Having fast, reliable, and secure WiFi throughout your home, office or business is essential if you plan on using your high-speed Internet connection to its full advantage. Nobody likes to deal with a problematic WiFi network that’s slow, unresponsive or spotty in coverage because after all, a poor connection can bring huge frustrations.

Rather than upgrading your router, it might be a better idea to install a WiFi range extender to boost your wireless signal throughout an expansive area. Designed to amplify and extend your existing router’s coverage, an extender can be placed anywhere in your home, office or business to boost fast connection speeds anywhere you need them.

Amped Wireless, one of the leading manufacturers of high power networking devices, has recently released their new ATHENA-EX AC2600 (RE2600M) WiFi Range Extender. It’s been carefully designed to thoroughly extend and repeat the wireless range of any router by up to 15,000 square feet while offering an assortment of favorable features that improve speed, latency, security and reliability. Let’s take a closer look to see exactly what it’s capable of.

Most Powerful

Known as the most powerful WiFi range extender that’s available on the market today, the Amped Wireless ATHENA-EX AC2600 (RE2600M) is specifically designed for the large, multi-device environment that you’ll find in most household or office environments. Equipped with a super powerful dual-core processor and paired beside sixteen high power amplifiers and four high gain antennas, it’s fully capable of delivering improved wireless speeds for areas up to 15,000 feet.

As the first AC2600-specific range extender available, there’s no other extender currently available that can offer the same speeds at up to 2.53 Gbps through two different bands. With it, your can experience 800 Mbps on the 2.4 Ghz channel and 1733 Mbps on the 5 Ghz channel – more than enough transfer speed for virtually any task at hand. Ideal for the busy network environment with multiple devices and/or clients sharing the same Internet connection. It’s a great choice for those who enjoy simultaneous video gaming, high-definition video streaming, multi-file downloading, or just basic browsing with the highest possible speeds.

MU-MIMO

One of the most anticipated features of the RE2600M is the MU-MIMO or “Multi-User, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output” technology. Rather than sending data to a single device at a time, MU-MIMO assures that there’s plenty of bandwidth to go around for everyone who needs it. Ideal for a busy network environment with a lot of people using the connection at the same time, MU-MIMO utilizes all of the antennas and amplifiers together to communicate in a more efficient way, assuring the highest possible transfer speeds throughout all hours of the day.

Connections and Ports

With it’s sleek and slim appearance, you initially wouldn’t be able to tell which specific connectors and ports are available on the ATHENA-EX. Located on the back side is a wide range of options including four gigabit network ports for attaching all of your wired devices, an LED on/off button, the power button, a WPS 1-touch setup button, and four gold-plated RJ-SMA connectors for attaching the four external high-gain antennas. Also, there are two USB ports – one located on the back that’s USB 2.0 and one located on the side that’s USB 3.0, offering the fastest transfer speeds for attaching network storage, an external hard drive, or virtually any peripheral.

BoostBand Technology

In order to deliver the best speeds possible, Amped Wireless made sure to include their very own “Boost Band” technology that increases the overall speed and performance of your extended network. It does this by sending dual band network traffic through a single band between your router and extender. If one of the bands is too weak for this, it’ll then utilize the other band – but only if it has to. This makes multiple connections faster than usual since data is routed in a much more efficient manner.

Easy to Use

Setting up the ATHENA-EX is a very straightforward task that can be easily completed without the need for any prior knowledge or technical expertise. Once you’ve unboxed it and plugged it in, you’ll need to connect your tablet, smartphone, or PC to the range extender. Access the intuitive setup menu for a full range of different configuration options and change any values you’d like. Next, scan for your network and enter your router’s password for authentication. From there, you’ll be finished and ready to use it wherever you plug it in. Best of all, there’s also a step by step video installation guide that’s included to directly walk you through the setup process.

If you’re using an Android or Windows device, we highly recommend using the free Amped Wireless WiFi Analytics Tool that directly helps you analyze and optimize your network to it’s best potential.

One thing that we really found to be useful was the Signal Strength LED. Located on the center, top-side is a small LED that will tell you the current network strength so you can find the perfect, most-ideal location to place the extender. It’s very helpful for finding where you need to improve the signal the most without having to use any complicated setting.

Fully Compatible

Whenever you decide to add a new device or peripheral to your network, it can often cause headaches with compatibility issues. That’s not the case with the ATHENA-EX AC2600 (RE2600M). It’s designed for full compatibility between all brands of routers and devices including all Operating Systems like Mac, Windows, Linux, Unix, etc. It works with AirPlay, AirPrint, and Home Sharing features that are Mac-specific and often not supported by all manufacturers.

Key Features

• Increase wireless coverage by up to 15,000 square feet.
• With 16 amplifiers and 4 external antennas, it can fully eliminate dead-zones.
• AC2600 (2.53 Gbps) WiFi speeds through dual bands 2.4 and 5 Ghz.
• Poweful dual core processor that’s designed for heavy-traffic and constant use.
• BoostBand Technology adds efficiency to improve latency.
• Create your own guest networks for visiting company.
• Fully compatible with virtually any OS or platform.
• Equipped with USB 3.0 for the best solution to network storage and file sharing.
• Simple setup process that requires no experience.

Final Thoughts

Anyone who’s had to deal with a slow or unreliable WiFi connection can likely share the same frustration. Sometimes buying the most powerful and latest router simply isn’t enough if you have a network infrastructure that’s expansive or for a large area. A high-power extender like the Amped Wireless ATHENA-EX AC2600 (RE2600M) is an excellent solution for those needing to boost their WiFi signal to it’s best abilities with improved coverage.

Capable of offering 2.53 Gbps through dual bands, and paired with some of the latest advancements in wireless networking like MU-MIMO and BoostBand, we feel that the ATHENA-EX is a fantastic choice. Ideal for high-end, resource-intensive tasks like HD video streaming and online gaming, it promises no lag, no buffering, and full compatibility between virtually any and all devices that are out there.

Best of all, Amped Wireless is well-known for their fantastic US-based support that’s always readily available to you 7 days a week. Overall, a great choice for those needing the perfect blend of speed and reliability in any area of their home, office or business.

The post Amped Wireless ATHENA-EX AC2600 Range Extender Review appeared first on Nerd Techy.

Access to a strong WiFi signal can be difficult to achieve in your home or office, especially with low-end routers, or large homes with hard to reach areas that you’d like to gain a fast connection from.

Gamers and video streamers in particular can often be faced with issues regarding poor speeds, unreliable signals, dropped connections, or lengthy buffering times that make it impossible to enjoy your content the way it’s meant to be.

An issue many experience that’s quite similar to cell phones, is having full connectivity at the front door, but a very weak signal upstairs, because although the signal on your router may be designed to reach a long range, there may be obstacles, walls or appliances in the way.

In many situations, it’s been enough of a headache, that the technology required in order to maximize your WiFi signal has been developed to the point where it’s both effective and affordable for just about anybody.

We’re going to go in depth to look at the newly released NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 (EX7300) AC2200 Range Extender, to see what it has to offer and how it shapes up among the competition.

Increase Overall Range and Signal Strength

One of the key features of this WiFi range extender is the ability to increase WiFi range throughout your house, despite walls, electronics and sheer space that can create dead spots.

It’s actually quite impressive, in that you can simply plug it into a wall outlet somewhere between your router and your dead zone, and it’ll give you a massive boost in range, providing 10,000 square feet of total coverage.

Even in the largest home, or on super large properties, that’s quite an expansive area, but it has more surprises for you in terms of the quality of that signal.

It also features a high performance set of antennas that are coordinated to provide maximum range by broadcasting your signal in multiple directions. Combined with the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4’s powerful amplifiers and speed features, they really make this an all-in-one WiFi range extender for ultimate speed and range.

Another feature that NETGEAR has done really well in the past although quite expensively, is called beamforming, which creates more of a concentrated straight signal line between devices, rather than dispersing your signal in all directions, thus making it weaker.

While both the range extender and your mobile device must be compatible with this feature, most mobile devices sold today use the same beamforming technology that NETGEAR has been providing, which gives you an advantage over other similar range extenders that are available.

Hyper Fast Speed and Extended Compatibility

By taking advantage of both the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands that your wireless router transmits, the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 creates a super-fast network speed capability of up to 2.2 gigabits per second, which is fast enough to download a full AAA video game in less than a minute.

NETGEAR has also made it compatible with all wireless routers, not just the ones they provide or ones with similar technology, so that you can take advantage of increased range as well as speed, without additional expenses.

What they’ve also done is provide an advanced feature called Multiple User MIMO, which basically transmits and receives data to and from multiple devices simultaneously, rather than trying to balance out each connection while multitasking.

This one feature alone is a solid value that’ll surely increase wireless internet speeds for multiple devices in your home, without breaking signal or experiencing unnecessary buffering or load times.

Sound Durability and Ease of Use

A WiFi range extender has very few durability concerns, however when you’re dealing with the amount of power that the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 is capable of, it’s good to know that it’ll continue to operate as intended over continuous long term use, and is very simple to operate.

We discussed the high performance amplifier that helps to increase the range and speed of your WiFi signal, however what’s also important is the fact that they’re constructed and designed to create very little noise as well.

The overall look of this extender is compact yet visually appealing, with a simple on and off power control button as well as a secure connection (WPS) button on the side, making it incredibly easy to power up and operate whenever you need it.

You don’t have to unplug it and put it away every day, although you can, and switching between the extended range mode that compliments your existing wireless router, and access point mode to create a WiFi hotspot is just one flick of a switch.

There’s also a gigabit Ethernet port located at the bottom of the Nighthawk X4 (EX7300), which you can use to plug video game consoles and other wired devices into for ease of access.

As described in the included quick start guide, it’s a plug and play range extender. All you do is plug it in, press the power button, and even if you’re using picky wireless printers you can connect as simply as pressing the WPS button for WiFi protected setup.

It doesn’t require any CD or drivers for setting up as well, which make it a simple device to use, certainly no more difficult than many other WiFi range extenders in its class.

Conclusion

NETGEAR has long been at the forefront of wireless internet connection technology, and has continue to improve the performance, compatibility and ease of use that WiFi users have come to expect.

There are definite advantages to owning the Nighthawk X4 (EX7300) AC2200 WiFi Range Extender and its advanced features, which are mainly lightning fast speeds of up to 2.2 Gbps and even greater extended range.

It’s designed in such a way that you can rest assured that you’ll have a reliable signal no matter where you are in your house, or even in the backyard, as well as enjoy incredibly fast speeds that your existing wireless router likely isn’t capable of on its own.

Being able to connect multiple devices via MU MIMO technology also means that you’ll likely never experience interruptions of connection or speed due to ineffective management of a single connection.

What’s more is that it’s elegantly designed to be sleek and easy to use, without requiring software installations or technical expertise, while still being compatible with all of your mobile devices. It won’t appear as an eyesore in your home since it can be plugged in to any outlet that you have available.

In terms of durability and overall structural quality, the high powered hardware it uses, from the antenna array and amplifier to its beamforming capabilities, is professionally designed by a company that has been an expert in the field for many years.

The post NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 (EX7300) Range Extender Review appeared first on Nerd Techy.

Believe it or not, more people enter their home through their garage door than their front door. Because of this, it only makes sense to put a bit more thought into the way you, your family, and your vehicles enter and exit the garage. Gone are the days of manually opening and closing the door since pretty much every home is now equipped with a garage door opener, but garage door openers haven’t changed much over the past decade, until recently.

As a useful upgrade for any home, a smartphone-enabled, WiFi-connected garage door opener can bring much more simplicity, ease of use, and peace of mind than you may expect. Often seen as a worthwhile investment, a garage door opener that’s connected to your smartphone is actually quite an easy upgrade that shouldn’t take much effort to install and configure.

The common question that remains is, which one is the best and a valuable upgrade in 2016? We’re going to take that question into full consideration and outline a few of the top-rated, best-performing WiFi/smartphone connected garage door openers and outline the notable features of each in detail.

Chamberlain WD1000WF

The Chamberlain WD1000WF Smartphone Controlled Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener is specifically designed to bring complete peace of mind by giving you the ability to control, manage, and operate your garage door from virtually any location in the World. Utilizing a powerful 1.25 horse power motor and incorporating a wealth of smartphone-distinctive features, it’s one of the highest reviewed, most popular and best selling option in its class.

MyQ Smartphone Control

From your iOS or Android enabled device, you can install the MyQ Technology Smartphone Control application through the iTunes or Google Play store. Once installed, you can connect to the Chamberlain WD1000WF and have all of the control right at your fingertips. Although WiFi connectivity is required within your garage, it’ll always give you instant access to see whether or not you remembered to shut the garage door.

Best of all, the MyQ app will give you instant notifications to remind you if you left the door open, or if the door opens without your consent.

Easy Installation

Setting up and configuring the Chamberlain WD1000WF for the first time is a painless task that doesn’t require any previous knowledge, technical experience or advanced understanding. With no additional hardware required, it’s been designed for easy installation and comes included with a comprehensive instructional guide that’ll walk you through the process without any hassles. In fact, the average installation time is around 10 minutes,

Very Quiet

Nobody likes a garage opener that’s loud or obnoxiously sounding every time you open and close the door. Chamberlain knows this, which is why they’ve incorporated a whisper drive steel belt that performs well without the added noise. Inside of the unit, there’s a reinforced drive belt that’s heavy-duty in build quality made from a durable steel material. It’s been specifically engineered and designed to hold up well to constant use over time. Additionally, it’s ideal for homes that have a bedroom or two located directly above the garage since the amount of noise it emits is much less than you’d expect.

Battery Backup

Power outages happen, and they always seem to happen at the most inconvenient time. Since Chamberlain has integrated a battery backup feature, you won’t need to worry about not being able to open or close your garage door in the event of a power outage. The battery has enough capacity to run as a backup for up to three consecutive days, so you’re never left in the driveway, even if the power to your home is completely gone.

What’s Included?

There’s a few additional items in the box that are worth mentioning, and boost the value of the Chamberlain WD1000WF a bit more. Included is a wireless keypad, two remotes, safety sensors, and an LCD wall control panel. The wireless keypad can be setup directly outside of your door, near your driveway. The two remotes can be kept within your vehicles for opening/closing the door when you may not have your smartphone on you. The safety sensors are to be installed with a line of sight to each other, across the area where your garage closes to assure that your door won’t close when something is in the way. The LCD wall control panel is to be mounted near the doorway inside your home, so you’re always able to configure settings and control the unit without your smartphone.

Excellent Warranty

In order to give you total peace of mind about your investment, Chamberlain includes a lifetime warranty on the motor and belt, a five year warranty on parts, and a one year warranty on all of the accessories that are included.

Chamberlain MYQ-G0201

Rather than completely replacing your existing garage door opener unit (motor and all), the Chamberlain MYQ-G0201 is a simple upgrade for those who simply want to monitor, open and close your garage door from your smartphone with ease.

Designed to be compatible with just about any garage door opener that was made after 1993, you don’t need to replace you existing system. First, mount the WiFi hub near your garage door opener. Then, mount the sensor to your garage door. Next, install the free MyQ app on your iOS or Android device and follow a few simple configuration options. It’ll then allow you to open, close, and see the status of your garage door from any location. It’ll send you alerts/notifications right to your smartphone so you’re always aware.

Affordable and Simple

Since the Chamberlain MYQ-G0201 is more or less an “add-on”, it’s ideal for those who already have a functional garage door opener but would like to add WiFi and smartphone integration. Designed to be installed and configured within a matter of seconds, it’s a simple solution that even your grandma could install. Priced affordably at around $88, it likely won’t break your budget.

Smartphone App

Using the same app as the aforementioned Chamberlain WD1000WF, the MYQ-G0201 uses the MyQ smartphone app to deliver it’s real benefits. Allowing you to instantly receive notifications, it’ll alert you when the garage door opens or if it opened while you were away. What’s even better is that you can integrate it with your Nest home automation system, although this isn’t a necessity.

In addition, it can work with other Chamberlain WSLCEV, PILCEV light control products if you happen to want control over your outdoor and indoor lighting too. Best of all, there’s no recurring costs involved. Once you own it, there’s no additional fees since the app is and will always remain free.

We love the overall simplicity and ease of use that it offers. It does what it says it will do, and offers some substantial improvements to any existing or outdated garage door opening system.

Asante Garage Door Opener with Camera

With a camera included, the Asante Garage Door Opener offers a bit more in terms of features since it offers you a live-view of your garage from your smartphone, no matter where you may be. Without any monthly fees, it allows you to fully monitor and control your garage door with an impressive 5,000 square foot WiFi range.

Each kit comes included with a camera and a home extender. The home extender is used to communicate simultaneously with your network and the camera to ensure that you’re always within close view and control of your garage.

