Netgear R6850 AC2000 Mbps, WiFi USB Dual Band Gigabit Wall Mount Router (Black)

This is an amazing router. It is so easy to setup that before you even realize, you’re ready to go. It has some realy amazing features. First and foremost if you keep the SSID name & passwords similar to the ones you were using on lets say an older router, then all your devices will automatically connect with this one! Can you beat it?! Otherwise the biggest hassle is to change the SSID name and password in all the devices. Secondly, you can use it in the smart router mode where there is only one single SSID and the router automatically decides whether a device will use the 2.4 ghz band or the 5 ghz band.

More features listed below

1. Cloud – This is your private cloud and back up. The biggest advantage is the photos that you click on your mobile phone will keep on syncing with your storage device.
2. Media Server – Songs, movies and other media.
3. USB Storage – Simple USB storage.

You can remotely manage your router and access your private cloud anywhere. I configured and gave access to my wife’s laptop, my son’s laptop, my wife’s mobile and of course my own laptop and mobile phone since I am the administrator. I have also given access to my smart TV.

So, now I can listen to songs on my HDD anywhere I want to, in my car, in the metro, in my office anywhere. I can save movies on my HDD and watch them on my TV.

All this after only 2 days of usage. Just imagine over a period of time I will probably keep on discovering new features/ capabilities.

The netgear app has an amazing UI and offers mind blowing UX. I can even limit the bandwidth to a particular device.

100% signal strength all over and around my house on the 2.4 Ghz band.

The circle 1st gen app is used to manage devices so far as the parental control is concerned.

Review upate as on 18-11-2020: The router page on the browser paged gave me a blip that some firmware update was available. I just clicked “update” and the router never ever came back to life after that. I had to contact Netgear customer care after that and the agent did try to help me revive it but couldn’t. An RMA was generated and I had to go to their collection center and deposit the router after which the new router will be delivered to me. All this happened a couple of days ago so as per their wording, I shall be getting a replacement in another 7 – 10 days time. Lesson learned. NEVER update the firmware of our router through wi-fi. Always download the update file and do it manually by connecting your router with your computer using the ethernet cable to update the firmware.

Overall, it is a fantastic product to have if you can shell out a hefty amount. Overall star rating of the product remains unchanged as of now.

Update as on 27-11-2020. After quite a lot of following up with the customer service team for 3 continuous days, I was told that they didn’t have another R7000P in stock to send my replacement! Next day I got a mail from them in which they mentioned that they had dispatched the R7500. They called me up and said it is a free upgrade, which I received yesterday (26-11-20). Now this so called upgrade is absolute crap. It does not have any circle app support, the nighthawk app doesn’t not support it and of course, it is not a MU-MIMO router. To configure this one you need the netgear genie app which is primitive to say the least. I spoke to customer care yesterday too and they still don’t have an R7000P in stock. Finally, after an entire day full of nothing but frustration, I wrote an email to their global CEO and India Head. Let us see what solution they have to offer. With all this, overall star rating of the product will have to be revised to 3 stars as on 27-11-2020.

I shall update more as and when more developments take place.

Update as on 04-12-20. Finally, they have sent me the ORBI RBK 20 mesh. It is a 1+1 system and seems to be working fine.

I will definitely miss my R7000P though!

I brought it to serve as a print server. This is the only reasonably priced router with a USB port. It has only a USB 2.0 port suitable for connecting printer and if storage is connected only USB 2.0 speed will be available. This is an old model and you need an app from Netgear for remote printing. This app is very old, made for Windows 7 but will work in Windows 10 in compatibility mode – you need to restart the machine and allow the app through the firewall to make it function. Even though seller claim three year warranty Netgear give only 90 days – no response if you complain to Netgear! Very mediocre as a router but can be used as a cheap print server.

I also searched too many reviews and online videos before buying this router. My old router (ISP provided) started to show problems so decided to get one. My flat (3BHK 1300 sq-ft carpet) I have placed the router not in the middle because of some issues. My net connection is 40mbps 1 to 1 which means at any time it gives exactly 40mbps speed (upload/download) without fluctuation like Jio. I have on average 7 devices connected to it including some smart devices like lights. In the box, you will get all the regular stuff like a cat cable, adapter, the router. Selected it over Asus RT-AC59U v1 (since v2 is not available) because I have found in a review article that the range of 59U is not that good.

