Tp-link Archer c4000 vs. Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600 – What wifi coverage are you looking for?
Most home networks are becoming congested with the increase of smart appliances, phones, tablets, consoles, speakers, and streaming players. To accommodate these changes, there is a surge of routers that promise to deliver excellent performance and speed to your devices, and Tp-link Archer c4000 vs Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600 will help shed some light on such routers.
Lately, my kids have been complaining their devices aren’t getting enough wifi speeds when they’re in certain rooms in the house. After investing in a nice wireless router, it didn’t perform as expected. Now I have to get another router that can provide wifi coverage for the entire house. With the help of Tp-link Archer c4000 vs. Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600, I can now have a better idea of what I want for my home.
Table of Contents
What are the differences between Tp-link Archer c4000 and Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600?
Model |
Tp-link Archer c4000 |
Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600 (Winner) |
MU-MIMO |
Yes |
Yes |
Beamforming |
Yes |
Beamforming + protocol |
Throughput speeds |
2.4 GHz – 750 Mbps
5 GHz – 1625 Mbps 5 GHz – 1625 Mbps |
2.4 GHz – 600 Mbps
5 GHz – 1300 Mbps 5 GHz – 1625 Mbps |
Processor |
1.8 GHz 64-bit quad-core processor with 3 other additional wifi processors |
1.8 GHz dual-core processor |
Tp-link archer c4000 vs. Netgear nighthawk x6s ac3600. How do they differ?
Design
The tp-link archer c4000 and Netgear nighthawk x6s ac3600 are both large routers with almost similar, but slightly different designs. The archer c4000 looks more like a black box with a perforated top to keep it cool and 6 retractable non-removable antennas with 9 LED lights. The Netgear nighthawk x6s ac3600 looks like a coffee table that has been turned upside down with 6 pull out antennas with 11 LED lights. These lights can be a bit overwhelming and if you’re not a fan of bright lights you can turn them off by flipping a switch in the back.
MU-MIMO and beamforming
MU-MIMO offers you simultaneous streaming with different devices in your network while the beamforming allocates each device a specific wifi band depending on the amount of data being transferred. Tp-link Archer c4000 supports MU-MIMO for simultaneous data streaming, beamforming, and automatic band steering and this helps to connect more devices to your network and maximize performance. However, the Netgear nighthawk x6s ac3600 uses MU-MIMO technology and beamforming + protocol to customize the signal for each device. The protocol works as a driver to get a bit more speed and range from beamforming while remaining with 802.11ac devices.
Processor
Tp-link Archer c4000 is a tri-band router that operates on a 1.8 GHz 64-bit quad-core processor with 3 other additional wifi processors that support the router and balance out your network’s wifi demands so that the system runs smoothly. It can create speeds of 750 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 1650 Mbps on the to 5 GHz bands. As for the Netgear nighthawk x6s c3600, it has a 1.8 GHz dual-core processor with a built-in Broadcom BCM4365E wifi chip, 128 MB of RAM, and 512 MB of storage. It can deliver speeds of 600 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band, 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band, and 1625 Mbps on the other 5 GHz band.
Tp-link Archer c4000 vs. Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600 – A comparison review
Tp-link archer c4000
- This refurbished product is tested and certified to look and work like new. The refurbishing process...
Archer A20 is a tri-band router that will deliver very fast file transfer performance and solid throughput with robust parental controls and built-in security tools. This router is identical to the Archer C3200 router with a black textured enclosure and 6 fixed external antennas that are retractable from the top of the router. The antennas have 9 LED lights that indicate the WPS activity, power, internet, two USB ports, Ethernet, and 3 radio bands. At the front edge, there is also the LED on/off buttons, WPS, and wifi on/off buttons. At the back, you will find 4 gigabit LAN ports (2 for link aggregation), a WAN port, power switch, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, power jack, reset button. You can use the USB 3.0 port to connect your media drives to access your network. At the top, there are ventilation holes to keep the router cool. This tri-band wireless router runs on a 1.8 GHz 64-bit quad-core processor with 512 MB of RAM and 3 additional wifi processors that support the router and help to balance the wifi demands to keep your network running at top speed throughout. It can reach speeds of 750 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 1650 Mbps on each of the two 5 GHz bands. It supports MU-MIMO for simultaneous data streaming, beamforming, and automatic band steering.
It’s very easy to set up and install this router from your PC using a web console or the Tether app from your phone. Once you’ve plugged everything to the router, you open the Tether app and you’ll be guided through the steps where you’ll create a network name, password, and choose which wifi bands you will use. This app has a simplified version of the web interface where you can manage various settings like resetting the router, perform speed tests, see the number of devices connected to each bandwidth, and even configure the guest network. The web interface and app will allow you to turn on and adjust some of the features like parental controls, the built-in homecare antivirus, and QoS to prioritize traffic to the bands. The homecare parental control can keep your network and the connected devices safe from viruses and other malware and even quarantine the infected devices. However, the web interface has more detailed settings. You can use the parental controls to block access to some social media sites, games, and file-sharing, and even monitor web activity and pause internet access to a specific device.
