NETGEAR Nighthawk Cable Modem and WiFi 6 Router Combo (CAX80) - Compatible with All Major Cable Providers incl. Xfinity, Spectrum, Cox - Cable Plans up to 6Gbps - AX6000 WiFi 6 Speed - DOCSIS 3.1

I’ve been using the NETGEAR Nighthawk CAX80 for a little while now, and I’m genuinely impressed with how well it performs. Setup took only a few minutes — just plug it in, activate with my ISP, and WiFi was up and running. The speed and coverage are the biggest highlights. I get strong WiFi in every room, even in areas where my old router struggled. Streaming, video calls, and gaming are all smooth with no noticeable lag. It handles multiple devices at once without slowing down. I also appreciate that it combines a modem and WiFi 6 router into one device — less clutter and fewer cables. So far, the connection has been stable and consistent. Overall, it’s a great upgrade and has made my home internet much faster and more reliable.

As an IT Pro, there are three main areas that I look for in a quality piece of network gear. Ease of installation, functionality, and stability. If these are 5 stars, then I will rarely, if ever, have to rely on the vendor support team. This Nighthawk CAX30 is excellent in all three categories. While this is a retail product, and I did install it at my house, I do work from home, so it’s every bit as important to me as any high end network core switch! Why? Because I have to have all the same reliability, throughput, and stability as when I am in the office building. I have gone through many DocSis modems over the last 25 years. Motorola and Arris have had the market share, but I always found them to be challenging to get activated, less than stable (needing to be reboot regularly), and usually would only last about 2-3 years before needing replaced. Enter the CAX30! I’ve used a lot of Netgear products in the past, but never their Cable Modems. Until now! I don’t know why I never tried them? I guess just thinking Motorola and Arris had the market share for a reason. Boy don’t I feel stupid!? This product was gravy to install, integrated seamlessly with my mesh wireless, and has been stable and serving up gigabit speeds ever since I fired it up and got it configured. And since my wife works on the same network, it was critical that I get that Motorola replaced quickly! The CAX30 did not disappoint. Take me at my word, this cable modem is everything advertised and then some. I’ll gladly post anything negative that occurs, but thus far, I’m getting line speed (1gb) on the Ethernet ports in my home office, I’m getting from .5 - 1gb on WiFi, depending on location throughout the house, and the security footprint on the entire network is the best I’ve seen on a retail device such as this. I actually think I may pay the annual fee for the Armor Plus protection. It’s already caught several DDOS and other attacks on my network that other routers have never been able to identify. I’m very happy with this product and recommend it fully!

