SXK30B3

UPDATE 11/11/22 - This router has been rock solid for over a year now (since 8/2/21). I am updating this review to let people know it has only lost internet connection once or twice (I suspect it was the ISP), and always regained connection immediately. Even better, there was a slight issue with a firmware update, and their tech support was some of the best I have ever experienced. I was expecting an annoying phone tree and to get routed to various representatives who had no idea how to assist. Instead, there was just very brief phone tree navigation, and I was connected with someone who resolved the issue! He was really knowledgeable. I was VERY impressed. Yes, it would have been better if there had not been an issue in the first place, or failing that if there had been a warning in the release notes. But Netgear did resolve it, and did so relatively painlessly, which is more than most companies can say. A prerecorded message did warn me that my 90 day free support had expired, and I may need to pay for further support. But then it immediately routed me to an experienced representative, and he did not try to get me to pay for support. So if you get that warning, just ignore it. The issue was that after the version 4.2.3.102 firmware update, the password for the admin config stopped working. The router came right back up and was working fine; I just could not get into it. Even though I had backed up the configs right before the update, they had the same password. I hesitated to do a factory reset and re-apply those configs just to have the same problem. I didn't see an option in Insight to change the password, but it's actually in there. In the app, on the "Location" tab, in "Location Configuration". It's a strange place to put it, and I don't know why it isn't under the settings for the router instead, but it worked. Insight had an old password, and the firmware update had overwritten the password from the admin config with the password from Insight. This had never happened for previous firmware updates, and the representative said this is likely because this firmware version (4.2.3.102) modified functionality related to Insight, whereas previous firmware versions probably had not. I changed the password in Insight, and this automatically and immediately changed the password in the admin config (it immediately logged me out, and I had to use the new password I had just specified to log in). The representative said pushing the password like that from Insight to the router is supposed to be a "Professional" feature, which I am apparently getting for free even though he said my account is only a free "Premium" account. Possibly this has to do with initially getting free limited time subscription with the purchase of the router. I got an email after 30 days indicating my free trial of "Insight Premium" would expire, and I did not renew it. Insight did initially warn me when I added the router to it over a year ago that it would override the admin password on the router (annoying). I thought that was a one-time thing. Apparently even though I had since then changed the password on the router through the admin config, that old password was lying in wait in Insight, just waiting for a firmware update with the right functionality to spring into action and overwrite the password in the admin config again, lol. In summary, don't change the password in the router admin config, do it in Insight. I rather wish Insight did not let you change the password on the router at all. It would be more secure, and it would keep this issue from happening. But, it does give users a way back in if they forget the password, so they don't have to reconfigure the router from scratch. And, I did get an email and the Insight app popped up a notification warning me the password had been changed, so at least you will know when it is changed. __________________________________________________________ ORIGINAL REVIEW 1/11/22 - Not that many reviews for the SXK30 (AX1800), so I'm leaving a comprehensive review. tldr: highly recommended for anyone who wants a secure, stable router, whether they are a home user or a small business. But for beginners, the advanced features may be difficult to configure. And, if you're not going to use the advanced features, then this router is overkill. It's working great for me with 60+ devices, but most of those are IoT. I don't need mesh, but I wanted the 4 SSIDs for a segmented network. I could have gotten just the router, instead of the set with a router and a satellite / extender, but at the time I bought it, it was only a $30 difference. I went ahead and set up the extender, and used it to replace my switch. The satellite does NOT have line of sight to the router, though it is close by in an adjacent room. I have a CAT-6 cable running between the 2 (I had already run the cable for the switch). I also tested it out WITHOUT the cable, and it worked fine. It takes the satellite a few minutes to connect anytime the router reboots, or while it's applying settings. But once it connects, it