NETGEARNighthawk Advanced Whole Home Mesh WiFi 6 System (MK63S) with Free Armor Security – AX1800 Router with 2 Satellite Extenders, Coverage up to 4,500 sq. ft. and 25+ devices

I have a very tall house, and my old WiFi router was a combination modem/router from Comcast Business, so it wasn't the best router. I would constantly get dropped WiFi issues, and I was only getting 100 Mbps through the Comcast provided router. My gateway is on the main floor of my house, my wife's office is on the second floor, and my office is on the third floor. My PC has a garbage WiFi card, and my wife's PC doesn't have a WiFi card at all, and I didn't want to bother with a USB WiFi antenna. Instead of spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars ripping out my walls and running Ethernet cables throughout my house, This was the next best solution. I opted for the model with the router, and two satellites, as it fits my needs perfectly.PROSIt helped unlock speeds that I previously didn't know I had. Upon getting everything set up properly, I discovered that Comcast had made infrastructure adjustments, and that the internet tier we were paying for bumped up to 300Mbps, but the router was preventing us from getting those speeds. I now bring in over 300 Mbps, and have noticed significant improvements, especially while streaming and downloading larger files that previously took hours to complete.Whether I'm on the main floor near the gateway, on the second floor, or in my office on the third floor, I get consistent speed across the board. I'm typing this from my 3rd floor office now, and have tested the speed with three different testing services, and it's basically the same result every time.The satellites give you an option to hard-line in, which is perfect for both my wife and I. My WiFi card is not very great, and my wife's computer doesn't have WiFi at all, so having the option to hard-line in is excellent, and helps maintain a more consistent connection.This is a very minor point, but both the router and the satellites are reasonably small, so they're not taking up tons of space on my desk or near the gateway, and they look pretty sleek. I especially like the piano black finish, so they blend in with my darker desk and accessories.The app is generally easy enough to navigate, and lets you take more control over your router. This may come in handy for parents who want to monitor what their kids are looking at.CONSI'm Embarrassed to admit how long it took me to find out how to disable NETGEAR Armor, as it was blocking a lot of regular web sites, and even prevented Zoom calls from opening, which is how my wife takes work meetings. It's a great idea, but way to strict on what it blocks.This was far from easy to set up, and you should really have some basic networking knowledge before deciding to purchase this. I am not technology illiterate by any means, but this was beyond my ability to set up, so a friend of mine who is well versed in these affairs had to assist me with the setup. This included getting access to my router via Comcast and setting it to bridge mode, so it only acts as a modem, and the Nighthawk works as the router. Be warned, you will either need to know some basic networking, know someone who does, or find a YouTube Video on setting this up.VERDICTOverall, this performs as advertised, and after initial setup, it was easy to move around the satellites to where they need to be, and they took no time at all to sync back up to the router. I'm getting excellent internet speed, and I can hard-line my important devices right in for a consistent connection. My only issues are the NETGEAR Armor, which I don't find necessary, and rather difficult to find the off option for, and the setup is very much NOT straightforward, and not very easy, unless you have some basic networking knowledge, or know a guy like myself. Otherwise, it is a fantastic product, and is working great for me. I would recommend this to anyone needing a mesh system for their house.

I wanted to wait a month before writing this review to ensure my home network was stable after installing this mesh network. I can say with total certainty that it is. I was trying to resolve problems I was having with a Tivo-mini connecting to my main Tivo-Edge unit. I had the Tivo's connected in my old wifi network which consisted of Netgear R7000, R6300 and R6200 routers. I was using the R6300 and R6200 routers as bridges to the main R7000 router. No matter how I tried, switching to the 2.4 Ghz or 5k Ghz channels, the Tivo-mini would have major dropouts. Doing what network troubleshooting I could (I am not the most skilled in this subject) I did come to understand that the location of the Tivo-mini was in a major dead zone (wifi wise) in my house.I got an advertisement that this set of mesh routers (I had never heard the term before the add) were on sale and I decided to give them a try.After watching some YouTube videos and doing some research, I set them up. And honestly, it could not have been any easier. I liked that each unit had one ethernet port as the Tivo-mini requires this for network connection. I have my desktop computer, Tivo-Edge and Tivo-mini each hardwired to their respective mesh routers. And I am happy to say, that the dropouts and performance issues I had with the Tivo-mini have vanished.But that's not all. Network speed in my house is good and stable. My iPhone Xs running OS 14.4.2 will connect to my wifi network at speeds up to 450 Mbs now (if it connects up to the main router, speeds at the satellites are a consistent 130 Mbs and frankly that is plenty fast for me - I am blessed with a Gigabit network from Xfinity).I also work from home and am able to connect my two Windows 10 machines up via an RDP connection without issue (I read that some Linux users did have network connection issues...I don't run any Linux devices in my home)Finally, I know it is quite simple, but I really like the iPhone Nighthawk app. I like being able to check and track what device is connecting to what router box.Overall, I think this is a wonderful product.