With one kit, you have the ability to control two separate garage doors with the same unit. Have more than two doors? Optionally, you can buy additional units and increase your control as needed.

Better Awareness

Since the Asante Garage Door Opener incorporates the use of a camera, you’re given an upper-hand on your overall awareness with your garage. What’s more is that the camera is equipped with a set of infrared lights to illuminate your garage in total darkness. Giving you vision in total darkness, it’s easy to see an intruder, even in the middle of the night. Best of all, you can stream the camera in real-time so you have a live-view 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Also, you can turn off the infrared feature if desired, or have it automatically turn on when it’s needed.

Mobile Control

Using the free Asante mobile app, you can grant access to any family members, friends, guests or contractors so they can enter or exit your garage when needed. At anytime, you can revoke their access and make sure that they won’t be able to enter again at a later time.

For Your Smart Home

Asante can be much more than a garage door opener since they also offer a whole line of smart-home related products that you can automate your house with. From smart irrigation controllers to smoke detectors, and optional accessories that can alert you via text or email, there’s a lot offered in terms of possible expansion.

Final Thoughts

By adding WiFi integration to your garage door opener, you’re given more freedom, peace of mind and total control over one of the most utilized entries to your home. Whether you’re interested in changing your entire existing garage door opener (motor and all) or if you’d like to add simple smartphone integration, we’ve outlined a few fantastic options that offer a wealth of beneficial features.

In our honest opinion, the Chamberlain WD1000WF is the best choice for those needing a full-system, but the Chamberlain MYQ-G0201 is the best choice for those needing a simple “add-on” to their existing opener.

The Asante Garage Door Opener is another excellent option, offering both vision and smartphone control. Since there’s an infrared camera included, the price is a bit steeper than the other two options, but some may truly benefit by its real-time viewing capabilities.

The post Best Smartphone Enabled WiFi Garage Door Openers 2016 appeared first on Nerd Techy.

If you’re looking to increase the range, connection speed and Internet access available to you and your family, a high performance router is likely a necessity. As new technology has developed over the course of time, the cost of acquiring a high-end router has gone down dramatically, with greater features offered to serve those who would otherwise not be interested in such advanced technology.

When you look at connection speed and reliability, these can be impacted just as much by your router as they are by the speeds offered by your Internet Service Provider, which is why it’s very important to select the appropriate router for your network. The value of a high-performance wireless router can benefit many. A serious gamer will require the same fast speeds, coverage and reliability as a typical large family with multiple wireless devices all throughout the house.

As one of the latest new-releases, the TP-LINK AC3150 (Archer C3150) WiFi Router offers superior-level performance and several advanced benefits. Today we’re going to discuss exactly what it has to offer, its most noteworthy features, and how it can drastically improve your overall network infrastructure and WiFi connection.

Superior Technology

Overall speed is the first priority in selecting a high performance wireless router, for the reason that you’ll be able to get more things done faster and enjoy a greater variety of entertainment and media.

The TP-LINK AC3150 (Archer C3150) offers a plethora of advanced technology that allows you to achieve speeds that open up huge possibilities with 4K HD video streaming and high-demanding wireless access for online gaming.

For starters, the Archer C3150 uses dual band broadcasting that combines both a 2.4 gigahertz band at 1000 megabits per second, and a 5 gigahertz band at 2167 megabits per second. This provides a total of 3.15 gigabits per second through both channels (hence the AC3150 name – 3150 Megabits per second).

It also takes advantage of the latest in Multiple User MIMO technology that provides effective speeds to each device you use, by providing them with their own independent wireless connection by your router.

This is further complemented by the use of up-to-date beamforming capabilities, which produce direct signal connections between wireless devices and your router, providing greater signal strength and connection speed by focusing an otherwise spread out broadcast.

Inside, there’s a 1.4 GHz dual core processor and two co-processors at 2.4 GHz and 5GHz. With this many processors, your network is able to handle larger, high-demand activities without experiencing lag or latency issues. Ideal for high-bandwidth streaming and multiplayer online gaming, these CPUs work in conjunction with each other to assure that the network is always operating as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Effective Connection Management

Smart Connect is an intuitive technology that works with Multiple User MIMO and keeps track of how each independent connection is operating. It will automatically assign any new connections to the correct band depending on the specific speed and reliability demands.

With these two technologies combined, the TP-LINK Archer C3150 offers a host of advanced features to really put their capabilities over the top.

For starters, the XStream processing architecture employs each co-processor to a select the ideal band, and monitors/manages WiFi traffic in order to free up the load on the CPU and drastically increase overall performance.

You’re also given manual control over this with QoS, which allows you to change the amount of bandwidth provided to specific selected devices, so that you’ll always have the right speeds for streaming movies or playing resource-intensive video games online, no matter who else is connected.

Typically, each of a wireless router’s bands will provide three data streams for sending and receiving information, but with 4-Stream, the TP-LINK AC3150 provides four data streams per band for greater data output.

NitroQAM, designed to work with 4-Stream will also manage all four streams in order to process data more smoothly and quickly, and effectively provide another stream for 25% greater speeds.

Compatibility and Ease of Use

The purpose of a wireless router is mainly to provide WiFi access, however there are some additional features in the TP-LINK Archer C3150 that are designed to make your life even easier, and provide greater usability.

For starters, there are four Gigabit Ethernet wired connection ports for high speed internet connection to any of your devices that require a wired connection. Some devices and peripherals will ultimately work better with a wired connection, including video game consoles, printers and desktop computers.

There’s also one USB 3.0 port and one USB 2.0 port for connecting external hard drives, printers, NAS drives, and easily file-sharing pictures, videos and other media – although all of this can easily be done wirelessly as well. USB 3.0 offers some of the current best transfer rates, which is a nice inclusion to see.

In terms of ease of use, there are no CD installation requirements as you can easily set up and change any settings with the router with any browser. Best of all, there’s a newly designed free mobile access interface, the Tether App, that’s easy to use with any smartphone or tablet. Adjusting and configuration is a piece of cake, even if you’ve never really been a tech-savvy kind of person. Everything is laid out in a nice and easily-navigable structure so there’s never any confusion over how to configure your network/router.

Quality Design and Construction

When considering which wireless router you’d like to own, it’s important to look at durability as well, because high performance models could potentially break or quit working as intended after a short period of use, leaving you stuck and having to purchase another one.

The first way that the TP-LINK helps with that, is by offering lifetime access to service and 24/7 technical support. What’s even better is that the Archer C3150 is covered by a generous two-year warranty period to assure that it’ll be working just as well, 24 months down the road as it did the first day you owned it.

What’s just as important, is that the entire router is built with quality hardware from top to bottom. There’s four dual band antennas that provide great signal strength and a huge range of up to 10,000 square feet, making it an ideal option for medium to large sized homes.

Additionally, the dual core processor is not only high speed and complemented by two powerful co-processors, but is sturdy and reliable for long term, continuous use. Of course, if any of the high performance technologies provided by TP-LINK don’t work as intended, you’re covered and if you experience any difficulties, you have expert staff on hand to help you get the most out of this powerful hardware.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the TP-LINK AC3150 (Archer C3150) WiFi Router offers a wealth of benefits by incorporating a plethora of advanced features into a compact, easy to use design that’s ideal for anyone looking to increase the speed, range and reliability of your wireless Internet connection. Offering speeds up to 3150 Megabits per second, you’re assure lag-free online gaming and latency-free 4k high definition video streaming for multiple devices at once.

By incorporating 4-Stream and NitroQAM to work cohesively together, all data is processed much more efficiently than most other wireless routers in the same price range. It’s really nice to see so much thought put into the design, with the inclusion of a 1.4 Ghz dual core CPU that’s paired with two co-processors.

It’s truly difficult to find anything technically wrong with it. It seems that each feature and specification was well thought out, and TP-LINK really took the extra time to perfect it. The price tag may seem like the biggest hurdle to get over, but for most – a high-performance wireless router should never be overlooked if you want to get the most out of your network and Internet access.

The post TP-LINK AC3150 (Archer C3150) WiFi Router Review appeared first on Nerd Techy.

Having a strong and reliable wireless internet connection can be a struggle in some homes, especially when you’re using inferior technology that can often times work against itself. The good news is that you don’t have to uproot your entire WiFi infrastructure, including router and modem, in order to get much an improved signal, and you also won’t have to make any complicated technical adjustments in order to achieve this, either.

If there are WiFi dead spots in your home, where you can’t sustain a connection since it may cut out from time to time, it’s usually because of physical obstructions or electrical appliances that interfere with certain frequencies. This can also result from simply the amount of range and speed that your router is capable of providing. Needless to say, all of these issues can easily be solved with an effective WiFi range extender.

As one of Netgear’s newest release, the EX6400 (AC1900) Essentials Edition WiFi Range Extender offers an improved list of features over it’s predecessor, the EX6150. This review will show you what exactly are the new EX6400’s true strengths and weaknesses, in terms of overall performance, ease of use, durability and price, among other important qualities.

Effective Range Extension and Speed Boosting

A WiFi range extender differs from a standard router in that it can pick up WiFi signal and relay the communication and amplify the coverage to any area that would otherwise be impossible to reach effectively.

Best of all, Netgear makes the EX6400 range extender incredibly easy to use – all you need to do is plug it in at an area where you have weak or no wireless internet access and you need additional coverage. This can be anywhere, from upstairs to the basement, and even the garage.

Overall, we found that it performs exceptionally well as long as it’s used as intended. In many cases, it’ll offer increased speeds that your wireless router likely isn’t taking advantage of. Of course this completely depends on the specific router that you’re using on your network, but often times a signal dramatically decreases when you start putting a few walls in-between your devices and your router.

For starters, it combines both the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands to offer plenty of available bandwidth for both channels, offering up to 1.9 gigabits of data transferring speeds. It’s predecessor, the EX6120, was only capable of offering 1.2 gigabits per second, meaning that Netgear gave the EX6400 a 600 megabit per second upgrade to improve performance dramatically.

Something that you don’t see in every range extender, booster or repeater is the use of FastLane technology. It’s designed to increase the bandwidth speeds by combining both bands into a stronger, single dual-band signal. This signal is ideal for those who enjoy 4k video streaming, online multiplayer gaming, or downloading large-format files.

Dynamic Compatibility Options

Whenever you buy a new device for your computer or network, there may always be a slight fear of experiencing a compatibility issue between different devices. We’re happy to say that the EX6400 is fully compatibly with just about every peripheral, device, computer, smartphone, tablet, etc. that you can think of.

It’s actually capable of connecting to any new 802.11 ac (5 gigahertz) and/or older or outdated b/g/n (2.4 gigahertz) devices including wireless printers that require a WiFi protected setup protocol with nothing more than a press of the WPS button.

Netgear also designed it to be fully compatible with all wireless routers, with the exception of those with modified or altered firmware.

Located at the bottom of the range extender is also a gigabyte Ethernet port. This lets you connect video game consoles and other devices that require an Ethernet cable to communicate to the Internet, ultimately providing an additional access point that you can place anywhere in your home you’d like.

Easy Setup, Operation and Safety

Extending your WiFi range into and even slightly beyond each room in your house, with a strong and reliable connection, is a basic function that should be simple to use.

Neatgear has provided a method of doing all of this, as well as access to its advanced features easy, even if you have limited technical knowledge and expertise. This is all because of the way it’s been thoroughly designed.

First, it’s a set and forget operation with two buttons and one switch that provide everything you need to make full use of it. Second, because it’s so simple to install, setup and make changes with, it’s doesn’t requiring additional hardware. You’ll also have less cords to deal with, since you can plug it directly into any wall outlet, making it an effective mobile tool that you can use away from home as well.

All on one side, there’s a power button for turning it off as you choose without having to unplug or move anything. There’s also a WPS button that’s used to create a secure connection between devices with a single click of a button. Although some devices and peripherals are not capable of WPS, it seems that virtually every new release in the last year has included WPS functionality.

There’s also a toggle switch that allows you to select either an extended range depending on your wireless router, or to create a dedicated WiFi access point by plugging in an Ethernet cable.

Pros and Cons

Although the Netgear EX6400 isn’t the absolute most powerful range extender on the market – the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 AC2200 (EX7300) takes the cake on that one – it’s still one of the “best of the best” when it comes in overall speed and ease of use. Even for those who want to rely on it for lag-free gaming and high definition video streaming, the EX6400 will likely provide plenty of increased coverage for most situations.

For larger homes, you may need to invest in additional units, or choose the Nighthawk X4 EX7300 instead.

One thing that we noticed is that it doesn’t have an array of multiple fancy antennas, but it does indeed increase speeds significantly with all of its top of the line features. When compared to a basic range extender or earlier model, there’s really no comparison. The 1.9 gigabits per second is usually plenty of bandwidth of just about anyone and the increase in coverage is often significant, although this strongly depends on the architecture of your specific network.

WiFi Analytics App

Although it’s not entirely exclusive to the EX6400, the Netgear WiFi Analytics app is a superior tool that you can likely find a great use for. As a free app for any Anroid-powered smartphone or tablet that can access the Google Play store, it opens up your insight to the exact analytics of your network.

With it, you can check the status of your network, the strength, see which channels are potentially crowded, and more. It lays everything out in a beautifully designed manner in order to give you a clear and concise view on everything involved with your network.

Final Thoughts

There’s no doubt that the features offered by the Netgear EX6400 (AC1900) Essentials Edition WiFi Range Extender are quality and stand on their own quite well.

It provides much higher speeds that most other range extenders, all the way up to 1.9 gigabits per second, and is more than capable of providing a strong, continuous signal over long term use.

Having simple push button operation is just about what you’d expect, as everything is clear-cut and obvious with a simple installation process. This makes it an easy upgrade for anyone looking to imrpvoe their WiFi coverage and signal strength, even if they don’t have any technical knowledge. Additionally, Netgear’s WiFi Analytics app opens up your insight into your network and gives you a clearer understanding on how to improve your connection.

Overall, we feel keen on saying that we can strongly recommend it to anyone who needs a significant improvement to the WiFi signal in their home or office. And as a bonus, it’s covered by a 12 month warranty and you’re given 24/7 access to technical support if you may need it at anytime.

The post NETGEAR EX6400 (AC1900) WiFi Range Extender Review appeared first on Nerd Techy.

Whether you’re at home or in the office, the importance of a reliable high speed Internet connection is critical to both your productivity and enjoyment. If you’re like most, you demand the most out of your network and the need for a fast, secure, top of the line router cannot be overlooked.

If you’ve been searching high and low for the best, fastest and most advanced wireless router available, you may have already come across the TP-LINK Talon AD7200 Tri-Band WiFi Router. Often bragged about and labeled as the fastest option currently available, it utilizes the latest and most powerful technology to offer speeds of up to 7200 Mbps per second. Known as the first router to offer 802.11ad technology, it’s up to ten times faster than 802.11ac and up to thirty times faster than 802.11n thanks to the new, groundbreaking 60 GHz band.

We’ve been receiving a lot of inquiries from our readers lately regarding the new TP-LINK Talon so we’re here to determine if the expensive price point is well worth it or something that you should wait on. We’ll take a close look at all of its features, specifications and benefits to see if it’s truly as incredible as they make it seem.

Tri-Band

For the longest times, routers have been utilizing dual band technology as a typical standard. Over the last couple years, we’ve seen an introduction of “Tri-Band” routers, but what does that really mean? Rather than broadcasting a WiFi signal through two channels, the Talon uses three channels of different frequencies to offer the best in both range and speed. The 2.4 GHz band is capable of 800 Mbps, the 5 GHz band is capable of 1733 Mbps, and the new 60 GHz band is capable of a whopping 4600 Mbps. When you combine all of these data rates together, you get 7133 Mbps – hence the name AD7200.

This new 60 GHz band is something that we haven’t seen before, but truthfully – it’s quite impressive. With speeds of up to 4.6 Gbps, it’s clearly the best option for massive file transfers, 4k high definition video streaming, online gaming and other bandwidth intensive tasks that could otherwise “bog down” or tie up your connection to a snails’ pace. While this new band doesn’t excel with range, that’s what the other two bands are designated for. The 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channels are intended to provide far-reaching WiFi access in hard to reach areas while still offering plenty of transfer speeds for any client that’s utilizing them.

Smart Connect

The TP-LINK Talon uses these multiple bands and runs them simultaneously so each device on your network can take advantage of the specific one that’s most suitable for the situation at-hand. While you can manually join and assign a specific channel to certain devices, the Smart Connect feature can do this more efficiently, all on its own.

Designed to simplify the entire process and automatically prioritize specific wireless devices to certain bands, it’ll find the most appropriate channel and connect you to it without any guesswork. By doing this, the network traffic is properly balanced so delays and interruptions are reduced dramatically. While this is something that you can still manually do, assigning too many connections to a certain band can be problematic if you overload one and don’t take advantage of the other.