seems to work great. I configured it via the web interface. Be sure to back up the configs often as you configure it, in case you have any problems. If you are looking for a fast, easy setup, then this router may not be the best fit for you. If you are a beginner, but you want to take advantage of the advanced features, you should check out the user manual (on the Netgear site). If the user guide seems too complicated, then this router may not be a good choice. It's a beautiful, sleek design, without a bunch of annoying LEDs that are on all the time. The LED indicators on the front turn different colors when it's booting / connecting, and to let you know if there's a problem, but otherwise they are off. They come with little shelves to mount them securely to the wall. One reviewer said in June 2021 that the unit failed to operate after the very first firmware update, and they spent hours on the phone with technical support and finally threw the router away. I bought this in August 2021, and at that time, the newest firmware version was from July 2021. I had no problems with the July update (V3.2.33.108). So, it looks like Netgear fixed the problem. Typically, I do like to wait a few weeks with firmware releases, just to make sure there are no serious issues. I make an exception for a brand new device, because I want to make sure everything is working while I am within the return window. I have 60+ devices, and it's been working fine so far. This router (SXK30) says it supports 40 concurrent devices, but I really didn't want to pay 3x as much for the SXK80. The majority of my devices (about 45 of them) are IoT devices that ARE online all the time, but are low bandwidth. There's always the risk that if I run into any problems, Netgear will point to the fact that I am exceeding the device limit as an excuse, whether that is the actual problem or not. If that happens, I'll temporarily take some devices offline to get it under 40, to prove that isn't the problem. Your results may vary, but I've been totally fine so far. I really can't speak to the speed. I used to have fiber gigabit, but I downgraded to 100Mbps (my company is paying for my internet connection now that I'm a telecommuter, and I can't tell that much of a difference). So, this router is total overkill for 100Mbps. I'm getting the same speeds on the router as I get connected directly to the modem from my ISP, usually somewhere between 70 - 120Mbps. It lets you configure "Client Isolation", which it describes as: "Client isolation prevents hosts and clients in the VLAN from reaching ports, hosts, and clients in the same VLAN, thereby increasing security." Sure sounds like layer 2 isolation, which can be called INTRAnetwork routing. Different companies have different terms for it. It means devices on the same network can't communicate with each other. I actually posed this as a question before I bought it, and "Netgear Team" responded that layer 2 isolation / disabling intranetwork routing was NOT supported. I tested it out using Fing, and they were right, devices on a network that has "Client Isolation" enabled CAN see each other. Even on the guest network, I could see the other devices on the guest network with Fing. So what does "Client Isolation" do...? Apparently, the devices can SEE each other, but it prevents them from "REACHING" each other. When "Client Isolation" is enabled, I can see the other devices on the network with Fing, but I could not ping them, connect to them, etc. True layer 2 isolation would be more secure. Netgear calls disabling INTERnetwork routing (communication between networks) "Network Isolation": "Network isolation, also referred to as network segmentation, prevents hosts and clients in the VLAN from reaching ports, hosts, and clients in other VLANs, thereby increasing security." Fing confirms that devices on one network cannot see devices on the other networks. I should hope so, otherwise what would be the point of segmenting the network? It actually has 5 LANs, although the first LAN is the native VLAN, which must be VLAN 1. This cannot be changed or removed. This is a complaint with many network devices, not just from Netgear (because for security reasons it's best to avoid VLAN 1). Apparently the web configuration is on this VLAN, because I could NOT access it under any other VLAN. I've seen this on other network devices also. UPDATE 11/11/22 - the release notes for firmware updates list this as a "known issue": "The device UI can be accessed via the default VLAN network only. Workaround: Connect to a WiFi network that uses the default VLAN profile when you want to access the device UI." It's good security to limit access to the configuration to a particular VLAN, but it would be better to move it off of VLAN 1. When you are planning your network, remember to leave at least one secure admin computer on VLAN 1 to configure the router. Otherwise, if there's no wireless for that VLAN, you may need to do a factory reset (it's a good idea to make frequent backups). The packaging says you MIGHT get a free year