General notes on use, reliability, etc.?
Alone or in conjunction with a Synology NAS and/or Xfinity (Technicolor) cable modem.
Also interested in NAT loopback, aka. hairpinning.
Also, did someone mention free vpn? Thought Synology was offering, but can’t find the ref now. Found it after I posted, as per usual. Synology free vpn client licenses.
I bought one recently to replace my AirPort Extreme at work. Personally, I don’t like the look or need the four external antennas and they have an option to turn off the blinking lights which is nice.
It has worked without any issues and software is update more often than Apple updated the Extreme.
Turning on uPnP allows my Screens remote access to control the router without any effort. I did stumble across their VPN function, but there was a subscription involved.
A license for one user is included with the router and for additional users you need to get USD9,99 licenses. But this only applies to “Synology VPN”. The router alos supports OpenVPN, no restrictions there.
I love my Synology router. It’s easy to set up, and has a great user interface.
It’s fast and reliable.
As for the VPN: as @Lars says: it supports all the usual VPN options, so you should not be limited to the single Synology VPN user (which actually is a great option!)
And: adding the Synology MR2200ac mesh option extends the functionality even more.
We have the 2600 plus the mesh extender. It works really great for our townhouse style condo, since we have to het internet to 3 floors.
As for the router itself:
I called my provider to set my my cable modem to bridge mode, so the RT2600ac now is “directly” attached to the internet and reachable with it’s IP.
I have several computers/devices attached to it (Ethernet and WLAN) and it performs brilliantly. No issues at all. It requieres some configuration, but I guess if you want a plug&play router, you bought the wrong product. Configuration is very easy, the GUI is very intuitive.
I looked at several routers and, for me, the RT2600ac is the best out there.
The antennae are a bit much, and I assume are intended to impress our gamer friends. lol
Blinking lights annoy me to no end, almost as much as people that whistle.
Thanks for the heads-up.
The lights were useful while bringing the router online, but once I was comfortable with its stability off they went!
Its my favorite prosumer router. Have installed quite a few of them and they are trouble free and work very well.
The antenna’s are what they are but they are the primary in-output source for the WiFi Signal. For any radio transmitter / receiver, the antenna is one of the most important part of the system. That being said its at least not as ugly as a gamers version of an Asus or Linksys router…
The extender doesn’t have an external antenna.
FYI, with everyone working from home, there is a run on routers. Earlier today, they were available in the usual places, four hours later, Amazon, Newegg, etc. were sold out. Perceived (actual?) scarcity kicked in, had to have one, and I finally found one at Adorama.
Thanks for all the info everyone!
Update: Adorama sold me something that wasn’t in stock, disclosed after emailing about the order. Service rep said they didn’t know when they’d be in stock, and I could cancel, which I did. There was no indication when I ordered that they weren’t in stock.
Here is an other alternative:
Yeah, but $300? Ouch!
I completely understand. In this case I bought the router for its security and not its range. It’s in my 16x23 office… I know, overkill.
If you don’t want gaudy antennae sticking out, it’s $100 extra 
Now that you have the RT2600AC, how do you like it ?-)
It’s downstairs in the box waiting for me
I had to buy an Amazon Warehouse unit, as everyone was sold out.
Should have an opinion in a couple of days!
Ha! That might be mine…
(Humble Pie moment ahead). The first Synology I ordered never worked, it would start to boot then lock up. After trying several things, I contacted support who also could not resolve the issue and quickly said to return this to where I bought it and order a replacement.
I bought it from Amazon and they were great. I received the replacement the very next day. When I plugged it in it exhibited the exact same problem. My troubleshooting brain screamed USER ERROR and sure enough I had inadvertently grabbed a different power cable from under my desk—one from a brick with a lot less power. After rooting around behind my desk I found the actual Synology brick, plugged it in and all worked perfectly.
So, I was forced to return a perfectly good router to Amazon that I knew they couldn’t sell as new. I felt pretty stupid about this for a while, and met with mixed emotions the dichotomy of Amazon having to take a loss on my error and me not being financially penalized for my stupidity…
Its sometimes hard to pick the right wire from the spaghetti bowl…
Don’t feel bad about Bezos, he has enough $$$
Well, maybe I’ll get that one 
Returns and failures are built into the price. They probably cost $10 to make. e.g. this
Well, color me impressed.
Of course this isn’t my first rodeo, but setup was much easier than I would have expected. The similarity between Disk Station Manager on my NAS and the Synology Router Manager helped lot.
