News NETGEAR Announces Tri-Band AX RAX200 Router

[owlyn]

Had this router for a few weeks now, obviously not cheap but in terms of performance, rock solid and great wifi speeds

What firmware version are you using?

 

[psychopomp1]

What firmware version are you using?

Using the latest 1.0.1.10 fw and it works a treat.

 

[Axelrod360]

I'm still trying to decide between the GT-AX11000 and the RAX200 (currently using the R7000). I need tri-band for the number of devices that get connected when I have parties and I figure AX is more future proof. Does anyone know what kind of processor the GT-AX11000 has? Is it the same one (company and model) as the RAX200?

 

[avtella]

Same Broadcom CPU and WiFi chipset. The Asus GT-AX11000 has far better user options like more QoS fine tuning, VPN Client allowing third party Open VPN profiles (ie Nord VPN, ExpressVPN etc), better monitoring, better user interface overall and is much cheaper for the same internal hardware. The RAX200 is just way too basic on the firmware side to even warrant its price, you literally are just paying for the looks with that one.

Also do note that even if you have tons of devices a dual band may still be just as good. I highly doubt a Triband is really gonna help much for most people, I have like 30 or so devices myself and am using a dual band router with no issues. I’d still suggest looking at the Netgear R7800, Synology RT-2600AC or Asus AC86U those should easily handle quite heavy loads, I’ve used quite a few dual and triband devices so this is from personal experience.

With current AX routers you will really be forking a ton of money for only partial AX features and certain backwards compatibility issues not yet ironed out with some AC clients. Also the RAX200 for example still has firmware issues that haven’t been ironed out like quite a few reporting being limited to 500 Mbps.

As I mentioned before in another post if you really feel like getting an AX router buy a Qualcomm chipset based router like the RAX120 or the Asus equivalent that will be releasing sometime soon. I have more faith in Qualcomm in terms of implementation of new features compared to Broadcom.

 

[Axelrod360]

What WiFi 6 features are they missing? I figured since the chipset is WiFi 6 certified, the other features will come in time. Do you think otherwise?

As for tri-band, you might be right about that not being the problem but I'm running out of ideas. I start getting people being unable to connect to my internet when I have my smart home IoT devices on and am throwing a party with around 20 people. Any thoughts?

 

[avtella]

Yeah a decent dual-band can handle that load. The, Synology RT2600AC, Netgear R7800 or Asus AC86U are the ones I’d recommend. I’ve had large parties with a large number of people and have quite a few WiFi devices of my own and I never faced an issue with the R7800.


In terms of missing AX features in current routers: Target Wake Time, Uplink MU, BSS Coloring. Some like the RAX200 also lack WPA3 and OFDMA Uplink and Downlink. These features according to Qualcomm can be enabled by eventual firmware updates on Qualcomm chipset based routers but thus far regardless of Broadcom or Qualcomm no current router has the full AX feature set. And even if some of the features are enabled in subsequent updates there’s no garuntee they will be implemented in a properly functioning manner, especially with Broadcom. Just wait for Wave 2 AX chipsets that are likely to be more refined.

 

[thiggins]

What WiFi 6 features are they missing? I figured since the chipset is WiFi 6 certified, the other features will come in time. Do you think otherwise?

Yes, the other features should come in time. At this point, the features that have the most chance of making a performance difference AX DL MU-MIMO and OFDMA are not enabled in the RAX200.

As for tri-band, you might be right about that not being the problem but I'm running out of ideas. I start getting people being unable to connect to my internet when I have my smart home IoT devices on and am throwing a party with around 20 people. Any thoughts?

It depends on what those 20 people are doing, how far they are from the router and the radio in the devices.
A 2x2 N or even AC client with a low signal can chew up a big chunk of bandwidth, leaving little for other devices.

Also realize that the "smart connect" feature of tri-band routers that is supposed to assign devices to radios to optimize bandwith use isn't reliable. Devices are in charge of deciding where to connect. So you may have to set up different SSIDs per radio and direct people where to connect.

 

[psychopomp1]

@Axelrod360
Like you I also have a tonne of Wi-fi clients which is why I’m bought the tri band Netgear RAX200. I wasn’t too keen on the Asus AX11000 as ASU’s routers tend to be buggy as hell when first released.

