Need suggestions. Netgear X10 AD7200 nighthawk broken by firmware, should I try to fix it or get a new router?

[Hashiriya415]

tried to use some function of the router on my phone app and it said that the old software v1.0.5.24 needs updating. I clicked update and no more wifi and lan. After 2 reboots I get lan for a few seconds and it stops. I try reboot again and install the firmware again from my PC manually. Now the router has working Lan for couple of hours. Wifi is gone still. But I can't access the router no more, if I could I would try to get the old firmware that was working. before the v1.0.5.38.
Netgear says they will not do anything because router is out of warranty now. How does that work out when a company like netgear puts out a piece of software and tells users to update and it messes things up. What is the law in US, or Cali, does an average small little guy have any rights to have netgear fix something that was working just before they sent off their evil code that destroyed my property? I do have proof that it was working before.
Should I deal with this??? I already spent 70 minutes on the phone with Netgear, I could have hanged up but I wanted to keep pushing them. However the person that tried, couldn't help at the end. Maybe I need to get a new router instead, but which company? because when this router was under the warranty there was a firmware update that I did and it messed up the router USB port, and not just me, it was for everyone. I posted online and got no response from the company so I rolled back the firmware. It took months for netgear to release the next update, which again had issue for some people which is why I decided to skip. Until I really needed something that the app required the update to work.
To me, Netgear software firmware, whatever you wanna call it is crap. How are other brands?

And I have another questions, I'm looking to add a NAS that's 2.5Gb, does the router need 2x 2.5Gb ports? I think I'm mostly seeing just one. That would mean I need to get a switch? Are routers with 2x 2.5Gb are rare? wrong to setup this way?
my isp is only 1Gb. So I just need the NAS to communicate with PC 2.5Gb.

 

[Nobu]

If you feel like getting down and dirty with a ttl interface, this may work for you (assuming it has the same header and ttl settings/environment).

 

[zandor]

You'll need some way to plug the NAS into the PC over a 2.5Gb link if you want 2.5Gb speeds so you'll need two ports on a switch or router unless you can direct cable them. If your PC and the NAS both have more than one ethernet interface you could run a wire between them.

There are a fair number of routers with 2x2.5Gb, but a lot of times one of them is reserved for the WAN port unless you put it in access point mode. Then it's not a router anymore. They're mostly the newer AX WiFi6/WiFi6E routers. Some are more flexible and will let you use both 2.5+ ports as LAN ports. You'll have to check the specs on each router you're looking at. Personally I'd just get a switch if you'd have to buy a router you don't otherwise want to make this work or have more than two devices that could use a 2.5Gb+ connection. Everything that can use the speed is heading towards multi-gig. I just did a bunch of looking around at switches. I decided not to buy a multi-gig switch, but that's mostly because I went 10Gb for my desktops and servers and the only use I have for 2.5 right now is a laptop I barely use, so I'll wait and get one later when I have more I need it for.

This is kind of a bad time to buy WiFi stuff. WiFi 6E is out, but the few models that are available tend to be $$$$, you'd be getting a 1.0 version and you need 6E clients to use it. 6E is going to take over quickly. The US government opened up a chunk of 6GHz spectrum for unlicensed use, and that's what the "E" adds - 6GHz in addition to 5 and 2.4GHz. Depending on how you use WiFi you might want to go cheap on a router or access point(s) and just get a switch to deal with the 2.5Gb. Or maybe you want to bite the bullet and buy a top end router with the fastest 6E wireless. I could see doing that if you just got a shiny new laptop with WiFi 6E and plan on keeping it a while. I'm a 98% desktop user and my laptop is from 2019 and has AC WiFi/WiFi 5, so I'm going cheap on the WiFi in my in-progress network overhaul.

Just to give you an idea of what's out there, while I was looking around at multi-gig switches to hook up wireless access points I came across this little guy: QNAP QSW-2104-2T 4 2.5G/1G/100M ports and 2 10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M ports. It has a sibling (QSW-2104-2S) that has 2 10G/1G SFP+ and 4 2.5G/1G/100M RJ45 ports. I haven't bought either of these and so I'm not going to recommend them, but they have pretty nice prices for a 4x2.5 + 2x10 switch. You can get cheaper 2.5Gb switches, but this is the best I've seen for a 6 port with a couple of 10Gbs and not a lot more than the cheapest 2.5Gb models. Those seem to be over $100, but I haven't done a lot of digging.