Just a follow up. I implemented the router with a MR2200AC and could not be happier. It was actually easy to keep the FIOS gateway as the channel guide for FIOS TV. There is a lot of information on how to keep the gateway with the RT2600AC, most of the information make it seem harder than it really needs to be. Next technology upgrade for me is a Synology NAS replacement and add two Synology cameras. For maximum performance with any router, you'll want to utilize RJ45 ports, be it 1Gbps or 2.5Gbps. Synology's RT6600ax has just four LAN ports (with an additional one reserved for WAN use) and only one is capable of handling up to 2.5Gbps. Testing both connections, I was able to hit the maximum allowed by either standard. It’ main rival is its big brother, the business-designated RT6600ax. They support the same features but, for the RT6600ax's slightly higher price you get an extra, configurable 2.5Gb Ethernet port, a faster processor and more RAM, plus an extra 5GHz channel. We might not have seen these translate to real-world performance gains under general usage, but they should make a difference across a crowded network. So, if you’re managing multiple employees and multiple IoT devices across multiple networks, it’s likely worth paying more for the RT6600ax.

And finally, there's no Link Aggregation support. That's not a huge deal, but it sure makes the new router inferior to its Asus counterparts. Based on this, I have asked about more details regarding a feature in THIS review. Since what you are stating is pretty much the same marketing info you get from Synology itself. The SD card reader is gone, but there is a USB 3 port for external storage. You'll need that for certain applications like intrusion detection. Its top speed is increased to 4.8Gbps using 802.11ax. It's also significantly larger and heavier than its predecessor, but that shouldn't make a difference in most use cases. The 6600 comes with the same two-year warranty and has about the same 11-watt power consumption when active.Wi-Fi connectivity is also good, although I did not test it very thoroughly. I normally use a couple of Ubiquiti access points for my wireless connectivity, but I played around with the built-in Synology Wi-Fi and it worked much better than expected. The RT6600ax was installed in a networking closet in my basement, and I was able to use my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra on the 2nd floor and still get a good connection, with SpeedTest results of a bit over 70Mbps. While I'm able to get a full 100Mbps when connecting to the Ubiquiti wireless, keep in mind that access point is only a few feet away from me and is hardwired directly to the network so it's really not a fair comparison. You can also add Synology access points to get what I would assume would be comparable performance, but I didn't get a chance to test that. Conclusion On the 2.4GHz band, the RT6600ax performed about the same as its peers. This band has always been slow in my testing across the board. The RT6600ax runs the operating system called "Synology Router Management," or SRM, version 1.3. Anyone who has previously used a Synology device will be at home with SRM, because the entire look and feel is exactly like DSM, only with a networking focus instead of a storage focus. Currently, SRM 1.3 is only available on the RT6600ax, but is expected to be available on the MR2200ac and the RT2600ac later this year. With the RT6600ax, Synology also overhauled its DS Router app to version 2.0. That's the first update to this app since late 2020.

I apologize that I can’t provide more specific information about using the RT6600ax alone, other than that it definitely did better than the RT2600ac, but I mainly just wanted to emphasize that mesh in general can definitely provide noticeable benefit to a 1000 square feet of home. I don’t have all the answers. Nobody does. If you truly want to know what an app does, go read it source code, but then it might have bugs etc. The “facts” you’re looking for don’t exist, so to speak. As for the primary 5GHz band, the RT6600ax is the fastest router I've tested to date. I used a Galaxy S22 Ultra, OnePlus 10 Pro, Mi Notebook Ultra, and iPad Air M1 for 5GHz testing, and regardless of the device used, the router managed to deliver close to the maximum available bandwidth. I’m currently using a Netgear Orbi RBR50 with 3 satellites (2 in the home [RBS20, RBS50] where router is [1 upstairs/15ft away], the other that is appx. 15ft away on the same floor as the router and 1 in a hobby shop (RBS50] appx. 60-70 ft from the room where the router is located).One reason I've waited to publish this review is that mesh routing wasn't fully supported until recently. With SRM 1.3.1, you can use your RT2600ac and MT2200ac devices as Wi-Fi connection points. The interface is very similar to that of the older model, and lets you add Wi-Fi access points either wired or over Wi-Fi. I got confused at first because the help file says to reset the access points before you add them, but it also says they need to be upgraded to the latest OS version. Given my assumption that a reset would reset the OS, I went around in circles a bit until Synology support helped me out by saying I could upgrade and then reset without losing the new OS. Synology makes it easy to create a mesh Wi-Fi network using its routers. My current MR2200ac devices worked well, with good performance. Surprisingly, my old RT2200ac didn't perform well as a mesh access point. While the RT6600ax is better than the Ubiquiti UDR on the port speed front -- the latter has no Multi-Gig port but two PoE ports -- it still gave me the same fleeting feeling of disappointment. Synology is renowned for the best NAS enclosures the company produces, but it also makes some routers on the side, and the Synology RT6600ax is the latest networking tool. This is a Wi-Fi 6 router with support for the latest 5.9GHz band, providing additional bandwidth for all your wireless hardware.

