The Netgear AC 1750 Dual Band Gigabit (R6300) is a popular choice for a high end Wireless Router. It has many features that make managing your home network an easy task. Will you get what you pay for when you buy this router? Cautionista did a thorough research on lesser known aspects of this Netgear router and here's what we found:- Guest Network feature is missing, not able to configure it from the GUI.
- Wireless G 2.4 GHz range is less compared to older Netgear model N900 (WNDR4500). However, the 5 GHz band has good range.
- The green power LED started blinking after power on. This indicated firmware corruption which cannot be recovered, so the router was returned to the place of purchase. The firmware corruption happened even with the replacement router.
- The router doesn't maintain a stable wireless connection when configured as an Access Point.
- Network Genie doesn't seem to detect that there is an Internet Connection, even though the computer is able to access the internet when connected directly to the router using an Ethernet Cable.
- The DNS server settings are lost after around 30 minutes of operation.
- Wireless G connection drops constantly, and also freezes up the laptop. Older Netgear Wireless router model N900 (WNDR4500) works fine with the same laptop.
- If using multiple R6300's to extend the home network, they can be operated only in Wireless G 54 Mbps max mode, and not Wireless N or AC. Also, only the weak WEP authentication is supported in the extension mode, not the stronger WPA mode.
To buy or not to buy ?
Even with these drawbacks, the Netgear AC 1750 Dual Band Gigabit R6300 Wireless router is a good choice if you don't require it to be used as an Access Point or to extend your home network using multiple of these.
- The Guest Network feature may become available as a future firmware update, if you are willing to wait.
- If you need good Wireless G network range, go with the older Netgear Wireless Router Model N900 (WNDR4500).
- If you purchase the R6300 from reputable retailers like Amazon, you may return the router to them in the event that it's firmware gets corrupted (flashing green power LED).
