Three Wireless Routers for Homes and Offices

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.