- Brand/ Model Number: Netgear/ RAX120-100NAS
- Connectivity Technology/ Frequency Band Class: Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet/ Dual Band
- Processor/ Memory/ Storage: 2.2GHz quad-core processor/ 512MB/ 1GB flash
- Data Transfer Rate: 6 Gb per second
- WI-FI Speed: Up to 6Gbps (1.2Gbps + 4.8Gbps)
- Ethernet & USB Ports: 1 x Gigabit Ethernet WAN port + 4 x Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports + 1 x 5G/2.5/1G Multi Gig Ethernet Ports, Supports Port Aggregation/ 2 x USB 3.0 ports
- Wi-Fi Range/ No of Devices: Coverage up to 3500 sq. ft./ Bandwidth for 30+ wifi devices
- Buttons: 1 x Wi-Fi On/Off +1 x LED On/Off +1 x Reset
- Number of Antennas: 8 antennas, up to 12 Wi-Fi streams
- Wireless Type : 802.11n, 802.11ax, 802.11b, 802.11ac, 802.11g
- Network Security/ Internet Plan Bandwidth Supported: Netgear Armor, WPA2/WPA3, DoS, Double Firewall/ Up to 2Gbps
OUR VERDICT
The Netgear Nighthawk AX12 12-Stream WiFi 6 Router (RAX120) is a powerful, if expensive, the router that uses the latest 802.11ax technology to deliver fast throughput and file-transfer speeds.
With the Netgear Nighthawk RAX120, one thing is clear: The era of multi-gig has arrived, and it’s beautiful. This router is a great-looking piece of hardware that will take your home network up a big notch. It’s expensive, but it delivers.
Highlights main features:
1. WiFi 6 Stream Everything Fast – Simultaneously stream uninterrupted movies, games, video calls, or download/transfer files at 6Gbps Wi-Fi speeds.
2. Get faster speeds, even more power – Optimal for devices built to support Wi-Fi 6: PlayStation 5, iPhone 11 & 12, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13 & Mac Mini, Ultra Notebook, Samsung S10, and more S20.
3. Works with all Internet providers – replace your existing Wi-Fi router (separate modem or gateway required). Compatible with any Internet service provider up to 2Gbps including Cable, Satellite, Fiber, DSL, etc.
4. Easy to set up and manage – Connects to your existing cable modem and sets up and customizes in minutes with the Nighthawk app – Easily manage your Wi-Fi settings at the device and network level, your Internet speed Test it, view speed history, and monitor data usage.
5. Advanced Cyber Threat Protection – Netgear Armor powered by Bitdefender, the world’s leading cybersecurity protects all your home devices from viruses, malware, and data theft with a 30-day free trial.
6. Wired Ethernet Ports – Plugin computers, game consoles, streaming players, and other nearby wired devices with 4 x 1G and 1 x 1/2.5/5G Ethernet ports.
7. USB Connection – Share a storage drive with any connected device and create personal cloud storage to access from anywhere using 2 x 3.0 USB ports.
8. Equipped with advanced technology – 2.2GHz quad-core processor, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, Dynamic QoS, 1024-QAM, Smart Connect to name a Wi-Fi, designed with Beamforming technology and Amazon Alexa Voice Control. Supports WPA2/WPA3 wireless security protocols. Includes guest Wi-Fi access, DOS, firewall, VPN, and more.
9. Simultaneously stream everything at epic speed – now you can enjoy uninterrupted movies, gaming, video calls, and more on all your devices at the same time.
10. Connect a home full of Wi-Fi devices without compromise – The RAX120’s 12 WiFi streams deliver high performance and reliability for up to 30 smart home devices.
11. WiFi 6 delivers the fastest speeds for your needs – Faster WiFi speeds of up to 6Gbps let you download, stream and transfer 5X faster than ever.
12. Supports Internet plans up to 2Gbps – The RAX120 is one of the first routers to support multi-gig Internet plans of up to 2Gbps through the aggregation of two Gigabit Ethernet ports. Requires a compatible fiber or cable modem that supports multi-gig Internet speeds (sold separately).
