Asus is tops in performance, style among 6 vendors
Wireless routers are always something of a mystery. They combine a number of features into a single box and are usually complex to set up, but require little attention after that.
Set up properly, they can provide high-speed wired and wireless access to a wide range of devices, securely connect to storage and printers, route between parts of your internal network and protect against hackers. (See how we conducted our test.)
If that sounds like a tall order, it is. That is why wireless routers tend to be one of the more frequently returned items in general use. Wireless routers are also inconsistent in the services they offer, the way those services are presented to users, the ease with which they are enabled or disabled and the ease with which they can be found and made available by the system administrator.
Wi-Fi devices crowd 2.4GHz band; IT looks to 5GHz
The wireless routers in this test all share certain features, however. They are all dual-band wireless routers meeting the 802.11n standard. Each has four Ethernet ports, and a port for your Internet connection. All are designed for some sort of automated setup, and all will provide adequate service in a moderately sized office. Dual-band routers transmit and receive on 2.4GHz and on 5GHz at the same time.
We tested products from Linksys, Asus, Netgear, Belkin, EnGenius and Trendnet. In addition to looking at setup, documentation, manageability and feature sets, we conducted performance tests to see how far the router could deliver a streaming music video to a laptop before data loss became apparent, and far the router could deliver ping packets before packet loss occurred.
Our Clear Choice Test winner is the Linksys router, which offered the best combination of distance, speed, flexibility and security. And it’s future-proofed through support for IPv6. However, it was relatively expensive. And we did find some minor flaws, such as the lack of status lights.
Watch a slideshow version of this test.
A close second is the stylish Asus RT-N56U. While it doesn’t have IPv6 support, the Asus does everything else well, and won our performance tests. One minor quibble: Its stand is a little flimsy, so it tends to physically fall over. But a little duct tape can fix that.
The Netgear N600, with its included asymmetrical DSL (ADSL) modem, can simplify the implementation for users who have DSL lines, but it’s less useful for other types of Internet service. The Belkin device had some hiccups when it came to setup, and its security features weren’t the strongest, but it did perform well at 2.4GHz.
EnGenius is the low-cost alternative. It’s not as feature-rich and polished as the others, and performance wasn’t as strong, but in some cases it’s half the price of a competing product.
Trendnet was the only product with external antennas. However, they didn’t translate into a performance advantage.
We found that all of the devices provide adequate Internet access. But be aware of the limitations each has shown. Even though your work or home environment is certain to be different from the test lab, the relative performance should be approximately the same. In other words, a router that didn’t work well at 5GHz in the test probably won’t work well at 5GHz for you, either.
Here are the individual reviews:
Asus: Tops in performance testing
The Asus RT-N56U wireless router probably would win the Network World style award, if we had one. This very thin, shimmering black rectangle harkens back to the Monolith of “2001: A Space Odyssey” as it sits at a slight angle in the equipment rack with a row of blue LEDs shining from beneath its surface.
The device stands on a short support that you install before you set up the router. It looks nice, but it’s not very stable — by the time you attach a couple of Cat 5 Ethernet cables, it’ll fall over if you let it.
The Asus device includes a pair of USB ports. The four Ethernet ports support Gigabit Ethernet. According to the published specs, the router will handle up to 30,000 concurrent sessions, a feature we weren’t able to test. This router is able to support a USB-attached hard drive, and it will make it available to the internal network as a Windows server device or an FTP device, and to the outside world as an FTP device. The Asus supports port mapping and has DMZ support and a built-in firewall. Asus includes provisions for an external URL via the Asus website for supporting external access.
This device uses beam forming on 5GHz, which was very effective and allowed uninterrupted viewing of the test music video for a longer distance than any other device in this test. Using Fluke Networks’ AirCheck Wi-Fi tester, we found that the Asus device would support ping traffic without packet loss for the longest distance of any device at 2.4GHz. Beam forming is a means of managing the phase relationship among multiple antennas to effectively steer the radio energy to a specific point in space.
The management screen is somewhat different from the other devices, presenting a network map of all USB-attached devices and all devices attached over the network. Most settings are available through links or buttons on the router’s main page, available after sign-in.
Setup is managed by a CD-based Windows program, or by a Web page for Mac or Linux setup using its Quick Internet Setup wizard. The included wizard does tell you to power-cycle your Internet interface before proceeding. The entire process is fairly non-dramatic. Once the basic setup is complete, you can browse to the router’s IP address to continue the setup process. The management pages are well designed and intuitive. The router includes a Telnet server and supports RADIUS authentication.
The advanced settings are reached by choosing a series of links rather than tabs or buttons on the other devices. This does not affect the usability. This device does not support IPv6 and will not pass IPv6 packets.
