NETGEAR RAX40-100NAR Nighthawk AX4 4-Stream AX3000 Wi-Fi Router - Certified Refurbished

Only reset once in 8 months

Warning: refurbished product. You do save money but you’ll have problems with tech support due to the item being registered under the original owner’s name. The router worked extremely well for two days and then died. I had a difficult time troubleshooting the device due to the item being registered under someone else’s name. The only saving grace is that amazon stands behind this product and is sending me another unit. I will revisit this review and update my experience. As for now, spend the extra money and avoid the headache.

Edit: After installing adguard home on my network and browsing the output, it became clear what a network hog and spyware repository this piece of garbage is, so I removed one of the stars, it's going in the trash bin, and I'll never buy another Netgear product again. It's *CONSTANTLY* pinging home to multiple netgear IP addresses, and when I say constantly, I mean like thousands of times per day. This diseased contagion is off my network for good.First off, the hardware works pretty great, especially for the temporarily discounted price! But I despise the slow, buggy, intolerably annoying firmware. This irritating device *REQUIRES* you to install a privacy-invading phone app, create a netgear account, register your device with them, and only *then* does it allow you to set up the device, and only in the most minimal way. Once you go through the annoyance above, you no longer need the netgear account or phone app, unless you ever need to hard-reset the device. The direct web interface is adequate to set the device up as a WAP (which is why I bought it), but I would not want to use this thing as my main router. The firmware is far too limited, slow, and poorly implemented for it to be a useful router. At the time I bought, it was the cheapest device I could find capable of being a WiFi6 WAP, and it eventually works well in that regard once the irritation of setting it up is over. As an aside/warning, if you set this thing up as a WAP, you'll want to set up a static IP address in the firmware. I didn't, and when I connected it to my network, it obtained 3 different DHCP addresses with 3 different MAC addresses, and abandoned them all, then eventually obtained a final one it stuck with. But it only gave the DHCP server its hostname for the first attempt. So, my DNS server thinks the hostname I gave it points at the first attempt, which is abandoned. It took me some sleuthing to find the actual IP address. Also, once you set it to WAP mode, the amazingly incompetent firmware won't allow you to change any networking settings, so you can't change it to have a static IP then.Speaking of DNS, once you do get it set up, if you use the DNS name to access it "RAX35" by default, the device immediately redirects your browser to some netgear site. Only by typing in the raw IP address can you access the router config interface. I sort-of solved this by adding a CNAME to my DNS server to point "www<dot>routerlogin<dot>com" back at the router's name, and using that DNS name to access it, but that's a kludge at best.

The only aspect I don’t care for is how bright the lights are in the dark. Everything else is great.

Internet speed was around 130-150 MBPS, now it's around 320-350 MBPS when right next to the router, and 220-250 MBPS when on a second floor in my home! It's a HUGE jump right off the bat! Setup was easy, took about 15-20 minutes to get it all set up, including changing the Wireless Name and Password for 2.4G, 5G, and Guest Access Points. HOWEVER, the Ethernet Cable that came with it is not backwards compatible with my modem, so I have to use the original Ethernet Cable that came with the old router. Not a problem though! Great first impression.

Replaced an older model Netgear R6700v3 WiFi5 ac, WPA2. Used 4 WiFi networks (including 2 guest networks) to keep PCs, smartphones, smart TVs, and security cameras on separate WiFi channels, no SSID broadcast, each with strong unique passwords.WPA3 provides stronger security than older WPA2. Supports mixed network of WPA2/WPA3 WiFi n,ac,ax devices.Set up as wireless access point (AP) since I already have a DSL modem/router.Tip: I used free NirSoft WiFiInfoView software to select different WiFi channels with little or no interference from neighbors WiFi signals.Tip: I created WiFi network names ending in _nomap to opt out of listing in Google WiFi directory.Works fine. Saved money buying refurbished. Keep old router as a backup or e-cycle properly.Note: LEDs do not flicker during WiFi activity, are always on. I prefer flicker to show activity.IP address was set to 10.0.0.1, common in business, was expecting 198.162.1.1. 0r 192.168.0.1.

I wasn't going to bother with a review, I don't write many, but when I for the first time experienced a router reset itself to factory settings, I felt someone needed to know. This was a very frustrating experience as I was in the middle of work and had to figure out why all of a sudden I have no wifi and the router was no longer appearing on the list of available signals. Then I realized a new device signal was popping up and realized it was my router, which I had renamed when I originally set it up, and now my password wasn't working either. Routers seem to be buggy by default, which is very annoying. Why in 2022 have we still not figured out how to make a router that just works?

This is my second one purchased, due to my cat damaging the first. Ease of setup is great. Very good quality. I purchased a returned refurbished one. Works flawlessly