13. Easy Setup and Management – The Nighthawk app makes it a snap to set up your router and get more out of your WiFi, including Internet speed tests, remote access to your network, Internet pausing, and more.
Planning to buy this model? Click the Button below to Check the Netgear Nighthawk AX12 12-Stream WiFi 6 Router (RAX120) – AX6000 Price on Amazon.
Netgear Nighthawk AX12 (RAX120) WiFi 6 Router AX6000 – Reviews
Today we’re unboxing and setting up a wi-fi router so this particular one’s from Netgear and this is the nighthawk AX12.
So let’s take a quick look around the packaging this comes in a large box picture of the router here.
Features
Maximum network capacity for wi-fi devices 5 gigabits per second ethernet port for faster-wired connectivity.
Looking at the side here four times better performance than an ac router with more wi-fi for more devices up to Eight simultaneous wi-fi streams maximize range.
So it says actually has 8 antennas built into it to give coverage indoors and out AX optimized powerful processors 64-bit 2.2 gigahertz quad-core processor, multi-gig ethernet port.
Smart Connect intelligently selects the fastest wi-fi band for every device one wi-fi name for the entire home.
Nighthawk app easily sets up your router and gets more out of your wi-fi. AX wi-fi supports all current wi-fi devices and voice-controlled by Amazon Alexa and Google assistants that should be an interesting one to try out.
Technical specification
Coming around the other side just shows the package content and the technical specification here.
Security details over here.
And system requirements coming around the back here.
Shows a rear view of the router and an interesting point to highlight link aggregation ability to aggregate, 2 gigabit LAN ports for faster file transfers not seen that available on other routers.
So it should be an interesting one to test out as well so let’s open it up and see what you get in the packaging.
Unboxing
Okay, so you know the routine I’ve laid out everything you get in the packaging so let me quickly go for the items one by one.
In terms of documentation, you get all this with there so details on updating the firmware safety and software update information together with a quick start guide which is multi-language.
You get an ethernet cable flat cable style to this 1.8 meters in length and build quality is good on this.
you get a power adapter the output is 19 volts 3.16 amps and it’s a big chunky adapter here cable length on this is 1.6 meters build quality of the cable seems okay.
And it’s a dc connector on there you get two adapters with this and one’s for EU, the UK the other one’s for India and it’s just a matter of taking it and sliding it into position there you go, and if you want to take it out again press the button and pull it up.
Would it be nice if the power adapter was smaller I think this is just nuts having it this big and hanging off a plug like this?
And finally, the wi-fi router so quite a large size to this so in terms of dimensions just to give you an idea 22 centimeters 29 centimeters across there 24 and a half at the bottom there and wingspan.
So this is a bit of a futuristic effect it looks like a spaceship you could say and the wingspan coming down there we’re talking 17 centimeters so pretty large.
And you can see the plastic protecting it so let’s peel that off so there we have it opened up and you can see there nighthawk you can see a fan over here and a grill for ventilation purposes.
Two buttons over here coming around the side if you wanted to close the side bits up you’d have to lift it up.
You can see four wires exposed there so that’s four for the aerial on this side and four on the other side so eight aerials in total.
And just to show slots into place if you push like that is a little bit flimsy not something you’d really be touching often same on the other side.
Coming around the back you can see some vents on here two holes for wall mounting and four rubber pads on there. coming in close you can see some of the details on there.
Ports
Looking at the back you’ve got an On-Off button for the LEDs so that’s quite nice if you didn’t want it flashing away you can turn them off then you’ve got four ports only two can be aggregated together to get a combined port.
Internet port here and this is where you plug in a cable going from your existing internet router plug it in there then you’ve got a Multi-gig port here Reset point. Two USB ports and a Power button and DC connection port.
Design
General build quality is fine strong plastic all the way around just keep in mind the flaps at the side I think in terms of looks it looks pretty cool futuristic ufo sort of style to it.
Setting up device
let’s make a start at setting up this device so I’ve got the dc power connected and the internet connections going to my existing router.
How to Configure Netgear Nighthawk AX12 (RAX120) WiFi 6 Gaming Router from Smartphone step by step setup guide using Nighthawk app?