subscription for the Netgear Insight app, and new users MIGHT get a free one month Premium subscription. I downloaded the app and it says 1 free month. It did not find the router in a network scan (although Fing could see it). I entered the info to add it manually, and it said adding it in the app would override the admin password on the router, which is annoying. I went ahead and did it to check it out. The app is super limited, with only some of the basic features. It really doesn't seem very useful. I guess you can check to make sure it's up, and if it's not responding you can reboot it remotely. But if it were that unstable, I would just return it! The ONLY thing I used it for is to move the LAN port for one of my desktops back onto VLAN 1, so I can configure the router from the web configuration (as mentioned, you do not seem to be able to configure the router from any other VLAN). The app does let you do this, but it was not at all straightforward, and applying the change took the networks down, and took a really long time. And it said it failed, though it actually worked. I wouldn't pay for a subscription for this. Additional security features it has that I wanted: - Change the address of the router - Change the IP ranges for the different VLANs - MAC address filtering - Disable UPnP - User ID / password can be changed - Can disable remote management - Can be configured via web interface. You do NOT need a Netgear account to configure it (you don't have to use the app at all) - It seems like WPS can be de facto disabled by disabling the sync button, although WPS does still show as Locked on Lan 1 only (and disabled on the other LANs). The user guide says to use the button to use WPS, and mentions no other way to use WPS, so without the button, theoretically there should be no way to unlock WPS. The guide does not mention that you can disable the sync button, but it's an option in the web configuration (Advanced Setup -> Sync Button). UPDATE 11/11/22 - According to the release notes, firmware version 4.2.3.102: "Removes WPS functionality from fronthaul due to security concerns". I'm hoping this means it disables WPS instead of just locking it in on LAN 1, but I haven't tested to be sure. Cons - No true layer 2 isolation - Can't change native VLAN ID (to anything other than 1) - Can only reach the web configuration from VLAN 1 - Limited number of LAN ports, especially if you wire the router and satellite(s) together (you lose a port on each). Most routers have 4, this router has only 3. But you do get another 4 on the satellite - Limited number of LANs and SSIDs. The more segmentation, the better - Email alerts are not particularly useful. It will email firewall alerts immediately, and the logs on a schedule. The logs don't record when new devices are connected - WPS can't be completely disabled on LAN 1 - The Insight app can access the router, even though I had already changed the password and disabled remote configuration and UPnP! Hopefully the fact that I added my device in Insight will prevent someone else from doing the same and hijacking it. I would like to be able to disable management from Insight, in addition to disabling remote access. - When applying config changes, a lot of the time it takes the networks offline when it should not be necessary. For example, the wireless networks go offline when changing the VLAN on one of the LAN ports. But, it's a minor inconvenience, because I don't make those kinds of changes often. - I came across a strange bug, which is annoying, but seems harmless. Periodically, a bunch of wireless devices would start showing up as "Wired" under Attached Devices. It seems to come and go. The one time I used the Insight app, I saw the same thing. Netgear will hopefully fix this with a future firmware update - It's slow to apply settings. Every time you apply the settings, you need to wait a few minutes. I typed this whole long review while I was waiting for it to apply each change I made. But, that's really only a drawback for the initial setup, when I was testing everything out. I don't make that many changes most of the time All in all, it has some good features for an entry level business router. 5 stars, because I think it's the best option at this price point, with the most features that are important to me. I wish it had better security, but it's certainly more secure than consumer routers, especially ones from your ISP. It may seem like a lot of cons, but sadly these are quite common. If you can find a better router for a reasonable price, I'd REALLY like to hear about it. My last router was the Peplink Surf SOHO, which was very secure, but unusable because of the constant connection issues (you can read my review). It's been about 5 months now, and it's been quite stable. Lost internet connection a few times, but it always reconnected right away, and I suspect that was the ISP. Netgear just emailed me that there is a firmware update available, but as mentioned, I will wait a few weeks to make sure there are no serious problems before upgrading.

