All productsRoutersNetgear Nighthawk RAX43

NetgearWi-Fi 6 router

Netgear Nighthawk RAX43

$249.99

Netgear Nighthawk RAX43
Image: Netgear

Key capabilities

  • WireGuard VPN — not listed
  • Parental controls
  • Guest network
  • WPA3 security

means the manufacturer doesn't list it, which isn't the same as the product lacking it.

OpenWrt

No support found. Checked against OpenWrt's own Table of Hardware, which carries no qualifying row for this model. That is a weaker statement than "this router cannot run OpenWrt" and a much stronger one than silence.

No ToH row for any current Netgear entry. The Netgear models OpenWrt does cover, such as the R7800, are older and none of them are in this lineup.

Checked 2026-08-06. How every router here was checked.

Specifications

Wireless

Standard
Wi-Fi 6
Bands
Dual-band
Speed class
AX4200
Fastest band
3,603 Mbps
All bands combined
4,177 Mbps

Connectivity

Uplink
Ethernet
Internet port
1 Gbps
Wired ports
5× Gigabit
Port map
USB ports
1

Hardware & physical

Form
Single unit
Weight
566 g
Dimensions
295.8 × 206 × 57.2 mm (3,485 cm³)
Power
DC power adapter
Model number
RAX43

Manufacturer details

Processor
1.5GHz triple-core
Memory
512 MB
Storage
256 MB
Antennas
4
USB
1× USB 3.0

Radios

BandMax linkStreamsChannel width
2.4 GHz574 Mbps2×240 MHz
5 GHz3,603 Mbps3×3160 MHz

All features · 13

Firmware

  • Automatic firmware updates

Wi-Fi features

  • OFDMA
    What is OFDMA?

    Table stakes50 of 79 listed here

    Splits a channel into smaller slices so several devices are served in the same instant instead of taking turns.

    Look at instead: streams per radio and channel width — those set the ceiling OFDMA divides up

    Full entry →
  • Beamforming
    What is Beamforming?

    Table stakes37 of 79 listed here

    Shapes the signal toward where a device actually is, rather than radiating evenly in every direction like a bare bulb.

    Look at instead: where you physically put the router — placement beats every antenna trick on this list

    Full entry →
  • DFS channels
    What is DFS channels?

    Depends on your setup18 of 79 listed here

    Extra 5 GHz channels shared with weather and military radar, which the router must abandon the moment it hears one.

    Look at instead: whether your neighbourhood is actually congested, and whether the router lets you turn DFS off

    Full entry →
  • 160 MHz channels
    What is 160 MHz channels?

    Table stakes47 of 79 listed here

    A double-width channel that roughly doubles throughput when the airwaves are clear enough to sustain it.

    Look at instead: whether the band has room for it — on 5 GHz that almost always means DFS

    Full entry →

Security

  • WPA3
  • Built-in threat protection

Management

  • Parental controls
  • Guest network
  • Mobile app management
  • Traffic monitoring

Hardware

  • USB storage sharing