The included firewall has intrusion detection, stateful packet inspection, logging and a number of other features. The included traffic monitor has a graphical presentation on the internal Web pages. The claimed 300Mbps maximum bandwidth was confirmed by the Fluke AirCheck.
Belkin: Beam forming at 2.4GHz delivers strong performance
The Belkin N750 DB is a vertically mounted device with ovoid sides that sits on its bottom edge with an attached stand. It includes four Gigabit Ethernet ports and two USB ports for storage or printing.
This device includes beam forming, but that feature apparently only works at 2.4GHz. Streaming video worked at 2.4GHz for virtually the same distance as the Linksys (about 250 feet downrange) but the distance supported at 5GHz was only about 50 feet. The AirCheck ping test at 2.4GHz was longer than most others.
The Belkin N750 DB includes a wireless setup utility along with instructions to power-cycle the cable modem or other Internet interface device. However, the setup utility did not work. Browsing to the router’s IP address did provide access to the main configuration page which initially does not include a password. Setup supports Windows, Mac and Linux.
The router comes with four applications: Self-Healing, Video Mover, Print Zone and Memory Safe. Self-Healing provides routine maintenance scans of the network and presents on-screen notifications. Memory Safe is a backup manager. Print Zone handles printers on the network, and Video Mover can send stored movies to an 802.11n TV or Blu-ray player.
There is no disk management utility on the router’s management page. The USB storage did not appear to recognize the Toshiba USB 1TB drive used in testing, or any other USB storage device we tried. Security features do not include blacklists or whitelists, and there’s no means for preventing denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. This router required a firmware update during testing, but did not provide clear instructions.
Testing showed that output power was lower than other devices when the device was idling. This meant that initiating a connection from even fairly short distances was difficult. However, the device would maintain a connection to much longer distances. Even at short distances, beam forming was evident when FTP tests showed that data was transferred about 20% faster than most other devices at 2.4GHz. But at 5GHz, performance was poor.
Streaming media worked best when both 2.4GHz and 5GHz were available on the computer that was being used for testing. Single-band use alone was less effective.
The N750 DB does not support IPv6 and does not pass IPv6 packets.
EnGenius: The low-cost alternative
At $79.99, the EnGenius ESR7750 was significantly less expensive than the other products in this test. Performancewise, EnGenius was at the lower end of the spectrum. And it was the only device in this test that didn’t support Gigabit Ethernet.
The ESR7750 includes a firmware-based setup wizard. A slip of paper included with the device explains how to invoke the firmware. In this case you attach the router to your Internet connection (cable or DSL interface) with the included cable. Then attach your computer to one of the ports on the network switch. Plug in the device, power it on and start your computer. Theoretically, that’s it.
While the instructions don’t tell you to power-cycle your Internet interface device, you should. Once the ESR7750 gets a network address, you can log into it, assuming your computer is using DHCP (this isn’t mentioned in the instructions either), and browsing to the device and entering the user name and password. The default address, user name and password are printed on the bottom of the device. Once you’re in, the setup wizard starts automatically.
The setup wizard lets you perform a basic configuration including the role of the device, the SSID, level of security and passphrase, and lets you set a new password. Once you’ve finished the setup, you can browse to the router’s address and a built-in Web page lets you handle the setup and administration.
The ESR7750 provides a wide range of settings, including for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz portions of the router, a firewall and features such as network address translation (NAT), port mapping and QoS. The firewall lets you enable a DMZ and turn on DoS protection, along with a variety of other security features.
The ESR7750 worked well, but was able to provide service over only a relatively short range. An included note suggested that it be tested with the device positioned vertically, which was done. Apparently the internal antennas are positioned so that they radiate best when the device is standing on its front edge. There’s no support included to help the device stay in that position.
The ESR7750 was able to deliver traffic at 270Mbps at 2.4GHz according to the AirCheck, but surprisingly only delivered at 130Mbps on 5GHz.
The ESR7750 does not support IPv6 and does not pass IPv6 packets.
Linksys: A step beyond
The Linksys E4200 is a step beyond the other wireless routers in this test in a number of important ways. This is the only device that supports a 3×3 MIMO antenna system, which allows three spatial streams. It’s also the only router with full support for IPv6, including a built-in IPv6 firewall. The Linksys E4200 is a sleek, shelf-hugging design in charcoal gray, but it would be better if it was a little less sleek so that the device could accommodate status lights on the front to make diagnosis easier.
The initial setup of the E4200 was the easiest of this bunch. You only need to insert the included CD-ROM into your laptop, connect to the Internet and power-cycle the device. Once that’s done, the setup is accomplished wirelessly. The setup wizard includes a series of common scenarios. Choose one and the setup wizard will ask a few questions and finish the job. One caveat: Don’t change the LAN IP address until everything else is finished or the wizard will stop working.
