Netgear Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 5 GHz router review, is it worth it?

The Netgear Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 (RAX43) router released in 2020. It is powered by Broadcom BCM6750 @ 1.5 GHz chipset, 512 MB of RAM and 256 MB of flash. The AX4200 router is compatible with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax standards, and the maximum speed that you can get with Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 is 574 + 3603 Mbps. The router has 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN and 4 x 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN ports.

The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 is a popular router that offers an exceptional networking experience with its advanced features and cutting-edge technology. The USB connectors on the Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router add versatility to your network by enabling file sharing, media streaming, printer sharing, and other USB-enabled functionality. Netgear offers good customer support, including firmware updates, documentation, and technical assistance.

Table of contents:

• Netgear Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 specifications
• Netgear Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 pictures

Netgear Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 (RAX43) specifications

Body

If you have limited space available for your router, such as in a small apartment or office, the dimensions can determine whether it can fit in the designated area or not. It's important to consider the physical size of the router, including its height, width, and depth, to ensure it can be accommodated in your space. The weight of a router can be a consideration in certain situations, but it is generally not as crucial as other factors such as performance, features, and compatibility.

System

The Broadcom BCM6750 @ 1.5 GHz CPU, combined with other factors such as RAM capacity and firmware optimization, determines the overall performance and responsiveness of the router. The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 comes with 512 MB of RAM. The amount of RAM in a router can impact its performance and capacity to handle concurrent operations and traffic. Higher RAM capacity allows for better multitasking, larger routing tables, and improved overall performance.

The 256 MB flash memory in the router serves as the storage medium for the router's firmware. It is a non-volatile memory that retains its data even when power is removed from the device. The Netgear often releases firmware updates to enhance the router's functionality, improve security, fix bugs, and add new features. Firmware updates can provide performance improvements, compatibility with new devices or protocols, and address vulnerabilities. The Netgear provides the appropriate power supply (12 V / 2.5 A) that matches the voltage requirements of the router. The power supply unit is designed to deliver the correct voltage to the router, ensuring its proper operation.

Network

Like many modern routers, the Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 supports many network standards too. The majority of networking equipment, including routers, switches, and other network devices, is designed to support IPv4. The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router is also compatible with IPv6. IPv6 provides a significantly larger address space and offers various enhancements and improvements over IPv4.

The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 has 4 x 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN and 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN ports. The LAN ports of Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router are numbered and are used to establish wired connections between the router and devices such as computers, gaming consoles, smart TVs, network-attached storage (NAS) devices, and other network-enabled devices. This router has Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, which provides data transfer speeds of up to 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps) over Ethernet connections.

The WAN port on a router stands for "Wide Area Network" port. It is used to connect the router to the external network, typically provided by an internet service provider (ISP). The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router supports Gigabit speed on its WAN port, that can support speeds up to 1000 Mbps. This router ensures that you can fully utilize high-speed internet connections provided by your ISP. The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 comes with OpenVPN support. OpenVPN is a full-featured SSL VPN solution which implements OSI layer 2 or 3 secure network extension using the industry standard SSL/TLS protocol.

Wireless

This router has 4 x 3 dBi, RP-SMA antennas. Many modern routers feature multiple antennas and use Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology. This technology enables simultaneous transmission and reception of multiple data streams, increasing overall throughput and improving the Wi-Fi performance. This router is 2.4 GHz capable. The 2.4GHz band refers to the portion of the radio spectrum between 2.400 and 2.4835 gigahertz. This frequency range is unlicensed and globally available for various wireless applications, including Wi-Fi.

This router operates on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands, allowing you to connect devices to the most suitable band based on their capabilities and requirements. The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 routers typically offer improved range and coverage compared to previous standards. They can transmit signals more effectively through obstacles, resulting in better connectivity in larger homes or offices.

The AX4200 refers to the maximum combined data transfer rate supported by the router across all Wi-Fi bands. The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 is capable of a maximum throughput speed of 574 + 3603 Mbps. The real-world speed of a Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router is typically lower than its theoretical maximum speed. The maximum TX power of Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router is 30 dBm. Adjusting the TX power of a router can be useful in situations where you want to optimize the Wi-Fi signal strength and coverage.

The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router offers several security protocols: WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA3, WPS. The WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) was the first security protocol for Wi-Fi networks but is now considered weak and easily compromised. It uses a static encryption key and has known vulnerabilities, so it is no longer recommended for securing Wi-Fi networks. The WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) was introduced as an improvement over WEP and provides stronger security. If WPA3 is not available, WPA2-Personal with AES encryption is still considered secure.

The WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 3) is the latest Wi-Fi security protocol designed to address vulnerabilities and strengthen security for wireless networks. It improves encryption, introduces stronger authentication protocols, and protects against brute-force attacks. The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router offers WPS. The WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) provides a simplified and convenient method for connecting devices to a Wi-Fi network. Instead of manually entering the Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password, users can use the WPS feature to establish a connection with the push of a button or by entering a PIN. Once the guest network is set up on your Netgear Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router, your guests can connect to it using the specified SSID and password. They will have internet access, while being separated from your private network.

Connectivity

USB ports can offer additional functionality depending on the router's capabilities. The USB 3 ports provide a fast interface for external storage with data transfer rates of up to 4.8 Gbps. The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router has print server functionality. With a USB print server, you can manage printer settings, monitor print queues, and control access to the printer from a centralized interface. This can simplify printer management and administration tasks. The Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router allows you to schedule automated backups of your important data to the connected USB storage device.

Administration

The Netgear router setup panel is accessed through a web browser. Connect your computer to the Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router via Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable. In the address bar of the web browser, type in the 192.168.1.1 IP address. If you are unable to log in to the setup panel of your Netgear router, performing a reset can be a helpful troubleshooting step. It is highly recommended to change the default password of your Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 router after the initial setup. If you forget the new password in the future, you may need to perform a factory reset on the router to revert to the default settings.

The specifications above are based on the official data published by the manufacturer, but we also take user reviews into consideration. If you found an error or something lacking in the specifications above for the Netgear Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6, then don’t hesite and signal the problem to us.

Netgear Nighthawk AX5 Dual-Band WiFi 6 (RAX43) pictures

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