Netgear R7000 – Insane wireless performance

I have been running a WRT320N wireless router for the past few years. It has been rock solid and had no problem handling my 60/60mbit internet connection when using wired clients. The router was not so great at the wireless speed though. I have been running custom DD-WRT firmware on the router, because I like all of the customizations and possibilities it gives.

I decided it was time for look for a new router with good wifi. I live in an apartment complex so the air is crowded with accesspoints running in the 2.4ghz range. When checking the 5ghz range I did not find any other wireless networks. I eventually came out with the following requirements:

– Dual Band router. It should do 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ at the same time.

– Support all wireless generations B/G/A/N/AC

– Work stable with DD-WRT firmware

– Gigabit Switch

After a little research I quickly discovered the Netgear R7000. It was the number one router on smallnetbuilder.com in the AC1900 category. I moved on to the DD-WRT firmware and people stated it was stable with the “kong” builds. By looking at the specs and the forum this seemed like the perfect fit. I decided to give it a go and bought it right away.

When the router arrived the first thing I did was to flash it with DD-WRT Kong Build 24200. It was extremely simple, done through the web interface.

I configured the wireless networks and created:

– One 2.4 ghz network in “mixed mode”

– One 5 ghz network in “N/AC” mode

I then decided to test the wireless speed on both with speedtest.net. On the 5ghz network I instantly pulled 60mbit down and up! Hurrah! Finally the internet was my limitation and not the wireless network. I tried connecting to the 2.4ghz and I did not see the same performance. As I mentioned my neighbourhood is extremely crowded with wireless network and this hurts performance.

I then tried to copy some files from my local synology nas to my laptop and I experienced 20MB/sec! On my old router I used to see 4MB/sec on a very good day.

All in all, if you are looking for great wireless performance and something highly customizable but stable, then look no further than to the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and flash it with DD-WRT