Pros:
1. Build quality is very nice, the construction of the antenna is good but nonremovable. The product and the ports look very well put together.
2. USB2.0 port can be used to share files between multiple devices via FTP connection. Netgear Cloud is not supported in this device you can not upload from android to FTP at least for now since android is not that friendly with FTPs. You have to install a few 3rd party app for this.
3. File sharing over the internet via its USB to anywhere is possible but for this, you need to have a static IP-based internet connection which is costly.
4. Speed over 2.4Ghz is good enough, I have tested it via file sharing and it easily reaches 100-150 Mbps (1/8 in MB/s). In my flat, I have reduced the signal strength to 75% without any coverage issue.
5. Even with a low signal strength of the 5Ghz band, the good news is I play online with this coverage in my PC and never ever experienced any signal drop/connection issues. Even with 50-60% signal strength, it works flawlessly in 5Ghz. Tested with file transfer and the speed is ~350 to 450 Mbps (1/8th in MB/s) if I am using an SSD and I am sure if the signal strength is at 80-90% anyone can get 800-900mbps easily. Not a problem for me since I am using a 40mbps connection.
6. My firestick works great with only one bar of 5Ghz network and I watch HD live stream without a hitch.
7. QoS algorithm applied to the router works like a charm. If you have configured your high-priority device to use max bandwidth and specified your speed in the router QoS menu then the router manages the bandwidth in all the devices automatically so that you can have a well-balanced experience. You don’t have to worry about the bandwidth your TV is using at the same time you are watching say a YouTube video on a different device.

Cons:
1. Not working with PPPoE connection of my ISP even after bios update. One reviewer also pointed out this issue and it is true. My ISP team failed to connect it via PPPoE. The solution is to bypass the PPPoE and to set an IP by your ISP in this router and they have to configure this IP with their own network mapping service. It is just like assigning an IP to your Xbox or PC so that every time you connect it via Wi-Fi it remains the same. But I want to make it clear, you don’t need a static IP for this. Just a fixed local IP by your ISP will work fine. Even I am using it with a regular dynamic IP-based connection. After this trick, the router will never disappoint you.
2. Coverage for 5GHz is not good. I don’t have a direct line of sight to the router (~6-meter distance) and the signal strength drops to 50-60% (-68 to -75dBm) which is not recommended.
3. Now the main issue: We use 5Ghz mainly for separating traffic and interference right? Since it is an entry-level 5GHz router, it only has four 5Ghz bands and which is bad. This info is something that you will never receive from most of the reviews. So what is the advantage of 5Ghz? You have 4 bands, your neighbor (say in a housing complex) will definitely have a dual-band router nowadays and the router might be above or below your floor and they are also using similar bands. The only solution is buying an expensive router if 5Ghz is your need to get rid of interference.

Lastly don’t fall into traps like MuMiMo/Beamforming etc. Those technologies are there in the router so that its price can be increased. To know more on these techs and why it is not going to make any tangible benefit in your home network setup read some tech journals and don’t follow YouTube for the answer because most YouTubers research very little and follow easily available marketing news/info to make quick videos.
Apple and a few other tech giants don’t even bother to add this in their flagship laptops simply because it does not make any visible difference. Wi-Fi Range, QoS Quality, Connection stability are some important factors you should prioritize over MuMiMo and beamforming. Thanks for reading….

Update: Working fine so far, upgraded my connection to 120 Mbps (direct unshared). But the USB function I have found is not useful at all only because of limited support from the android platform. This router does not support the ReadyCloud platform of Netgear. So you cannot use the Netgear ReadyCloud android app otherwise I think I can use a Pendrive to easily transfer files across multiple platforms.

As I want to convert my USB Epson L360 printer as network printer I purchased this product. I could be ale to solve my issue using this router in an affordable cost.

good product

It’s a good product for the price and maintenance the reputation. But the firmware updates and multiple accounts make some updates and connectivity delay issues.

I was previously using D Link DIR-841 AC1200 router but was running into BufferBloat issues with it & was quite difficult to have calls when working from home. This is why I switched to Netgear R6850 & it resolves all those issues I had. In fact it even manages to give slightly higher speed than my internet plan of 400Mbps! Only minor thing is that it doesn’t have Client shaping options on WiFi unlike D’Link, but not a deal breaker for me. Surely recommended!