Nighthawk X8- R8500 Tri Band Quad Stream WiFi Router

[RMerlin]

BTW, Even with so many firmwares, they cannot even fix an IPv6 problem in about 1.5 years! What's worst? It used to be working! I am not sure what are those engineers focused at.

IPv6 is currently like voodoo. It sometimes work, it sometimes don't. A large portion of the blame lies on the shoulders of ISPs, who are having trouble properly implementing it in a sane way.

You won't find better luck with other manufacturer's routers either. Netgear here is also having different issues (mentioned in these forums), with different ISPs. Some of them lack a simple, sane firewall, opening your entire LAN to it. Others aren't properly implementing various RFCs related to IPv6. Short of running your own *IX box and dealing yourself with the quirks of your particular ISP, you will have a hard time finding a home gateway from any of the usual manufacturers (Asus/DLink/Netgear/TPLink) that works correctly with all ISPs... I suspect that even a business-class Cisco might be problematic if your ISP's implementation isn't "Cisco-friendly".

IPv6, in general, is a huge technological mess. It worries me about the future of the Internet. The fact that after over 10 years it's still not widespread is sign enough on how bad things are with this technology...

 

[nbjyo]

IPv6 is currently like voodoo. It sometimes work, it sometimes don't. A large portion of the blame lies on the shoulders of ISPs, who are having trouble properly implementing it in a sane way.

You won't find better luck with other manufacturer's routers either. Netgear here is also having different issues (mentioned in these forums), with different ISPs. Some of them lack a simple, sane firewall, opening your entire LAN to it. Others aren't properly implementing various RFCs related to IPv6. Short of running your own *IX box and dealing yourself with the quirks of your particular ISP, you will have a hard time finding a home gateway from any of the usual manufacturers (Asus/DLink/Netgear/TPLink) that works correctly with all ISPs... I suspect that even a business-class Cisco might be problematic if your ISP's implementation isn't "Cisco-friendly".

IPv6, in general, is a huge technological mess. It worries me about the future of the Internet. The fact that after over 10 years it's still not widespread is sign enough on how bad things are with this technology...

Yes, you are right. The IPv6 is a mess thing.

But I am also thinking if a manufacturer get into a market and said they support the technology, they should at least make sure it works with the main ISPs on that market. Or they can just not print it on the box. Otherwise I think 1.5 years should be a fair enough time for them to do it right.

Actually I have both Apple and Netgear and two local brand routers, they all working correctly without the problem.

So who is the only one I can balm on in this situation?

BTW I also contacted the A**S support many times, but they are useless.

 

[sfx2000]

IPv6, in general, is a huge technological mess. It worries me about the future of the Internet. The fact that after over 10 years it's still not widespread is sign enough on how bad things are with this technology...

Completely agree here - the best IPv6 implementation I've seen with local/last mile access is the LTE carriers - perhaps because 3GPP has a much more strict interpretation of the relevant specifications, and the carriers enforce this with the handset OEM's.

 

[badbad2000]

Pardon me for saying this - Boring is a very good thing with Router/AP's - set them up, leave them alone - patch if needed...

Agreed, I have few a**s and I always use hdd attaches on it. But it will not detect it every time I power up. I need to unplug and replug in again to detect. I don't have this issue with R8500 at all.

 

[RMerlin]

Actually I have both Apple and Netgear and two local brand routers, they all working correctly without the problem.

Read these sub-forums. Netgear has its own IPv6 problems, one of them being lack of adherence to RFCs in terms of ICMP handling. I also don't think Netgear offers any configurable IPv6 firewall, so your whole LAN is either entirely reachable over IPv6, nor not accessible at all.

They might work for YOUR setup, but for other users they don't. It goes back to what I say, where they all have problematic implementations, and different ISPs will provide different experiences.

BTW I also contacted the A**S support many times, but they are useless.