The first one I ordered, appeared brand new, but would not activate. I bought this one after moving to a new apartment and didn't have any internet so I kept trying to activate it with comcast. And when all else failed, they finally told me that its been pre-activated to another account. And it actually cannot be released. So I ordered replacement. This one activated right away. Sadly, we live in a one bedroom apartment, not much concrete in these walls, but when you go from the living room - where the router is located - to the bedroom, the service drops to very low speeds. I was fine with it because it was working and I just accepted that netgear doesn't make great products. Then a few days after the 3 months mark, the WiFi SSID was nowhere to be found. I couldnt connect to the router, and even when I tried to go wired, it wouldn't give me an IP. The router was stuck with 2 LEDs constantly on, and no other LEDs would work. I tried rebooting it and nothing. I tried resetting it and nothing. I tried several times and it was the same outcome. At this point, I decided to call the tech support. That's where the real fun started. After tracking down their number and connecting, I couldnt hear the service person. And this wasn't just because of the very thick accent. Apparently Netgear support sounds like they're in the heart of India. I would hear 1/2 a second and then nothing, and then 1/2 a second and then nothing. And then half a second and nothing. Starting to get very frustrated I hung up and called again -- this happened 3 times, with the same outcome. I was trying to tell the tech that there is something wrong with their phones, but apparently they said that "ev------wa----- f----e" ... So i'm to believe that it's on my side. So I called from a completely different line, and got connected with someone completely different. THANKFULLY I could hear this person... Aaaaaaand EVERYONE Around them. It was very very very diffucult to make out a word they're saying because they were surrounded by other techs less than a few feet away. And each one is yelling into their headset in their native accent. And everyone is using the same diagnostics script that they're reading. "Have you tried resetting the router" one said. "please disconnect the power and wait 30 seconds". "This is Netgear support how can I help you". And more than 10 other voices echoing in the background. The tech then instructed me to try to reset the router and wait. Not only have I tried that, and explained it to her, I've spent a better part of my morning doing that. But I decided to entrust the professionals. Moments pass, router is reset, and nothing worked. No surprise here. She paused and then told me that we'll have to reset it to factory settings and reconfigure it. Moments pass. Pin stuck in router for 30 seconds. Power comes on. And she would guide me through it "and the light should now be turning Amber"... no lights were turning amber. She pauses puzzled. "Okay we'll try again... Reset holding the pin for 1 whole minute".... A whole minute? What the heck difference is that between that and 30 seconds. I know how to count. But Okay, one minute of pressing a tiny little pin against my finger and into the stupid hole.... Moments pass.. Router being reset.. 20 seconds... 40 seconds... 60 seconds. Relieved to be done. I let it power up naturally, and she explains "and the light should now be turning Amber". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."how about now?" . . . . . . . NOTHING turned amber. 2 lights. Turning white. Same as before. Same as this morning. Very puzzled. We run though the cabling to make sure that its still good. And then she comes back with the brilliant idea... "Okay Mr Tamer. We will try one more reset. This time you'll hold the pin for TWO minutes." TWO WHOLE MINUTES! At which point i opted to put the phone down on speaker so I can two-hand this operation. 2 minutes passed and nothing. Same result. I.. wanted.. to... die.. Thank you NetGear. It's been great. She asked about the date of purchase, and being that it was slightly over the 3 months mark (within a few days) they could not accept a return. However they will send me a replacement. She took down my information and we parted. I wanted to write a review then and there, but I decided to wait until I cool off and see how things progress. An hour later I get a call back from them, they are informing me that the warehouse has no available routers in that model, and they will send me one as soon as they have any in stock..... Whaaaaaaat?? So not only do I have a broken one that they wont take as a return, but they cant even send me a replacement. It's been 3 months and half on this $450 piece of crap. Two days later, I get another call. It's NetGear support for the replacement router. The warehouses are STILL out of stock and they can't send me another. So I ask her, can you send me a cheaper model or something else in return? I dont even need the same model. She actually YELLS BACK, "No. They will Send me one. Once they have more in stock". I could not be more in shock, so you called me up, out of no where to Yell at me for not having stock? And I bought the expensive model, and because of that, they cant give me a replacement? It's now been over a month since they've called. And I STILL never got a replacement for this. So after my first call with them, I figured I'll go straight to Costco for a spare comcast wifi router. And maybe I'll return it once I get my replacement. Unfortunately the only one they have was Netgear Nighthawk, the lesser model. After spending yet another few hundred bucks and a few more hours to get it to activate - with comcast as well. It's been working with very very bad signal, even 15 feet away from the router. Yet another nighthawk disappointment. And now it's passed the return date, so even if I get a replacement I'm screwed. It's been by far the worst experience ever. Do not get anything nighthawk

My internet was not able to keep up with the demand of multiple gaming devices, streaming and working from home, so we upgraded our internet to 2 GB and as a result had to upgrade our router. My office is above the garage, so we chose this for its range and to future proof our internet for when we inevitably have even more devices online. This router is so powerful we were able to stop using all 5 of our wifi extenders and the security features are also great. I like that I can see all devices connected to my internet and can block devices accordingly. Its quite futuristic looking, and very easy set up. Its a bit pricey, but worth it in my mind to have a router that will be able to handle 4 GB if/when we need to upgrade our internet yet again and to be able to use the internet around our entire home and garage without any extenders. Very happy with this purchase!

