5.0 out of 5 stars
Transformed our Virgin internet experience
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2019
As Virgin internet users (Vivid 200), we'd been muddling along with our Super Hub 3 for the past year, and frankly were getting to the end of our tether with the poor internet connectivity we were seeing. Wi-Fi devices were randomly kicked off the network, or would show as connected but with appallingly slow internet access (speed tests as low as 150 Kb/sec). Coverage was also poor, needing a booster for the back part of the house, which considering it's a small 3-bed semi with mostly stud walls, wasn't exactly stellar. What's more, like many people we are adding smart switches and sockets to the house, and with every new device, the creaking performance seemed to get even worse. The other thing sorely missing from the Virgin Hub 3 was any form of decent parental control.
I ordered the R8000 hoping to resolve all of these issues, and a week in, I have to say I wish I'd done it sooner. I now get full internet bandwidth, or close to, on mobile devices, and the stability is absolutely rock solid. Also, the coverage reaches the entire house, and down to the bottom of our 30ft garden with no need for any form of extender. In short, it gives you a proper Wi-Fi network that allows connected devices to perform as you would expect.
Installation was a doddle, and took all of 5 minutes to get it connected and working. Simply log in to the Virgin Hub 3's admin webpage, and switch the Hub into modem mode. This disables all of the Wi-Fi functionality on the Hub 3, and uses it only to connect to the Virgin network. Reboot the Hub 3, connect one end of the supplied ethernet cable to any port on the Hub 3, and the other to the yellow "Internet" port on the R8000, using the Nighthawk mobile app. Download the Netgear Nighthawk app to an Android or iOS device, connect the device to the Wi-Fi on the R8000 with the credentials on the sticker on the top of it, launch the app, and simply follow the instructions. It instantly identified the router, connected to it, installed the latest firmware update, prompted me to update the admin password (no brainer anyway), and then it all came to life and started working.
There's a lot the Nighthawk app can't do, so after doing this, you will need to go to the admin web page for the R8000 (192.168.1.1 default) and log in with the admin credentials you just provided in order to complete the config, set your Wi-Fi security and SSIDs up, configure your access control and guest network, and so on. You'll be tweaking stuff for a while, but you really do get a basic, functioning Wi-Fi network inside of 5 minutes.
The full parental control is achieved via the Circle app (by Disney, strangely), which does come at a monthly cost of £5 (with a month's free trial included), but it is absolutely brilliant. It gives you all the control you need, lots you probably don't, and is so easy to set up and use that it's worth every penny. I created profiles for both my daughters, and assigned the devices they use to them. The software then logs and manages everything these devices do on the network. It will enforce internet access times, bed times, and even let you control access to individual websites or apps. For devices used by adults, or static devices such as our Amazon Echos, smart switches or media streamers, you can set these as 'unmanaged', so that they work without any interference at all.
The app also allows you to quickly and easily enable and disable internet access for an individual user with a single click, extend time limits quickly as a reward, and provides a full breakdown of the URLs and apps accessed by each user, with times and dates, and the amout of time spent on each. The other really handy thing is that you get a push notification to the app if a new device accesses the network. I have experimented with MAC address access control on Wi-Fi before, but it is a pain having to log in to the admin console every time you have a guest who wants access, or whenever you buy a new device. With this, you can leave access open, but get a notification whenever a new device logs in. It's a much better solution, for me anyway. Of course, you can still go a step further and restrict access by MAC address, if you prefer.
Downsides? The router is a big old lump (see pic) which will need a decent amount of space, close to your Virgin Hub. It's also not cheap of course, but when you're paying £50 a month for 200 Mbit internet, your devices are struggling to see a tenth of that in reality, and the standard hardware supplied by the ISP simply isn't fit for purpose, the performance upgrade it delivers is instantly noticeable. It has been nothing short of a transformation in terms of the real internet speeds we are seeing, and I love the visibility it gives over what the kids are doing and when, as well as the easy control to stop unwanted behaviour. The difference between "proper" Wi-Fi, and what you get with the standard ISP provided junk really is staggering, both in terms of performance and configurability.
Fantastic bit of kit. Highly recommended.
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