Feature: Notable Routers Reviewed!

Tech Wired Australia has been supplied with a specific set of routers that we’ve requested. We wanted to show some noteworthy routers that are out in the marketplace. Some are notable for their features, others for their price. And one for being horrendously terrible.

Draytek Vigor 2820Vnc (Award: Overall Best Router)

The first thing you notice about the Vigor is that it looks like someone found a crab and smashed it and called it a Vigor. Appearance aside, this is a pretty nifty piece of equipment. Packing a single gigabit ethernet port alongside three 100mbit ports and 802.11n draft Wireless capabilities, networking in your home or office wont be an issue. It does make me wonder why all four aren’t gigabit ethernet though.

The wireless capabilities on this router far exceeded those of any other router. The 802.11n draft technology just flies, and works in places around my home and office where I just couldn’t get signal before. This for me, would be a determining feature that would tilt which router to next purchase, and compensates for its steep $579 price tag.

I had zero dropouts using this router as opposed to a few with just about every other router. The router never lost sync, and maintained around 6.5mbit the entire time, which is right on what I was obtaining from my regular router.

For something so feature packed, it’s light and small for its class. The web interface isn’t anything exciting, but it’s clean, simple, and works well. It displays sufficient diagnostic information if required. You can check out a demo of their interface here.

The router comes packed with USB Port which you can plug your 3G USB Modem into, or use it as a print server. This is handy for those times when your ADSL falls over, or you’re on the road. Like the Billion, the Draytek includes great VPN capabilities. Naturally, for a router in this range, it can handle all of your Voice over IP needs without any trouble at all. The Draytek Vigor 2820Vnc is Tech Wired Australia’s pick for overall best router in this feature.

Pros: 802.11n flies, great web interface, most stable

Cons: It looks like someone dropped a pie

Netcomm NB12WD (Award: Best Sync Rate)

Moving onto the Netcomm, I opened the box and was immediately surprised by two things. Its pretty device, and it comes with a wireless telephone which links up to the router and your Voice over IP service, which is nice feature and even includes a page button on the side of the router. Its price tag of $429 is very reasonable for everything that comes within, and would make a good gift for your computer illiterate parents. But there’s something else that caught my eye…

This beast managed to sync up at 9mbit a second. This, for me, is insane. I generally never receive more than about 7mbit in this area, and average closer to 6mbit. My upload bandwidth remained at its maximum. Despite this, I received only two dropouts during the review process over severals days, and one was during an electrical storm.

Feature wise, this router includes four 100mbit ethernet ports, two Voice over IP ports which provided excellent voice quality (probably hard not to with sync rates like that), and a USB port for print server. Two Voice over IP ports for your analogue telephone at the back, with brilliant call quality.

The final note on this router, from the time I logged into the interface to set it up, I took 20 seconds to configure and another 30 seconds to sync.

Pros: Easy to configure, awesome sync rates

Cons: Nothing notable

Billion 7404VNOX

This router was reviewed in full here.

Pros: Easy to setup, reliable, amazing feature set – almost expected it to cook and clean for me

Cons: Steepish price tag, unit is quite large, runs a little hot

Dynalink RTA1025W (Award: Best on a Budget)

This router looks like something I’d find in my grandmother’s garage stowed away from the 1950′s. But, it performs the pants out of other routers in this price range. Using a quick Google search, this router can be picked up for $96, and includes four 100mbit ethernet ports and 802.11g Wireless capabilities.

And that’s about it. But for $96, I wouldn’t complain. This suits 99% of home users, and manages to sync up at just over my 6.5mbit average, coming in just under 7mbit most of the time. This router never dropped out. Actually, other than its appearance, I don’t have a negative word to say about this piece of hardware. That being said, that’s about all I can good about it too. There’s no wizz-flash features that connect your mobile phone to a toaster, no built in VPN, or anything of that kind.

Pros: Did I mention it’s cheap?

Cons: It’s uh, Beige.

D-Link G804V

The D-Link G804V looks exactly like every other D-Link, which isn’t a bad thing, and actually runs very cool. The router obtained line sync at a rate 4mbit per second which is well under my standard sync rate of 6.5mbit, and an upstream of 600kbps. I usually obtain 800kbps.

Feature wise, it displays proudly on the front it can do ADSL2+, VPN, and is a Router. LAN Networking wise, the D-Link has four 100mbit ethernet ports, and 802.11g wireless which has an effective range less than any other router tested in my house. At the office, which is smaller, it worked just fine.

The web interface is brilliant for users who aren’t 100% tech savvy and I managed to configure it in around 45 seconds, but it then took four and a half minutes to obtain line sync. All routers we tested stayed connected up to the line for 3 days and the D-Link dropped out four times in that period, the highest of any piece of hardware in my test. At a recommended retail price of $299, this is the best waste of $299 we’ve ever seen.

Pros: It includes a console cable, and a great web interface

Cons: Everything else. Seriously.