Synology RT6600AX Tri-band Wi-Fi 6 Router

Product Information

Safe Access​: Built-in online protection and Parental Controls for the entire network based on Internet access rules. The above might sound like a silly question but after spending a lifetime buying my own Dialup modems Note how its performance on this band changed with the USB port working in 2.0 mode (USB 3.0 disabled). 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).

The splitting of the 5GHz spectrum ensures that the two narrower bands (5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2) do not overlap each other. So, here's the deal with traditional Tri-band (2.4GHz+ 5GHz+ 5GHz): Synology’s RT6600ax looked older and dowdier than the very first mass-market wireless routers twenty years ago – which is some achievement. So, we were pleased to see an element of modern design added to the WRX560. Its tower-based chassis, with internal antennae, still can’t compete with glitzy RGB-decorated rivals, but it doesn’t take up much room and won’t blight most living spaces. At first glance, the RT6600ax is a simple, straightforward router that gets the job done without drawing much attention to itself. It has pretty much all the options you could want from a consumer/small office wireless router, and its claimed performance is quite convincing. The RT6600ax router also performs beautifully in a gaming environment. We can liken it to TP-Link’s high-end routers. When testing of the Synology RT6600ax router started, we decided to test the wireless 160Mhz WiFi connection with the Killer AX m.2 802.11ax adapter AND connect to the router via its 2.5Gps connection over wired LAN. Straight away, windows reported both connections as 2.4Gobs and 2.5Gos respectively. This still left ample wireless connectivity on the 80Mhz and 160Mhz bands to share and in both cases, we were able to fully saturate the ethernet connection with ease.

Synology strikes again with a new premium router.

The range was excellent, too. It's always hard to gauge this, but the RT6600ax has about the same coverage as any high-end Wi-Fi 6 router I've tested, like the Asus GT-AX6000 or the TP-Link Archer GX90. Generally, it's best to set up a router from scratch, but this type of universal restoration can save time if you have lots of settings. Still simple QoS feature The Synology RT6600ax IS a very, very good router. So many users will never graduate from their ISP router and never understand the benefits of a premium solution, gauging the Synology RT6600ax as something of an indulgence. However, as WiFi 6 continue to rise in popularity, more client hardware arrives with 802.11ax support and adapters to upgrade towards AX wifi over PCIe and USB appear, the RT6600ax is something that family/business users are going to want to consider to monitor and customize their own networks. That said, although the hardware the RT6600ax arrives with is a big jump up compared with the RT2600ac and MR2200ac, the software is a tad less ambitious and given that SRM 1.2 will likely upgrade towards 1.3 on those legacy devices, the Synology RT6600a is less appealing as an immediate upgrade over the RT2600ac right now. Ultimately, if you were a first-time adopter of the Synology 6600ax router, you cannot fault the software and hardware right now and it more than justifies the price tag for its software alone. Add to that the increased bandwidth potential of 5.9Ghz and greater 160Mhz support and you are getting a tremendously future proof product. That said, if you are already an owner of the RT2600ac or an existing MR2200ax mesh router owner, you might find that recent improvements in virtual networks and SSID creation are not enough to justify the upgrade (unless you are already well into your WiFi 6 environment upgrade). The RT6600ax is EASILY the most powerful and capable router that Synology has ever produced and with great software to boot. Even if it is slightly overshadowed by WiFi 6E, it still stands tremendous

The evidence that I was able to workaround the problem on the RT2600ac, but not the RT6600ax, does give evidence that it’s the router hardware or software that’s the problem. At minimum, there’s a problem with the 2600’s SRM software, since I only could get things working with my workaround, not just plugging it in to start with. I feel there’s a very slim chance it was just my particular 6600 unit, since the 2600 had the same issue. On the 2600, the issue was the same whether on the 1.2.5 firmware or the new 1.3 including the newest 1.3 Update 1. As the name implies, this is Synology's online help center. In addition to being able to browse through various topics, it has a helpful search feature. It also adds additional help fields for any applications you install later, all in the Table of Contents on the left. Mobile App In fact, for home users, the OS can be a bit overwhelming though not to the degree of the Ubiquiti UDR. (Hint: opt for the DS Router mobile app instead! -- more below.) It's worth noting that SRM 1.3 has no improvement in Quality of Control. Its support for QoS -- via its Traffic Control section -- remains the largely same as SRM 1.2, which is rather simplistic. Synology SRM 1.3's QoS feature, called Traffic Control, could use some sophistication.It comes with a dizzying array of features that are catered toward enthusiasts, and it delivers the best of both worlds: the UI itself is easy to navigate, so if you just want to set up the RT6600ax as a home router and don't necessarily care about the advanced features, you can do that. But if you want to take advantage of everything the router offers, there's plenty to like here. Note – This is not the first Synology router I have ever reviewed, it is in fact the 4th. That said, this review might well be read by someone who is completely unaware of Synology’s routers, SRM and the way their routers work vs other brands out there. So, I decided to write this review to cover practically everything, So, if you are already aware of Synology’s router solutions (perhaps already own one and looking to upgrade), some of the SRM stuff you will already know is available to older gen Synology routers. I present it in full here to ensure that new users to the brand’s routers get the full picture.

In 2016, Synology entered the network market with the release of the RT1900ac. They followed that up with the RT2600ac. Today they've released the RT6600ax, and we're going to take a look at it in detail to find out if it's a device you should consider adding to your home network. Hardware Some more details on UNII-4. It adds a total of four 20 MHz WiFi channels, but the key is that it allows for a third 160 MHz wide channel, which may be handy in congested locations. You can read more about UNII-4 in our news post of the RT6600ax here.Like the RT6600ax and other top Wi-Fi 6 routers, the WRX560 can access the less-crowded 160MHz spectrum (except in Canada and Australia) and the 5.9GHz channels too. However, we were concerned about its dual-channel nature – there’s just one 2.4GHz channel and one 5GHz channel. Still, the antennae match the RT6600ax, so we were keen to see how it performed. Anyway, my point to this is that for the 20+ days I had the RT6600ax, it absolutely did do much better for me in my 1000 square foot home than the RT2600ac. I didn’t fully test the RT6600ax by itself, but using the RT6600ax with all three of my other Synology routers in mesh (wired to the RT2600ac, then wireless to the 2xMR2200ac) ran very noticeably better than my current setup. I have a 1,960 sq. ft. home, and in my usage, I found that a single unit was adequate to deliver reliable Wi-Fi coverage. I also tested it in a mesh configuration with a second unit set up outside the master bedroom, and in this mode I was able to get significantly better bandwidth over 5GHz in the bedroom. If the broadcaster support DFS then the 5GHz-1 gets up to channel 64, and the rest (100 and up) goes to 5GHz-2. If the hardware also supports the new 5.9GHz portion of the 5GHz spectrum, it generally has three additional channels to its upper part, including 169, 173, and 177. The RT6600ax can be installed and managed using Synology’s web-based Synology Router Manager web console, or with the DS Router mobile app. The web console offers a more visually pleasing interface, with the same look and feel as Synology’s DiskStation Manager console, which is used to control the company's NAS devices. It sports a colorful Windows-like desktop, with icons that guide you through the various management screens. The Network Center screen lets you manage network connections, monitor resources, configure QoS settings, and configure port-forwarding and port-triggering settings. The Wi-Fi Connect icon opens a screen where you can configure Wi-Fi settings, enable guest networking, and view a list of currently connected clients and which band they are connected to.