Still, to put it mildly, the RT6600ax is a bit late to the Wi-Fi 6 game. Since late 2021, the world has moved to Wi-Fi 6E and is now eyeing Wi-Fi 7.The Synology RT6600ax's hardware specifications Entry-Level Multi-Gig support, no Link Aggregation, a bit rigid port configuration Safe Access​: Built-in online protection and Parental Controls for the entire network based on Internet access rules. As far as theoretical total throughput goes, the RT6600ax is a tri-band AX6600 router, rated for speeds of up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, 4.8Gbps on its first 5GHz band, and 1.2Gbps on its other 5GHz band, for a potential total of 6.6Gbps. It supports the 5.9GHz band, giving it some extra channels. It does not support Wi-Fi 6e, although the 5.9GHz band gives you many of the same advantages if you have hardware that supports its 160MHz channels. Positioned next to the 6600ax (the top 4 Wi-Fi tests), I was able to get double the throughput I could get from the same device when it was next to our older 2600ac (bottom Wi-Fi test). My speed did drop off fairly rapidly with distance. For more detailed tests, the lab at our sister publication, PC Magazine, If you have Internet speeds up to 1.5Gbps, the RT6600ax is your safe choice. Any faster speed grade will require a router with multiple Multi-Gig ports -- preferably with faster-than-2.5Gbps speed grades -- since you can only experience that via a wired connection, for now. (I detailed the reasons in this post on super-broadband.) A viable mini NAS I've waited to write a review until Synology updated SRM to allow me to use the new router with my old router and MR2200ac access points, so I could evaluate its mesh routing performance. Overall, the new router is a huge upgrade and a very competitive offering.

There’s no way anyone can look into every aspect of every single piece of hardware or every single app. I don’t write for you, but the mass. If you want something so specific, do it yourself. For the rest, the new router is as good as can be. And its support for the last 5.9GHz portion of the 5GHz spectrum is the icing on the cake. Safe Access worked very well in my trial. It proved to be one of the most comprehensive features of its type, and it's free. I really hate to lose the awesome SRM OS, but the one feature I REALLY can’t do without now that I’m using it is user integration with an LDAP server.I went with the Asus GT-AXE16000 to replace the Synology system, and I am getting another strong Asus AXE router for wired 2.5Gbit mesh (it’s possible that a couple of years from now I’ll update to 2Gbit Fiber), because the two farthest corners of my house still don’t have as strong Wi-Fi as the rest, and I want to ensure there are no drop-outs. This portion of extra content is part of the posts on Dual-band vs Tri-band vs Quad-band. Channels allocation, the 5GHz’s DFS, and band-splitting The GT-AXE16000 was so easy to set up and worked right out of the box directly with Frontier’s ONT, so that was a huge relief after all the trouble I had with Synology. The Synology will be better than the Asus, but mostly because they are of two different Wi-Fi standards — the latter is Wi-Fi 6. In terms of range, the two will be very similar — here’s the review of the RT6600AX. Keep in mind that I only test hardware made for the US. Also, range doesn’t mean anything if you can’t get a good connection out of it. Reply