Now coming over to my mobile, if I click on the play store the app we’re after if I search for Netgear is Netgear nighthawk so I’ve already got installed.
If I click open agree to the terms and conditions needs access to location services so we’ll allow that allow only while using the app.
Login or create a Netgear account to get started let’s click get started and now let me set up my account in the background.
I’ve entered in my credentials let me click login two-step verification never ask me again you can set that up if you want but I don’t need it for now.
Asking me if I want to save my password to google smart lock I’ll say never to that for now. touch id maybe later with that do you want to install a new Netgear product yes to that get started, wi-fi router.
Next, we need to scan in the Qr code that was on the plastic just over here so let me do that now to allow access to the camera.
Unplug your internet modem remove your and insert any backup batteries plug your modem back in and wait for it to power on next to that next is saying connect the cable from your router to the nighthawk.
I’ve already done that so Next to that and let’s power on the device there you go it’s successfully connected personalize your settings let’s personalize your network settings next to that.
So this is the SSID of the router and the password for it just click Next to that. next, it’s asking me to update the admin password on the device let me enter in a new password Next to that.
Touch id I’ll say Maybe later, security questions Next to this firmware update required so let’s Update that now update successful Next to that it’s connecting to the router now.
Says it’s up and running let’s click next extended warranty and support I’ll click Maybe later and there we have it up and running so let me briefly show you around the options on here so you can see the internet online.
Then you’ve got device manager you can see the device is connected to this if I click got it thanks. there you can see my phone connected on there coming back from their security and there we have it.
So you can see here armor expires on the 23rd of September and it’s a page four service if I click on there. you can see the cost of it here so it seems to be a yearly subscription and it’s 44.99.
Coming back to internet speed if I click on that we can do a test speed test has completed and the download speed is 74 meg and the upload is 19 meg.
So this is the speed I’m getting directly from my service provider and I’m pretty close to the router anyway so no surprise there in terms of performance.
By clicking on history you can see a history of the speed test that we run back from here wi-fi analytics.
Let’s click on that scanning time one second and it’s showing the signal strength on here. so it’s going to be good I’m literally right next to it.
Coming across there you can do a test in different locations see the other wi-fi networks nearby coming across their channel interference so it’s showing which is the best channel for this.
Channel graph it shows the different wi-fi channels coming across again signal graph there and that’s it so back from here.
Wi-Fi settings if I come in there got a smart connect and here you can see the two bands available both are under the same name so 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz and coming in each one you can actually rename it.
So if you wanted distinct names for the different bands you could do that if you didn’t do that then it would just try to connect to the closest one or the one that’s stronger so coming back from there.
And if I turn on smart connect then you won’t have those options to rename these so now coming back from here.
Guest wi-fi so you can’t turn on a guest wi-fi as well at the moment it’s not enabled but it can be enabled here for both 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz coming back from there.
Traffic meter so you can enable that you can monitor your traffic going in terms of uploads and downloads back from there.
And you’ve got support now coming over here your bell icon if I click on there just tells you armor is active and the protection level on there coming back from here.
And that’s all the options you have available you’ve seen for yourself in terms of setup it’s very easy to set up.
Signal strength performance
Next, let’s test out signal strength performance so you can see at the moment it’s showing amazing because I’m right next to it literally.
But if I walk away now and what I’m going to do I’m going to walk to the back of my garden and if you look at the distance there we’re probably saying about 80 feet from this distance here.
Where I’m at the top so if I now start walking away you just keep an eye on that signal strength meter. so I’m one floor down now and now it’s going to okay, so I go two floors down.
If I now walk out of the house, it’s dropped now, it’s still showing okay, there you go still showing okay, so in between not good and okay if I look up.
That’s where the router is coming down there you go so that’s pretty good now looking at the wi-fi on my phone now you can see there’s literally just one bar there now coming over to youtube got a video here now if I play it.
And let’s check the quality on here it’s at 4k maximize that and let’s see how it does at this distance there you go one bar and performance is pretty good.
And if I now point out just to show I’m still around the same location right at the back so approximately 90 to 100 feet I guess away from the router and there you go 4k youtube video being streamed and no issues at all with it.
