The top end router gets its craziest look to date.
While the ability to set up a network without cables is an absolute blessing, today’s various Wi-Fi standards can prove to be a nightmare of compatibility issues. With three common types of Wi-Fi network now widely available, it’s most likely that at least one device in your house won’t work at its optimal speed with your chosen router, if at all. The beastly X6 solves this issue entirely by delivering all three Wi-Fi standards in one box. Kind of…
Looking like something out of the Batcave, this black box is advertised as a tri-band router. From the old legacy 802.11a network through to today’s zippy 802.11ac networks, this box does it all. However, closer research reveals that it only operates on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz ranges, but it includes three radios to deliver three separate networks. There’s also the issue of Netgear’s claim that it can deliver “a massive combined wireless speed of up to 3.2Gbps”. This is blatant marketing bollocks, as no one device will ever be able to access all three networks simultaneously, so speeds will be well below the 3.2Gbps advertised. Now that we’ve got the shenanigans out of the way, let’s see what is included.
The X6 is de nitely one of the biggest routers we’ve seen, but we love the way the six (yes, six) antennae fold out like some kind of SAM radar system. A row of diagnostic LEDs on the lid make it easy to see exactly which networks are being used, as well as which USB ports are occupied. A single USB 3.0 port sits on the rear, next to another USB 2.0 port, as well as four Gigabit Ethernet ports and an Internet in connection. Connect a USB drive to the router and you’ll have a fairly basic NAS up and running in no time, including DLNA and iTunes serving, but don’t expect it to offer any of the advanced features or speedier performance of a dedicated NAS unit. There’s even a little switch on the rear to disable the diagnostic LEDs if you prefer your gaming den to remain pitch black.
Setting up the router is simply a case of patching it into your network, then heading to the designated URL via a web browser. This brings up the Netgear interface, which is one of the best we’ve seen for novice networkers, with plenty of help menus sprinkled liberally through menus. All of the basics are easily accessible, including parental controls, guest network configuration and even the number of devices currently connected to the router. Hardcore network engineers will find the interface a little too simplistic though, missing many advanced features, such as settings for the speci c operating modes of 802.11 b, g, and n.
As far as performance goes, your mileage will vary greatly depending on the environment. We tested in a brick terrace, and found a decent throughput of 276Mb/sec at a range of 25 feet, through one brick wall.
This is not too shabby, but not quite as high as other routers we’ve tested, Considering the relatively affordable price though, this is a very capable router for gamers connecting a variety of devices using different standards, and wanting to get decent performance from each. BENNETT RING
VERDICT: Designed for users with lots of different devices on different Wi-Fi bands, the X6 does a very capable job over decent ranges.