Best of all, this is all done on its own so you never need to create different credentials to join the proper channel. Once you connect with a specific device, the router will automatically determine the resources you need and use a complex algorithm to assure that you’re assigned the most ideal one.

MU-MIMO Technology

While most traditional routers use a single connection for communicating between your device and the access point, MU-MIMO or “Multi-User, Multi-Input, Multi-Output” is a definite improvement that assures the best load times for a lag-free experience each and every time you connect. Rather than serving one user at a time, MU-MIMO takes the place of SU-MIMO (single user MIMO) and offers multiple data streams simultaneously.

MU-MIMO increases the throughput and reduces any latency by not requiring devices to time-share their connection with other devices or clients that are on the network at the same time. Think of it as a three lane road rather than a single lane road. If you’re waiting for a vehicle in one lane, you don’t necessarily need to wait – you can switch lanes and bypass them to your destination. It’s designed to increase the capacity of your network so all connected clients can utilize the most bandwidth possible.

Processor

Often seen as the “heart” of the router, the processor is an incredibly important component that shouldn’t be overlooked. Utilizing a powerful 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, the TP-LINK Talon is ready right out of the box for high-demand activities that require the most out of your connection. Whether you’re an online gamer, someone who streams HD content, or you find yourself consistently downloading large files, the 1.4 GHz dual core CPU assures that there’s plenty of power to go around. Complex, multi-client connections typically contain some of the most high-demanding tasks, especially when multiple clients are trying to access your network at the same time.

We believe the processor within the TP-LINK Talon is quite sufficient and offers much more speed and processing power than most will ever fully utilize. It’s definitely nice to see that they didn’t skimp in this regard since most network infrastructures require a powerful CPU to assure that constant lag and buffering are never an occurrence.

Additionally, it’s equipped with 512 MB of memory and 32 MB of flash memory for quick decision making so that each client is able to achieve unprecedented speeds without any hassle.

Antenna Array

One thing you’ll initially notice about the Talon is the unique look it carries. Although many ‘top of the line’ routers have several external antennas just like the Talon, none of them have the same ingenious antenna array like it. With eight visible, large external antennas sticking straight up from every corner and side, it’s quite apparent that TP-LINK took every consideration into making sure that the wireless range is always impressive. But there’s more under the hood than what meets the eye.

These eight high-gain external antennas are part of a more complex internal structure that includes a total of 32 antennas that form a special assortment to ensure that each WiFi signal is concentrated and focused on offering the best data transmission possible. Range, reliability and overall speeds are inherently increased because of this antenna array – unlike any router we’ve seen to date.

Beam Steering

As another attempt by TP-LINK to increase the overall reliability offered by the Talon, they made sure to incorporate the use of Beam Steering technology. While utilizing the 60 GHz band, it’ll find the best and least resistant way to communicate between your connected devices and the access point, thus ensuring a stronger connection. If any physical object or obstruction is in the way, the signal will automatically go around and “steer” towards the best path of communication.

Connections

Although wireless connections are often utilized the most, the need for an assortment of wired, physical connections should never be overlooked. Located on the back of the router are two USB 3.0 ports, and four Gigabit Ethernet ports. The USB ports are essential for connecting any external peripherals or accessories that you’d like to be easily accessible from anywhere on your network such as a printer, camera, hard drive, flash drive, etc. The Gigabit Ethernet ports are ideal for any wired connections that don’t require the use of WiFi such as a desktop PC, 4K UHD TV or network attached storage.

Also on the back is a reset button, power switch and an Internet port for connecting your modem – pretty standard and typical of what you’d see in any other router.

Additional Features

Although we’ve covered some of the core-features that are most anticipated, there are some other features that are worth mentioning. These include VPN access, offline downloads, guest network and advanced parental controls. While these aren’t unique to the Talon, they’re definetely an added bonus to keep your network running the way you’d like it to.

Final Thoughts

Utilizing some of the best and most advanced features we’ve seen to date, the TP-LINK Talon AD7200 Tri-Band WiFi Router offers everything you’d want and more when it comes to a secure, reliable and fast connection. Designed for high-demand users who require the most out of their wireless network, it’s packed from head to toe with exciting technologies that all play a part on offering unparalleled enjoyment for both home and workplace infrastructures.

Offering remarkable speeds of up to nearly 7200 Mbps on multiple bands, there’s plenty of bandwidth and available transfer speeds to go around for multiple users at once. Thanks to the new 60 GHz band, you can rest assured knowing that all of your 4k video streaming and resource-intensive online gaming can be enjoyed without any lag or latency issues. Additionally, the unique antenna array paired with MU-MIMO and Beam Steering technology make for outstanding range for even the largest of homes and offices that need a significant upgrade.

While the range and transfer speeds are impressive, nothing would be possible if it wasn’t for the 1.4 GHz dual core processor that’s paired with 512 MB of RAM and 32 MB of flash memory.

Truthfully, it’s quite difficult to find anything potentially wrong with the new TP-LINK Talon AD7200 Router, other than the expensive price tag it comes in at. With an MSRP of $400, it should be seen as an investment that’ll be heavily utilized for years to come. Backed by an impressive 2 year warranty and 24/7 technical support, TP-LINK is always available to assist you with anything from setup to configuration and beyond. Overall, we’d highly recommend it if you’re looking for the ‘best of the best’ without cutting any corners in the process.

The post TP-LINK Talon AD7200 Review – A Look at the Fastest Router Available appeared first on Nerd Techy.

As a newest release from Transcend, the Storejet Cloud 110 and 210 give you the ability to backup your computer, tablet, desktop or mobile device with ease. As a personal cloud storage device, it’s designed to be a huge help to those who need a fast and effective way to securely backup your data without any annoying recurring fees.

We’re going to take a closer, more in-depth look to see what it has to offer and give some insight for those who may be interested in learning more about it.

110 Megabytes Per Second of Data Transfer Speed

While the universe of physical media isn’t obsolete it seems to be on the way out. For those storing music, movies and other types of streamable content, there are inherent benefits to data transfer speed.

For starters, rather than having to move your media to an appropriate device, it’s much more convenient to have quick, wireless access to streaming. Both the Storejet Cloud 110 and 210 provide for that with their impressive performance. Before discussing all of the advanced features, it’s worth mentioning the amount of power consumption that’s required.

When transferring, backing up or streaming your data, any high performance cloud device will use a considerable amount of power. These require an external 100-240 volt AC power source, at a frequency of 50-60 hertz. That being said, there’s also an economic power saving mode that saves a substantial amount of power consumption when it’s idling. You can also select a time in advance to automatically activate this feature.

Terabytes Worth of Expandable Storage Space

The Transcend Storejet Cloud 110 and 210 differ in few major ways, being the amount of storage they have, the number of hard drive bays, and their price. While the 110 offers 4 terabytes of capacity, the 210 offers 8 terabytes. It also features two bays for multiple 4 terabytes hard drives being used simultaneously, although you can replace the hard drives you use with either one.

Another feature that the 210 has in this area that the 110 doesn’t is RAID 1 technology, which is made possible by its two bays. What this does is allow you to duplicate exact copies of all of your files in real time, so that you always have an active back up in the event that one of the hard drives fails, becomes corrupted or needs to be replaced. You may be aware that there are more advanced versions of RAID technology, being RAID 5 and RAID 10, however RAID 1 is the most advanced version that can be used with a minimum of two bays.

In the event that you require more active space than is made available by either model, there’s a USB 3.0 port that can integrate with your network. USB 3.0 is ten times faster than USB 2.0 so you’re getting a top-notch way to physically connect it to your PC or Mac if need be.

Massive Compatibility with Wireless and Smart Devices

The Storejet Cloud 110 and 210 are compatible with both Windows and Mac as well as iOS and Android devices. There’s also a dedicated smart app for both platforms, called Transcend Storejet Cloud App. Getting started with your mobile device is a streamlined process with three steps.

1. Plug your Storejet Cloud 110 or 210, power it on and connect it to the internet.
2. Download and start the Transcend Storejet Cloud App on your mobile device, and make sure that you’re connected to WiFi.
3. Create an account with a password.

The app itself has been designed intuitively with the notion that it has a few desirable functions. It provides quick access to set up, upload, backup and streaming features without clutter.

Media Streaming Services and Compatible Hardware

The Transcend Storejet Cloud 110 and 210 have been given certification from the Digital Living Network Alliance. This is an organization of consumer electronics companies that works together to ensure greater cooperation between devices. One of the advantages of this is that you’ll likely find that streaming is more stable and consistent.

You can use DLNA compatible smart TVs to stream and playback media files, as well as DLNA compatible PlayStation consoles. There’s support for specific brands and services, such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, LG and Samsung smart TVs and Roku devices.

You can also stream media directly to your smartphone or tablet via the Transcend Storejet Cloud App. This is an advantage, since a lot of this functionality would be completely useless if you don’t own a smart TV.

Secure Data Sharing Options and Full Backup Functionality

Families and businesses alike have a desire to store sensitive and valuable data that, if someone were to intentionally hack into it, could potential cause a lot of damage.

One of the methods that the Storejet 110 and 210 use to provide privacy and security, is by offering multiple personal accounts. This allows you to create individually managed and optimized user profiles, with or without requiring passwords. Each person or profile has their own set of files that nobody can access without the proper authorization.

For files that don’t contain sensitive data and information, there’s also a public file where you can store all of the media. Some examples include movies and music, that you want quick access to, without remembering and entering passwords or moving through multiple file locations.

Another security measure is the full backup capabilities that can protect you from a potentially more lethal form of safety interference, which is data loss or file corruption. We’ve already mentioned the RAID 1 dual back up capabilities of the 210’s dual bay integration, however there are other things worth mentioning as well.

First, whenever a USB storage drive is plugged into the USB 3.0 port, you can press the one touch backup button. It’ll then automatically be stored immediately on your cloud network. Additionally, the entire back up process has been streamlined. With functions like Apple Time Machine, all of your files are stored on one device.

Overview of Hardware, Durability and Economic Value

The Transcend Storejet Cloud 110 and 210 weigh a full 2.3 and 4.6 pounds respectively, and are both 5.1 inches long. However, the 210 is about twice as wide, and overall they’re both quite compact and easy to store.

The safety measures of the RAID feature on the 210 do exceed the 110 and help ensure the security of your backed up files, however they’re both backed up by a full two year limited warranty.

In terms of economic value, the amount of money you’d spend on a cloud service offering all or even most of the same features, are likely worth it on their own in some regards.

Final Thoughts

Both the Storejet Cloud 110 and 210 are great options. Overall, it’s nice to see a new release from Transcend – it’s been a while! They’re keeping up with the times by offering USB 3.0, up to 8 terabytes of capacity and full compatibility through multiple devices. Best of all, there’s no need to spend money on expensive cloud fees that you may have become accustomed to in the past.

The post A Look at the Transcend Storejet Cloud 110 & 210 Network Attached Storage appeared first on Nerd Techy.

In today’s day and age, every home needs a fast, reliable and secure wireless network, but setting up and configuring one all on your own may be difficult and somewhat troublesome – especially for those with little or no IT experience. Because of the over-complexity of some routers and the common confusion often associated with WiFi, many households have turned to easier solutions or all-on-one systems like the Securifi Almond.

As a popular option over the last several years, the Almond WiFi device boasts a great amount of simplicity and ease of use. It allows you to spend quality time online, without the painful and effort consuming configuration process that you’d find with most routers or other WiFi systems.

Securifi’s newest edition, the Almond 3 is now available for pre-order and will soon be released in the coming weeks. We’re going to take a close look at it to see what it offers in terms of features and high-end performance and give you a better insight as to what it’s designed for and fully capable of. Whether you’ve owned an Almond in the past or you’re soon planning on upgrading your WiFi network, it’s important to understand what the Almond 3 offers that it’s predecessors don’t.

Similar Appearance, Better Integration

At the core, it still contains a lot of the same – a beautiful design with an integrated touchscreen that walks you through the setup process in a few minutes. Simply plug your modem into the back of the Almond and follow the onscreen wizard – no PC or secondary device required. Once you take a few minutes to do this, you’ll be able to create a “mesh network” so you can add additional Almond’s to expand coverage into any area of your home without compromising on speed, reliability or available WiFi access.

A mesh network is a much better infrastructure since often times a single router or access point isn’t ideal in homes that are over ~1300 square feet. Rather than having a single access point, you can add multiple Almond 3 units to expand coverage to more rooms and floors of the house. For medium sized homes that either have two stories or over 2,000 square feet, Securifi recommends using two units. Any home that’s over 2600 square feet should be equipped with at least three units, depending on your specific floor plan and layout. With multiple units, each one will work together to create a single WiFi network across your entire home, with better coverage than both the Almond+, Almond 2015 and Original Almond.

The App

Available for both iOS and Android, the free Almond app offers an easy and insightful way to check-in and monitor your network for virtually anywhere in the world. It opens up a lot of features and makes them available in a simple and intuitive interface so you’re always aware of what’s going on. You can have it alert you whenever a new device joins your network so you can deny or grant access with a simple swipe. Everything happens in real-time so that you’re constantly in the loop and never out of touch. You can even add time limits and restrictions to certain devices so your children won’t be able to go online when you don’t want them to.

Home Security

Using the app you can add a whole new layer of awareness and receive push notifications when something happens that requires your attention. Configuration with a variety of door, motion, window, flood and vibration sensors is fully possible all within the easy to use interface on your iOS or Android device.

Smart Home Hub

Rather than being a typical router or range extender, the Almond 3 excels as a Smart Home Hub that can be fully integrated to work with hundreds of different smart devices throughout your home. Thanks to the integrated ZigBee Radio Chip, it can communicate with virtually every smart home product that you own. From light bulbs, door/window sensors, thermostats, locks and a variety of smart appliances, the Almond 3 can be paired with them so you can utilize full control over every detail in your home.

In fact, it even supports “Z-Wave” and Bluetooth devices as well, but you’ll need a separate USB dongle to take full advantage of that. Zwave is a protocol for communication between home automation devices that makes their integration much easier and more streamlined.

Programmable Siren

As an entirely new feature to the Almond 3, there’s a built-in siren that you can configure to alert you if any specific scenarios arise. The siren can be triggered on certain custom events that you pre-configure so that you’re always aware of what’s currently happening in your home or on your network at all times. Additionally, you have the freedom to authorize specific smartphones to have the ability to disarm the alarm at anytime.

The rules engine that’s used for the programmable siren even allows for multiple triggers and multiple effects. This way, you can configure specific and complex alarms to go off, rather than a generic alarm for a single event. What’s best is that the rules are stored locally. If your Internet goes down, it won’t rely on a cloud or third party to remember your specific settings – everything should continue to operate as if your connection never went offline. Although do keep in mind that there isn’t any battery backup – if your power goes out, the Almond will power off.

WiFi Sensing

One of our favorite features that’s been included with the Almond 3 is the WiFi Sensing feature. It can be configured to trigger a specific set of rules or tasks when a specific device comes within range of your WiFi network. For example, if you walk through your front door and your smartphone is in your pocket, it’ll connect to your WiFi network and then trigger certain events or actions to take place such as automatically turning on your home porch lights, activating a camera, etc. Rather than using GPS-based geofencing automation that some routers already use, it’s much more reliable and quite accurate.

Integration with Amazon Alexa

The new Amazon Alexa Echo Tap and Dot have become quite popular among many households. They incorporate some of the coolest and most innovative new technology that go hand in hand with futuristic smart home operation. What’s really special about the new Securifi Almond 3 is its ability to pair with both the Echo, Dot and Tap so you can use all of the same verbal Alexa commands right through the Almond 3. We think that it’s a nice addition that adds quite a bit of usefulness to an everyday, ordinary home network. At this time, no other router or WiFi system can integrate into Amazon’s Alexa platform like this.

Future Expansion

Although the specific details aren’t quite ready yet, Securifi has proposed partnerships in place with popular brands like Nest, Philips Hue, GE, Yale, Cree, Belkin and others. This likely means that compatibility with future technologies and upcoming smart gadgets will be in place and ready to go as time goes on. We see the Almond 3 as an excellent alternative to other popular smart home hubs like Samsung’s Wink and SmartThings platform.

WiFi Speeds

There’s no doubt about it, WiFi speeds are an important factor that should be taken into full consideration. To our surprise, the Securifi Almond 3 only offers AC1200 WiFi whereas the older Almond+ offers AC1750. Although both are dual band WiFi through 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, we believe that the Almond 3 is slightly under-powered in this regard, but there may be a good reason for this. Since the Almond 3 should be utilized in a “Mesh” network and not solely on its own, it may not necessarily need as high of bandwidth capabilities if it were working individually.

Either way, most users will be perfectly fine with AC1200 speeds since a lot of ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) aren’t able to deliver anything faster than this anyways. However, for hardcore video gamers or those who require the absolute fastest connection speeds possible, this may be lacking.

