Netgear Nighthawk M6 Pro 5G MmWave WiFi 6E Mobile Hotspot Router and Antenna | Hacker News Reader

Netgear Nighthawk M6 Pro 5G MmWave WiFi 6E Mobile Hotspot Router and Antenna

netgear.com

12 pointstosh11 comments

I have the AT&T-branded version of this router, which is significantly cheaper, even when unlocked. (Got mine for $300 or so each. They retail for $450 at Best Buy, but good luck unlocking them. The AT command sequence to do so sends an encrypted challenge, and only one person knows how to solve it.)

It's extremely locked down and its UI is absolutely terrible, but it is, by far, the fastest mobile hotspot and travel router on the market right now.

The only thing that comes close is GL.iNet Puli XE3000, which is slower (Mediatek CPUs vs Snapdragon X28) and only available on GL.iNet's website for some reason (most of their other stuff is on Amazon).

Updating the AT&T branded version is a nightmare. First, you need to have an AT&T SIM with active service to contact the update server. (AT&T Prepaid works fine.) Then, you have to be lucky enough for the server to actually decide to send an update to the device. If you're unlucky, you have to contact someone at NETGEAR in order to get them to talk to AT&T to push the update.

Any settings changes to Wi-Fi or cellular triggers a radio/modem restart. This can take 30 seconds. That includes things like switching from mobile-only mode to mobile+"Wi-Fi offloading" (i.e. wifi repeating). Some settings require an entire router restart, which takes two minutes.

I have two of them. I'm going to get the Puli and return the Nighthawks.

>$999.99

That's more expensive than some flagship 5G mmWave smartphones. Is there a reason why you'd use this than spending $200 on a wifi 6E router and a few hundred dollars on a last gen smartphone?

If you look at their pictures (specifically the two of employees in the fields with laptops), and read their marketing copy ("Get secure, private connectivity with M6 Pro instead of using risky public WiFi networks where data can be easily compromised"), I think they are marketing to biz.

The security line is mostly nonsense (if you are running https or other secure protocol, it doesn't matter, assuming your local device has a restrictive firewall - even if you don't you'd get the same thing by using a data sim on your laptop). But it sounds nice and will likely check some compliance boxes.

This is not a consumer device - it doesn't make any sense. They think procurement depts and CTOs won't want to buy extra devices.

The smartphone probably could do the same job, but duct-taping the phone and wifi router may not be the best look.

> The security line is mostly nonsense

It's worse than that. This device offers _absolutely no_ addons for increasing network privacy. Zero. Unless you count the firewall it's running behind the NAT, I guess? Doesn't even offer built-in VPN like the GL.iNet devices do despite being more than capable of it.

> This is not a consumer device

The AT&T branded version of this router is. It's priced for two-year device contracts. The unbranded version is probably for enterprise though.

I've been burned enough times buying Netgear devices that I'd need a lot of good reviews to switch away from my much simpler TP Link travel router.

Plus, it seems a little pricey for the task. Why not just use a decent smartphone?

Hmmm. A thousand bucks is pretty steep tho

How would this compare to starlink?

One works in the middle of nowhere and the other doesn't.

They are entirely separate. No comparison.

If you are getting mmWave you don't need StarLink. mmWave is line of sight a few miles at most from a mmWave cell tower.

Oh ok - I must be a bit outdated- I assumed 5g was equivalent to 4g only faster. I had a 4g hotspot that worked basically everywhere so I thought this was maybe the next iteration of that type of product.

mmWave has a few categories. There are "it works out of line of sight as long as you are in range" devices but that range is like a city block, maybe two.

The idea being that you could use it in the city and there'd be transceivers on the roofs and walls of the buildings so that the city stays densely covered.

So realistically anywhere you can actually get mmWave, you are probably within less than a thousand feet of a fiber optic installation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com