Router Roundup: We Review 7 Top-Tier Routers

Posted 10/27/2010 at 11:34am | by Michael Brown

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Today's premium Wi-Fi routers push the boundaries of design, features, and range

You’ve been getting by with the cheapie router you bought two years ago, so why should you upgrade now? In a word: Performance. And features. Oh, sorry. That’s two words. We looked at a host of budget offerings in our last router roundup (February 2010) and didn’t find much to get excited about. This time, we asked seven manufacturers to send us the best consumer routers in their stables regardless of price tags.

If aesthetics matter in your router, you're sure to find a design that suits your style, although its performance might not be up to snuff. Hey, that's why we're here.

In most cases, that meant a simultaneous dual-band router capable of running 802.11n wireless networks using the typical 2.4GHz frequency band and the less-crowded 5GHz band, plus a guest network that isolates its clients from your primary LAN. In all cases, it meant a router with an integrated four-port gigabit switch and at least one USB port for sharing a printer or a storage device over the network (some have two USB ports to support both functions). In an interesting twist, however, no one submitted a product using a three-stream wireless chipset promising raw throughput of 450Mb/s.

We’re absolutely fine with that, because our first experience with this bleeding-edge standard, courtesy of Trendnet’s single-band TEW-691GR, left a bitter taste on our tongues. The TEW-691GR was very fast, but only at very close range. As we observed in our review, you can’t buy a USB Wi-Fi adapter with three antennas today, so much of that extra bandwidth is effectively wasted.
 
Astute observers will notice that we’ve previously written stand-alone reviews of three of the routers here—namely, the Netgear WNDR3700 V1 (our current Best of the Best pick), the Linksys E3000 (previously known as the WRT610N), and the Belkin Play N600 HD (previously known as the Play Max). Since wireless performance varies with Wi-Fi client device drivers, router firmware updates, and even atmospheric conditions, we didn’t think it would be fair to compare one product with the latest updates to a competitor we reviewed several months ago.

So, will Netgear’s WNDR3700 V1 retain its title, or will a scrappy challenger exceed our lofty expectations? Keep reading to find out.

Jump to page 3 for the benchmarks.

Asus RT-N16

A solid, if unexciting, bargain

The Asus RT-N16 is a single-band router with three removable (and therefore upgradeable) antennas, but the third antenna didn’t help the router rise above third place overall in terms of TCP throughput. It did, however, do a solid job of penetrating our media room.

The RT-N16 is equipped with two USB ports, so it can support both a portable USB hard drive and a printer. USB storage devices are shared using SMB/CIFS, so the shares appear when you use Windows to browse your network. This is a far superior alternative to forcing you to install a client to access the shares, as some of the other routers do.

The Asus RT-N16 is a solid performer with dual USB ports, strong firmware, and support from the DD-WRT community.

Asus has developed a very user-friendly GUI for the RT-N16’s firmware, and the EZQoS utility makes it easy to assign bandwidth priority to various applications (with settings for VoIP, games, video streaming, and the built-in FTP server). There’s an integrated BitTorrent client, too. If the stock firmware doesn’t float your boat, you can replace it with a version of the popular open-source alternative DD-WRT.

The RT-N16’s stock firmware includes a UPnP media server, but it’s not DLNA-compliant. This means the router is not a great choice if you’re looking to stream media from an attached drive to an Xbox 360 or a PS3 gaming console.

You’ll find our complete Asus RT-N16 network and NAS benchmark results here.

The Asus RT-N16 Verdict

GUI

Decent range and throughput; dual USB ports; support from DD-WRT community; BitTorrent client.

Gooey

Single-band only; no guest network; no DLNA-compliant media server.

Belkin Play N600 HD

Homey don't play dat

The Belkin Play Max’s claim to fame was a fat set of hardware features and a generous collection of apps that ran not on the router but on client PCs connected to the router. In relaunching the Play Max as the Play N600 HD, Belkin has kept all the hardware features but axed three of the apps (the music library tool Daily DJ, the backup utility Memory Safe, and the MP3 tagger Music Labeler).

No big loss, as far as we’re concerned; we’re far more interested in the hardware. Like its predecessor, the Play N600 HD features two wireless radios, so you can operate distinct networks on the 2.4- and 5GHz bands, plus a second guest network (on the 2.4GHz band only) that provides Internet access while isolating visitors from your LAN. You’ll also find two USB ports, so you can share both a mass storage device and a printer across your network (but not with clients on the guest network).

Belkin's Play N600 HD router has a single status LED that glows green when the router is connected to the Internet and amber when it can't make that connection.

The Play N600 HD’s wireless routing performance using the 2.4GHz band was distinctly middle of the road, placing third in two of our test locations and tying for third in another. On the other hand, it managed a relatively strong second-place performance in our challenging media-room test. Performance on the 5GHz band was roughly the same, except that it couldn’t penetrate our double-walled media room at all.

Belkin includes a BitTorrent client that’s useful for finishing Torrent downloads without tying up a host PC; but as you can see from our benchmark charts, the router’s NAS performance is abysmal.

You’ll find our complete Belkin Play N600 HD network and NAS benchmark results here.

The Belkin Play N600 Verdict

Dual Band

Guest network; two USB ports; BitTorrent client, good range on the 2.4GHz band.

Dual Personality

Slug-slow NAS performance; DLNA-compliant media server runs on a host PC, not the router.

Buffalo AirStation Nfiniti

This bison no longer roams

Of the three routers we’re taking second looks at, none has changed more than Buffalo’s WZR-HP-G300NH. That’s because Buffalo has thrown the firmware we tested earlier out the window and adopted the open-source DD-WRT.

We weren't impressed with the AirStation Nfiniti WZR-HP-G300NH's TCP throughput, but its price tag is a saving grace.

Comparing our earlier benchmark numbers to the performance we recorded this time out, however, we much prefer the Kick Ass award–earning router we tested in January to the one in front of us now. That router turned in the best throughput we’ve ever seen with our client in our well-insulated media room and in our furthest outdoor location; this one took fifth-place finishes in both tests (in a field of seven). We have little doubt the reason for this performance discrepancy is due to the fact that no matter how we configured the router, we couldn’t coax Buffalo’s WLI-UC-G300HP01B USB client adapter to connect to it at a stated data rate faster than 130Mb/s.

This is a single-band router that enables you to run virtual wireless networks with distinct SSIDs, but these aren’t true guest networks that provide Internet access while isolating guest clients from your primary LAN. The router is equipped with a single USB port that’s limited to NAS functions—you can’t use it to share a printer attached to your network. It does, however, feature a DLNA-compliant media server, and it can be converted to a wireless bridge/repeater when you upgrade to a newer router down the road.

You’ll find our complete Buffalo AirStation Nfiniti WZR-HP-G300NH network results here. We didn’t test NAS performance because this router doesn’t support NTFS-formatted drives.

The Buffalo AirStation Verdict

NTFS

DLNA-compliant media server; integrated BitTorrent client; DD-WRT firmware.

NSFW

Poor range; USB NAS feature supports only FAT32 or XFS formatted drives; no guest network.

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