Setup and Monitoring- Mobile Apps

If a web browser is not to your liking, then perhaps one of NETGEAR's mobile solutions would be. As with the Orbi we reviewed earlier this year, NETGEAR has an iOS and Android app for their Nighthawk series of products it aptly called Nighthawk. This appears to mostly be a re-skinned version of the Orbi app, which I don't have an issue with as it makes practical sense and the app skeleton was solid to begin with.

The app, at least on Android, is very user-friendly with larger menu sections and a scrolling action to access more settings on the homepage rather than windows to slide through. Indeed, there are a total of just four menus separated by distinct lines, a quick status indicator with a visual representation of the system at the top, a notification icon in the top-right corner, and a triple bar (also called Hamburger) menu in the top-left corner with more options similar to a modern x86 program and mobile app design. If you have already set up the router, you can simply log in using the set credentials. The aforementioned triple bar menu has more options, some of which take up slots in the main app among the four menus there.


The settings button in the triple bar menu leads you to a set of three settings, one each for the router, Wi-Fi, and guest Wi-Fi options. The former allows you to change the router name and admin password, which will apply across all other dashboards as well and gives you a look at the current router settings, including the firmware version, MAC address, and IP address. Here is also where you can reboot the router, check for updates, and register the product if you have not done so already. The Wi-Fi settings page allows you to change the SSID credentials, as well as select the encryption protocol, with WPA2-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 - Pre-Shared Key) being the default option. The guest Wi-Fi settings page just has the same toggle to start one, which then prompts you to set up its own SSID and encryption and gives you an option to share it.


The support page has links for product support and the relevant NETGEAR community forum, and the penultimate page is specific to information about the app itself. The new setup option in the triple bar menu allows you to configure the router again, in case something was incorrect the first time round, and does notify you that the router was already set up if you had done so before via any of the available methods. The other options available in the Nighthawk app include an "About" page for more information on the device, a list of connected devices via wired or Wi-Fi connectivity, and a traffic meter that can be enabled to keep track of downloads and uploads for two days and then cumulatively for the present week, present month, and previous month.


Once again, NETGEAR has not one but two different mobile apps that cater to a lot of their products. The universal app that works, and arguably better than the Orbi/Nighthawk consumer app, is the more prosumer-level NETGEAR Genie, be it for Android or iOS devices. Here too are a few things appearing in multiple locations for little reason, which means that all the menus could have been fit into a single window rather than how it is now with a second window for just one more menu. Aside from that, this app offers more options than the Nighthawk app, and I do wish NETGEAR would do a better job of publicizing it and also devoting more resources to making this one app for all their devices instead of multiple category-specific ones that look very much alike. One of the added features here is remote management, which alone makes it worth the install if you ever plan to use the router (or control devices connected to the router) from somewhere other than where it physically resides.


The triple bar menu, as well as the home window page, has similar options as we saw before in the Nighthawk app, including Wi-Fi settings for the local and guest networks with credentials and encryption protocols to customize accordingly. There is also an option to set guest networks for either 2.4 or 5 GHz networks to operate for a specific time period of your choosing, which is handy if you expect guests to be around temporarily and would rather enable the guest network only then.


There is a traffic meter here as well, and other options available in NETGEAR Genie include parental controls, checking the signal strength of both 2.4 and 5 GHz networks, comparing the network status to other Wi-Fi networks in the vicinity so as to be able to quickly change the channel for lower interference, and also some rudimentary media server controls that allow you to see files on connected devices and even play them on another device. For example, I was able to "cast" videos and photos from my phone to my TV (both devices connected to the same network) via the app with little effort. It will not replace a proper media server, nor will it offer the level of functionality from DumaOS, but it is good in a pinch.

As mentioned previously, NETGEAR Genie is also available as a desktop program, which opens up the options we saw above on a desktop program and expands on them to include more customization and new features, such as ReadySHARE Vault to back up local files to a network-attached device, which makes for four possible routes to set up and monitor the Nighthawk XR500, as was the case with the Orbi Wi-Fi system before. I think this is still at least one too many and would love to hear what you have to say about it in the comments section of this review.