Introduction: - As an IT Professional, I have been using Netgear routers for years in my home, and I’ve never had issues with them. My most recent is the 5-year-old Nighthawk R-7500 router and the Apple Air Extreme access point which are now retired as spares. Due to my house being 2400 Sq. ft two story structure, I had to use the access point for upstairs, and the R-7500 downstairs to maintain performance and minimize dead spots. The problem was I had to have two SSID’s for the router and access point, and two SSID’s for guests. Sometimes, my devices wouldn’t automatically switch from AP to router thereby causing a poor transitional connection. I also wanted to utilize the latest Wi-Fi 6 protocol available in my iPhone12. I chose the Orbi pro6 mesh system due to following options: - 1. Great reviews from nearly every vendor on the net. 2. Professional web-based GUI that rivals enterprise class GUI’s. This product was meant for small businesses, and for those who aren’t IT savvy, you can download a Netgear Insight app to set up and operate this router. 3. Single SSID for the entire house. Unlike Wi-Fi range extenders and access points where you get disconnected from one SSID and then reconnected to another as you go around the house, the Orbi pro6 system let's you connect to whatever SSID you assigned the device on the network. No more disconnections/reconnections! 4. A mesh network that will use one SSID for Admin for personal and home products use, and a choice of three more SSID’s for guests and IOT’s. 5. Won’t go obsolete soon – Supports maximum bandwidth of 2.5 Ghz. from ISP’s, latest Wi-Fi protocol Wi-Fi 6 (802.1 ax) and older protocol such as A, B, G, and N. Wi-Fi 6 is supported by newer devices such as the Apple iPhone12. 6. Can use a backhaul cable between the router and satellite – I have a CAT-7 cable that is already installed to support faster data transfer between both systems. 7. Mounting Brackets – As you can see in the picture, both router and satellite came with wall mounting brackets, and this made hardware installation very easy. Install and configuration: - Install was easy. Turn power off cable modem and old router. Disconnect old router, and once modem is fully re-booted, connect new router. When the Orbi router booted, it automatically connected to my XFinity service without any issues. Also, since the router came paired with the Satellite from the factory, it automatically synchronized with the router and they recommend a separation distance of 10 ft. during pairing. Once you logged into the router, it forced you change the admin password to a more sophisticated password. You do not have to program the satellite, the router passes on the configuration information to the satellite. Performance: - After a month of usage, I here are my experiences: - I routinely get around 900 Mbps from my ISP and that’s what I’m getting when I measure the speed using the router’s GUI. Without the Cat7 cable, and a direct distance of over 50 Ft. between several walls, a heater, and second story floor, I was getting a bandwidth of 500 Mbps on the satellite and over 700 Mbps connected to the router’s Wi-Fi. With the satellite connected to the router using the CAT7 cable, I get over 700 Mbps on my iPhone12 that utilizes WiFi6 and this is true for all locations in the house. I haven’t experienced any dead spots, and I settled on permanently using the CAT7 cable for the backhaul. Roaming around the house, the router and satellite automatically switch you to whatever device you are closest to, and gone are the days of having to sometimes manually switch SSID’s. Surprisingly, I get a strong signal in both my backyard and front lawn. You can continue streaming whatever you like while enjoying your summer barbeque. All devices that support both 2.4 and 5Ghz. radio stay connected to the 5Ghz, radio. All devices that utilize the 2.4 Ghz. radio such as printers and security camera’s stay on the 2.4 Ghz. radio. The router and Satellite lights stay off unless they have problems, and blink at you to confirm configuration changes. Power saver - Gone are the days of flashing Christmas lights (LED’s) all the time. Streaming video from the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook pro to my new 65” Vizio TV is a breeze since all systems are on the same SSID. Gone are the days of needing special adapters for this. Improved security software - I used to see a lot of DOS attacks attempts in the old router logs. For this Orbi6 Pro, I barely see any in its logs, and good luck to neighborhood hackers trying to get free Wi-Fi. Conclusion: - This is a rock-solid performer and with over 20 devices connected to this system, I haven’t experienced any issues. It may be pricier and bigger/heavier than the competition but if you want great performance and security, this is it. You pretty much set it up and forget it – Minimal maintenance is required, and you can set it up to automatically get router firmware updates from Netgear. The saying goes that you get what you pay for – For now, this system is one of the best performers of mesh routers. Supporting a maximum ISP bandwidth of 2.5 Ghz, and latest WiFi6 protocol, I’m looking forward to many years of great service from it.

