Netgear Nighthawk Router: Step into the NextGen Router Series

If you are looking for a router upgrade, the next generation Netgear Nighthawk routers offers features unheard a decade a few years ago: blazing-fast WiFi, USB 3.0 for NAS storage, dual-core processors. Let us understand the Netgear Nighthawk router and its setup procedure.

What is Nighthawk?

The Nighthawk, formally the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 WiFi router, is the latest router. It possesses AC1900 WiFi, a 1GHz dual-core processor, beamforming, advanced QoS algorithms to ensure smooth traffic flow and it includes freebies like NAS software and an assistant to assist you in Netgear WiFi router setup with an FTP server.

Setting up a new router is, hands down, the least enjoyable part of using the device. Still, you can make the process a whole lot faster by preparing yourself before just willy-nilly unplugging everything. Before you shut down your old router, you can prevent a whole lot of troubleshooting headaches by doing the following things: write down all the major settings from your old router including but not limited to.

Whether or not your IP is assigned dynamically by your ISP, what DNS servers you’re using, if any devices on your network have assigned static IP addresses for whatever purpose, and any devices on your network that will likely require additional configuration later (like WiFi networked printers).

Once you have it all written down, you can hook up all your hard-line network cables to the Nighthawk and power it up and get started. We recommend using a computer with an Ethernet link to the device for the initial configuration. By default, you’ll find the administration panel for the Nighthawk at Nighthawkrouter login.

Netgear Nighthawk WiFi Router Setup

The Nighthawk runs on Netgear Genie that includes a setup wizard which is supposed to make setting up your internet connection painless. Regardless, we had to cancel out of the automated process and manually configure the Nighthawk to play nicely without a cable modem.

This isn’t as great of an inconvenience as it sounds, however, as all things considered it was just as fast to tell the router that we wanted the same old ISP-assigned address and DNS servers we’d been using.

If you find yourself in the same situation, all you need to do is cancel out of the Nighthawk router setup and enter the information you previously recorded from your old router (enter it in Basic->Internet).

If at any point you find that the router is not linking correctly to your broadband modem, you need to follow the age-old troubleshooting trail and power down both the modem and router, then power up the modem (followed a few minutes later by the router) to establish a proper link.

Once you’ve got the most critical part done, you’re online, it’s time to do some initial housework.

First stop, Advanced -> Administration -> Set Password. The default pairing is admin/password; you should change it immediately.

While we’re in the Advanced -> Administration panel, take a moment to visit Router Upgrade.

During testing, we ran into a handful of small issues that were resolved by upgrading the firmware to the most recent release. We suggest you do so right from the start to ensure smoother functioning.

After changing the administration password, you may wish to also change the WiFi settings. Newer routers, the Nighthawk included, generally ship with an already configured WiFi password randomly generated at the time the router is prepped and flashed with firmware at the factory.

You most likely, however, already have a WiFi network setup and dozens of devices from laser printers to game consoles that would require individual tweaking if you were to change your SSID/password.

If you’re in that situation, it’s worth taking a moment to change your WiFi settings. You can find the WiFi settings in Basic -> Wireless.

At this point, you’ve connected it to the internet changed the administration password, updated the WiFi SSID and password, and you could, honestly, just go grab your favorite gadget or sit down at your desktop and enjoy blazing fast speed. You don’t pay all that money just for fast performance though, so let’s take a look at the advanced features the Nighthawk offers.