Best Routers with 2.5GbE and 5G NBASE-T Multigigabit Ports

Currently the top-of-the-range routers incorporate a Multigigabit port, either at speeds of 2.5Gbps or 5Gbps. This connectivity will allow us to transfer data up to 2.5 times faster than the 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) standard, and up to 5 times faster than Gigabit connectivity respectively. Nowadays, having a router with a Multigigabit port is very interesting, especially in the LAN where we can get the most out of it. Do you want to know what you can use this port for and what are the best routers with Multigigabit ports?

What is a Multigigabit port going to do on my router?

Router manufacturers such as ASUS or NETGEAR have high-end routers with a Multigigabit NBASE-T port, either operating at 2.5GbE or 5GbE speeds, in this way, we can greatly accelerate the wired network. Today, a Multigigabit port makes sense in the LAN, where we are going to connect a desktop PC that acts as a file server, or directly, a NAS server with Multigigabit ports such as the QNAP TS-253D that we have previously analyzed in this article. At the firmware level, manufacturers have decided to incorporate the possibility of configuring this port as an Internet WAN or as a LAN, although by default it is always configured as a LAN, which is what makes sense today.

When we have a router with the Wi-Fi 6 standard, and its speed exceeds Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, having one of these Multigigabit ports for the wired LAN is essential, since, otherwise, we would have a large bottleneck in the network wired. For example, in our case with the ASUS RT-AX86U, we have achieved a real speed via Wi-Fi of 1,000Mbps real with a Wi-Fi client with only 2 antennas, in the case of having 4 antennas, the speed would be around the real 2Gbps approximately, therefore, it is clear that we currently have the bottleneck in wired connectivity. We must remember that due to headers in the TCP / IP protocol stack, via cable we will achieve approximately 900-950Mbps at most.

The manufacturer TP-Link has also incorporated 2.5GbE ports into its high-end routers, however, its policy has been to use this port exclusively as an Internet WAN, a very clear mistake because nowadays in Spain there are no connections greater than 1Gbps , and if there are, the ONT provided by the operator should also have a Multigigabit port, otherwise, it will always synchronize at 1Gbps. If we buy one of these routers right now and connect it to the ONT, the link synchronization will be at 1Gbps. Although it is true that the GPON standard provides up to 2.5Gbps of download and 1.25Gbps of upload, there is no operator in Spain currently that provides more than 1Gbps, therefore, we are wasting this fast speed. The same can be said of the ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8 Mesh Wi-Fi system, its 2.5GbE port is for the WAN, an error that we already mentioned in our analysis.

Best routers with 5Gbps Multigigabit port

Currently only the manufacturer NETGEAR has launched a high-end router with a 5Gbps speed port, a milestone that will allow us to have ultra-fast speeds in the LAN network, in addition, it is a router that has a very powerful processor so that everything goes really smooth.

NETGEAR Nighthawk AX12 RAX120

The main characteristics of this neutral Wi-Fi router is the simultaneous incorporation of dual band with Wi-Fi AX6000 . In the 2.4GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 1148Mbps, thanks to its four external antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration. In the 5GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 4804Mbps, thanks to its eight antennas in MU-MIMO 8T8R configuration, 160MHz channel width and Wi-Fi 6. A very interesting novelty is that it has a total of 8 data streams in the 5GHz band, when we normally only have 4.

At the wired level, this router has a Gigabit Ethernet port for the Internet WAN, four Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN with support for two-port Link Aggregation, and a 5G / 2.5G / 1G Multigigabit port for the LAN / WAN . Thanks to this Multigigabit port, and its powerful 2.2GHz Quad-Core CPU, we can transfer data at high speed without any problem.

This router is one of the most powerful you can buy, and if you are interested in a router incorporating a Multigigabit port, the NETGEAR RAX120 is one of the most recommended due to its 5Gbps speed.

Best routers with 2.5GbE Multigigabit port

Currently the manufacturers ASUS, NETGEAR and TP-Link have in their portfolio several routers with 2.5GbE connectivity, now we are going to see in detail the wired specifications of each of them, and the general technical characteristics.

ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000

The main characteristics of this neutral Wi-Fi router is the incorporation of simultaneous triple band with Wi-Fi AX11000 . In the 2.4GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 1148Mbps, thanks to its four external antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration. In the first 5GHz band (low channels) we can achieve a speed of up to 4804Mbps, thanks to its four external antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration, 160MHz of channel width and Wi-Fi 6. In the second band of 5GHz (high channels) we can achieve a speed of up to 4804Mbps, thanks to its four external antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration, 160MHz channel width and Wi-Fi 6.

At the wired level, this router has a Gigabit Ethernet port for the dedicated Internet WAN, four Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN with support for two-port Link Aggregation, and a multigigabit 2.5G / 1G port for the LAN / WAN , configurable via firmware. Thanks to this Multigigabit port, and its powerful 1.8GHz Quad-Core CPU, we can transfer data at high speed without any problem.