One security improvement is that the default SSID is no longer “Linksys.” Cisco has apparently supplied a random set of words for the SSID, and the router will come equipped with one of those. You can, of course, change it during the setup process.
Unlike some of the other devices in this test, the E4200 does not treat 5GHz as an afterthought. Streaming media worked up to 265 feet on the test range before there was any evidence of loss. The AirCheck’s testing with ping packets showed minor loss on 2.4GHz at 200 feet, but the losses stayed minimal for another 50 feet. File transfer times increased over even modest distances, as was the case with the other devices in this test.
Once you’ve made it through the setup wizard, the router’s management interface is just like all of the other Linksys routers you’ve seen. Obviously there are some differences because you have to manage two radios as well as IPv4 and IPv6, but the changes are intuitive, and you’ll recognize the features of the interface.
The E4200 includes a number of useful security features. You can set whitelists and blacklists, and you have the option of using a guest account that will provide limited privileges but will let visitors access the Internet. There are complete firewall functions for IPv4 and IPv6. You have complete control over most common firewall features. This device also supports port forwarding and has a DMZ capability, QoS support and specific settings for gaming.
The E4200 also includes a USB port that will support the devices available in the lab, including a 1TB Toshiba drive, and it will provide FTP access to storage. You can let the router provide access to storage for external connections, but you can also keep it internal. The router includes a storage management interface so that you know what’s attached and provide access as needed.
Netgear: Good value, comes with ADSL modem
The Netgear N600 DGND3700 wireless router includes an ADSL modem as well as an Ethernet port. We did not test the ADSL modem. The device includes a setup wizard that does little except help set the router name and determine the type of Internet connection. You must set the SSID, security and IP address. The router required several tries to obtain an IP address from the cable provider used for this testing.
The router provides logging and allows port forwarding, and you can set up blacklists in the firewall. One nice feature is that the router will send you an email if it detects malicious port scanning or a DoS attack, and the email will include logs that relate to the attack.
Testing of the N600 showed that it had ranges somewhat shorter than the best of this test, but they weren’t so short as to limit the usefulness of the device. The management interface is straightforward and intuitive. The most obvious difference is that it contains settings for the ADSL modem.
The N600 includes a USB port for sharing storage or printers, but it did not work with any of the devices in the lab that we tested. The management software didn’t provide any help with regard to the USB device.
It’s a solid device that provides good value if you need the included modem. However, it does not support IPv6.
Trendnet is more location sensitive
The Trendnet TEW-673GRU is the only wireless router in this test with external antennas. It’s also the only device in this test with external controls and an LCD panel. The external antennas make the router more location-sensitive than some of the other devices in this test. In this case, the router worked best by exposing the rear of the device at the front of the equipment rack so that the antennas protruded into free space. Unfortunately, this also had the effect of making the LCD panel difficult to see and the controls difficult to reach.
However, the existence of the controls proved to be handy when an install failure left the router in an indeterminate state. I was able to restore it to factory defaults simply by choosing that on the on-screen menu. While all these devices have a reset switch behind a hole in the rear, those resets don’t always work.
The TEW-673 includes a setup wizard which runs automatically when you browse to the router and log in. The step-by-step instructions are detailed, but they miss the requirement to power-cycle the Internet interface, and if you don’t do that, the install will fail. Once it runs, the setup wizard does very little, so you must select the SSID, IP address and security settings yourself.
The TEW-673 includes a USB interface with significant limitations. You can attach storage to the device, but you must use special drivers on either the PC or the Mac to use it. Likewise, there’s a driver for using an attached printer. However, only one user can attach to storage or printing at a time.
Performance, especially at 5GHz, was poor. We were unable to reach the router at distances as short as 50 feet for file transfer tests, and video streaming at 5GHz would not work beyond that distance. The AirCheck ping test showed packet loss at much less than 50 feet. The 2.4GHz side of this router showed better performance with streaming content loss occurring at about 175 feet. The router uses two channels at 2.4GHz to provide better throughput. Bottom line: The external antennas didn’t provide any performance or distance boost over other devices with internal antennas.
The management interface does provide context-sensitive help, but the help isn’t very helpful. As a result, the device will let you adjust your security settings so they’re incompatible with 802.11n without telling you, and without any indication of the proper settings.
The included firewall and security features are suitable for home or small business use. The device supports whitelisting and blacklisting, RADIUS authentication, VPN, port forwarding and stateful packet inspection. The router does not support IPv6.
Rash is a freelance writer living in Virginia. He can be reached at wrash@mindspring.com