When it comes to speed and performance, the Archer ac4000 is quite impressive. It has an overall throughput of 4000 Mbps that is divided between the 750 Mbps for the 2.4 GHz band and 1650 for each of the two 5 GHz bands which are great speeds for a typical home. This router still maintains a powerful connection to your devices even over extended ranges. It has solid scores in most of its throughput performance tests. In close proximity, the 2.4 GHz band will deliver 101 Mbps, but when you move further to about 30 feet it drops to 75 Mbps. As for the 5 GHz band, it scores 465 Mbps at close proximity and 191 Mbps at 30 feet. On the file transfer test to check its read and write speeds, the ac4000 performed wonderfully. It scored 80 Mbps on the write test and 90 Mbps on the read test after moving a 1.5 GB folder that contained files, videos, photos, and music to and from a USB 3.0 drive connected to the router and the PC.
Pros
- Very easy to customize your router settings
- Has good speed and range
- Has a very fast processor
- Impressive parental controls and antivirus tools
Cons
- Middling 5 GHz range performance
Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600
- 3.0Gbps—Fast combined WiFi speed for uninterrupted streaming
- Tri-Band MU-MIMO—Simultaneous streaming to more devices
This is a powerful tri-band wifi router that can deliver fast internet speeds to large homes. Using the powerful amplifiers in its antennas, it can cover an extensively wide area of your home or office with super-fast speeds thanks to its dual processor to give you speeds of up to 3.0 Gbps for short-range and 1.8 GHz for long-range. Any time your device connects to your wifi network, the smart connect feature in your router will automatically allocate your device the best band to use.
It looks more of an upside-down coffee table with six retractable antennas. It’s an all-black router that you can either place on a shelf or table or mount it on your wall using the cutouts on the bottom side, but people may be tempted to use the antennas as coat hangers and once the antennas break it’s not easy to replace them. It has 11 LED blinking lights that indicate the power, internet, the 4 LAN ports, and the 3 wireless channels. There is a switch at the back to turn off the LED lights if you’re not a fan of blinking lights. This nighthawk X6S is built with a Broadcom BCM4365E wifi chip, a dual-core 1.8 GHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, and 512 MB of storage for your system’s settings and firmware. This router employs MU-MIMO technology to connect to several devices at once and beamforming + protocol to customize the signal for each device. This router allows you to aggregate two wired connections to a PC that has LAN ports which can double the throughput speeds up to 2 Gbps which is great for file transfers and top-speed gaming. At the back of the router, you will find 4 LAN ports, a WAN port, a USB 2.0 port, and a USB 3.0 port that you can use to connect your hard drive and a printer to your connected devices in your network. There is a reset switch, power button, and an on and off control switch. At the front are buttons for turning on/off wifi and a button for connecting a client through WPS.
To install and manage the X6S router, you just connect your router through wifi or a LAN cable and type routerlogin.net on your window’s browser where you’ll need to enter the router’s password on the setup booklet. You’ll need to set up a Netgear account. You can configure your router using the browser interface and the Genie app interface that will show you the wifi setup, external storage, internet status, parental controls, guest network status, and several devices connected to your network. The advanced settings have the security settings, access control, and set up for your storage devices or printer. The Genie app will help you customize your wifi settings, update your firmware, check which devices are connected, internet speed, monitor the traffic meter, and adjust the guest network settings. The parental control for this router uses WPA2 encryption to protect the data and identity of you and your family by sending encrypted data to and from devices connected to your network.
As far as performance is concerned, the X6S router delivers good performance and excels in midrange distances. It can deliver speeds of 571.2 Mbps at 5 feet and 628.7 Mbps at 15 feet, but it increases as you move further away and score speeds of 661.5 Mbps at 50 feet. It still has good performance at 100 and 150 feet delivering speeds of 525.1 Mbps and 411.5 Mbps respectively which is quite impressive at midrange distances. This is a great router to have for old homes with lots of thick walls and ceiling. It can give you signals of between 580.6 and 609.8 Mbps through the ceiling and metal walls.
Pros
- Good performance at mid-range distances
- Provides you with a variety of customization options
- Uses MU-MIMO and beamforming + protocol
- Has a powerful dual-processor
- Ideal for large homes
Cons
- It’s expensive
- Only offers 90-day support
Conclusion
If you live in a small home or apartment, you don’t need an expensive router that can cover a vast area, but if you have a large house the Tp-link Archer c4000 and Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600 are excellent wireless routers to have on your home. The tp-link ac4000 will deliver solid performance to all the devices in your network while the nighthawk x6s ac3600 will deliver super-fast gigabit-speed connections.
So, which one is better. The Tp-link Archer c4000 or Netgear Nighthawk X6S ac3600?
Netgear nighthawk x6s ac3600is better than tp link Archer c4000 because it has high-quality performance features like powerful wifi amplifiers that provide extensive wifi coverage, super-fast speeds even over midrange distances, and advanced features like smart connect that automatically allocates the best band for every device and beamforming + to always provide a reliable connection.
FAQ
What is the difference between the nighthawk x6 and x6s?
The x6 router is an ac3200 speed while the x6s is an ac4000 wireless speed. The x6 doesn’t support MU-MIMO which has a huge influence on its overall wireless performance when connected to multiple devices in your network.
Does the Netgear nighthawk x6s need a modem?
This nighthawk x6s is only a wireless router, but you can’t use it alone. You will need to use a cable modem to access wifi connection.