Final Thoughts

Although there may be faster routers available on the market, there aren’t many that can compete with the practicality and vast assortment of impressive features that the new Securifi Almond 3 have. The Almond has been a top choice since it’s original release in 2011, so it’s nice to see an updated version come available that’s fully capable of providing plenty of features that directly tie in with any smart home.

Compatible with all kinds of smart home devices from the Amazon Alexa to Nest and others, we think that it’s a great choice for those who want simple and secure performance without the dreaded headache of setting up your own standard WiFi network. Simplicity, ease of use and wide compatibility make it a top choice for many, although the AC1200 speeds may not be suitable for high-end users that require the absolute fastest speeds available.

The post Securifi Almond 3 Review – The Smart Home Wi-Fi System appeared first on Nerd Techy.

This latest WiFi device from Ignition Design Labs has received significant backing, not just for their technical ability, as many manufacturers have to varying degrees, but also their professionalism in their particular market. For those unfamiliar with WiFi technology, for the most part, manufacturers have looked to the antennas to create dual band transmissions. While these advancements provide definite advantages in speed and reliability, there has been a missing ingredient which has been, for the most part, ignored.

As IDL points out in the Portal Turbocharged WiFi’s Kickstarter campaign, there’s a delicate balance between the legal and technical side. This is for good reason, as we’ll discover in a moment. However, it’s worth mentioning that it’s received certification for duplicating the effectiveness of any Internet source wirelessly, where other models haven’t.

That being said, it doesn’t give an automatic pass. We’ll go into detail about what makes this WiFi device so much faster and more reliable, as well as what merits it has in a market that appears to be already saturated and reaching a peak in development.

Proprietary WiFi Spectrum Technology

This feature alone makes this router worthy of consideration, however it’s not the concept but the fine-tuning and compliance with government regulation that kicks it into overdrive. What we mean by this, is that conventional routers use only two sixths of the 5 GHz radio spectrum (5170-5250MHz and 5735-5835MHz).

Essentially, you’re only getting one sixth of the internet bandwidth that’s available. However, the 300% larger part of the spectrum has been protected from use in order to reserve access for radar devices that weather instruments depend on. For this reason, pretty much any router on the market utilizes 0% of this untapped area of the spectrum, because of FCC standards.

What makes Portal so special is that it’s actually been given total clearance to use the entire 5GHz wireless spectrum for mass production. This is due to the effectiveness of its trademarked “FastLanes” technology. This doesn’t hog the entire spectrum, but simply provides the best range and speed you’ve experienced before in your home, possibly better.

In combination with Ignition Design Labs’ trademarked SmartLanes technology, it monitors each of the six channels within the spectrum. It’ll then automatically uses the one that has the least amount of traffic, and give you as much bandwidth as possible.

9 Antennas for Speed and Range

This in no way discounts the effectiveness of a good antenna design, as Portal actually uses nine of them. They’re hidden away within its casing in different locations to provide as much range and access as possible, so you aren’t limited to a few rooms in your home, but can actually enjoy it wherever you choose.

The actual range is about 2,500 square feet. The beauty of this is that because of the FCC certified FastLanes and SmartLanes technology, the entire WiFi zone provides significantly higher speeds than a model relying on antennas alone. They also support active beam steering. This ensures that no matter how many devices you’re connecting to it, a WiFi band is concentrated and dedicated to them, achieving higher speeds and more reliability overall.

10 Radios with MU-MIMO

Another commonly overlooked factor is the amount and effectiveness of the radios used in WiFi routers. They provide access to many advanced features that can provide a tremendous amount of performance and comfort for your entire home.

For starters, they support both WiFi band types (5GHz and 2.4GHz). This works great for older devices that are only compatible with 2.4GHz bands, but it provides a benefit for newer devices as well. They’re able to take advantage of the additional bandwidth by providing both bands at once, which complements the active beam steering capabilities.

Another feature these advanced radios provide is called Multi User Multi-Input Multi-Output. This essentially carves out space for every device on the particular area of the 5GHz spectrum that your router is using. Your wireless internet speed is essentially doubled as well, since each of the radios are being used together. Also, because of the amount and quality of the antennas, you’re able to take full advantage of it.

These radios are part of the reason why Portal can detect and make way for weather radars, as well as monitor the wireless traffic near your home. They support the latest in Bluetooth technology (version 4.2) too, which allows your wireless devices to communicate with it both ways, providing greater range and speed. Your devices will also drain less battery, because they use a specified amount of power for this as well.

Suite of Security Features

This aspect is worthy of discussion for any router, because a lot of the information being transmitted wirelessly can be sensitive, and it’s good to know that your data is protected. First, Portal features a rolling-code technology feature for guest networks that essentially uses a unique security pin for each device that you grant access to. It then randomly changes it every time it connects.

This way, even if a person taps into your device and retrieves that pin, it’s going to be different the next time someone enters your network, thus stopping them in their tracks. On the other hand, Portal also actively monitors its own network for hidden and unwanted visitors. The moment it finds something peculiar, it’ll automatically send an alert to your smart phone so you can check it out. While many people would find this annoying, it’s a nice feature to have just in case you want that extra bit of security.

The web interface that you use to control Portal also requires two security measures to grant access. However, this is optional and you can block access to it altogether. It also has the typical WiFi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2 – SPK) which is nice, as well as an option to create a virtual private network from anywhere in the world.

In terms of a firewall, it uses two protocols called SPI and NAT. Stateful Packet Inspection, as the name suggests, inspects all incoming packets to ensure that it’s from a known source before allowing it, in order to prevent anyone from hacking your network. Network Address Translation works with your virtual private networks without any effort on your part, to block unwanted traffic when you’re using a VyprVPN.

Hardware Design and Other Advanced Features

As you know, the antenna design is very unobtrusive. However, the entire router is designed to look kind of like a contemporary bubble which looks nice in your home. It’s clear that Ignition Design Labs designed this router for a lot more than just looking cool. It’s worth mentioning that its sleek and soft design makes it easy to manage and store, pretty much in any room. This does provide a benefit in strategic placing for greater range.

On the practical side of things, there are 5 switched gigabit Ethernet ports for multiple wired connections. There’s also 2 USB ports for attached storage, protected printer servers and other uses as well.

Portal also supports a daisy-chain design, where if you combine two of them together, they effectively increase your wireless range by 200 feet around, effectively doubling your wireless range. This is made possible by the dynamic layer-2 routing mesh that features near-zero interference, which says a lot about the professionalism of Portal’s design.

Setting up and using it is pretty easy overall. It has auto-detect features for both WiFi and Bluetooth connected devices. Because of the reliable security protocols, they connect much more quickly with one-touch technology.

In terms of Quality of Service, it’s capable of analyzing the data streams of your devices, such as when playing online video games while streaming movies. It’ll dedicate more bandwidth to more demanding devices. Also, it’s compliant with Digital Living Network Alliance devices, and will stream data to your game consoles and other devices seamlessly on their servers.

On the wireless end of things, the 802.11ac Wave-2 WiFi technology actually has 7 operating bands for the certified access. This allows greater bandwidth to its channels, which have been fully tested over the duration of their Kickstarter campaign.

Conclusion

It wouldn’t be correct to protest that Portal is anywhere close to late to the game, despite the fact that expensive routers have almost overcrowded the market. It’s true that many inexpensive routers still get the job done, but with the slow trickle of innovation in this market, it’s a great solution to those feeling the bite from the growing usage of wireless devices.

Especially in cities, where you can go from perfect Internet access to not even being able to stream a movie from start to finish. This router meets the acid test when compared to other models. Granted, other manufacturers are sure to catch on to their latest technology. However, the amount of expertise and quality that’s been put into Portal makes it a one-stop model for anyone looking to increase their wireless internet speed and range.

The point where it may not be a good solution for you comes down to price, but even if it does come with a higher price tag than you’re expecting, it should serve you well over the years of increasing data usage.

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As the years go on, it seems that more network devices and electronics are becoming fully wireless – which is great. However, any wireless connection has its limitations, especially when obstructions like walls, appliances and other physical objects are in the way. Additionally, every wireless device still needs a power source, so the inclusion of a power cord still adds limitations on where you can place them – most aren’t truly wire-free.

Whether you’re installing a few IP cameras or a new access point, there’s a much more reliable and hassle-free way to operate and pair them to your network. PoE or “Power Over Ethernet” allows you to use a simple CAT5e or CAT6 network cable to power any supported device without the need to attach an additional power supply, cord or AC adapter.

A PoE Injector (sometimes called PoE switches or adapters) provides an alternative power option to a wide range of devices such as switches, panels, access points, VoIP phones, IP cameras and more. You’re given more flexibility on where you can place them, without needing to consider a wireless connection. There are varieties of all sizes, some with more wattage and available ports than others, but they all carry out the same task. The internal power supply of the injector provides wattage through a network cable, but not all are created equal.

Today we’re going to be discussing and going over a few of the best Gigabit-speed Power Over Ethernet Injectors for 2016. We’ll be reviewing each specific one and providing information about each option that’ll ultimately help you determine which specific make and model is best for your precise situation.

TRENDnet (PoE+) Injector, TPE-115GI

• The TRENDnet (PoE+) Injector, model TPE-115GI, is a very popular and highly rated option that’s capable of providing full duplex Gigabit speeds while providing up to 30 watts of power to any PoE enabled or capable device.
• Utilizing “Auto Sensing Technology”, it will automatically power any IEEE 802.3at PoE+ (30 Watt) compliant device, but also remain fully backwards compatible with any IEEE 802.3af PoE (15 Watt) devices as well. There’s nothing for you to configure on your end, once you plug it in, it’ll determine the appropriate power needed and deliver the precise wattage that’s required.
• The integrated power supply emits enough power to provide energy to any device for up to 100 meters or 328 feet away.
• Simple plug and play installation offers you simplicity since there are no requirements for any drivers or special software. Simply attach a network cable to the Data-In port and connect it to your router or switch. Next, plug a network cable into the Data-Out port and connect your IP camera or other PoE-enabled device. Finally, plug in the AC adapter and you’re good to go.
• A small LED indicator located near the power port gives you a clear indication as to whether or not the device is currently being powered.
• Internally designed with special safeguards in place that prevent any potential short circuits from affecting your equipment and whichever device(s) that you have connected.
• Backed by an impressive 3 year limited warranty that assures 36 months of guaranteed functionality.

BV-Tech POE-I100G PoE Injector

• The BV-Tech POE-I100G PoE Injector is very similar to the TRENDnet TPE-115GI since it supports up to 30 watts, but much more inexpensive while remaining quite similar in many regards.
• Since it’s fully compatible with both IEEE 802.3af and IEEE 802.3at standards, it’ll work equally as well for smaller devices as it will with those that require more energy. Nothing is needed on your end to make sure that it’ll offer power at a certain level – this is all handled automatically by the injector.
• Designed in such a way that allows you to connect multiple injectors if you need to install multiple units. On one side is a small grove, on the other is a small nub that slides into this grove. When placed side by side, it’ll securely attach to another unit with its unique parallel slide-in design.
• Integrated short circuit protection gives you extra assurance that low powered devices won’t be given too much power that could cause potential damage.
• Located near the Data-In and Data-Out ports are two small LEDs that indicate power and PoE levels to give you visual assurance that power is properly running through the unit.
• The sides of the middle area are vented to allow heat to naturally escape and dissipate away from the internal components. This keeps the injector operating under more-ideal conditions than a completely sealed, closed-in design.

WiFi-Texas WT-GPOE-4-48v48w PoE Injector (4-port)

• WiFi-Texas is a brand that specializes in network-specific devices, many of which are in the PoE category. One of their most popular products is their 4-port Gigabit injector known as the WT-GPOE-4-48v48w.
• Built with 4 individual ports and a total power of 48 watts, it delivers enough “juice” to fully power up to 4 devices simultaneously. The power is passive and requires no auto-negotiation so once it’s plugged in, it’s always delivering power to each port. It shares power and data on pins 12 and 36 for 802.3af compatible devices.
• Backwards compatible with other 10/100 technology. Even though it’s technically a Gigabit injector, it’ll operate older devices without compromise.
• Users have the ability to switch between the power supply they need – 48 or 56 volts.
• Equipped with a small LED indicator that gives you visual insight on the current status of the injector and the devices that you have plugged into it.
• Built with small eyelets on each end so you’re given the ability to easily mount it if needed. Although there aren’t any small screws included, it gives you the option to mount the injector on the wall or above your switch to keep it out of the way or out of sight.
• WiFi-Texas offers some of the most fantastic customer support that we’ve seen. They’re easily reachable by phone, Skype, or email. They don’t hide behind 1-800 numbers and call centers either.
• UL, CE and FCC approved to guarantee safety and longevity for the injector itself and any other devices that you plug into it.

Final Thoughts

Power over Ethernet is an exciting technology that opens up the limitations that many network-connected devices can often struggle with. WiFi isn’t always the best technology to use. It clearly carries limitations and isn’t always available or reliable in specific locations where you’re trying to add-on to your network. Whether you’re powering cameras, switches or additional access points, PoE opens up limitations and seemingly effortlessly offers wattage at lengths up to 100 meters or 328 feet.

While you may need one port, four or more, there are injectors of a variety of power options and sizes readily available. However, most consumers won’t need many ports, so we’ve covered the best single port and multi-port options above. If you have any questions or need any additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below.

The post Best Gigabit PoE (Power Over Ethernet) Injector Adapters 2016 appeared first on Nerd Techy.

Wireless networking has come a long way since it was first released. Early routers offered bandwidth even lower than available broadband internet speeds, and they suffered greatly from interference and poor signal strength. Many users who take advantage of online gaming or use mission-critical connectivity software have turned to wired networks as the only reliable way to get lightning fast ping speeds and reliable throughput.

There are many different wireless communication standards available, each with their own set of benefits and drawbacks regarding bandwidth, range and power. Linksys has been selling wireless networking hardware since the earliest days of the technology, and their EA9500 router is listed as one of the most powerful routers on the market. Leveraging multiple technologies with an advanced quality-of-service management software, does this product live up to the marketing, or is it simply overkill for most users? Let’s take a look.

First Impressions

Upon removing the EA9500 from the box, the first thing you notice is the sheer size of the router. Nearly twice as large as competing products, this router definitely looks like a brute. With 8 uni-directional antennas, some have described it as looking a bit like a spider.

On the back of the device is a plethora of different connections. You’ve got the rocker switch that controls power, an indented reset button, 8 separate gigabit Ethernet connections, a clearly labelled WAN port and two USB ports. One of them is blue, indicating that it runs on the new USB 3.0 standard, while the other is a standard white USB 2.0 port.

Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation

The EA9500 is the first to be released of the second generation of tri-band routers. Based on a chipset made by Broadcom, the 4×4 MU-MIMO. The awkward naming convention of this chipset is actually an acronym describing the function of this technology. Multiple-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) is a technology that takes the limited bandwidth available in a WiFi network and dynamically allocates it based on the client’s individual needs.

With a single band router, every high-speed connection reduces the speed of the connection other uses can receive. Because this router features multiple bands and multiple channels, no single users can take advantage of the incredible bandwidth this router offers. But even when you have many uses performing high volume data transmissions, every user’s connection will remain responsive and speedy as they essentially are given their own individual channel to connect to.

The total bandwidth offered by the EA9500 is 5,333 megabits. But no single user is going to be able to take advantage of this speed, as it’s divided up between the different channels. Each of the 5 GHz streams can receive 2,166 Mbps each. The 2.4 GHz band tops out at a theoretical max range of 1,000 megabits, although this speed is rarely reached in real-life scenarios due to the range issue of the band.

How Frequencies, Channels, and Standards Work

The router is designed to work under all modern WiFi communication standards, including IEEE a/b/g/n/ac. The 802.11b/g/n standards all operate under the standard 2.4 GHz radio frequency, while 802.11a is strictly a 5 GHz standard. 802.11ac is the newest and most powerful standard, capable of switching between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz as needed. There are many different devices that operate in the 2.4 GHz frequency including cordless phones, microwaves and other consumer electronics.

That means that this frequency can be very crowded, and getting a clean connection in an urban environment is challenging. The 5 GHz frequency is used much less regularly, so you often get a cleaner connection. This frequency is also known for penetrating obstructions more efficiently. Even when going through several walls, bandwidth tends to remain high. Of course not every device supports these new channels, so the inclusion of all previous 802.11 standards means that even older devices can still connect to the EA9500 at their maximum theoretical connection speed.

Internal Specifications

The specific chipset the EA9500 uses is identified as the Broadcom BCM4709, which features a dual core 1.4GHZ CPU. There are two other routers on the market with this chipset, manufactured by Netgear and Asus. All of these routers feature a BMC4366 2.4 GHz wireless radio with quad Skyworks power amplifiers. The 5 GHz radios are also consistent, although taking advantage of different amplifiers, the RFMD 5542. These are actually two independent 5 GHz radios, improving signal isolation between clients and reducing noise.