I find the RAX200 to be a great router, with superb Wi-fi speeds & even better range/coverage than my old Linksys EA9500v2 ( also a great router). You won’t regret buying the RAX200

 

[Daro]

@Axelrod360
Like you I also have a tonne of Wi-fi clients which is why I’m bought the tri band Netgear RAX200. I wasn’t too keen on the Asus AX11000 as ASU’s routers tend to be buggy as hell when first released.

I find the RAX200 to be a great router, with superb Wi-fi speeds & even better range/coverage than my old Linksys EA9500v2 ( also a great router). You won’t regret buying the RAX200

every single one of them has wired speeds capped at 500mpbs due to ongoing firmware issue. This happens with QoS or not. Check the Netgear forums. If you have more than gigabit Ethernet you will see this issue.

 

[doc octopus]

After the experience with all the latest Asus routers based on Broadcom chipsets, I sold everything and put the netgear R7800 back into operation. It is very limited in firmware but works well and wireless is much faster.

 

[kc6108]

Anyone know what version of linux the RAX200 runs? I'm thinking it's 4.1.27, but I could be wrong.

Also, I read the RAX200 offers Dynamic QoS and the latest firmware updates the dynamic QoS database version to v1.278. Is that Broadcom's BroadStream iQoS (which I think may be the same as Trend Micro’s Intelligent Quality of Service)? Is the implementation of QoS in the RAX200 any better than what Netgear has provided in the past?

 

[lagrave]

What opensource FW is available for AX12 Rax200? Support for exFat is essential to me.

 

[psychopomp1]

The latest RAX200 firmware (1.0.2.8) released a few days ago, now adds WPA3 & 802.11ax OFDMA amongst a few other things. I've also noticed wireless speeds have increased & become much more stable, probably d/t updated wifi drivers. For anyone upgrading to 1.0.2.8, I strongly recommend doing a hard factory reset after updating and then re-configuring all settings from scratch. Otherwise you might get regular internet disconnects like I was doing (a hard reset seems to have fixed this).

https://kb.netgear.com/000061780/RAX200-Firmware-Version-1-0-2-8

Its finally performing like a $600 router

 

[owlyn]

I am on this version. I did not do a factory reset and have had no problems other than the ongoing problem of the Attached Devices function not working properly. This affects the accurate display of attached devices, customizations to device names and icons, And ultimately the ability to easily use an Access Control List.

I tested wifi using my iPhone Xr and hit about 427/39 on my 1000/30 Comcast plan, so I am quite satisfied with that.

Disclaimer: I am a beta tester for this device and received a beta version of the device for free.

 

[jonstatt]

I can only get a 160Mhz link between two of these routers on 5GHz-1. When setting 4800mbps on 5GHz-2, although the status shows correctly 100-128 being used, the second RAX200 only connects at 80Mhz even 3 feet away.

This is with one set as an AP and the other as a bridge

 

[jonstatt]

*Sigh* This thing is buggy. In Access Point mode , if you disable WMM, you can no longer connect to the WiFi at all! SSID is broadcast but you can no longer connect to it!

 

[thiggins]

*Sigh* This thing is buggy. In Access Point mode , if you disable WMM, you can no longer connect to the WiFi at all! SSID is broadcast but you can no longer connect to it!

Why would you disable WMM?
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/30938-dont-mess-with-wmm

 

[jonstatt]

Why would you disable WMM?
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/30938-dont-mess-with-wmm

I was getting some spiky pings and read this could influence it. Clearly not then but its still a bug!

Also no luck in getting a pair of these to do 160MHz at 5GHz-2 no matter what region or settings I try

 

[jonstatt]

Got a 160MHz link over 5GHz-2. No thanks to an obscure bug. I had to set 4800 for the Wireless Bridge side of the connection! And that setting is in a greyed out screen once in bridge mode!! So I had to take it out of bridge mode, fiddle with IP addresses on the PC to still connect to it. Then put it back in bridge mode. Now getting 900 speed tests over it.

 

[IAAI]

The latest RAX200 firmware (1.0.2.8) released a few days ago, now adds WPA3 & 802.11ax OFDMA amongst a few other things. I've also noticed wireless speeds have increased & become much more stable, probably d/t updated wifi drivers. For anyone upgrading to 1.0.2.8, I strongly recommend doing a hard factory reset after updating and then re-configuring all settings from scratch. Otherwise you might get regular internet disconnects like I was doing (a hard reset seems to have fixed this).

https://kb.netgear.com/000061780/RAX200-Firmware-Version-1-0-2-8

Its finally performing like a $600 router

How did you do hard reset on these routers ?