NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR700 WiFi Router with 6 Ethernet ports and wireless speeds up to 7.2 Gbps, AD7200, optimized for the lowest ping

I’m a network engineer and I wanted to replace my enterprise gear at home with something simple to manage, yet powerful. I’m getting old and I’d rather not troubleshoot network problems at home. Not that it happens often, but it’s been a nightmare when the wife calls saying that the Internet isn’t working. Time to downgrade. Enter the Netgear XR500.

The XR500 ticks off the boxes I was looking for:
-It does not need to be rebooted for silly wireless issues. It’s rock-solid stable.
-Never needs a reboot to change a setting.
-The WiFi range goes well into my yard, past my neighbors home and into the street. How?? It blows away a multiple AP setup it replaced.
-My iPhone X is speed testing at 91/5.5 on a 100/5 Internet connection. My computers test at 110+/5.5.
-AirPlay runs flawessly to my Apple TV 4K.
-Initial setup is simple. My dog could have done it.
-VPN is simple to configure and has detailed instructions accompanying the menu options.
-Dynamic DNS is insanely easy to turn on. It even configured an account for me.

While there are very few drawbacks:
-Remote admin can only be secured to one IP or a range. I can’t input a list of IP’s I’d like to have access from.
-There’s no mobile app for DumaOS. The web view works pretty well on mobile though, so I’d say that 75% makes up for it. (UPDATE 10/27/18: The Nigthawk app works great with this router; I highly recommend it.)
-I could not get the Internet to work in “manual setup” mode. The router would proxy any DNS address to itself: 192.168.1.1. There might be a bug that caused the proxy not to turn off, or maybe there’s a setting I simply couldn’t locate. When I used the automatic setup, Internet started working in one click.

Overall I’m very happy with my XR500 and I’m excited to have my home network all under one box again. My “issues” with the router are all “fussy network engineer-problems” that most users would *never ever* encounter. Since my number one concern was stability, I would go as far to say that there is no other home-class router on the market that could satisfy me. I’m a demanding user and the XR500 delivers in spades. In the network world, this thing is the equivalent to an indestructible tank. Congratulations to the Netgear and DumaOS teams who developed this product. You absolutely outdid yourselves.

UPDATE 10/27/18: I'm still absolutely loving this router, and I can't recommend it enough. I recently updated my XR500 to the latest firmware, and believe it or not, it didn't require a reboot! This thing NEVER needs to reboot. You may be able to tell that I'm the kind of techie that gets excited about servers with up-times measured in decades. The XR500 definitely gives off that feel! I hadn't thought about it until today, but we never have network problems at home anymore. Not even one- The last time the Internet stopped working, it was because the power was out during a storm. This device is amazing, and I have ZERO regrets in my purchase decision.

Being a casual gamer with a DSL connection in today's world is a real disadvantage. My ping speeds were in the 190s prior to this router. After using the geo filter and anti buffer bloat they dropped into the 20s!!!! Yes, the 20s. Only having 10 MBps, the traffic prioritisation is a must have. I put my PS4 at the top of the list and if somebody decides to fire up youtube while I'm playing its not an issue anymore. This is a game changer. But the real benefit is the DUMA OS. It is perfect for a novice like myself to manage my home network however I want. Kid wont put down the IPad and take out the trash? No problem, one click and that IPad is offline. Want to block sites for certain devices? Done. There are super technical things you can do on this but I'm too scared to mess with those so I don't. It seems like a lot of money but once you realize the benefits of this you'll wish you'd have done it sooner.

We had to upgrade to a new modem and router because Comcast bumped up our speeds from 150mbps to gigabit at no additional cost (don't ask me how) and our C7000 modem/router combo was not compatible with the higher speeds. Ended up getting a CM1000 modem and this BEAST of a router and I am in disbelief at the difference in quality. Obviously, the speed increase from my ISP makes a huge difference, but the performance and vast networking options provided by this router are invaluable. We ditched traditional cable about a year ago for Playstation Vue (sick of paying monthly rental fees for the cable boxes) and I am pleased to report not one shred of lag or buffering on any of the 15+ devices connected (security cameras, thermostat, xbox, apple tvs, phones, laptops, lights, echo, etc.). The range is significantly improved over the previous unit we used and the Duma OS software offers unrivaled network customization options with an appealing and easy to use interface. If you are an online gamer, this router is God's gift to you and should be revered as such. I would definitely buy this again.

Prior to buying the XR500 I'd owned a budget Asus Router. That little router served me well for many years but it always ran really hot and we finally had to retire it. We recenty moved to a much larger house than we had been in about 2700 Sq. Ft. from 1400 Sq. Ft. and in addition purchased several 4K TV's which we didn't have before. We noticed a lot of buffering issues and sometimes simple stuff just wouldn't load at all. We also had low signal strength upstairs which I believe was part of the issue. Although even over Ethernet on a 300Mbps connections we'd have issues. I read some things online stating that some older routers may have trouble with the added bandwidth 4K brings as well.As a gamer I always enjoy getting the best hardware I can for my budget. Seeing as how my router is the backbone of just about everything I do I wanted to invest in it. So far absolutely no regrets. Haven't had one hiccup yet. I have full signal strength throughout my entire home and beyond and have not noticed any drop outs which were happening frequently prior. I haven't come anywhere close to playing with all the settings haha but I'll have some fun with that one of these days. I just hope it lasts a very long time because I'm very happy with this Router. Way to go Netgear!