While all three routers have 128 MB of ROM, the EA9500 has only 256 MB of RAM compared to the 512 MB found in the other routers. While the EA9500 has been slammed in other reviews due to the lower ram, we believe this will make no difference in real-world applications.

RAM is only used for a few things: To store the Mac address table, to perform Network Address Translation, and store connection data for each open thread. Typically, the two things that can slow down a router are high volume traffic on an encrypted VPN (as the router needs to recalculate the checksum for each packet as it resolves the address) and resolving a large number of open connections (bit-torrent is the biggest cause of this).

If you were using this router in a data center on a gigabit fiber optic connection with hundreds of active users, you might need more than 512 MB of RAM. But it is incredibly unlikely that home use would ever result in an environment that couldn’t be handled by the hardware in this router. Including 512 MB of RAM in a consumer product is clearly an example of manufacturers simply trying to make their products look good on paper, and it’s nice to see that Linksys is committed to building a product that actually performs well instead of buying into marketing hype.

Real World Performance

Tired of all the tech-talk? We all know that in the real world, wireless communication devices rarely perform at their maximum theoretical values. You’ll be happy to know that even in our real world tests, the EA9500 performed better than any router we have ever used.

For our close range test, we tried transferring a large file from a server connected to the gigabit LAN port, and transferred it to and 802.11AC device in the same room as the router. We were blown away by the speed, averaging 685 Megabits per second. The speed was not drastically impacted by range either. Going to a room on the opposite side of the building, through multiple walls, we still received a transfer speed of 498 Megabits per second.

The 2.4 GHz frequency is not nearly as capable, but our speeds were still impressive. In the same room, the file transferred at 243 Megabits per second. At long range, we saw 120 Megabit transfer rates.

Ping speeds were impressive, and remained consistently fast no matter how far away from the router we were located. During our testing, we did not see any signal dropouts even when transferring multiple large torrent files with hundreds of connections each.

Should You Buy the EA9500 Router?

There is no doubt that the Linksys EA9500 AC5400 Router is one of the most powerful routers on the market, but most home uses will not be able to take advantage of the impressive features. For starters, there are not tablets or phones on the market that are capable of these kinds of speeds. Imagine connecting a firehose to your garden sprinkler. Water is only flow at the rate of the slowest part of your connection. If you purchase this router now, your connection will be future-proofed to take advantage of the faster WiFi chipsets that will be released in the future, but the immediate benefit is minimal.

Even if you pair this router with a custom laptop or desktop computer featuring a wireless card that can handle the bandwidth this router is capable of, you still need to factor in the speed of your internet connection. There are a few places in the united states that offer 1000-megabit fiber optic internet connection to consumers, and these are really the only type of connections that require such a powerful router. Even if you are running on a 100-megabit fiber connection, which is still incredibly expensive and rare, you will be able to utilize a fraction of the bandwidth this router is capable of.

If you’re running a home server with internal storage capable of read speeds upwards of 500 megabits, this router will allow you to have devices accessing your data at full speed. If you have an extremely fast internet connection and want to take full advantage of your purchase, this router is possibly one of the only products that will allow you to do so wirelessly.

Lastly, if you are simply looking for a high end product that will last for many years without becoming obsolete, the Linksys MU-MIMO AC5400 / EA9500 is probably your only choice. But for the majority of home uses, this product is overkill.

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Just ten short years ago, WiFi was nothing more than a luxury. Today, wireless connectivity is so prevalent that the United States has considered classifying it as a utility. The technology has rapidly developed over the years, improving bandwidth, range, and speed. Many technologies have promised to fix the issue of “dead-spots” found throughout the household, but many have come up short. According to Netgear, a company that’s been providing wireless networking solutions for over a decade, the solution will be found in “Mesh Routing” technology.

Mesh technology has been around for quite some time. If you recall the “One Laptop Per Child” initiative founded over 10 years ago, mesh technology promised to bring internet access throughout many rural third world countries. Essentially, mesh works by adding multiple nodes into a network, and allowing communications to be routed more efficiently throughout them.

With the OLPC project, communications would simply hop from laptop to laptop until finally reaching the primary router. Historically, the problem with mesh is that it works a bit like a game of telephone, with several opportunities for the data to become corrupted. Netgear has found a more effective way to implement mesh technology with their brand-new Orbi High-Performance Wi-Fi-System.

First Look

Netgear doesn’t refer to Orbi as a router. It calls it a “WiFi-system”. That’s because it’s not just a router, but also an extender and a signal optimization system. The kit includes two pieces, a base and an extender. The router has a blue top, while the extender is white.

The system supports three bands, both the standard 2.4GHz and 5GHz, plus a dedicated 5GHz channel not usually accessible with the 802.11 standard. On the back, you have three gigabit Ethernet connections and a USB 2.0 port. The system is designed to be easy to set-up, making it one of the most customer friendly range extenders on the market.

Design

Recently, significantly more networking appliances are being released with design in mind. Take for example our recently reviewed Linksys EA9500. The router is sharp, angular and covered with antennas. Many products are sold with this same aggressive design. Orbi has a unique look that is certainly refreshing. The smooth rounded surfaces of the device have a very decorative look to them, almost like a piece of pottery.

It’s two primary competitors, Eero and Luma also feature designs that are pleasing to the eye, but their incredibly compact design restricts the performance of those devices. Orbi, on the other hand, came up with a format that was both easy on the eyes but also large enough to house the powerful networking hardware required for this type of application.

Communication

The communication standards used by Orbi are what sets this system apart from competitors. Signal quality issues are most commonly caused by overcrowding of wireless channels. Every router operates in two different sets of bands, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Each band only has a specific set of channels available, determined by the 802.11 standard. If routers tried to use their own channels to tap into some of that unused airspace, they simply wouldn’t communicate with any devices.

Netgear is able to solve this problem with its 2-part system. The router and the extender have their own dedicated communication channel. The extender is able to access a part of the 5Ghz band not normally used by consumer electronics, and leverages this in order to receive a clear signal back to your primary router. This means that even if you place the extender in a part of your house with no Wi-Fi signal, it should still be able to communicate with the router. The other two bands in its tri-band radio are used to cover the standard wireless spectrum, offering the latest 802.11ac connectivity.

Set-up Procedure

Netgear clearly put some time into designing the set-up procedure for Orbi. First, the user simply connects the router into their existing network with a standard WAN port. Then, the top of the extender is illuminated by LED lighting.

As you walk around your house, the color will change depending on the quality of its connection with the router. A blue ring around the top of the extender lets you know that the connection speed is ideal, while an amber light means that the speed is inhibited. Pink tells you that the extender is too far away from the router. The entire procedure should only take a couple of minutes. Since the system provides over 2000 square feet of coverage, the majority of customers should be able to simply plop the extender down in the center of their house.

Traffic Shaping

It’s clear that the Orbi platform supports high performance networking, but how does it synergize with your existing home network? Many early extenders simply re-broadcasted the wireless signal from another location. If you’re already experiencing network congestion, this will just compound the problem.

Orbi takes advantage of “Multiple User, Multiple Input, Multiple Output,” (MU-MIMO) technology in order to work with your existing home network. If you have seen the MU-MIMO in use with other routers you know that this means there are multiple separate radios, with each client on your network receiving his own dedicated channel. This system ensures that one users high bandwidth usage doesn’t slow down other users on the network. But Orbi offers something a little more advanced. Their MU-MIMO system doesn’t work with just its own internal antennas, but also your existing home network. Whenever you connect to your wireless network, your device will select either Orbi or your existing router. You won’t have multiple radios all competing for the same signal space.

Wired Connectivity

On the extender, Orbi has three gigabit Ethernet ports as well as a USB 2.0. There are still many devices on the market that do not have wireless networking. IPTV receivers are particularly guilty. With Orbi, you can simply plug one of these devices directly into it to create a wireless bridge. Because it’s communication channel in inaccessible from standard wireless radios, this also makes the Ethernet port a great way to secure your connection in critical environments.

Any traffic that travels from Orbi to its own router will not be susceptible to security breaches. Many netbooks and mobile devices do not have an Ethernet port, requiring you to connect via USB. Unfortunately, Orbi only offers USB 2.0 so it’s unlikely you’ll be able to take advantage of the bandwidth it’s capable of. Then again, it’s rare to see a device that doesn’t have Ethernet or Wi-Fi, so clients will be more likely to use the wireless connection.

Extendibility

The standard Orbi kit allows you to cover over 2000 square feet with just a single extender. A second extender can be purchased, bringing the total to 4000 square feet of coverage. It’s unlikely that home users will require such massive coverage, because these figures only refer to the distance that Orbi itself services. Factoring in the area already covered by your wireless network, the actual span will be 50 to 100% greater than Orbi’s range.

Final Verdict

Business intelligence data cited by Netgear claims that the average family home has over 11 wireless devices. As we move everything on to the cloud, are devices are not simply downloading occasional pieces of data. Today, our devices have a constant stream of information travelling back and forth at any time. Many industry professionals have been waiting for some large tech company to invent a new communication protocol that disrupts the entire industry. But with Orbi, that may be unnecessary. This simple wireless system has combined a few modern technologies, added a little bit of engineering and created something that directly addresses the biggest problem facing wireless communication today.

The Orbi High-Performance WiFi System is priced as a premium product, but still offers significantly more value than comparably priced routers. This is because it works in harmony with your existing network. Purchasing a new router would require you disconnect your existing connection. Orbi can be strategically placed to compensate for the areas that are difficult for your existing router to reach.

So, should you purchase this WiFi system? If signal quality tends to be a big issue for you, we would absolutely recommend Orbi. It may seem like this is simply one of many wireless extenders available on the market, but as of writing there is no system commercially available that even comes close to it. Orbi hasn’t quite hit the market yet, but in just a few short weeks it should be arriving to customers throughout the United States.

The post NETGEAR Orbi WiFi System Review appeared first on Nerd Techy.

Wireless technology has come a long way since it was first introduced. The newest routers and access points offer 802.11ac technology that promises longer range that’s not as susceptible to interference as previous generations. But even with these new technologies, there are still some issues.

• Long range connections often suffer from choked bandwidth and signal dropouts.
• Concrete buildings such as high-rise apartments and lofts block the signal, resulting in low bandwidth and high ping times.
• Even encrypted connections can potentially be intercepted.
• Many IPTV set top boxes are not compatible with WiFi.

For these reasons, many consumers choose to take advantage of a wired home network.

Powerline networking allows you to access all the benefits of a wired network without having to pull Cat6 cabling throughout your house. All you need to get started is two powerline network adapters and a couple of short Ethernet cables. Most adapters are sold in kits that include everything you need. They plug into any standard electrical outlet in your home.

One is placed near your router or modem, the other is placed near the device you would like to connect. Once you connect both of the devices to the adapters, the signal is transmitted over the existing powerlines in your house. Unlike wireless technology, data transmission speeds will always remain consistent over a powerline network. No more dropouts, no more lag. Best of all, powerline adapters are very easy to set up. They automatically detect each other, so the configuration process is literally plug and play.

Your powerline network does not have to be the only network in your house. In fact, most people simply use them to extend their existing wireless network. If you just have that one pesky device that won’t hold a stable connection, then powerline network adapters will likely solve your problem.

Unfortunately, not all powerline network adapters are created equal. Purchasing an inferior product is likely to produce sub-par results. Today, we’re going to take a look at three of the best-selling adapters on the market. Each of them have subtle, but important differences. We’ll take a look at different usage scenarios, helping you to select the best solution for your individual needs.

TP-LINK AV2000 Powerline Adapter Kit

TP-LINK is a well-known manufacturer of consumer and business networking equipment. Most of their products are geared towards those who require huge bandwidth with high reliability. The TP-LINK AV2000 Powerline Adapter Kit is no different.

With an advertised speed of 2000 Mbps, this is one of the fastest powerline networking adapters we have seen. Using the same MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology found in high end routers, this adapter is capable of maintaining multiple independent connections through your power-lines. This means that even if you have multiple devices connected to a single adapter, they will not interfere with the signal quality of each other. Let’s take a look and see what sets this adapter apart from the competition.

First Impressions

The TP-Link AV2000 comes in the same style box as all of their other products – lightweight green and white. Upon opening it, you’re provided with a fair bit of literature on the device. Hardware specifications, maintenance manuals and a set up guide are all included. The adapters themselves are suspended in a sturdy cardboard cutout, and feel as if they are solid and well made. The front of the device has a smooth plastic finish, while the sides are a little more rigid and feature holes for cooling purposes.

Features

There are a few simple features that make this adapter quite easy to use. Since you have to plug it into an electrical outlet, you’ll take up an empty plug, but it has a pass-through outlet on the front. This way, you can plug the device into the wall and plug anything you like into the front of it. There are three LED lights on the face indicating power, connection, and data transfer activity.

On the bottom, you have two gigabit Ethernet ports to connect your devices. They do make a model with three Ethernet ports, if you’re connecting many devices. There’s also a disk that includes the TP-LINK diagnostic software. In theory, these devices should be plug and play. But if something goes wrong, the application can connect to your adapters and attempt to diagnose the problem. If your network is live, it will allow you to view specs such as connection speed, error rate, and bandwidth utilization.

Real World Performance

You may have been wondering why they would only include a gigabit Ethernet port with an adapter that is capable of two gigabit throughput. The advertised speed is only the maximum theoretical connection speed of the signal processor. Environmental factors such as the chemical composition of your power lines, the number of devices on the same breaker, and the distance from one adapter to another can all impact your speed. We put our adapters to the test to determine what kind of speeds we would get in the real world.

The initial setup was just as described. We plugged one adapter in next to our router and connected it with the Ethernet cable. After about 30 to 40 seconds, the bottom LED lit up indicating that the connection was successful. For the first test, we placed the second adapter in the same room. Transmission speeds were around 430Mbps. Not quite the 2000Mbps that was advertised, but still better than any other adapter we’ve come across. This speed is capable of transferring a standard 1gb movie file in about 20 seconds.

Next, we put the second adapter two floors down in the basement, on the opposite side of the house. From here, speeds were closer to 117Mbps – taking roughly a minute to transfer the same video file. While these speeds are much lower, this is the theoretical minimum speed you should receive in a household setting. This is still much faster than the average internet connection, and is fast enough to stream live 4k video.

Verdict

Although a little more expensive than other models, the TP-Link AV2000 Powerline Network Adapter is one of the fastest on the market. The throughput this adapter is capable of makes it ideal for anyone who needs to connect multiple devices to a single adapter, stream 4k video, or perform regular file transfers from a local computer or NAS.

D-Link PowerLine AV2 2000 Gigabit Network Extender Kit

D-Link is another popular manufacturer of consumer networking technology. Generally focusing on mid-range products, they tend to offer solutions that provide a balance of high performance and reliability. With an advertised speed of 2000Mbits, D-Link has positioned the PowerLine AV2 2000 Gigabit Network Extender Kit to compete with some of the fastest powerline network adapters on the market. Let’s take a look and see how it performs in real life.

First Impressions

Upon removing it from the box, the first thing we noticed was that the casing is much cheaper than the TP-LINK. In spite of the lightweight plastic casing, it still offers the LED status lights and a standard gigabit Ethernet port. It is small enough that if you plug it into the bottom of an electrical outlet, the top port will still be free. This is a very handy feature, as many of these adapters are quite large.

Features

The AV2 Powerline Network Adapter looks like a bit of a utilitarian product, but there’s one hidden little feature that is easy to miss. Recessed into the side of the device, there’s a hole labelled “security”. This is actually a button; you just need to push a pin inside to activate it. When the security button is pressed, all of the currently active adapters begin to encrypt their traffic with SSL.

This will prevent anyone from logging your data and tapping into your connection. This feature is only useful if the network is in a public area. Even if your network was un-encrypted, the attacker would need to plug in another powerline adapter somewhere in your house. For the average consumer, the best features of this device are all found inside the signal processor. It’s capable of operating on up to 16 different channels, so you can place multiple adapters anywhere you would like in your house. Additionally, it’s advertised to work with devices from other manufacturers, although they advertise that this may reduce the top speed of the network.

Real World Performance

Getting D-Link’s AV2 Powerline Adapter configured was just as easy as we expected. Plug it in, wait for the LED to turn on, and you’re done. We performed the same test as the TP-LINK, and found that the connection speeds were still very reasonable. The short distance test yielded a speed just shy of 400Mbps. Over a long distance, speeds were closer to 105Mbps.

