Netgear R6300 Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Router Review

Virtually everyone that has access to the Internet at home will have a wired connection and this therefore means that at the heart of their connectivity in the house we will find a router of some shape or from. Typically most of these are ISP supplied items such as BT's Home Hub or a generic branded router. Whilst these on the whole do as they say on the tin and for the most part of their lives and use run without any problems, there is always a better option. Most home users would like to get a little bit extra from their router, whether it be a better wireless signal or even media and printer sharing capabilities, there is only one option and that is to replace the supplied equipment. Thankfully, for those that will need the facility, a large number of routers come with a built in ADSL modem to get them connected, but other users like myself may not need this option if they have the likes of fibre broadband where a separate specialist modem is required. Whilst Netgear produce a lot of enterprise level gear like access points and managed switches that we have recently seen, they have also for many years been producing consumer grade solutions that offer up some of the best wireless performance available on the market. Talking about wireless, for a number of years 54Mbps wireless has an was the standard and over the last few years we have seen the implementation of wireless-N taking wireless to the next level with improved range and speed. To improve on this current standing in wireless technology, we are now starting to see an extension and improvement again for the 802.11 standard with 802.11ac. The R6300 that we're going to delve into today is one such router that offer up the latest in wireless performance, with reported speeds of up to 1300Mbps to be found. Along side this it also offer up other features including ReadyShare for printers and storage devices along with an intuitive and easy to use management panel. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdmiGfM-yvY[/youtube] White boxes are are become more and more popular once again (a bit like white chassis are), so its back onto our desk for the first set of photos. Along with white, the R6300 box has a reflective gold colouring and this shows that this router is one of their top products. To the right and below there are a few brief highlights on certain features of the unit, but a couple that stand out for us are the inclusion of the 802.11ac technology (faster than n) and speeds that surpass gigabit LAN as well. On the back of the box, we get a more in depth look at the R6300's features and a bit of information on the Genie App for iOS devices. At the bottom of the box, we see a quick reference feature check list which shows how this router lines up against some of Netgear's other products. Netgear do include quite a few bits of paperwork which cover regulatory requirements, along with a user manual and a couple of promotional leaflets. To get connected, the router comes with a yellow patch lead for linking between a modem and the router and a poser lead with kettle leads for UK and European use. With the router out of the box, its design is striking to say the least with a bold presence from its large flat faced front and gloss black surface. In relation to the typical image or a router that one would have then they think of one, this is bigger and bolder, but it has to be said that it is rather nice to look at. Turning the unit around, there is clearny no doubt that there is plenty of ventilation available on hand to let warm air rise out of the unit. The back cover whilst still glossy is not quite as shiny as the front. Either way, this rounds off one stylish unit, even if it is a little larger than we would normally see. To get the router connected, we find four Gigabit Ethernet ports with a fifth yellow port for WAN connections. To the right of these there is a reset button, an on/off switch and a DC power jack. To the left of the panel we find the first of two USB ports, this one of which can be used to connect either a printer or storage device to the router for sharing out to the network with the built in ReadyShare feature. On the base of the router is a small sticker that details the usual device information including MAC and serial numbers along with default login credentials. On the right hand side of the unit we find a second USB port for connecting removable storage which can then be accessed by any device connected to the network along with a WPS button for ease of wireless association. Next to the WPS button is a button which allows the wireless to be quickly enabled or disabled. Whilst this wouldn't be a feature I'd use day-to-day, it would be a quick and convenient method of disabling the wireless if I were to be going on holiday for example. On the front face we find two small icons that quickly identify the location of the two buttons above. At the bottom of the front, we find a simple status panel, that indicates power, internet connectivity, wireless and USB status. The latest consumer routers from Netgear offer up an easy to use and intuitive user interface based around what Netgear have called their Genie platform. The UI is split clearly into two sections that give a basic control over certain features and then a more advanced section for further alterations. The basic home page gives a quick and clear overview of the routers status including current wireless settings and how many devices are currently connected. Depending on the ISP, some internet settings may need to be entered in order to get connected to a third party modem or service. The wireless page gives options to change common settings such as SSID, encryption types and security key. In the basic window, you do get a detailed list of devices that are connected to the router with their IP address, name and MAC address. ReadySHARE is a feature that Netgear have integrated into their latest systems to make file and printer sharing a whole lot easier. File sharing is as simple as connecting a USB drive to the router and enabling the drive through the user interface. Printer sharing requires a USB control centre to be downloaded to each system that redirects the local USB port to the router for printing. Once installed, this driver runs in the background with no further intervention required. The last new feature that we see with Netgear's routers is a guest network that creates a separate SSID that can be set to mask any devices from the rest of the network, giving them internet access. This is particularly useful to prevent