Let's start with the good: The SXK30 system offers WiFi 6, MESH or wired backhaul, four unique WiFi networks, and a very tempting price when discounted so it seemed to be too good to be true. And to be fair, after some initial hickups I had the system up and running smoothly with one router and three different satellites giving me great coverage and speed all in (and around) my three-level house. My network consists of a SXR30 Orbi Pro router connected via Cat6 Ethernet to three SXR30 Orbi Pro satellites, spread throughout my home. I have a large mix of wired and wireless devices, and wanted the Pro model so that I could isolate my IoT devices from the rest of my home network. I'm an engineer by trade and know enough about networking to get myself into but mostly out of a lot of trouble, and for a while all was well and my network was running smoothly... Fast forward seven months to this summer (just long enough for the 90 day tech support to expire!), and I now cringe every time I hear thunder knowing that a simple 1-second power drop will kill my whole network for a day and tie me up for hours trying to troubleshoot my network. Simple fix, right? Reboot and then everything should be OK...except it isn't, and what starts as one disconnected satellite turns into two or three of the satellites refusing to connect. With the satellites disconnected, only the router will accept any wireless clients, so 1/3 of my network is out of range of the router and therefore offline. From there it gets even more frustrating, with ever-escalating, time consuming, and tedious fixes like rebooting the router and the rest of the whole network, cycling the power on the router, model and satellites (all over the house), even taking the satellites to the basement and re-syncing the satellites individually. I even tried factory resetting the satellites and router, restoring the existing configuration to a brand new spare SXR30 router and resyncing the satellites, which only temporarily fixed the problem. And don't worry, the firmware is up-to-date so that's not the issue. For whatever stupid reason, even though all the satellites are wired with Ethernet directly to the router, the satellites often become unsynced to the router and will refuse to accept any clients, resulting in numerous offline devices. The first time it happened was frustrating, but all was good the next morning after I spent half the night troubleshooting. A week later and after another storm it took a full day of troubleshooting to get my whole network back online. Then not even two days later it happened again, and this time two of the three satellites REFUSED to resync even though they I had moved them to within a few feet of the router. A little background: these router/satellite systems are designed to be used in a MESH configuration (wireless connection to the router), but in this particular model you sacrifice half of your transfer speed since there's not a dedicated radio for the Wireless Backhaul. So I connected them to the router using Ethernet...problem solved, full bandwidth and increased reliability, right? Nope, for some reason Netgear requires them to be synced wirelessly (apparently without Ethernet) first, and then after they are synced they can be hardwired. Why on earth would anyone design a system to ignore the WIRED connection and force a WIRELESS sync even when the satellites show "connected" in the web portal? And how in the world can the satellites not sync even when they're within a few feet of the router? As good as this gear appears on paper, and as well as it can work in the best of times, I simply cannot recommend it to anyone. It's just not reliable in real-world conditions, you're very limited in troubleshooting a disconnected satellite, and after 90 days the Netgear tech support costs more than I paid for the hardware. Not to mention that I get different connection information (status of connected satellites and number of connected devices) when using the Web portal vs. the Insight app. In the end I gave up...my current "band-aid" solution seems to work for the moment, I deleted the three SXS30 satellites, unplugged them, turned off the main WiFi on the router, and connected three Linksys EA9300's as access points until I can order some Ubiquity hardware.