Verdict

Although the speeds are just a hare shy of the TP-Link adapter, D-Links option provides comparable performance at a price that is a little more affordable. Ease of use, reliability and cost all make this one of the best values available in Powerline Network Adapters. In the event you plan to use this adapter in a publicly accessible environment where data security is an important issue, the built in encryption features are handy to have.

Netgear Powerline 1200

Netgear is another company that has been providing affordable, reliable networking hardware to consumers for many years. The Netgear Powerline 1200 Adapter is the perfect example of an affordable product that doesn’t skimp on essential features.

First Impressions

Although this is priced as a budget product, it certainly isn’t built like one. The plastic casing is thick, solid, and attractive to the eye. The LED indicators are clearly labelled and easy to see. It is reasonably compact, only taking up a single plug on your outlet.

Features

This particular adapter is advertised of having speeds of up to 1200 Mbps. We already know that these speeds are unlikely to achieve in real life, but the lower rating indicates that this adapter may not perform as well as competing products.

One handy feature we liked is the “Pick a Plug” indicator. On the top of the adapter there is an LED light. First you plug in one adapter to your router, then you go around testing out different outlets with the second adapter. The light on the top will indicate green if the signal quality is good, meaning you can expect speeds above 100Mbps. Amber means that the maximum connection speed will be between 50 to 80Mbps. Red indicates speeds below 50Mbps. This feature is handy if you have control over where you install the adapter, but if you need the adapter in a specific location then this feature is not as helpful.

Real World Performance

Once again, we found the setup procedure to be a simple matter. The Netgear Powerline 1200 took a little longer to get a stable connection, but within 90 seconds our network was ready to go. When attempting the data transfer test in the same room, we were surprised at the results. The peak throughput of this device seems to be around 200Mpbs, much lower than the other two. Fortunately, the long range test was much better. With a speed of 90Mbps, this adapter still provides all the bandwidth you need for file transfers, video streaming or web browsing.

Verdict

This affordable powerline network adapter still manages to offer reasonable real world performance. The attractive, durable case will look great in any room, and the ease of setting up your network means that even a non-technical person can have a network up and running in as little as a minute.

Which Network Power Adapter Should I Buy?

It’s easy to look at specs and think that one product must be way more powerful than another. But the truth is, any of these powerline network adapters would be suitable for web-browsing, streaming 4k video, sharing files over the network, or even using IP TV services. Let’s explore the different usage scenarios that each of these adapters are suited for.

First, you’ll need one piece of information: The actual speed of your internet connection. Try out this speedtest from a computer that is either wired in directly to your router, or at least in the same room as it if you are on WiFi. Remember your download speed.

Scenario 1: A home network used for internet access with a connection speed below 100Mbit.
Most home internet connections are between 10Mbps and 30Mbps. If you are using your network mostly to assess the internet, there is no reason to purchase a faster network adapter. Transfer speeds will never exceed the actual connection, no matter what kind of hardware you have. The majority of consumers will fall into this category, so for you the best Powerline Network Adapter is the Netgear Powerline 1200.

Scenario 2: A home network used for internet access with a connection speed exceeding 100Mbit.
If you are paying top dollar for a very fast internet connection and you want to squeeze every ounce of performance out of it, you’ll need the TP-LINK AV2000 Powerline Adapter Kit to maximize transfer speeds.

Scenario 3: A business network where security is the top priority.
If you are using your network adapter in a critical situation, the D-Link PowerLine AV2 2000 Gigabit Network Extender Kit will give you the end-to-end encryption necessary to keep your data secure.

Scenario 4: A home network with multiple devices connected to a single network adapter.
If you want to place one adapter and connect two or three devices to it, the TP-LINK AV2000 Powerline Adapter Kit has MIMO technology and multiple gigabit Ethernet ports. Sure, these adapters are a little more expensive than the competition. But two of these adapters are still more inexpensive than three of another brand.

The post Reviews of the Best Powerline Network Adapters 2016 appeared first on Nerd Techy.

We count on being connected to the Internet every day, for work and play. But our information is only as secure as our Internet security system. And that’s where the powerful CUJO Smart Internet Security Firewall comes in. It’s a newly release product that’s been designed from head to toe to offer network protection against malware, viruses and other threats within your connected home or office. Today we’re going to take a look at it and determine everything that it has to offer, what kind of security it brings and how it gets the job done.

Why Do I Need An Internet Security System?

The need for a home security system is pretty obvious, even if you just hang a Beware of Dog sign outside. Most people own things they like and value, and want to keep them and prevent uninvited people from coming in. This kind of security is just as vitally important for Internet users, if not more so. After all, if someone broke into your home, they would have to look for valuables; on your phone, computer, tablet, and smart home devices – your valuables are pretty much there for the taking.

Think about how much of your life would be accessible to strangers if intruders gained access to your electronics. Online banking account numbers and transactions. Personal email addresses and messages, family photos, tax returns prepared electronically, social media account logins, passwords and much more. Additionally, any work files, programs or passwords you might use to work remotely or check in from home or via smartphone. The sheer volume of critical data really piles up once you begin to make a mental list. That’s where the CUJO Smart Internet Security System (Firewall) comes in.

It streamlines and continuously monitors all traffic on all connected devices, including gaming consoles and smart home appliances, for suspicious activity while allowing users easy oversight of the network through a smartphone app.

CUJO Features

Unlike the fictional namesake (a very large and vicious dog notorious for terrorizing a woman and her son in a classic horror novel by Stephen King, for those too young to remember the book or movie it was made into), CUJO is physically downright tiny – smaller than 5” x 5” x 4”, and under 11 ounces in weight. It’s small enough for convenient placement just about anywhere in your home or office that’s within a cable’s length of your Internet router. But don’t let the small die fool you – online, it’s a beast.

CUJO is described as having business-level Internet security capabilities. It’s hard to say specifically what the definition of “business-level” is when the Internet is wide open and a pretty level playing field. That said, the device’s ability to “learn” is impressive. CUJO gets used to what is “normal” activity for your network and responds accordingly when there is activity that’s outside that norm.

CUJO is also versatile in its umbrella of protection. More than merely securing your computers, it secures phones, tablets, and smart home devices that require Internet access, like thermostats, for example. When one CUJO unit detects and repels an attack or occurrence of malware, it alerts all other units on the CUJO system and the entire firewall is strengthened, seamlessly, and in real time. Because the CUJO unit is always connected to the CUJO cloud, the unit can receive automatic updates from other units or the cloud, as needed.

CUJO’s installation requires only a plug-and-play process. This gives the device broad appeal for a variety of users. There is no need to be a tech guru to get 24/7, always-connected, high-quality Internet firewall security. In this day and age, it shouldn’t be any harder than using a smartphone, and it isn’t. The developers wisely created a downloadable app for iOS and Android users to run the system. There are no extra steps on a separate computer program or yet another electronic device to keep track of. That would be a hassle, and folks wouldn’t use it – after all, how many times does the TV remote or cordless phone handset get lost at your house? And that’s why there’s an app.

How It Works

The only thing you’ll need to install the CUJO Smart Internet Security Firewall is an Ethernet cable. Connect one end to the CUJO and the other end to your Internet router, modem or wireless extender. Download the CUJO app to your iOS or Android phone to walk you through the rest of the set up.

You can connect all of your devices, electronics, and appliances that access the Internet. Be sure to okay notifications from the CUJO app on your phone. This way, you’ll be immediately alerted to any suspicious activity on your network, from hacking attempts to malware intrusions. Through the app, users can block or allow, if necessary, any Internet traffic you recognize even if it’s flagged. You can overrule CUJO at any time.

CUJO is always connected to the Internet and all incoming and outgoing signals on your network go through CUJO first, before heading out into “the wild”. CUJO examines the packets, or bundles of information, that travel along your network but does not share these packets; it only shares metadata with its cloud. This metadata is analyzed and flagged if it looks like something funny is going on. CUJO then alerts you so that you can take action.

It also communicates with other CUJO devices and its own cloud so that firewall security data can be shared. Once one unit identifies a particular virus, for example, it alerts all the other units to be on the lookout for similar threats.

The only concern – and this is a concern regardless of your chosen method of Internet security – is that CUJO’s protection of your network is contingent upon its own security, to a certain extent. Ironic, isn’t it? CUJO has a compelling interest in staying vigilant and proactive in maintaining its own high standard of protection from external threats, which is good news for consumers. Any “chat” between CUJO and its cloud takes place under AES-256 encryption. Also, the only information used by CUJO is metadata, nothing you’re actually sending via the Internet. With computer security and engineering professionals on board, there is no reason to think CUJO isn’t in good hands.

Pricing

CUJO requires a monthly or annual subscription, which includes automatic updates of the unit. The smartphone app is free. There is no web or online interface for CUJO. The monthly subscription is $8.99 or you can sign up for a year at $99. The CUJO unit itself retails for $99. At this time, CUJO comes with 180-day free trial of the subscription service.

Overall Thoughts

You may know all the right steps to take to protect yourself and your valuable personal information online but your network is only as secure as the least experienced person using it. And that is exactly where the robust and dynamic CUJO Smart Internet Security Firewall comes in. Minimize the worry that your kids will download a nefarious app masquerading as a fun new game, or that your mom will click on a spammy link emailed to her by a friend who’s email got hacked.

While it would be nice to think setting up CUJO would mean your computers, phones, and other devices are 100% secured, company website copy reminds users that a network security system is only part of a good Internet security strategy. So if you’re hoping to ditch your firewall and antivirus subscriptions, you may be disappointed. And risking the integrity of your electronics. After all, CUJO only monitors the traffic on your network. Once you leave home and access another network via WiFi, for example, you’re still vulnerable to threats on that network.

All in all, CUJO is easy to set up and easy to use. It’s nice to be able to look at the unit and immediately understand how it’s working. The front looks like a face with two eyes. If the eyes are wide open, CUJO’s addressing a threat. If you’re seeing only the top of the eyes, it looks like he’s smiling and things are operating as normal and expected. If you’re seeing only the bottom of the eyes, it looks like he’s sleeping and that means CUJO is offline. When the eyes begin to blink, the unit is updating and should be left alone until the process is complete.

Regular, automatic updates and learning capabilities provide peace of mind. And the monthly monitoring is well worth the cost considering how priceless the time and effort would be to clean up the mess after you’ve been hacked. Tech support is readily available online, with a long list of FAQ to tackle the most common problems and concerns, and the company’s phone number and address are easy to find. It’s like having your own personal attack dog online – only much easier to train and maintain.

The post CUJO Smart Internet Security Firewall Review appeared first on Nerd Techy.

Dealing with cable companies can be one of the most frustrating experiences American consumers have to deal with. You’ve got restrictive multi-year contracts, disappointing speeds that never seem to live up to their advertised rates, and expensive fees that you never expected to pay in the first place.

What you may not realize is that many of these problems can be solved quite efficiently. In fact, some of the most well-known manufacturers of consumer networking equipment have solutions that can be delivered right to your door.

Linksys promises to make disappointing speeds and expensive hardware rental fees a thing of the past with their impressive CM3024 cable modem. Let’s take a look and see what this modem can do for you.

First Look

The Linksys CM3024 Cable Modem is one attractive piece of technology. It might seem large to some, but once you see all the advanced hardware on the inside you’ll understand why it’s build the way it is. This modem can handle 24 simultaneous download channels and 8 upload channels, giving you a zippy 300 Mbps download speed and 100 Mbps upload speed. This is fast enough to download an entire movie in a matter of seconds. Let’s take a look and see how this is all possible.

Components

Underneath it’s attractive black exterior is an Intel chipset that is among the most advanced in the industry. Their Puma 6 communication processor is the brains of the operation, facilitating lightening quick connection speeds over what was once a pretty basic standard.

There are a lot of challenges faced with getting high download speeds over a cable network. These cables are not only responsible for providing internet service to your entire block, but also transmit digital televisions signal as well. There is often a lot of degradation in the signal quality over the distance traveled between your ISP and your home. But the Puma 6 chipset is incredibly good at error correction. If a packet (a piece of data) arrives malformed or corrupted, your modem has only a few milliseconds to correct the error and accept the packet, or request a resend. Thanks to the Intel Atom processor located inside this chipset, significantly more packets can be recovered compared to competing cable modems. This means less data loss, and higher download speeds.

Another common issue with cable modems is that they simply cannot handle the large number of connections used by file sharing software. But the Puma 6 chipset offers a very advanced QOS (quality of service) system that will handle virtually any load you can throw at it.

Set Up Procedure

This modem is compatible with every major cable internet provider in the United States. Comcast, Xfinity, Warner, Cox and Charter cable all work with this modem right out of the box.
For many of these providers, setting up is just a simple matter of removing the modem from the box, plugging it in, and you’re ready to go! A few of the companies require you to phone in and inform them that you’re changing your modem. If you’ve dealt with cable companies before, you know that this could be a frustrating experience. However, changing your modem is usually much more painless than you would expect. Once you get in touch with a customer service representative, all you need to do is read them a couple numbers off the back of your modem and you’re good to go! If you’re paying to rent the modem, you’ll want to call them anyway so that they can come pick up the old modem and stop charging you a rental fee. In this case, setting up the modem isn’t any additional work.

Multiple Data Streams

Why exactly would you need 24 download streams and 8 upload streams? Reading comments on this modem, many consumers mistakenly believe that they will not see a benefit of this technology unless they have a lot of devices using the internet at the same time. However, even if you only have a single computer you will notice a performance upgrade.

Your computer and mobile devices are actually capable of handling hundreds of connections at the same time. Even something as simple as loading a website can involve dozens of open connections. By separating these streams, you prevent data transmissions from interfering with one another. Ever notice how if you’re downloading something your internet tends to slow down? With 24 separate streams, the effects of this problem can be reduced. You can dedicate, for example, 12 streams for file downloads and another 12 for web browsing. This all happens in the background, so you’ll notice snappier performance without any additional configuration.

DOCSIS 3.0

When cable internet first hit the market, there were some challenges in figuring out how to broadcast broadband internet next to the analog TV signal that was so common at the time. ISPs teamed up and came up with the DOCSIS standard. This spec has been updated a few times already, but DOCSIS 3.0 is the latest version of this standard to be in widespread use. This allows for a theoretical maximum data speed of 300 Mbits per customer. Because this modem supports the highest version of this standard, you’ll be able to continue to use this modem for many years, even when technology advances.

Security

The new DOCSIS 3.0 standard includes some advanced security protocols that are designed to protect your data. With older versions of the standard, it was possible for shady individuals to duplicate your modem. Occasionally this was only done to steal internet access, but other times individuals used it to eavesdrop on your internet connection and steal your private information. With the Linksys CM3024 modem, all of these security features are supported to keep you safe and secure online.

Value

This is one of the few products that will pay for itself. Most customers either had to purchase their modems outright, or pay a monthly rental fee to use their cable company’s hardware. On average, rental fees total $10 a month in the united states. That means that this modem will pay for itself in a year.

However, there is something to be said for “future proofing”. Unless you live in a major urban center, it’s unlikely that your internet speed is the 300 megabits that this modem supports. But by spending a little extra money, you’ve got a modem that can potentially last many years.

Let’s do some quick math. DOCSIS 2.0 came out in 2001. It wasn’t taken out of service until 2013 when the latest version of DOCSIS 3.0 hit the market. Technology changes all the time, but the cost for a company to replace hundreds of thousands of existing modems is prohibitively expensive. Therefore, it’s reasonable to expect that the DOCSIS 3.0 standard for another 10 years. If you purchased this modem, you could save yourself $1200 ($10 per month for 10 years) in modem rental fees and still have a modem that’s fast enough to handle the latest internet speeds. So this modem won’t just pay for itself, but it could potentially pay for itself ten times over. That just might be one of the best deals we’ve ever come across!

Is The Linksys CM3024 Cable Modem Worth It?

If you’re looking to save a few bucks, it certainly might be worth it to give the Linksys CM3024 Cable Modem a quick look. Although you’d have to spend a little money up front, you’d certainly see it pay itself off in no time.

This is an especially good buy for users who like to be on the cutting edge of technology, and have the fastest internet connection possible.

However, it might not be the right purchase for all users. If you have a slower internet connection and aren’t planning to use the same modem for a long time, it might be wise to save a few dollars and pick up the mid-range model of the same modem. This modem only cuts the maximum download speed by 50 megabits, but it is a little cheaper.

If you already own your own cable modem, this would only be an upgrade if you want to take advantage of the high speeds it offers. It’s a great buy for people who like to download a lot of files, or stream HD video. But if you’re thinking of picking it up for your grandmother to check her emails, it could be a waste of money.

The post Linksys (CM3024) 24×8 Cable Modem Review appeared first on Nerd Techy.

If you spend only a few moments perusing ISP review forums, you’ll notice that many consumers feel frustrated and ripped off by their internet service providers. A combination of questionable speeds and unexpected fees can make for a very negative consumer experience.

