June is always the period of time when I start to feel the urge of getting some new gadget to fool around with. Why June? Well for one its usually the school holiday period, meaning I suddenly have lots of time to think about buying new toys, and secondly there's also the PC Show. Most of the time I resist the urge (haven't bought anything major since 3 years ago, when I upgraded my desktop), although there was an exception earlier this year when I bought my
second-hand Toshiba laptop.
So anyway, every tech purchase has to have a reason behind it (my personal motto). I don't go around "hooting" stuff because its a blazing new technology, because everyone has one, or because its cheap/on offer. For one, I don't have the moolah to be able to do that (the reason why I call this blog "thebudgetgeek"). And of course, the most important thing - if you have a good reason to buy something, you'll make the most out of it (and reduce unnecessary wastage of money and resources).
The reason this time? My sis was complaining that the Wi-Fi signal kept getting dropped, and I had instances where my connection was dropped during Starcraft 2 games (rageeee!!). The problem could very well be on Starhub's side, but I then realised that the number of connected devices at home was mind-boggling - desktop, 4 laptops (usually only 2 being used at a time), 3 iPhones, 1 Desire S (mine), and 1 iPad 2.
Its amazing how we survived on our old Linksys WRT54G. To be fair, it was working fine throughout, but I wanted to get a Wireless N router to cater to all those devices with N capability (all except 2 older laptops), and to prepare for a future fibre broadband network.
So I headed down to the PC Show on Thursday with a single target in mind - the ASUS RT-N15U "Black Diamond" router. There were other candidates from D-Link and Linksys with similar specs, but I chose the ASUS in the end for its lower price point. The main draw this time was of course, Wireless N, and the ability to connect a USB device direct to the router for sharing (printer, hard drive etc.)
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| The beautiful design on the router face |
Features
Wall-mounting
Wireless N networking up to 300mbps, supports older standards
4 Gigabit LAN ports, 1 WAN port, 1 USB port
Printer sharing
FTP file sharing
UPnP media streaming
QoS, Firewall
Multiple SSID
3 networking modes - Router, Repeater and Access Point modes
Setting up
I must praise ASUS for this - the router was a cinch to setup. Normally the thought of setting up a secured wireless network would give me the shudders, but the RT-N15U surprised me. No installation CDs, no step-by-step procedures to follow - plug in the cables, open up a browser, fill up the SSID and Network Key, and you're ready to go!
Advanced settings can be tweaked using the webpage UI and is really quite foolproof (although the UI felt a little kiddish). I managed to setup MAC address filtering and QoS (quality of service) in a few clicks.
On the other hand, printer setup a little took more effort. I couldn't connect to the printer for a good 1 hour, despite running the printer setup utility and reinstalling the printer drivers. Eventually I gave up, left the house, and when I came back 2 hours later, it magically worked. /shrugs
Performance
Arguably the most important factor that everyone looks at. I wanted to take full advantage of the wireless N network adaptors in my Toshiba Portege and my sis's Sony Vaio. The smartphones and iPads all come with this standard so they'd benefit from the potential increase in speeds.
I was disappointed though. Firstly, I had to run my router on "Auto" mode instead of "N only", which means it could support wireless G devices (the 2 ageing laptops). This would cut down any potential speed improvements if both N and G devices were operating at the same time.
And secondly, even without the 2 old laptops connected, the wireless speeds weren't THAT impressive.
My desktop (Gigabit LAN) speedtest results:
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| 10 minutes of cheerful Irish music |
My laptop (Wireless N, in my room 2 walls away) speedtest results:
Laptop YouTube test results:
Upload speeds were consistently low (Starhub -.-), but the download speed dropped drastically on Wi-Fi. Of course, these were just numbers, so to simulate a real-time test I loaded a 1080p YouTube video and waited for it to load (the grey bar). Surprisingly, not much of a difference! Of course, this could be due to the QoS settings of the router which prioritised online video streaming, which in this case proved extremely useful.
Looks
Not an important factor when it comes to routers, but this is one seriously sexy looking router. It helps if the router is located on top my desktop PC with the exact same colour scheme - black with blue LEDs. Linksys first made the router sleek with its E series, but ASUS does it in a way that appeals to the inner tech "beng". If my earlier photo didn't do it justice, here's the official picture:
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| Sexy black with blue LEDs |
OverallIn terms of functionality and value for money, this router is definitely the top choice among the budget-conscious. Almost all modern routers are now wireless N capable, so that isn't much of a deal-breaker; the ability to connect a printer or a hard disk for sharing/streaming certainly is. Linksys routers certainly have the brand behind them, and I don't doubt their quality, but that comes with a premium ($$$). I was torn between this and a similarly priced D-link, but who could resist the looks of this "Dark Knight"?
Slightly disappointed with the speedtest results, but at least I'll be able to print wirelessly now :)
Hopefully with the arrival of fibre broadband over the horizon, the full potential of this router will be realised.
Would I recommend it? If you're living with ancient Wi-Fi technology and thinking of an upgrade, this would definitely be a viable option - just don't expect too much in terms of performance.