INITIAL WARNING: NETGEAR TECH SUPPORT IS NON-EXISTANT. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN IF YOU PURCHASE A NETGEAR PRODUCT SO YOU BETTER BE MORE THAN AN AMATUER CONSUMER OR SORTA TECH SAVY CONSUMER IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING PURCHASING THIS PRODUCT. That being said, if you have the know how, this is a solid product offering from Netgear. Here are my thoughts... Like: Has the features I want and need to support separate business, school, personal, and guest networks via the same Router and Satellite(s) harware while allowing all conected devices to share a 500GB wireless connection with available bandwidth metering/controls when necessary. The bandwidth throughput via both hard-line and Wifi is as FAST as the available bandwidth being delivered by the modem. There is no bandwidth bottleneck or slowdown except at the limitations of the devices connected to the network. And unlike other networks, especially using older hardware, with a primary router and signal boosters/repeaters, this system allows you to move room to room and even between floors with no signal or bandwidth drop or disconnects. And the overall management of this system is MUCH easier that previous multi-piece network configurations IF you know how to login, setup, and manage a network via the web portal login to the Router and understand networks enough to configure your network correctly via firmware based native networking tools. Dislike: This system is NOT user friendly for anyone not well versed in networking and the use and access of native firmware networking software via the web portal and IP address access methods. This system is NOT general consumer or even semi-knowledgible user friendly. Also, and I discoveres this the hard way after multiple failed attempts of following the including system setup insteuctions, this system is NOT fully capatable with ANY of the Netgear Apps nor will it even complete the basic system setup process using ANY of the claimed compatible apps. Attempting to use any of the Netgear Apps (Orbi, Genie, Insight, etc.) as instructed in the user manual results in the setup failing halfway through the process when the apps either crash or freeze due to a conflict between the app and the native system firmware. The requires a lengthy process to reset ALL of the networking hardware (router and satellite(s)) back to initial factory settings individually before attempting the process again which failed on every signle one of the 3 attempts I made using each of the Apps which I was told to use in the included manufacturer instructions. When I gave up on ALL the apps and just "went native" and did the setup and configuration process via the web portal and firware the entire process worked as expected and I had the entire system up and running within roughly an hour. Again, WARNING, THIS SYSTEM IS NOT USER FRIENDLY OR EASY TO SETUP OR MANAGE UNLESS YOU KNOW HOW TO ACCESS AND CONFIGURE A NETWORK AND SATELLITES VIA A WEB PORTAL AND IP ADDRESS USING NATIVE INSTALLED FIRMWARE. Over all... This is a good buy, though not a cheap purchase by any means, and will serve the Networking Guru's and SMB businesses or home's with their own IT Dept. or contracted IT Expert very well and likely for several years to come. This is one of those "investment purchases" that pays you back via the value in brings to your business; in this case everyone shares as much bandwidth as your modem can supply without a sketchy Wi-Fi signal or speed drop, which increases productivity and employee satisfaction, and ultimately boosts your bottom line. For the general consumer or those without an IT Dept. or IT/Networking Expert on their payroll this is likely NOT the system for you. This is NOT a User Friendly system and is going to require way more than your "Grandkid" or "Tech Savy Friend" to set up and configure correctly, especially if you are wanting to take advantage of this system's full potential. Good luck.

I just bought this mesh system and I'm really happy with it. I had previously tested the Orbi RBK752 model, which provided great coverage but lacked the ability to separate WiFi networks by VLAN. That was a deal breaker for me since I have a number of smart lights, plugs, cameras, other IoT devices and wanted to keep them separate and limit their bandwidth and access. Additionally, I have a number of multimedia devices and also wanted to keep them separate from the lights, plugs, etc given that their bandwidth needs and profiles are very different. I also tested a couple more access points (e.g. EnGenius EWS357AP), which had awesome management features (e.g. 8 WiFi networks, VLAN support, very precise QoS controls, channel and frequency levers, etc) but came short on performance. I wanted to have a nice balance between performance and advanced features. My core requirements mainly revolved around 2 things -- great and sustained performance (at least 500 Mbps throughout my house) and the ability to deploy and manage multiple isolated WiFi networks. I do have a 1Gbps Internet connection. The SXK80 model has: 1 management network, which operates on the 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrum and defaults to VLAN 1 for obvious reasons, 2 regular networks, which can be further split up into 2.4 and 5 GHz SSIDs for a total of 4 SSIDs, and 1 Guest network, whose functionality has been greatly curtailed by Netgear (e.g. you cannot select the authentication/encryption scheme and may be vulnerable to malicious attacks). 8 ethernet ports (4 on each unit), which can be link-aggregated or VLAN tagged That said, it appears that the SXK80 model has a few bugs, which I hope Netgear resolves relatively soon: 1. Client devices connected via the Satellite AP are assigned to the default network/VLAN even when they part of a different VLAN. I believe Netgear is aware and working on a fix. 2. Client devices take a while to show on the list of connected devices 3. Client devices appear to be tagged with the wrong SSID name in the UI even though they are part of another network/VLAN 4. The QoS (bandwidth controls) appear not to be working at all. All my WiFi networks behave the same way with or without that feature enabled. 5. Not so much a bug -- I'm not sure why the Guest network is managed differently from other WiFi networks. It would have been nice to have the same management features across all the SSIDs. I'm hoping Netgear revisits this decision. 6. Finally, the GUI is not very intuitive. Netgear could and should do much better on this front. I hope they do. Highly recommend!