If you’re feeling chapped at the poor service you receive from your ISP, perhaps it’s time to take matters into your own hands. Most internet service providers charge a fee every month to rent one of their modems. Often these modems are manufactured quite inexpensively, and can have underwhelming performance.

What you may not have known is that you don’t have to pay these rental fees every month. You can purchase a cable modem of your very own. Saving cash on rental fees isn’t the only benefit of these modems either. Many of them are actually very high performance and can provide you with much higher speeds than what is available to you with your included modem.

Linksys is no stranger to networking. Their routers are used all over the world, and in many places are considered to be industry standard. Today, they’ve got a couple of exciting new modems on the market that promise to boost your speed for a price that won’t break the bank. Let’s take a look at the CM3016 and see how it stacks up to the competition.

First Looks

The Linksys CM3016 16×4 Cable Modem is a surprisingly fashionable device. Featuring a shiny black case, the modem definitely stands out with its modern appeal. On the outside, it seems like a pretty simple device. You’ve got your indicator lights on the front, and connectivity ports on the back. But the first thing you’ll notice about the modem is that it’s very large. At over eight inches tall, it’s very monolith-like in appearance. Despite how simple it looks on the outside, it’s the incredibly powerful hardware on the inside that requires such a large case.

Hardware

A modem is only as good as the sum of its components. And that’s why the CM3016 is such a great piece of hardware. Inside, a highly specialized Intel Puma 6TM chipset is the brains of the whole operation. This chipset is what manages the cable connection with your ISP, as well as the speedy Wi-Fi connection for your local devices.

The Puma itself actually includes it’s very own Intel Atom processor (the same type used in laptops) to manage the connection. Why would such a powerful CPU be needed for a simple cable modem? Primarily, it’s used to handle all of the advanced load balancing technologies included. Remember that the cable internet standard is quite old. In order to get the very high bandwidths available with modern ISPS, you actually need to manage multiple internet connections at the same time. The intel puma chipset on this modem can handle up to 20 separate connections. Whenever your devices are sending or receiving information, the Puma chipset can dynamically determine which of the 20 channels will be the quickest way to send and receive information.

Wi-Fi

Getting a fast connection from your ISP to your house is great, but it’s not worth it unless your computers can take full advantage of this speedy connection. That’s why the CM3016 has an incredibly speedy 1 gigabit wireless connection. If all you’re doing is accessing the internet, then this wireless connection may be considered overkill. However, if you’re sharing any files locally on your network then you’ll surely appreciate the speedy 802.11AC Wi-Fi connection.

The AC connection has a few important benefits over older formats such as G. Most wireless connections use exclusively the 2.4 GHZ spectrum. If you live in a large urban center, 2.4 GHZ is a very crowded channel. Microwaves, cordless phones, and many other appliances all operate on the same frequency. This means that the channel can be very noisy, reducing your maximum throughput. With AC, your computer has the ability to switch to the 5 GHZ channel as needed. This spectrum is much less crowded, reducing the amount of noise that your computers have to deal with.

5 GHZ also has a few more benefits. It’s much better at penetrating walls and obstructions. If you live in an apartment or loft that has concrete construction, you’ll notice that you get a much better range of connection. You’ll be less likely to notice dropouts or “dead-zones” in different areas of your house.

DOCSIS 3.0

DOCSIS, or Data Over Cable Interface Specification is the standard that allows internet to be broadcast through conventional cable television lines. This standard has gone through many revisions, and DOCSIS 3.0 is the latest revision that can be found in common practice.

There are a couple of reasons why it’s important that this Linksys modem is compatible with DOCSIS 3.0. The most obvious benefit is the maximum throughput. Although speeds of up to 1 gigabit are possible, most manufacturers cap out at around 50 to 250 megs. But this is a modem that you are going to want to last you a long time, so it’s fantastic that it supports higher speeds. If your internet service provider upgrades your speeds in the future, you’ll already be equipped to take advantage of these speeds without having to purchase any additional equipment.

Another benefit of DOCSIS 3.0 is the security features. With older versions of the DOCSIS standard, it’s been found that there were some major security risks. It is possible for a hacker to clone your modem, and use a hacked device to tap into your connection and see the information that is being transmitted back and forth. With a DOCSIS 3.0 capable modem, these security holes have been closed and your data is secure.

Speed Improvements

An inexpensive modem might look just as good on paper, but his particular modem has some advanced features that will improve its performance. If you are a user of file sharing programs such as bit torrent, you’ll probably notice that your connection often chokes. This is because file sharing programs work by opening hundreds of connections to a variety of peers. Many inexpensive modems cannot handle so many connections at once, and lock up even if you are not yet approaching your maximum throughput. Because the CM3016 has an advanced Atom based chipset, it can handle a huge volume of connections so you’ll be able to make the most of your high speed connection.

Cost Savings

So, can you actually save money by purchasing your own modem? If you’re a long time subscriber, this modem will essentially pay for itself. Many companies charge around $10 per month for their hardware rental. If you were to purchase this modem, you could pay it off entirely within a year. Since this modem is designed to last a long time, this just may be a profitable purchase.

So, Is It Worth It?

Most clients will notice a huge benefit from upgrading their home modem. However, some customers won’t find a lot of value in the purchase. There are two main reasons why you would want to make this purchase.

Are you paying hardware rental on your cable companies modem? Even if they already provide you with a high end modem, why pay a never ending monthly fee? For just a small investment, you can own your modem and cut your monthly expenses by a reasonable margin.

Do you find that your current modem is under-performing? If so, you might stand to benefit from an upgrade to a high speed cable modem like the Linksys CM3016. This modem supports 16 channels of download and 4 channels of upload. With a maximum capacity of 250 megabits, even some of the highest speed connections can take advantage of this. On the sales page, they recommend that users with slow connection instead purchase a slower modem. We disagree with this. The slower modem costs almost as much as the faster one, and internet speeds improve every year. Even if you have a slower connection, you’ll be able to upgrade in the future without changing your hardware. If you instead choose a slower modem, you’ll never have room to expand.

Does your cable company give you a free modem rental? Are you happy with the speeds you’re getting? If that’s the case, it might not be worth it for you to purchase a modem of your own. This purchase is reserved specifically for people in either or both of the scenarios we described above. Remember, your modem is only as good as your connection. It’s important to remember that if you live in a rural area that only gets a maximum of 10 megabits of download speed, upgrading to a 250 megabit modem is unlikely to improve your connection in any way.

The post Linksys CM3016 16×4 Cable Modem Review appeared first on Nerd Techy.

With our internet connections increasing year by year, we’re starting to get to a point where company provided cable modems just can’t keep up with the sheer amount of bandwidth available to us. If you’re looking to give a little boost to your internet connection speed, perhaps calling up your local ISP and upgrading your package isn’t always the best option. Instead, you might want to consider upgrading your cable modem to make the most of the connection you already pay for.

If you’re on the market for a new modem, you’ll notice that there are a lot of different options. Some vendors are still selling old models that can’t really perform in today’s modern standards, while others are simply inexpensively produced. But the SBG7580AC cable modem looks to be a strong contender, so let’s take a look and see how it stacks up to the competition.

First Impressions

Although the ARRIS SURFboard SBG7580-AC is sold as a modem, it’s really three different products in one. First, you’ve got a blazing fast modem rated at 1.7 Gigabits. Next, you’ve got the blazing fast 1300 Mbps dual band wireless router. Finally, a Gigabit Ethernet switch for any computers that you want to hard-wire into your network. This is certainly a large modem, much more so than the compact models that are often provided by your cable provider. Let’s go in-depth and see how this modem performs.

Modem

Possibly the most important component of all, the modem is the backbone of your entire internet connection. If your modem isn’t capable of using all the bandwidth available, then every device down the chain will suffer. Fortunately, the one included in the ARRIS SURFboard SBG7580AC is a powerful little unit. Using the DOCSIS 3.0 standard, it’s capable of speeds 3x greater than the theoretical limit of DOCSIS 2.0.

This modem is technically rated for speeds of 1400 Mbps, although you will rarely see this in the real world. The primary reason for this is that internet speeds simply aren’t that fast yet. Consumer connections usually cap out around 300Mbps. This doesn’t mean, however, that such a fast router is useless. There are two main reasons why you would want a high speed router.

First, you have more resilience to noise. The further you get from your ISPs distributor, the lower quality your signal is. You might have a router that is capable of 300Mbps and a 300 Mbps connection, but if your signal is poor quality then your connection will lose 20 to 40% of its maximum theoretical speed. With a modem like the one in the SBG7580-AC, you’ll be able to maintain a high speed connection even in a challenging environment.

Next, you’ll have a modem that can be upgraded as internet speeds improve. Just because 300Mbps is the fastest connection you can get now, doesn’t mean that it will be the fastest one available next year. By purchasing a modem now that can support high speeds, your upgrade will just be a phone call away since you already have the appropriate hardware in place.

Router

The ARRIS SURFboard SBG7580-AC has built in dual band 802.11AC wireless router. If you’ve done any research on routers, you’ll see countless reviews that urge you to stay away from the routers included with your ISPs modem. In many cases they are right, as these routers tend to be inexpensive and of poor quality. But with the SBG7580AC, the router is a strong contender against even high end consumer wireless technology.

What makes the built-in router great is it’s 802.11AC dual concurrent band technology. Wireless networks can exist on one of two frequencies: 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ. Each of them have their own pros and cons. 2.4GHZ is capable of going through walls with less degradation. 5GHZ offers a much higher throughput. When you are just using a single computer, you can actually open up two connections to the router over both of these channels. Not only can this theoretically triple your maximum throughput when compared with a single 2.4GHZ connection, but your card will be able to pick and choose the appropriate frequency if you are very far away from the router.

There is another important benefit to having the router integrated into the modem. If you connect an external router, you’ll be forced to use the built in Gigabit Ethernet port. After factoring in overhead, Gigabit Ethernet can sustain a maximum throughput of around 800 Mbps. Wireless connections are already faster than their wired competitors. If you are able to score a Gigabit internet connection in the future, you’ll never be able to take advantage of this connection speed with a wired connection. But with this modem, you’ll be fully equipped. Because the wireless router is connected directly to the modem, there is no bandwidth restriction from Gigabit Ethernet.

32/8 Channel Bonding

Equipped with 32/8 channel bonding, the ARRIS SURFboard SBG7580-AC is built with some of the best and most recent advancements in this technology. Channel bonding is a unique way of aggregating both upstream and downstream channels to deliver improved speeds. This means that there are 32 individual download channels and 8 upload channels that work cohesively to provide transfer speeds that are in fact faster than any cable ISP (Internet Service Provider) currently offers. It’s definitely a bit of a sales gimmick, but it’s a sure-fire way to “future-proof” your connection so that you get several consistent years with this modem/router combo before you’ll need to replace it.

Operator Compatibility

This modem uses the DOCSIS 3.0 standard. It’s already approved for use with Charter, Time Warner, and Brighthouse Networks. Certification is also pending for use with Comcast, Cox, and several other US cable operators. If you’re using service from one of the companies that have certified the modem, setup can be as simple as plugging it in and making a quick phone call. Even if your cable provider is not on the list, there is no reason that this modem shouldn’t work. It supports every commonly used DOCSIS 3.0 standard, so the only reason that it wouldn’t technically work is if your cable provider restricts the use of third party modems.

Performance

We found that the modem performed incredibly well in all of our tests. Previously we had a connection advertised as 300Mbps through Cox. As I’m sure anyone with cable internet can relate to, we rarely reached the peak speed. Most of the time, our connection averaged around 220Mbps. With this router, our speed tests indicated that we were getting 293Mbps. This is a pretty serious improvement, even though the connection speed is much lower than what the router can handle.

Aside from that, the SURFboard is simply a great router. We found that our wireless signal was strong and high quality throughout our house with not dead zones. Transferring files between PCs was lightening quick, often reaching speeds of upwards of 400Mbps. We’re sure that it’s capable of faster speeds, but ISP technology hasn’t quite caught up to everything this modem is capable of.

Value

If you’re still renting your cable modem, picking up the SURFboard can offer incredible value. Some providers charge as much as $10 per month for hardware rental. Considering that this modem is powerful enough to last many years, it’s an investment that will pay for itself.

It’s also important to consider the replacement cost of your hardware. You could probably save 50% and get a much lower quality modem, but how long would it last you? If you pick up a modem that is only rated for your current internet speed, you’ll need to replace it the moment you want to upgrade to a new package.

Final Thoughts – Is the ARRIS SURFboard SBG7580-AC Worth It?

In our opinion, the ARRIS SURFboard SBG7580-AC Cable Modem/Router Combo is an excellent value for anyone who wants to get the most of their internet connection. It’s advanced enough that you’ll be able to keep it for many years without having to upgrade. The fact that there is such a high quality router installed in the modem is just the icing on the cake. Usually the wireless routers found in modems are just an afterthought, and provide only the bare minimum service required to keep consumers happy. With it, the router is just as good as any mid to high level consumer router available on the market.

Another reason we love the SBG7580-AC is that it uses the DOCSIS 3.0 standard. Many modems use a modified version of DOCSIS and are only compatible with certain ISPs. The SURFboard, on the other hand, is theoretically compatible with every cable ISP in the United States. If you aren’t sure, give your cable provider a call. As long as they use DOCSIS, there is no reason that this modem won’t work.

Is this modem a great purchase for everyone? Not necessarily. In many parts of the country, 50 Mbps is still considered an extremely fast internet connection. Unless you have a connection that exceeds 200 Mbps, this modem is probably a waste of money. It would be a bit like installing a Ferrari engine in your Ford Focus. But for anyone who wants a long lasting investment and a router that will support lightening quick internet speeds, we can’t recommend the ARRIS SURFboard SBG7580-AC enough!

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4K televisions are all the rage these days, but the largest problem facing early adopters is that there is simply not very much 4k content available. Now that 4K Blu-Ray movies and players are hitting the market, consumers finally have some Ultra HD content they can enjoy at home.

Until quite recently, the Samsung UBD-K9800 was really the only Ultra HD Blu-ray player on the market. Finally, the Microsoft Xbox One S gaming console and Philips’ BDP7501 have come out with their own, diversifying the choices available to consumers. If you’re not much of a gamer, the Philips BDP7501 just may be the most affordable way to enjoy Ultra HD content. Let’s take a look at see how it stacks up against the competition.

Connectivity

Let’s start with the basics. The Phillips BDP7501 comes with all the input and output options you’d expect from a Blu-Ray player of this caliber. As is required for Ultra HD content, HDMI 2.0a with HDCP 2.2 copy protection is used. Other players are capable up upscaling content to 4K televisions, but if they don’t have the HDCP 2.2 copy protection they won’t be able to play new releases.

If you pair the BDP97501 with an audio processor that doesn’t support these new standards, it also comes with one HDMI 1.4b for discrete audio output to legacy AVRs. There is also a USB you can use to access locally stored media, and an Ethernet port for internet access. For wireless internet, it combines wireless LAN 801.11ac with MIMO antennas for high bandwidth throughput.

Design

Phillips went much more compact than Samsung with the design of the BDP7501. It much more closely resembles an Apple TV or Roku than a Blu-ray or DVD player.

The BDP7501 is square in shape, only 2.25 inches tall and 8.75 inches wide. Considering how powerful this player is, it’s compact size is a little surprising. It’s a sleek, all-black, discreet looking unit with a brushed aluminum finish on the sides and a matte black rubbery top that has a soft feeling to it.

There is nothing particularly flashy about its exterior. It has a straightforward layout, the only buttons being the power button and eject button which are located on the top. To insert a disc, the front panel opens, exposing a disc tray that easily slides out. It’s everything you’d expect to see in your average DVD or Blu-ray player, but compact and unassuming enough to fit into any home theater set up.

Remote

The remote is always such an important component of any DVD or Blu-ray player. A bad remote can interfere with the whole experience, from functionality down to ease of use, so we were especially analytical of the BDP7501’s remote control.

It’s large in size, which we always prefer over unnecessarily compact remotes that try to cram everything into a cramped space. The size means the buttons are nicely spread out and easy to use, and you don’t accidently click multiple buttons simultaneously all the time.

There is no backlighting on the remote which makes it harder to see in the dark. However, the large size of the remote makes it easy to operate it in the dark without having to look at it.
The material on the top of the remote matches the soft, matte plastic on the Blu-ray player which is a nice tactile feature. The power and home buttons are right at the top and easy to see, something that a surprising number of remotes fail to value.

There are also buttons specifically dedicated to each YouTube and Netflix, making it extremely easy to navigate those functions on your TV. It’s a very straightforward remote with no frills, and all of the buttons appear to have a single, obvious function. All in all, it’s the kind of remote we wish all DVD and Blu-ray players had.