We moved recently and got a new internet service provider. While the provider and their service was good, the Modem Router that they rented to us was not. We were having constant DNS errors, sometimes the Router would just reset itself, and we would see significantly lower download rates than we were promised. We tried having them replace it with another rented router but the issues continued. Then I decided to do some research. As someone who games and works from home daily I needed a device that could handle high speeds reliably. Dropping my connection in the middle of a meeting or god forbid a match was not acceptable. Then I saw the prices for your average "High End Router" that does not even come with the modem portion. Buying two $200+ devices was just too much, not to mention the worry of them arriving and not working with eachother or one of them being incompatible with my ISP for some reason. With more research I found Netgear and their very reasonable prices and high end devices. And even more awesome they actually offer a gamer level Modem Router combo. The Nighthawk was the same price as a high end router from other companies and it came with the modem built in. I ordered it and set it up. The instructions included with it were fantastic and I had it up and running in no time. A 10 minute call to my ISP later to activate the device (which the instructions also walk you through) and I was up and running and the fastest speeds I've ever had at any of my homes or with any ISP or device. I'm a few weeks in now and have had zero issues, where as before I was having network troubles every couple of days. 5 stars for sure. No complaints at all. The range of the wifi is also very impressive. I'm able to walk a good 200 feet away from my house and still have wifi on my cellphone. And I love the Nighthawk app that you can manage it with from your cellphone. It lets me check the devices on my network with a touch and disconnect any that shouldn't be there. Great stuff netgear, very happy with my purchase.

I recently upgraded from my Spectrum-provided router to the **Netgear Nighthawk Modem Router Combo**, and the difference is night and day! The Nighthawk delivers **blazing-fast speeds**, rock-solid reliability, and far better coverage throughout my home. **What I Love:** ✔ **Faster Speeds** – My internet is noticeably quicker, with no more lag during streaming or gaming. ✔ **Stronger Wi-Fi Coverage** – Dead zones are gone! Even my backyard gets a solid signal now. ✔ **Easy Setup** – The Nighthawk was simple to install, and the app makes managing my network a breeze. ✔ **Saves Money** – No more renting a modem/router from my ISP—this pays for itself over time. ✔ **Reliable Performance** – No random drops or slowdowns, even with multiple devices connected. If you’re using a basic ISP router, **do yourself a favor and upgrade to the Nighthawk**. It’s worth every penny for the improved speed, range, and stability. **Highly recommend!

