Netgear Nighthawk X6 Wi-Fi Mesh Extender Обзор

The Netgear Nighthawk X6 has a setup that mirrors pretty much every other Wi-Fi extender on the market. However, it does have some useful features that make this setup a bit smoother. The first thing you need to do is plop it down next to your router and plug it in. When it turns on, you just hit the WPS button on your router and the X6 and boom, you’re good to go as far as basic setup.

There’s no software you have to install locally to use the Nighthawk X6. In fact, if you use WPS to connect to your router, it’s possible you may never have to see the extender’s interface. If you need to change settings, though, you will end up having to use the web browser. The same goes for if the extender loses connection with the router. You’ll need to connect over wired or wireless connection to log in and troubleshoot.

Don’t let the web interface scare you, though. There are plenty of options available for advanced users that let you do things like limit usage to set times, set a static IP for the extender, use MAC filtering, and all the standard options you usually get with a Netgear product. That said, you won’t see the same variety as you would with custom firmware like OpenWRT.

The Nighthawk X6 is a tri-band range extender featuring one 400Mbps 2.4GHz band and two 866Mbps 5GHZ bands. This offers a theoretical speed of 2.2Gbps according to the extender’s documentation, but in reality one of the 5GHz bands is used for the Fastlane3 feature. Fastlane3 creates a direct link with the router which is supposed to lower congestion and the packet drop that is associated with high-traffic extenders. The X6’s quad-core CPU which should help speed up the processing of requests a bit as well.

In our testing, from around 10 to 25 feet away from the extender, we were getting around 150Mbps down. Given we have a 300Mbps connection, this isn’t bad and is around what we normally get from our router’s Wi-Fi. From 25 to 40 feet away, we got a bit of a drop, with speed decreasing. After 50 feet, we started to get intermittent signal drops. Finally, at around 75 feet, the network started dropping out completely. Of course, your results may vary depending on your living area. The biggest impediments to Wi-Fi signal are walls and floors. The thicker they are, the more range they’ll knock off your signal. Overall, we were fairly happy with the amount of range the Nighthawk X6 added to our router.

The X6 additionally supports MU-MIMO (multi-user, multiple input, multiple output), which can make it a good choice if a lot of devices are going to be used simultaneously on the extender. It essentially processes requests more efficiently, and also works to lower network congestion. However, not every device is MU-MIMO compatible, specifically older devices, so you’ll want to keep this in mind if most of your hardware is more than a couple years old.

One of the big selling points of the X6, and one of the reasons it commands a hefty price, is its ability to form mesh networks. Basically, a mesh network is a group of devices that automatically work together to most efficiently get your data to you. So, if you have several X6 extenders configured, they’ll work together to find the best route to send your requests to your router and then transmit the data back to you.

That means if you have a big area to cover, you can chain together whole strings of extenders, or have them placed in strategically overlapping areas, and they’ll automatically adjust to demands as you move throughout your house. All the configuration is automatic, and it takes very little technical know-how to set a mesh network up.

This all sounds great, but keep in mind that unless your living area is huge, you likely won’t need to set up a full mesh network. Netgear claims just one X6 can increase your Wi-Fi coverage to 2200 square feet. These are under ideal conditions of course, but the fact is, unless you live somewhere palatial, or with multiple floors, you’re not going to get a ton of benefit from a mesh network.

It’s also worth noting that there’s no standard when it comes to mesh networking at this time, so if you choose to deploy one with Netgear, you’re going to be stuck with Netgear’s proprietary form of the technology. In addition to that, you’ll need to buy more extenders which can quickly become expensive. Most users with a truly large living space will find it simple and easier to use a mesh Wi-Fi setup like Google Wifi or the Netgear Orbi. They can be costly, but they’re much easier to set up and manage.

Price is really where the Netgear Nighthawk X6 gets dicey. With an MSRP of $159.99, you really have to take a long look at whether you really need any of the extra features it offers. If you’re extending Wi-Fi in your home and only a few people will be using it, MU-MIMO isn’t really that big of a deal.

Additionally, one of the highly touted features of the X6 is that it can use the same SSIDs as your route. However, you can just do that with any extender, it just might not be automated depending on the model. Besides the mesh networking, which is only going to be useful if you need to extend Wi-Fi coverage to a very large area or have a multi-story dwelling, the X6 doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from other AC2200 extenders.