I can see no buffering no lag on there just runs smoothly along, let’s perform a speed test from the back of the garden to see what the performance is like on the internet.
So if I click to go on here there you go performance-wise download is 72.4 megabits per second and upload is 18.5 megabits per second so still very similar so you’re not really losing hardly anything with this.
File transfer speed test
Next just to show the router in action with a local NAS server so I’ve got my Synology now server just over here it’s plugged in directly into the router.
Now coming over to my android phone I’ve mapped to drive to the NAS server and there’s a share on there called team geek street if I go in there we’ve got an mp4 file that is 5.27 gig in size so if I copy that.
And now we go to the local storage on my phone and now if we hit paste there you go super fast transfer rate you can see for yourself 38 megabits per second.
And it’s saying time remaining two minutes so that’s pretty quick let’s see it complete. there you go that’s copied across just over two minutes to copy that across.
Now I’m back in my garden let’s try the same test again so if I copy the video here and we paste it locally onto my mobile there you go so getting about 12 megabits per second so it’s saying six minutes to complete.
There you go copied across we’ve got about 17 to 18 megabits per second transfer rate so you can see the difference still transferring at a reasonable speed.
What I’ve now done for the next test I’ve connected to my Netgear ORBI and I’ve disconnected the two satellite speakers so the mesh network’s no longer valid.
So the main router is in the same location and you can see now there’s barely a signal in this same location and now coming back and in youtube.
If I try to do a search it doesn’t even get a signal here so you can see for yourself how strong the signal is coming from the nighthawk.
As a comparison let me perform the same test of copying a file from the NAS server but this time via my Netgear ORBI which I’m currently using.
So if I drop this down just to show I’m connected to the ORBI there now if I select the file click copy and go to my local storage on my phone and I click paste so performance is good locally as well.
So you’ve got to be pretty close to the device to get this sort of performance on there but you can see for yourself even on the ORBI it’s good.
There you go the copy is completed performance is good only because literally I’m quite close to the router here.
Router Highlights
Now just to note you’ve seen for yourself performance at a distance with the nighthawk is much more superior with the Eight antennas.
Obviously, the range is much further we can stream easily 4k content from youtube transfer files as well easily whereas on the ORBI there was a limitation in range.
Now the device has two interesting options the first one being aggregate. so link aggregation is where you can aggregate two ethernet ports together to provide fault tolerance.
So if one port fails or one network card in your server for example fails you’ve got the other one to fail back on the other one is the fact you can aggregate the links.
So you have the increased bandwidth using both ports so throughput using that method will be much faster and that’s configured by the web interface on the device.
The next one is the multi-gig ethernet port now that’s an interesting port to have on here only because you can use it as a standard port so you can just plug in your laptop and use it directly off there.
And it actually supports multiple speeds so 100 megabits per second one gigabit per second 2.5 gigabits per second and 5 gigabits per second.
Now the reason for this port is if you had devices like a network switch or a NAS server that had connectivity higher than one gigabit this will allow you to connect it up to the device and make better use of performance from the device so you get better throughput from there.
Nothing, in addition, to configure for this you literally just plug in, and away you go a little bit different from a standard router the fact you have that sort of option available and it’s nice to put that on there.
The next thing worth showing is the led light you can see the lights on on the device at the moment and now if I turn them off you can see all the lights have turned off except for the power indicator there.
Now looking at the top of the router there you’ve got two buttons so if I zoom in button at the top here is your WPS button and the button below there is just to enable you to turn the wi-fi on and off.
So if I hold on to it for two seconds there you go it will turn off indicating the wi-fi is completely shut down and if I hold on to it now for about two seconds let go of that comes back on again it’s a nice bit of functionality you can just have a cut switch just turn off your wi-fi quite easily.
Google home mini setup
Next, let me show how to get voice control functionality working with google home so I’ve got my google home mini set up over here.
If I go to the nighthawk app first, click on the home icon settings anywhere access so you just need to enable that first of all.
Next, we need to link in our Netgear account with the google device so if I initiate voice control on my android device talks to Netgear. Google home voice – “before you can use Netgear I need to link your Netgear account to google“ yes do that.