unwanted users from accessing any other systems on the network whilst connected. As you may be able to work out, the advanced page gives a more in depth access to the router with more options to play around with, particularly useful for the more tech-savvy users amongst us. The smart setup wizard is one of the few options that doesn't differ between the two configuration tabs. WPS is a quick an simple solution to getting new wireless devices connected to the router with out having to enter a passphrase each time. As any other router, the R6300 has a built in DHCP server to assign IP addresses across the network. Through the advanced LAN setup, the IP address can also be configured to a particular pool (for example 10.0.0.x as shown here) and and subnet (255.255.255.0 by default). Another feature that the R6300 hosts along with ReadySHARE is for a media server. This works when a storage drive is connected to the router. The system automatically scans for content and shares it across the network as though it were a normal network device. On top of wireless security, securing those devices that are already connected is crucial and in some cases, this can include filtering out certain websites that may contain harmful content in one way or another. Keeping the router up-to-date with the latest firmware can be done in one of two ways. Firstly the system automatically flags up if a newer firmware is available allowing the user to update the system, and secondly a manual check and update page allows for downloaded firmware to be installed. A large number of ISPs impose usage caps in their internet packages and more often than not, users go over their usage allowance and incur charges. A nifty option that we are seeing with the new line of Netgear routers is a traffic meter that can cut access to the internet when the usage cap is reached, whether this be in bandwidth or time. Test system: Asus Maximus V Forumla Intel Core i7 3770k Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz 16GB AMD Radeon HD 7970 Corsair H80 Corsair HX1050W Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD 3 x AOC E2795VH Dell XPS 15 Laptop with Intel Wireless-N 1030 New iPad 16GB with Windows Network access support. 2 x Netgear R6300 We would like to thank AOC, Asus, Corsair, Kingston and Lian Li for supplying us with our test system components. Many different software applications are also used to gain the broadest spectrum of results, which allows for the fairest testing possible. Software used: LAN Speed Test As part of the testing process, we will be using two of these routers bridged together to test out the 802.11ac standard. At this moment in time there are little to no 802.11ac wireless adaptors on the market and using two together allows us to overcome this hurdle. LAN Speed Test a a simple free to use application that creates a file of any given size and pushes it across a network to a given destination folder, measuring the maximum speed of throughput during the file transfer. To get a better and more accurate throughput speed, we set the file size to 1GB. The R6300 is one of the few AC compliant routers out on the market and with tow identical units linked together to test the AC throughput speed, what a difference the new standard makes. We do find that as the distance increases, the speed drops to where we would expect with wireless-N, but it's more the range at which we are achieving these speeds that we have to account for with over 77MB/s at over 40 feet away. With high speed internet fast becoming the standard across not only the UK but most of the connected world, its great to see a new line of routers that can not only handle the high speed connections on a wired basis but also over wireless as well. The R6300 packs all the features we would expect to see from any modern router and some more on top. All of this is set into a user interface that may be a head scratcher to understand first time round, but is easily picked up and follows through with a number of other models that Netgear have to offer right now. To pick out a few features that caught my eye, ReadyShare is a great addition turning the router into a central point to share any media from without the need for a NAS or PC sharing files as well as network printer sharing without the need for a computer either. Along side ReadyShare, Netgear's Genie app for the iPad and iPhone is also a very useful and gives a quick overview on the routers status and access to some basic settings including a map of connected devices. Genie is also available for desktop computers and offers an easy link to the router for monitoring and status checking, but one feature that I find hugely beneficial is the ability to turn any connected printer into an iOS AirPrint compatible device, great for the not-so-new printers that don't natively support AirPrint. Over on the networking side of things there are two features that stand out for me. One of these is the Internet traffic monitor. Whilst this is not an entirely new feature, giving the router the ability to cut off internet access when a certain usage has been metered is a great way to save on excess charges that some ISPs impose on their users who have capped packages. The other feature and one that I've not seen before on a consumer router is a guest network. This in effect is a quarantined network that blocks the connected device from accessing any other devices on the same network and granting WAN (Internet) access only. This is particularly handy for people who want to allow people to connect to the internet through their router and not have to worry about them accessing things on the network that they shouldn't be. We do have to acknowledge that the R6300 is not a cheap piece of kit on relation to the large number of routers that are out on the market, but this is partly down to the extensive feature list that it offers including the wireless AC capability. In a similar fashion, the R6300 is not ADSL compatible and thus requires a third party modem for internet connectivity, however with most high speed internet packages currently available such as BT's FTTC Infinity service, a separate fibre modem is supplied. For those that do require ADSL connectivity, the D6300 offers everything that you can see here, just with the addition of an ADSL modem as well. Bottom line, the R6300 is a class leader and one of the top routers on the market right now, yes it does have a striking and bold appearance and may not suite everyone's appeal, but if you want one of the best performing routers that money can buy then the R6300 is ready for all this and the next generation of wireless devices.