network out of the box because Netgear doesn't seem to have fixed this issue with its encryption... I've worked as a systems administrator for 7 years now and the last thing I want to do when I get home is work on my own firewall. For a router where everything else is incredibly simple to setup, I'm surprised Netgear hasn't gotten this feature worked out yet."