There you go we’ve got a dialog up here so let me enter in my details now let me click sign in and we need to click allow to allow access. Google home voice – “great your Netgear account is now linked to google“.
Google home voice – “let’s get Netgear the Netgear app helps you configure your Netgear router or ORBI wi-fi system here are some things you can ask for“ “turn on the guest network” “turn off the guest network” “reboot the router“ “what are my wi-fi settings?” “what is my guest network password” to close the session say “close” what would you like me to do?“.
So there you go it’s Linked it now and you can see the different options you have available on here, so if I unmute my google device Google home voice – “The microphone is back on“.
I can say OkGoogle turn on the guest network, (Google home voice – “okay, for that you might want to talk to Netgear, want to give them a try“) YES.
(Google home voice –“here’s Netgear I will enable the guest network Netgear guest and email you the guest wifi credentials, do you want to proceed“) YES.
(Google home voice – “Okay I will enable your guest network“) okay, so I’ve received an email and it says your guest network is enabled a wi-fi network is Netgear guest your wi-fi network does not have a password.
Let’s test out some other commands so you can say OkGoogle ask Netgear what are my wi-fi settings.
(Google home voice – “I will send you an email with your wi-fi settings“). Ask Netgear OkGoogle what is my guest network password, (Google home voice – “your guest network does not have a password“).
There you go some cool functionality available here via voice control and again the way it’s working is working off your own voice so it identifies with your voice and then it does the action involved if you had another person trying it won’t work.
So the only thing to note is if the other person had a similar voice to yourself then they’ll be able to do this but again if it’s sending details over to an email then obviously it’s going to go to your email.
Amazon Alexa voice control device setup
Let me show the same functionality on the amazon voice control device it’s coming over to my android phone so the thing to note is obviously remote access is enabled and the same applies for the amazon device.
So if I go to the amazon app here go to more skills and games and we search for Netgear.
There’s a skill there if I enable that for use next, I need to enter in my credentials so let me do that click sign in allowing access here and there you go it’s successfully linked now.
So now if I unmute my device I can say Alexa tell Netgear to turn on guest wi-fi. (Alexa voice – “I will enable the guest network Netgear guest and send the network credentials to the Alexa app, do you want to proceed“) YES.
(Alexa voice – “okay, I will enable the guest network“) there you go as simple as that to get configured on the amazon device.
So commands wisely the same applies for both devices and an interesting bit of functionality not seen on other routers out there can be useful.
Obviously, you had guests over you just want to enable it for a little while you can just say the command out rather than messing around with the app and once they’re gone you can just disable it again there you go an excellent bit of functionality here.
Okay, so you’ve seen the unboxing and setup of this Netgear nighthawk AX12 wi-fi 6 router very simple to set up and configure I use the android app to get this set up just a few steps and you’re ready to go with this.
Performance-wise very impressive was curious what it was like to have a wi-fi six router and I don’t think it fails to disappoint.
Signal strength-wise it’s pretty impressive the fact you’ve got 8 antennas the four on each side.
The range is pretty good as well so I was at about 90 to 100 feet away from this and I was getting one bar and even with that I was getting good performance.
I was able to easily stream a 4k video from youtube without any sort of buffering or lag on there I’ve compared it with my Netgear ORBI which I’m currently using and you saw for yourself performance is much better.
An interesting bit of functionality on this one the fact it has the multi-gig Ethernet LAN port and the fact you’ve got the ability to aggregate two of the ports together to provide additional throughput between two devices.
Local performance with the router is really good but you have to keep in mind that the performance you have with your service provider your internet service provider is quite key here.
So as long as you’ve got high bandwidth there, so high download rates, and high upload rates it’s going to be pretty good.
If you didn’t and you had a lot of people on your wi-fi network it’s going to suffer and you’re not really going to gain anything by getting this other than a better range on this.
If you had a local NAS server and you were looking for improved wi-fi performance speeds then this is an ideal solution for that obviously with the faster technology here you’ll get better transfer rates locally.
So I hope it’s helped anyone thinking of purchasing click on the button below.
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