NETGEAR XRM570 Nighthawk Pro Gaming Wi-Fi Router and Mesh Wi-Fi System with DumaOS

I’ve had this router and mesh combo in the house for a fortnight now and after a bit of difficulty with initial setup, all is working great. I’ll break down the review into different sections.Background. I have a FTTC VDSL (BT) line that runs into the house, max 42mbps download and 11mbps upload. Current contract is with Plusnet fibre, previously BT, so I have both routers. The problem with that setup was the signal kept cutting out at random times (likely when the LAN was under load), randomly rebooting and black spots in certain areas of the house. I have 20+ devices connected to the network and a Hikvision NVR so the capabilities of the router is important. Tried both of the routers supplied by ISPs but both failed. Ordered a TP Link AC1600 which worked a little better in terms of range but still, some random resets and dropouts happened. The main issue was that the port forwarding of the Hikvision NVR would not work, after many updates and changes. So, a bigger and better router was needed.In comes the XRM570. The budget is significantly more than the TP Link router (over double at the time, at £255) but it comes with the mesh extender to give better overall coverage. My house is a 4 bed detached, with the router location in a central spot on the ground floor... so on the outer edges of the house the reception is limited.Initial reaction: huge piece of kit. It's big in terms of size, but bigger the better right? The router was easy to setup - 4 antennas screwed in and RJ45 cable into the WAN port. Then comes the first issue I encountered.Unfortunately, I had assumed that the PN or BT router had modem-only/bridging modes but they don't. Unfortunately this can cause some networking issues within the network which I was able to bypass temporarily before the long term solution was made. Googled a bit and the only real answer was to purchase an individual modem - so I ordered a BT Openreach FTTC modem from [insert popular auction site] which can be found for £12-14. I had considered returning the XRM570 and purchasing the Nighthawk D7800 but then there's no DUMAOS, and when packaged with a mesh extender, it came in more than all the individual pieces of kit altogether.Temporary solution. Connect the PN router from the filter to DSL port, and set the router with my Plusnet login. Set the router to 192.168.1.X as the IP, with wifi bands switched off and DHCP on (tried turning this off and no internet connectivity worked). Other settings like firewalls etc OFF as I wanted the XR500 to handle all that. LAN cable from port 1 to the WAN port of the XR500. As it's technically on a different network, I had to set the XR500 to 192.168.0.X, so a different network to the PN router. This effectively causes a double NAT, reducing efficiency of your connection (think of it as having to pass through 2 toll booths on the motorway instead of 1). I set up the mesh extender in the same room (just turn on and add it to the network as per instructions) and then moved it to my Hikvision NVR. The NVR didn't work still as it had a static IP and default gateway linked to the PN router (different IP networks), but this will be resolved once the modem arrives.Final solution. Once the modem came, I replaced the PN router and plugged in the cables. Connected via LAN into the XR500 and added my PN username and password, clicked Apply and it connected to the internet. I updated the IP to 192.168.1.X and in doing so, the Hikvision NVR was able to be detected on the network. I was then able to put that in a DMZ and add port forwarding rules for the NVR and everything connects back up to the Hikvision-connect app.So far, no dropouts, consistent speeds throughout the day and excellent range in all corners of the house and garden.I couldn't recommend this package enough as it has solved all the teething issues I was experiencing before. With households needing more and more IP addresses due to smart devices, it's quite important to have a network system that can handle the traffic and bandwidth wisely, without causing any significant delays.Other points of note:-DUMAOS is brilliant, I love the amount of control you can have on the network. There is every setting you need for a normal household, including restricting certain devices any internet access at specific times (i.e. stop your kids' devices from using the internet after 9pm)-Best to set up the router with separate banding (2.4ghz and 5ghz) and only one band for the guest network.

Purchased in Oct 2020 and installed Jan 2021.Reviewed after 5 months of useThe router needs an additional modem so make sure you have one and factor one into your set up once you've decided you deal with this devices pro's and con's.Modems are hard to come by nowerdays because most devices are router modem all in one devices...So it works and for 4 months worked very well. Then firmware updates to the device rendered one port unusable. Just so happens that the warranty period for support has expired so in order to receive any help their business model means you have to PAY. For a £400 router and a company the size of Netgear this simply takes the pi$$.The app that you use to controll, manage, diagnose and get support is absolute junk (just read the app reviews on the app store)!It's constantly dead, crashes, won't detect devices won't diagnose the product it can't find on the network you paid £400 for...!Look, I'm sure the device didn't turn to crap over night, but the SUPPORT when you have an issue just isn't there.It's not plug and play, it's not intuitive to someone with limited computer skills.When it works... its great.When it doesn't it's a £400 brick with Netgear stamped on the front.***Edit***After a further month of use the wireless extender has completely died... entire package returned and refunded...!!!Let's see what Asus can offer in the same bracket...

Instant difference in my wireless network, wifi now reaches to beyond the back of the house with a strong signal. Only to be improved further by the additional Netgear extender. Simple setup and easy to use app highlights number of connected devices and allows for easy editing of device names. So much more capabilities yet to play with including the QOS tweaking and country selective server options. 5*

The extender broke within a week and it took 4 days of dealing with Netgear support to discover the hardware had failed so I had to return the entire set for a refund.Pros1) The OS is nice, much nicer than standard router configuration options2) You can change many settings without a rebootCons1) extender is a pain to setup2) being an extender, your phone won't just switch to the stronger signal and can stay connected to the weaker signal even though the extender is closer with a stronger signal3) expensive given 1 and 2 in the cons list