Setup

For many people, setting up a new unit is a nightmare. Sometimes we kind of expect our equipment to do things for us, only to begrudgingly spend an hour trying to figure out how to make everything work. The setup is extremely important, however, because choosing the right setting can be the difference between enjoying your player to its full advantage, and thinking it doesn’t work at all.

Not surprisingly, a good setup process that is both comprehensive and easy is highly valued. In this regard, the BDP7501 did quite well. The first power up takes around 20 seconds, then you’re run through the basics: selecting a language, checking the connection with your TV to find the proper resolution and subsampling rate, setting up Quick Start (on or off), and setting up your network connection. It’s handy that you can opt for a wireless connection, but you will probably get a more stable, higher quality connection from the BDP7501 if you chose wired.

Feature Set

The Phillips BDP7501 has a ton of great features. Starting with its primary selling point, the 4K Ultra HD video quality allows you to watch movies in crystal clear Ultra HD. But this isn’t restricted to Blu-ray movies, you can also access the 4K versions of Netflix and YouTube. No longer do you need to connect a computer to access this content, you can stream the 4K Ultra HD video right from the BDP7501.

One of the frequent frustrations of Blu-ray players is the fact that many are limited to playing only physical copies of content. Fewer and fewer people use DVDs, and almost everyone uses a streaming service as their primary go to for movies and TV. The Phillips BDP7501 allows you to enjoy 4K Ultra HD video quality regardless of whether you are streaming or have a 4K quality disc.

Outside of 4k, it supports playback of an impressive range of discs including Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, DVD and CD. However, it does not support playback for SACD or DVD-Audio discs. That being said, it also has DLNA multimedia playback and USB multimedia playback, so you can stream high quality audio files from your computer.

It has internal Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, and you can pass bitstream audio output to send Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks to your AV receiver. These formats are increasingly popular in high quality physical media, and an essential for any high grade media player.

Video Quality

The visual definition of the Phillips BDP7501 is obviously one of its greatest qualities. The 4K Ultra HD offers you the best definition available, which you can experience first-hand with the bonus 4K Creed DVD they’ve included.

There is more to the Phillips BDP7501 than that, however. It also boasts an HDR10, which gives the visual quality greater luminosity and color representation than standard photography or digital imaging.

The Phillips BDP7501 can pass up to 12-bit color and the BT.2020 color space. You can also choose from a range of resolution options depending on the quality of the video source. The BDP7501 can do Auto, 4K, 1080p, 1008i and 480p. Having these options is great for lower-quality movies like DVDs so the movies can still look their best.

For those who have an older UHD TV that doesn’t support 4K/60p output, you have the option of turning that output off to make the player compatible with your TV. You can even enable and disable Deep Color and the HDR in the HDMI settings. If you have an old UHD TV, The Phillips BDP7501 forces you to set it properly the first time during the initial setup, which is actually wise and saves a lot of headache down the road.

Audio

The Phillips BDP7501 has great audio specs, with internal Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. With this kind of decoding, you can send the signal directly to your receiver and take advantage of any advanced DACs you might have. Even if you’re using the onboard DAC, the player is still capable of producing extremely high quality sound that is perfectly suited for use even with high end audio setups.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for an Ultra HD compatable Blu-Ray player, the Philips BDP7501 is one of the best on the market. It’s a lot more than just a simple Blu-Ray player, allowing you to access content from Netflix and YouTube. This makes it the singular device that will upgrade your home media center with 4k content.

If you’re a gamer and don’t already own a console, you might want to consider the Xbox One S. But if you’re a PlayStation gamer or already own an Xbox console, you’ll save a pile of money by simply adding this Blu-Ray player to your media center instead of replacing perfectly good components. If you have a 4K television and don’t yet have access to a media player, the Philips BDP7501 is a must have to help you take advantage of the features that your TV offers.

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Quad stream routers are all the rage these days, and it’s clear to see why. Wider range, better signal penetration, and an insane amount of bandwidth have made these powerful routers the networking appliance of choice for power users.

These routers are perfect for households that have a large number of computers all sharing the same connection. Unfortunately, there’s one problem with this system. A quad stream system is less than ideal for single user systems. If you only have one computer, you’ll only be able to take advantage of two streams at best. Some particularly crafty enthusiasts determined that they could purchase two routers, run one in bridge mode, and connect to it through the gigabit LAN port. Now, this expensive endeavor is a thing of the past. With the release of the Asus 4×4 AC3100 (PCE-AC88) PCIe Network Adapter, quad band networking is finally available to desktop computer users.

What kind of results can you expect when you install one of the most powerful networking cards in your computer? We put one to the test to find out.

First Look

Once removed from the box, the PCE-AC88 is one hefty looking network adapter. There are four gold antenna connectors along the front, and the entire PCB is covered with a huge heat sync that makes it look almost like a mid-level graphics card. The design of this card is nothing like the infamous killer NIC card that was all the rage several years ago, but ASUS has always been a company that goes for function over form.

The antenna itself, however, really does stand out from the crowd. Upon announcement ASUS demonstrated the card with 4 antennas awkwardly shooting out the back of the card. But now that the product has launched, ASUS removed them in favor of a desktop mounted antenna base that has the same angled design as used in their 4×4 routers. This isn’t all flash, however, as the remote mounted antenna should improve your wireless performance by a large margin.

Bandwidth

When you’re purchasing a card like this, bandwidth is going to be the number one priority. Before we get down to the actual measurements, we should explain why this card is so powerful. The card is rated for 1024-QAM in both 802.11N mode as well as 802.11AC. QAM is an acronym for Quadratic Amplitude Modulation. When your router communicates with your NIC, they’re sending a series of pulses back and forth. Just as there are different words in our language, there are different pulses that can be used to express different values. The more values that can be expressed in a single pulse, the more data that can be transmitted. Most 802.11 AC routers support 256 possible values in each pulse. But the AC3100 supports 1024 different values, making this one powerful card.

To test the bandwidth of this card, we took a compressed 15GB file and transferred it between two windows computers. We were using the ASUS RT-AC88U router, which they market as being the perfect companion for this card. One computer was connected to the router via Gigabit Ethernet, the other through the PCE-AC88 wireless adapter. Our first test took place with the wireless adapter located about a meter from the router. Our file transferred at an incredible 876 Megabits per second, absolutely the fastest we’ve ever seen from a wireless connection and approaching the theoretical limit of Gigabit Ethernet.

Of course, this test isn’t really indicative of real world performance. If you were only a meter away from your router, you would just simply plug in to the Ethernet port. Our next test took place five meters away from the router, as if you were just in the next room. Surprisingly, the bandwidth was barely impacted. Our transfer rate was 855 Megabits per second.

Clearly, we were not challenging this card enough. For our final test, we moved the computer all the way to the other side of the house, about 32 feet from the router. This time there was a noticeable difference in transmission speed, with our bandwidth capping out around 710 Megabits per second. Despite this being the worst result from our entire test, this is still among one of the highest speeds we’ve seen from a wireless router.

Another thing we noticed during the test was that there was not a single drop off during the file transfer. Generally, this is a fact of life with wireless technologies. You have to expect your signal to cut out. With the combination of ASUS’s two best wireless networking appliances, this didn’t happen to us even once. If you had shown us the results prior to us testing this card, we wouldn’t have believed that it wasn’t a wired connection.

Compatibility

The PCE-AC88 network adapter comes in a half height PCIe 1x format card. This means that it will work in pretty much any desktop computer, even if you have a compact case.

Because it supports 802.11AC and all previous standards, it will work with any other router on the market. There are, however, some considerations. The reason this card is so powerful is it’s quad-band connectivity and 1024-QAM rating. If you just use a generic router that doesn’t support these technologies, then the card won’t be any faster than a standard wireless adapter. Asus calls this technology TurboQAM and NitroQAM. They currently sell two routers that offer this technology, the RT-AC5300 and RT0AC88U. Netgear also offers one called the Nighthawk X8 R8500, but at the moment there isn’t much else on the market.

If you want to use the card over extremely long ranges, the R-SMA antenna connectors allow you to hook up to any standard antenna you like. The omnidirectional antennas included with the router are really good, so we wouldn’t advise replacing them with another omnidirectional antenna. However, if you are going to use a unidirectional antenna, then there are tons of great options available to you.

So, Should I Get the Asus 4×4 802.11AC AC3100 PCIe PCE-AC88 Adapter?

If you’re looking for performance, there’s no doubt that this is the best wireless PCIe card on the market. For the first time wireless networking is truly just as powerful as a wired connection. But to determine if this card is worth it for you, it’s important to consider how you use your home network.

If you primarily access files from the internet, this card is probably not worth the money. The bandwidth is significantly higher than almost every internet connection available to consumers. You can only truly take advantage of everything this card has to offer if you are accessing local shares. Even then, you have to consider how the files are hosted. Are they located on an SSD drive? Great, you’ll be able to replicate the results we got in our tests. If you’re accessing files on standard hard drives, the card will be much faster than the drive is capable of putting out.

Many consumers like to build computers that are future proof. Even if you can’t take full advantage of everything this card has to offer, wireless networking technology improves every year. You might not have a quad band router now, but if you plant to upgrade in the future you might as well get a quad band card now instead of having to replace it in a few months. It’s worth considering that the card is not really that much more expensive than mid-range models. When it comes down to it, you’ll be spending an extra $40 to have a card that can potentially last you many years.

This card is the perfect indicator of how wireless networking improves year after year. Less than six months ago you would have had to spend $400 to get these kinds of speeds. Today, you’ll pay a quarter of that. For us, the Asus 4×4 802.11AC AC3100 PCIe PCE-AC88 Adapter is an excellent buy, and a must have for any computer enthusiast.

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Buying wireless networking hardware can be a pretty complicated process. The speeds advertised on the box are only possible under ideal conditions, and hard to replicate. How frustrating is it to purchase a router that advertises a specific speed, then realize that the real-world performance is a fraction of that? Technically, manufactures are not lying about their products. They are simply presenting information in a way that is easy for consumers to misinterpret, creating the illusion that their product is superior to another.

Amped Wireless believes that customers should have the right to make informed decisions about the products they purchase. With their newly released Ally Whole Home Smart WiFi System, everything from the box to the software is designed to be clear and easy to understand. By reading through the product page, you can tell that Amped Wireless’s marketing is based on honesty. They clearly explain what the system can do and how it’s used. The target market probably has a lot to do with this marketing. Although Ally is a premium router, it’s not designed for techies who want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of their hardware. Instead, it’s designed to be used by parents who want to control and regulate how the internet is used within their home. Let’s take a look and see how the Ally Wireless System performs in the real world.

First Impressions

The Ally Whole Home Smart WiFi System comes in two different packages. The Ally is a single unit, looking a lot like your standard router. The Ally Plus has two units that look identical, but perform different functions. One is a router and the other an extender. With the Ally Plus you can get coverage of up to 15,000 square feet, or place them closer together to get rid of dead-zones.

In terms of appearance, Ally really isn’t anything special to look at. It has a simple, modern design that will be easy to hide in your home. Should you want to leave it out in the open, it certainly won’t capture any unwanted attention. But Ally wasn’t built around design, it was built around functionality. Amped Wireless has taken every little feature of a wireless router and made the settings easy to change from the palm of your hand. Let’s take a look and see how it’s used.

Setup

From the moment you open the Ally Whole Home Smart WiFi System, you’ll be using your smartphone to control every aspect of your wireless network. The app is available on both Android and iOS, so you’ll be able to use it on almost any mobile device. If you don’t have a smartphone or tablet, you can still control the router by logging in through your browser. However, doing so would limit the best features of it.

Upon first opening the app, it instructs you to connect the modem and power source to the Ally. Moments after plugging it in, we received a notification that our wireless network was being automatically set up for us. We chose a name for our router and entered our password, and set up was complete.

As some of you know, setting up a new router isn’t always that easy. If your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or network has an unusual connection, many routers will need to be configured before they will work. With Ally, the app will guide you through the entire process. If it doesn’t find a connection, it will ask you questions about your connection, and give you visual diagrams to verify the cables are attached correctly. Although we didn’t encounter any issues, an automated troubleshooting system like this could save you from waiting on hold for your ISP.

Controls

Once your internet is up and running, the router works just as you’d expect. It’s not until you open the companion app that you realize what this WiFi system can do. There are four primary ways you can control your home network: Parental controls, scheduled access, activity logging, and notifications.

Parental Controls

Parental controls let you decide exactly what type of content your children are able to access. You can set different restrictions for each device in the house, should you desire. There are several pre-configured settings for content restriction. You can block content by type, such as pornographic materials, sites with profanity, and much more. If you want to get specific, you can create a whitelist. This means that every website will be blocked, unless you specifically approve it. Websites aren’t the only thing you can block. You are also able to ban specific apps that you don’t want your children to have access too.

Scheduled Access

Scheduled Access sounds simple at first. You choose what times devices can or cannot access the internet. When combined with the parental controls, it’s much more advanced. For example, you could block social media websites after bed time. Alternately, you could block online gaming at pre-defined times of the day. No matter what the rules of the house are, you can easily instruct Ally to enforce them.

Activity Logging

It’s impossible for content filters to be 100% effective. Even if they have blocked hundreds of thousands of mature websites, there are likely a few that were missed. How can you ensure that your children are using the web responsibly? With activity logging, you’ll be able to review the websites and apps that your children have accessed. This will allow you to quickly add a website to the block list with the tap of the finger.

Notifications

This is a gentler way to enforce the rules. Instead of these rigid schedules where 4:59 is acceptable but 5:00 is not, your settings will behave more like a guideline. During scheduled times, your children will have to request internet access. You’ll get the notification on your phone instantly, allowing you to approve or deny the request in real time. Outside of your “restriction” times, you’ll still be kept aware of what is happening on your network. You’ll be notified when a device connects or disconnects from the router, and a quick tap can tell you what app or website is being accessed.

Security

Regulating your children’s access to the internet is one thing, but computer security is entirely another. You’ll want to keep your network protected from spam, viruses, malware, and fraudulent websites. Setting up an independent security system on each of your mobile devices is a lot of work, and with Ally it’s completely unnecessary. The router has AVG internet security built right in. It can stop viruses before they get to your device, prevent you from being tricked into visiting a fraudulent website, and restrict the ability of hackers to break into your network.

Range

Ally is sold as a router that offers superior range with no dead-zones or dropouts. This is truer of the Ally Plus than the base model, although both are competent devices. It offers 802.11AC, a technology that operates simultaneously on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies. This is currently the best wireless technology on the market, but it’s only useful if you have newer devices that support it. In our tests of the single Ally router, we found that it adequately covered our entire home with no dead spots. If you have a massive house, or live in a multi-story building made from concrete, then you may have a need for the Ally Plus. But for the rest of us, the basic model should suffice.

Bandwidth

Ally supports a maximum throughput of 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz channel and 600 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz channel. This may not be the best on the market, but it’s plenty fast enough for most users. Unless you have a fiber optic internet connection that exceeds 100 Mbps download speed, you’re likely never going to have a problem with the speed.

Bandwidth isn’t really the biggest issue with modern routers. Instead, the problem is that they tend to get bogged down when too many users are on the same network at the same time. This would be completely unacceptable in a product that was designed for a large family, so MIMO technology was installed. MIMO stands for Multiple Input, Multiple Output. This means that there are actually several separate wireless channels inside the router. To be exact, there are 4×2.4 GHz channels and 3×5 GHz channels. If your home internet connection is slow, MIMO won’t be much help. But if you have a fast connection, MIMO is the only way that you’ll be able to share the bandwidth.

So, Should I Get the Amped Wireless Ally Whole Home Smart Wi-Fi System?

There are no components inside the Ally Whole Home Smart WiFi System that aren’t in hundreds of other routers. And yet it’s still a groundbreaking product. Although many routers and competing “WiFi Systems” sound simple in functionality, access restrictions, data logging, and scheduling can be incredibly complex to implement in the real world. Amped Wireless has taken all of these complex, difficult to use features and wrapped them up in a package that is accessible to users who don’t have any technical experience. Plus, the way that these features are handled in the app add an entire new layer of functionality that would not be possible with any other router. If the access controls are the most valuable feature to you, then the Ally is hands-down the best router on the market.

If you’re not interested in parental controls, you won’t find a lot of value in the Ally. Beyond the access controls, there is nothing else that can justify the additional cost of the Ally. If all you need is a simple, competent home router, you’d save a few bucks by going with something like the TP-LINK AC3150. Or, perhaps you were looking at this router because you wanted a long range, high bandwidth wireless network that used cutting edge technologies. Provided your equipment is capable of taking advantage of such advanced features, the TP-LINK Talon or the Linksys EA9500 router will offer you better range and bandwidth than the Ally.

If you’re someone who is new to setting up a home network or a novice with computers, there are a few other “whole home WiFi systems” that are worth considering. The eero, Luma, or Orbi are all specific models that come to mind.

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