After finding out that gigabit internet was available in my apartment, I immediately went the purchase the current top-of-the-line network equipment for my home. Looking at the specs, the Nighthawk XR500 was the clear dominator. I expected the high class performance that it delivered when I hooked it up to my Netgear CM1000 gigabit modem and established my superspeed internet connection, but what I wasn't prepared for was the astonishingly well-crafted NetDuma operating system. Netgear had teamed up with a brilliant group of developers to collaborate on this router, and just one look at the UI of the router management portal was enough to win me over. The feature-packed menus gave me the options I needed to take total control of my home network. Every individual screen a resizable window that could be pinned to the main screen. I got deep in the thick of it and poured over the options like I had just been handed the keys to a spaceship. Customizing the dashboard was easy, and now I log into it daily just to oversee my network from the top down and to take a proud breath in that I now have the network of my dreams in my very own home.

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Feature Product

• Minimize ping and maximize performance with six 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports for lag-free, wired connectivity and 1.7 GHz quad-core processor network efficiency
• Amp up your WiFi with cutting-edge AD7200 Quad-stream router that delivers speeds up to 7.2 Gbps
• Put your gaming traffic in a designated express lane with advanced Quality of Service, bypassing network congestion and reducing lag spikes, jumps and jitters
• Make every millisecond count by using geo-filtering to connect to the closest servers and players so you can respond and dominate
• Monitor your network and game ping in real time so you can see who's hogging the bandwidth by device and application
• Protect your network identity by connecting to a secure gaming VPN server
• Optimized to give you the lowest ping on Fortnight, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, OverWatch, PubG, CS:Go, and more

Description

XR700 Nighthawk Pro Gaming Wi-Fi Router uses state-of-the-art software to optimize your Internet connection by stabilizing ping, reducing lag spikes, and keeping you in the game with reliable wired and wireless connectivity for fast-paced gaming. Personalize your gaming dashboard to view real-time bandwidth utilization by device, ping and many other parameters. Limit lag and get a guaranteed local connection with Geo Filter or enable Quality of Service for prioritized gaming devices and allocated bandwidth. VPN Client protects your network identity and prevents DDoS attacks. Blazing-fast 7.2Gbps Wi-Fi speeds, Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a dual core 1.7GHz processor make online and network gaming frustration free. Powered by DumaOS.

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Guys and gals, the xr500 is a monster of a router. Duma OS + Netgear hardware = Pure magic. I can definitely say that next to, or hell equal to the R1, this is best investment I'v made in my gaming setup. Monitor, controllers, and headsets aren't shit if the quality of you connection is lacking. The xr500 simply delivers the best online gaming experience possible. The router is easy to setup and use and the Netduma team are always available should you have any issues. I'd pay $1000 for this router so $300 seems like a sweet deal to me!! Folks, you gotta get one to understand where I'm coming from..

This is by far the best router for gamers I've ever seen, I've had a Linksys Velop system as well as a Nighthawk X8 and I will say that the Velop system beat the range of this router but of course that's what the Velop is designed to do, however this router puts out much more speed to direct devices especially when plugged in, the X8 had slightly higher specs than this router but with the amazing Duma software on the online portal it actually beats the X8 if you set everything up properly and the fact that this router can specify how far away the servers you connect to can be it makes it totally worth the $300, if you don't want to spend that much on just a router I get it, there's other options, but if you have the money I recommend this 100% for gamers.

I paired this router with a Netgear CM 1000 Modem and I'm using them both with Xfinity Gigabit service, I'm getting pretty much the speeds I'm paying for unless there's tons of traffic, I highly recommend that modem to go with this router to get what you are paying for.

I was in the market for a new router after years of using my old one, namely because I was running into video buffer issues after cord cutting. I was really interested in Netgear and Netduma's partnership with the robust OS features (DumaOS) built for this router when I read about it in January. Needless to say after some time, I'm super impressed with the product itself. Not only were my buffering woes solved, I love the easy to use and customizable dashboard and administration console. Really gives me some cool things to geek out on. On top of all this, my wifi quality has improved, no buffering, and can prioritize traffic to anything I want in my household.

Recently upgraded from the Netduma R1 to this router for gaming. The new dumaOS is incredible and with my gigabit fiber connection and CAT7 cables this is the best setup available for online gaming.

The DumaOS is extremely customizable and is very simple to setup and run.

Installed yesterday, very easy wizard setup to get started, and it was up and running in just a few minutes even with a firmware update download and reboot. I really love the DumaOS interface as it gives me the information I need rather easily. The dynamic map is also great to see what is connected and also assign names and track their connections. My previous router is rather old (provisional 802.11n), so I was also happy to see things are simpler with a single wireless network visible and the router determines the best connection for you between 2.4 and 5GHz. Additionally, I have noticed a consider improvement in connectivity with console games in multiplayer without having to make any tweaks as of today. My previous router also had problems with too many devices connected, particularly with many IoT devices trying to upload/download data; this router hasn't had an issue.