I bought this Netgear CAX80 to replace my older pair of Motorola SurfBoard SB6121 cable modem and Netgear WNR2000 Wi-Fi router; the old pair routinely adapted my ComCast (Xfinity) internet-only cable hookup to work with one desktop computer, two notebook computers (usually all three working at the same time doing bandwidth hogging stuff like watching hi-def YouTube videos or streaming music & movies), plus another work computer that mostly has Teams audio-video meetings going on, plus three internet radios that seem to be on all the time, plus an Arlo home video monitoring system, plus a home security system, plus a few "IOT" gizmos. I had no problem with this setup for many years, and never ran out of bandwidth in the house, never got noticeable slowdowns, etc. ALSO, my home office has a large copycenter, a small Canon desktop copycenter, a large format laser printer, and a color laserjet printer, all of them connected to the computer(s) by Wi-Fi. So the router was quite busy yet never behaved like it was overloaded. But finally, early in 2023, I noticed that some of the Wi-Fi printers kept dropping offline. This was blamed by tech support on the old firmware in the Wi-Fi router, so probably time for a new Wi-Fi router. Also, my internet upload speed on all computers dropped in speed tests from the 10+Mbps it used to be, to about 0.01Mbps; still usable but very noticeably slow. ComCast tech support said that their diagnostics showed my cable modem's output signal strength (at least when viewed from their end) was at the lower end of acceptable.....time for a new modem! ComCast's recommendation for my situation and setup was that, if I wanted to stick to NetGear products, that the CAX80 was their first recommendation. This is a combination cable modem & Wi-Fi router with tons of speed/bandwidth and lots of connections and options. It is also quite pricey at around $500. However, when shopping for brand name separates, it looked like I would end up spending about that much anyway if buying separate modem and router. The CAX80 is also kinda huge. It is twice as tall as my older devices, and about half again as deep (front to rear) as they were; its width is about the same as either of the older devices. Taking into account minimum bend radius of a coaxial cable connected to the rear, it needs a space of 4.25"W x 12"D x 10.5"H, and its top is full of air vents, so if you want to stick it under a shelf or something, you better count on at least 12"H. I won't go into all the myriad features and specifications of this unit, but I will highlight the ports and indicators: STUFF ON THE FRONT - Power LED - Upstream & Downstream activity-status LEDs - 'Online' LED - Multi-Gig port status LED - Ethernet ports (1-4) status LEDs - 2.4GHz Wi-Fi status LED - 5GHz Wi-Fi status LED - Wi-Fi button with status LED (allows turning on/off all Wi-Fi radios at the same time) - WPS button with status LED (lets you use WPS to join the WiFi network without typing the WiFi password. The WPS LED blinks during this process and then lights solid.) STUFF ON THE REAR - socket for AC power adapter (wall-wart) - cable connector - 4X Ethernet jacks (two of which can be aggregated together -used together in parallel- to increase speed to a similarly connected computer) - 1X Multi-Gig Ethernet jack (2.5Gbps/1Gbps), which can also be used as an extra Ethernet jack for slower equipment) - USB3.0 port - LED on/off switch (when OFF, all front panel LEDs except for the POWER LED, can be disabled if their flashing annoys you) - Reset button (recessed, use a paperclip to operate....but you need to press for a tedious 60 seconds) This modem is CRAZY sophisticated, with so many features and options that the manual to describe them all is 136 pages long (it is downloadable, does not come in the box); it is certainly overkill for many situations. All of these features can managed by logging onto the modem with a connected computer's browser, and/or via a smart phone running the NetGear "Nighthawk" app. The included 'quick start' manual is a good idea, but I got confused and ended up needing to call ComCast tech support to take care of the final activation; the guide includes the appropriate phone numbers for most major cable internet carriers. I immediately found that my download speeds were screaming at something like 220Mbps, and download speeds were over 10Mbps (of course, these numbers can be less, depending on several factors, not the least of which is the level of service you pay for with your cable internet provider). I took one of my laptops out to the far corners of my good sized suburban property, and had no connection or speed issues over Wi-Fi. An no issues anywhere in my house (2 levels plus basement). My desktop computer, which I initially connected via Ethernet cable (a short one is included) to the modem, was getting considerably slower UPLOAD speeds than my other computers, until I tried connecting it to the modem via Wi-Fi just like the others, and then its upload speed matched the them; I don't know why this is, and decided to by a new Wi-Fi/LAN card for that computer since they are not expensive and something might off iffy about it. At the time of writing this review, I have not installed the new card in my computer. After verifying that all the computers were working with the new modem, I ran into a very aggravating problem. My OUTLOOK email client on my main desktop computer could not connect to receive or send. One hour spent with a ComCast tech support engineer doing tests but with no result, followed by an hour and a half with my email service provider's tech support guy taking control of my computer and trying everything, again without result, and then finally calling NetGear tech support, and when the gal there tried logging from the computer into the modem's administration portal, she got a 'page not found' type of errors. She had me press and hold the modem's reset button for a full minute, which results in a wait of about 10 minutes while everything in the modem gets its act together again, then we were able to log into the modem's admin page, and at the same time the OUTLOOK email started working again. She had not seen this problem before, and noted in my account that the situation had occurred. It was probably just a glitch in the initial configuration, but if it happens again, she adjusted my extended warranty (previously good for a couple of years, now extended by a few months) should this modem need to be replaced for this reason. I should note that this modem comes with a shorter warranty; I think it 1 year for hardware, and 90 days of phone support. So, I am happy and impressed with this device, and fully anticipate it will probably exceed and outlive my needs. I only marked down my rating a notch because of needing to engage ComCast when it should have been easier according to the quick start guide), and because of the glitch mentioned above.

Description: Install was easy when using the xfinity app and nightwatch app. Performance has increased over last model.