Three Wireless Routers for Homes and Offices

Wireless routers are becoming popular given their enhanced throughput and features. We compare three of them

Saturday, August 01, 2009

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Today, many organizations provide notebooks or other Internet surfing devices to their employees to enhance productivity. Now to sustain a wireless network that can support these devices, one should choose wireless routers carefully. We have tested and compared three wireless routers. Besides checking their features, we also tested the routers using 'Qcheck 3.0' and transferred 50 MB data through them.

Air Live WL-1600GL
Features that make this 802.11 g router worth its price include Wi-Fi Protection setup or WPS that allows a single button push secure wireless connection. WPS is a standard created by Wi-Fi alliance to create secure wireless connection, and WL-1600GL comes with 'WPS' button to use this feature. Besides wireless capability, this router also comes with four LAN ports and one WAN port. Setting up this router is easy and it comes with a standard wizard based setup feature. Security features of this router include URL filter, protection gainst denial of service and Firewall. One can set up secure wireless connection with WEP and WPA/WPA2 based encryption.

To check performance of this router, we carried out couple of tests. First we checked TCP throughput using 'Qcheck 3.0' with a payload of 1000 Mb. It gave 10 Mbps which is very low when compared with a similar G based router -D-Link DIR-300 (reviewed in Jan '09). To test speed of transformation, we created an isolated network with WL-1600GL connected to two machine, one via Ethernet and other via a wireless connection. We then transferred 50 Mb of data from one machine to other. It took an average of 58 seconds to complete this data transfer which is 19 seconds more than what DIR-300 took.

Bottomline: It's still based on G standard when every body is looking for the N standard,thus limiting usage.

Linksys SimultaneousDual-N WRT610N
Besides good looks and compact body, this router also has features that make it worth the price. Features that stand out in this 802.11n (draft) standard-based router include MIMO (Multiple in, Multiple Out) technology that multiplies effective data transfer rate by overlaying signals of multiple radios, USB 2.0 port for attaching external storage on the network, four Gigabit Ethernet ports, built in Media server that can be accessed from anywhere on the Internet, and single button protecting your wireless connection (Wi-Fi Protected Access). As security feature, WRT610N comes with built-in firewall (SPI) and supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption. Installation is simple with standard browser-based interface. All these capabilities make this router worthy if you are working with media centric applications like video streaming, VoIP etc.

To check performance of this router, we again carried out two tests. First we checked TCP throughput using 'Qcheck 3.0', with a payload of 1000 Mb, it gave 15 Mbps which is lower than Edimax BR6524n router (reviewee in Feb '09). To check speed of transformation, we created an isolated network (G) with WRT610N connected to two machines one via Ethernet and other via wireless connection. Then we transferred 50 Mb of data from one machine to the other. It took on average 40 seconds to complete this data transfer.

Bottomline: With 'draft-n' capability, Gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0 port, this router is high on performance and features making it a good buy.

Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G2
This is another g-based router. Features include a single button push secure wireless network setup (WPS) and four Ethernet ports supporting auto crossover for security, WRT54G2 comes with inbuilt Stateful Packet Inspection (SIP) firewall, WEP, WPA2, and MAC filtering. Setting up this router is easy, from its standard browser based interface.

TCP throughput using 'Qcheck 3.0' with a payload of 1000 Mb, was18 Mbps which is the highest among all three routers. In 50 Mb data transfer test, WRT5462 was able to transfer data in 35 seconds which is again the highest among the lot even though isolated network for our test was g-based. Overall, this router is high on performance.

Bottomline: If you want to buy a wireless router for basic Internet usage go for this.

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