Haven't found a real review on the SXK80. Most Reviews/Ratings are based on RBK852 or other Orbi systems and not relevant. I picked this up on a limited time deal where SXK80 was cheaper than the RBK852 I was intending to purchase. I was not interested in the Insight app subscription service and have only managed this from the local Web UI thus far. The SXK80, Router + 1 Satellite, advertises 6k square foot of coverage where as the RBK852 specs show 5k square foot of coverage in the Router + 1 Satellite configuration. Although the SXK80 is positioned as a business class product but my perspective is from a home owners view and was not initially interested in the business related features. I had been running a NetGear NightHawk RAX120 AX6000 router for last 1 year. The overall household user experience has been fair at best with that. We have 450Mbps up/25 Mbps down service, but a household of 6 with dozens of "things"... We're approaching 30+ devices on our network all consuming various internet services. With the pandemic virtual schooling, full time work at home, video conferencing, streaming in every room, we were having some inconsistent connectivity behavior throughout the house(~3500sq ft) even with hardwired devices. With the main router being located in upper corner of house, I tried adding an EAX80 in extender mode but sent it back immediately after setting it up as there was no wired backhaul capability and was maxing at out at around 120Mbps next to the extender. Leading me to replacing with the SXK80 system. Thus far setup has been a easy with the free web UI you would get with most any NetGear product. Insight subscription is optional and I'm sure great, but doubt necessary even for the business user. WebUI allows for configuration of up to 4 different SSIDs in various channel configurations and bandwidth per SSID configurability. Our home is hardwired and the wired backhaul auto-negotiated and can aggregate 2-ports from satellite to router for higher throughput. I currently am only using 1 uplink due to port constraints on the Main router which I may re-evaluate with network stability. Installed almost a week ago, stability and performance have been consistent and without issue. We have a range of wireless devices registered with worst connection being fair(-79dbm) and best being excellent(-24dbm). Every room has solid connectivity and from what I've randomly tested getting ~300-400mbps in most areas now. A quick trip out to the mailbox ~60ft from router I was still getting over 120Mbps.. Will do some other testing around the property but so far reception outside the house looks to be as good as can be expected. Ontop of the 4 Wireless networks you can create you also have the ability to configure 5 LAN networks and tag traffic. There are various MAC Filtering and Access Control, Block Sites, Block Services features in the WebUI. One useful feature I found not available on the RAX120 although I is on the Orbi systems is the ability to configure a unique DNS Server for DHCP Clients. This feature has allowed me to add a Pi-Hole DNS ad-blocker to our home network with some more granular client logging capabilities. Goodbye Nighthawk... Think I'll be resting easy with the Orbi SXK80.