Pretty much par for the course for any home technology supplier. Those tech support are mostly for cases of "Where do I plug this?" or "How to I enable that?".

I stopped relying on any hardware tech support services a long time ago. I became very cynical since 3COM's tech support recommended defragmenting my hard disk to resolve a software issue with their USB modem.

Completely agree here - the best IPv6 implementation I've seen with local/last mile access is the LTE carriers - perhaps because 3GPP has a much more strict interpretation of the relevant specifications, and the carriers enforce this with the handset OEM's.

And probably because they handle both endpoints. So if they break something on one end, they can equally break it on the other end so they both work together

 

[sfx2000]

Apple Airports have issues in the US with the big Cable Companies - with ipv6, there's so many options available, and seems like big cable has chosen solutions that break a lot of other implementations.

 

[deadfreak]

After many months still no VPN client functionality :/. I wonder when RND will give this router some love on the stock firmware.

 

[monfster]

Still any word on MU-MIMO? It's been promised for almost a year now.

 

[NETGEAR Guy]

MU-MIMO is on the product roadmap currently going through SQA...

 

[gunder]

Did Netgear come out with a new version of the R8500? I was just reading this review and realized the the unit they have looks a little different. It doesn't have the humps on the top but has a blue wavy line. This is the first time I've seen this.

Here's a link to the review:
http://www.wegotserved.com/2016/09/19/review-netgear-r8500-nighthawk-x8-tri-band-wi-fi-router/

 

[mediatrek]

Did Netgear come out with a new version of the R8500? I was just reading this review and realized the the unit they have looks a little different. It doesn't have the humps on the top but has a blue wavy line. This is the first time I've seen this.

Here's a link to the review:
http://www.wegotserved.com/2016/09/19/review-netgear-r8500-nighthawk-x8-tri-band-wi-fi-router/

That is the R8500 casing design used in the European market. I believe the author of the article you linked to is from France. You can see this design used in the marketing video from Netgear that is linked to on the product pages of the European countries:

 

[NETGEAR Guy]

There have been 2 R8500 housing styles released. One is a "wavy" top housing and the other is a "flat" top housing.

The wavy housing is sold in US, Canada and China regions while the flat housing is sold in all other regions.

 

[gunder]

There have been 2 R8500 housing styles released. One is a "wavy" top housing and the other is a "flat" top housing.

The wavy housing is sold in US, Canada and China regions while the flat housing is sold in all other regions.

OK, thanks guys for the clarification.

 

[Giulio Magnifico]

There have been 2 R8500 housing styles released. One is a "wavy" top housing and the other is a "flat" top housing.

The wavy housing is sold in US, Canada and China regions while the flat housing is sold in all other regions.

Thanks for the info, but why there are two different styles?! It's only a cosmetic behavior or due to a legal term from different countries?

Just curiosity, thanks!

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the info, but why there are two different styles?! It's only a cosmetic behavior or due to a legal term from different countries?

Just curiosity, thanks!

I'm sure it's just marketing (cosmetics). It would be fun if the US, Canada and China demanded 'style' along with 'substance' though (legally). But looking around at other designs, that is definitely not the case!

 

[Giulio Magnifico]

I'm sure it's just marketing (cosmetics). It would be fun if the US, Canada and China demanded 'style' along with 'substance' though (legally). But looking around at other designs, that is definitely not the case!

I think the same. But it's also curious that Neatgear is spending moneys to make a different case...I think is the first time I see a different design for US/EU market in a router... usually there's a different model for different markets but only the top case...weird!

 

[NETGEAR Guy]

monfster...new R8500 release posted yesterday: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/31251

 

[badbad2000]

finally Supports MU-MIMO.

 

[doubleroll]

Any chance of a new review with Mu-MIMO enabled?

 

[thiggins]

Any chance of a new review with Mu-MIMO enabled?

I am waiting for NETGEAR to send another sample. I have also confirmed with them that it is ok to bypass the active antennas for the MU-MIMO test.