We recommend you read our complete analysis of the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 router where you can see all the details of this router and the real performance we have obtained.

ASUS RT-AX86U

The main characteristics of this neutral Wi-Fi router is the incorporation of simultaneous dual band with Wi-Fi AX5700 . In the 2.4GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 861Mbps, thanks to its three external antennas in MU-MIMO 3T3R configuration. In the 5GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 4804Mbps, thanks to its four external antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration, 160MHz channel width and Wi-Fi 6.

At the wired level, this router has a Gigabit Ethernet port for the dedicated Internet WAN, four Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN with support for two-port Link Aggregation, and a multigigabit 2.5G / 1G port for the LAN / WAN , configurable via firmware. Thanks to this Multigigabit port, and its powerful 1.8GHz Quad-Core CPU, we can transfer data at high speed without any problem.

We recommend you read our complete analysis of the ASUS RT-AX86U router where you can see all the details of this router.

NETGEAR Nighthawk AX12 RAX200

The main characteristics of this neutral Wi-Fi router is the incorporation of simultaneous triple band with Wi-Fi AX11000 . This wireless router has four antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration in each of the three frequency bands, so we will achieve up to 1148Mbps in 2.4GHz, and up to 4804Mbps in each of the two frequency bands in 5GHz. The most remarkable thing is that in 5GHz, we have 160MHz of channel width and Wi-Fi 6.

At the wired level, this router has a Gigabit Ethernet port for the dedicated Internet WAN, four Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN with support for two-port Link Aggregation, and a multigigabit 2.5G / 1G port for the LAN / WAN , configurable via firmware. Thanks to this Multigigabit port, and its powerful 1.8GHz Quad-Core CPU, we can transfer data at high speed without any problem.

As you have seen, this router is also really interesting, since it allows you to configure the 2.5GbE port as WAN or LAN.

ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8

The main technical characteristics of the ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8 router is that it incorporates simultaneous triple band with Wi-Fi AX6600, although this equipment is sold as a high-performance Mesh Wi-Fi system, a single unit can function as a router without any problem.

For wireless clients, we have a 2.4GHz band with a speed of up to 574Mbps thanks to its two internal antennas in MU-MIMO 2T2R configuration. In the 5GHz band , we can achieve a speed of up to 1,201Mbps thanks to the fact that they have two internal antennas in MU-MIMO 2T2R configuration, Wi-Fi 6 and the use of 80MHz of channel width (we do not have 160MHz of channel width available channel on this band). For the interconnection network, it uses the second 5GHz band , where we can achieve a speed of up to 4804Mbps thanks to the fact that they have four antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration and we have 160MHz of channel width with Wi-Fi 6. In all the bands of frequencies we have Beamforming, MU-MIMO and OFDMA.

At the level of wired features, we have 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports (10/100/1000 Mbps) for the LAN and a 2.5G / 1G port for the Internet WAN . Without a doubt, it was a very bad decision for ASUS to incorporate this Multigigabit port on the WAN and not on the LAN, because where we will truly take advantage of its potential will be in the local network by connecting a NAS server.

We recommend you read our complete analysis of the ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Wi-Fi Mesh where you can see all the details of this router within the Wi-Fi Mesh system.

TP-Link Archer AX11000

The main characteristics of this neutral Wi-Fi router is the incorporation of simultaneous triple band with Wi-Fi AX11000 . It has the same wireless characteristics as the ASUS GT-AX11000, in the 2.4GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 1148Mbps, and in each of the two 5GHz bands we can achieve a speed of up to 4804Mbps. In these two 5GHz bands we have 160MHz of channel width, in addition, we have Beamforming, MU-MIMO and OFDMA in all frequency bands.

At the wired level, this router has a 2.5G / 1G port for the dedicated Internet WAN , eight Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN with support for two-port Link Aggregation . Thanks to this Multigigabit port, we can get up to 2.5Gbps in the WAN, but in real life you will not use it because nowadays there are no Internet speeds higher than 1Gbps, and, in addition, the ONTs are all Gigabit Ethernet so we will be wasting this port by not using it as a LAN.

On the official website of TP-Link Archer AX11000 you will find all the technical specifications of this router.

TP-Link Archer AX6000

The main characteristics of this neutral Wi-Fi router is the simultaneous incorporation of dual band with Wi-Fi AX6000 . In the 2.4GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 1148Mbps, and in the 5GHz band we can achieve a speed of up to 4804Mbps. This router has MU-MIMO and OFDMA on both bands, as well as Beamforming and all Wi-Fi 6 wireless technologies.

At the wired level, this router has a 2.5G / 1G port for the dedicated Internet WAN , eight Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN with support for two-port Link Aggregation . In this case we are the same as in the previous model, only the Multigigabit port is for the Internet WAN, which in real life you will not use as such.

On the official website of TP-Link Archer AX6000 you will find all the technical specifications of this router.