Another Nighthawk device has flown the coop from Netgear
The last Netgear Nighthawk hardware I saw looked like it was inspired by Darth Vader's Imperial Transport. Thankfully, those aesthetics have been toned down somewhat in this new EX7000-100UKS wi-fi range extender.
It retains the wedge profile, but the three antennas are less wing-like. But the EX7000-100UKS is much more about what is inside, and that's pretty impressive on paper.
Built around Broadcom's 1GHz BCM 4708 dual-core processor, this unit is rated to AC 1900 by combining 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz range and 1,300Mbps on 5GHz.
Wired Ethernet is gigabit, and Netgear provides five ports of that, making the EX7000-100UKS a local switch, among its other virtues.
Those include the ability to operate as an access point instead of an extender, and as a media and print sharing device via a single USB 3.0 port.
It was tempting to look at this hardware and assume, wrongly, that it's just the EX7000 Nighthawk router, with a different case and firmware, but it isn't.
The critical hardware feature is a 700mW high power amplifier that through the web interface you can configure to four different output levels.
I haven't seen this before, and according to Netgwear on the highest power band, it can cover an area of 930 meters square. That's great, for those with big properties, but it's also useful if you don't want your signal leaking onto a neighbour's.
One problem I've experienced with extenders and repeaters generally is that their communication with the router tends to tread on the service it's attempting to provide to the local client. The solution is called 'Fastlane', and it configures the two connections on different lanes, allowing them to happen simultaneously without interference. At least that's the theory.
In testing, this assertion seemed well supported, as this is one of the quickest extenders I've ever tested. I've come to expect the real performance to be on the 2.4GHz bands, but the EX7000-100UKS delivers well over 170MB/S using 5GHz at short range. Even outside my home it managed more than ЮОМВ/s, amazingly.
The overall performance and range puts Netgear's previously released EX6200 firmly in the shade, as well as anything I've tried from other manufacturers for that matter.
It’s also reasonably easy to set up, if you understand the difference between an extender and an access point. And Netgear has built a rather handy Android tool, the WiFi Analytics App, which you can download for free to help you get the best out of it or any wi-fi hardware.
I have only two complaints. The first is the normal one about wi-fi hardware that includes a USB 3.0 port, when it can't support the speed of that interface. And the other is the size of the EX7000-100UKS, which at 25cm high and 20cm wide isn't something you can easily hide. A more discrete device would be preferable but not to sacrifice performance.
It also isn't a cheap item, but in this situation you most certainly get what you pay for - that being wi-fi extended the way you want it. Mark Pickavance
Exceptionally fast and very useful wi-fi extender.