Netgear D6200 review

If you’re after a small, inconspicuous router to sit in the corner of your sitting room, the Netgear D6200 is not for you. It’s a rectangular black wedge a little larger than hardback book and sits upright on an integrated stand. It’s a little expensive, but you get a lot of features. The D6200 supports 802.11ac 5GHz Wi-Fi with a theoretical maximum throughput of 867Mbit/s, as well as the 2.4GHz band still used by many mobile devices and laptops.

The D6200 has both an ADSL modem and a Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, so you don’t have to throw away your router if you switch to a cable or VDSL service. There are also four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and a USB port, which can be used to attach an external hard disk or use the router as a USB print server. A power button and recessed reset switch are positioned alongside the ports at the back of the router, while buttons to start a WPS connection and enable or disable the Wi-Fi are on the right-hand side of the device

At the front, illuminated icons on the glossy black surface show you the status of the router’s various features and connections. The wireless connection is secured by default, with a strong but easily human-readable password. When you first connect to the router’s IP address, it’ll help you establish an internet connection. Like the mobile and desktop monitor apps Netgear provides, the web interface uses the Netgear Genie branding and icon set.