UPDATE (7/8/2021): I initially wrote a poor review for Netgears' customer service and would like to give an update of my experience (I'd like anyone reading this to know my experience). Since this review (below), customer service did reach out to me and we resolved the problem (after some time). I'm leaving the remainder of the review because 1. my experience in getting someone to speak to for a business router like this took more time than a small business could allow. and 2. the return policy for getting a refurbished router after buying a brand new router needs to be revised and changed. HOWEVER, even though it took time, they ended up communicating with me via email and eventually we figured out what the issue was and it's fixed. Since then, the router honestly has been working exceptionally well and I've had no issues (which is what I initially expected when I bought this). TO BE CLEAR, I'm giving 3 stars (as opposed to a one star review initially) because of my CUSTOMER service experience, the time delay and difficulty in getting through to customer service. But when they finally did, they were very helpful. The router itself has been working very well (I would give 4 STAR, one off for the fact that sometimes the automatic firmware update seems to need manual updating, but that occurred only one time thus far). (I removed my last paragraph wrt not buying or recommending a netgear product again. this product HAS NOT been giving any issues thus far since things have been sorted out.) NOTE - these updated and original reviews are NOT biased by any compensation from netgear. this is simply my experience as a customer. ORIGINAL REVIEW: First off, I do not write many reviews but this deserves special attention. I am a physician and Run a very busy practice and it is unfortunate that netgear is not taking this issue seriously. Router issues: I purchased this orbipro wifi 6 router on may 1st 2021. I set this up to my office network a week or so later. Since then, every morning when my staff gets to work, there is no internet connection or network connection. The ATT modem still works with no issues (the phone lines run through them and they still work. Att said there are no issues). The router itself is working throughout the day, very well, but the mornings it’s just not connecting. Deplorable Technical service - I have spent about 4 hours in total over the past 2 weeks trying to get in contact with net gear technical team. Finally I went through Amazon, who got through to their customer service. Netgear customer service could not get through to their own technical service team either. Customer service said they promised to have the technical team call me in an hr, 4 hours later I got a call (while I was with patients). I took the time to speak to them, they said they will email me instructions on how to make a log for tonight, that was an hour ago. Now I’m leaving the office for the same issues to occur tomorrow. It has been less than a month I’ve actually used the device and 6 weeks since I purchased it. I explained that this is a $600+ device and I need it to be working. A device like this shouldn’t be causing any issues. My IT company checked all settings and there is no issue they can find with the network ir the router settings. All firmware is up to date. I asked netgear for a refund and netgear refuses to discuss a refund. They said my only option is for them to first get trouble shooting information, then they will only be able to give back a REFURBISHED device. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW ITS POSSIBLE to pay over $600 for a device, and 6 weeks later, they are only ‘allowed’ to give a refurbished device!? I have a home orbi (older model), and have had no issues.

The Orbi Pro SXR30 is one of the few routers or access points meant primarily for home use that has fully-usable, robust 802.1Q VLANs, with VLAN tags and trunking capability. In fact, it’s a fully managed ethernet switch combined with router and wireless access point capabilities. I have not used the router capability of this unit. I have my own router running OPNsense and a central managed switch with three VLANs for my house. I wanted a wireless access point in my family/media room to connect to a trunk line running back to the managed switch and that is capable of broadcasting three wireless networks each with separate SSIDs, one for each VLAN. As a bonus, I wanted the wireless access point to have some ethernet ports that would allow me to connect my television and VOIP line via ethernet and eliminate the need for a satellite switch. This unit fulfills all of those criteria, and I’m actually not sure whether there is any other desktop wireless access point that does so other than this unit and probably the other Orbi Pro models, such as the SXR80. That being said, because of a quirk in the management interface, it took me a couple of days to figure out how to set up and configure this unit. In particular, I have learned through experimentation that the SXR30 cannot be managed over a VLAN that uses tagged packets, which is unusual for a managed switch or other device that uses 802.1Q VLANs. So, the only way I found to get this unit working with a trunk line from the main switch was to set up the trunk line on the switch with a mix of tagged and untagged packets—in particular, untagged packets for whichever VLAN will be used to manage the Orbi SXR30, and tagged packets for every other VLAN. The management VLAN will then remain untagged on the SXR30, even if it’s tagged elsewhere on your network, and when setting up the wireless network for the management VLAN, a “VLAN Profile” should not be used (leave it as the default profile). The other wireless networks, besides the one you’re using for management, can be set up with a VLAN profile. Other than that quirk, which at least as far as I’m aware is not documented, this unit is amazing and is exactly what I wanted. It allowed me to replace four devices—a satellite managed switch and three wireless access points—with this one device, thereby decluttering my family/media room and cutting back on power consumption.