Actiontec GT724WGR and GT784WN Wireless DSL Modems

Overview

Why people choose wireless DSL modem, nothing but it is very practical and not many devices to maintain. It is an all-in-one device which consists of DSL / ADSL modem, router / firewall, switch and wireless AP in a single box. Forget about multiple devices on your desk, no separate modem and wireless access point for your simple wireless network in home.  Indeed, if there is a problem could be difficult to trace which part is failure, since there is only one device. Wireless DSL modem is a single point of failure because there is only one device; you cannot localize which part is defective as you can do with separate modem and wireless router. There are plenty of models of wireless DSL modems on the market, and one of them is a very popular to date Actiontec GT724GR for wireless network standard in the home.

Actiontec GT-724GR

In some countries where ADSL service is more popular than Cable, ADSL usually run by local telecommunication company, because ADSL services use existing landline telephone cable network, so the provider just add or lease a DSL modem to enable data services to existing customers. You need to subscribe your data plan and the provider will assist you in configuring the modem by the phone if you already know modem connection from the manual book, or at a cost of their services to come to the customer's premises for installation of the modem into a single computer to get online with the internet.

What this product does

Actiontec GT724GR is quite old-fashioned devices with the technology that is packed with a wireless G standards, it means providing only wireless speed standard only up to 54Mbps. If the your wifi devices still use wireless G technology (aka 802.11g), this wireless DSL modem is suitable to create standard wifi network at home with DSL service from your ISP.

Besides, if there are several computers around your work desk area, just use the UTP network cable and connect it from RJ-45 port on the modem to one of the existing computer with NIC adapter enable. It can connect up to 4 computers with network cable connection. While with the mobile device with wifi adapter enable, they can roam around the house without wires. You can move your mobile devices; Android, iOS and other smart-phones at will and keep roaming with the wifi network within the network coverage.

Features:

The following lists the main features of this product:

• Powered by old-fashion 802.11g wireless technology providing speeds just up to 54Mbps
• Includes four fast-Ethernet ports for direct connection up to four computers with NIC adapter.
• Compatible with most DSL providers including Verizon, Qwest, AT&T, Frontier, and CenturyLink

Network Diagram

General networking diagram can be shown in the following figure.

This model is very popular in the market even in the Amazon one of the largest online retailers; the modem gets an average rating 4.4 out of 5 stars customer ratings. It is a remarkable achievement for a wireless DSL modem with near-perfect level of user satisfaction.

This model still uses the old technology that is legacy 802.11g. What is your choice if you want to upgrade to a new model that uses wireless N technology? Actiontec offers new GT784WN model that is also very popular in the market and is packed with wireless N technology speeds up to 300Mbps operates in 2.4GHz single band.

Main features:

• All-in-one ADSL modem and wireless N router, based on 802.11n standard providing speeds up to 300Mbps – up to 6x as fast as your legacy GT724
• It uses dual smart MIMO antenna technology eliminating dead spots within the house. Mostly wireless N routers today apply this MIMO technology as standard technology
• Forget about hassle in configuring the modem, it is an auto-detect installation wizard modem
• Equipped with 4-Ethernet ports
• Industrial WPA/WPA2 wireless security with WPS support. Client with WPS enable can easily connect to the network by just pressing the WPS button

This modem is also getting positive reviews from customers with a average rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars on Amazon, pretty good in the midst of competitive among DSL wireless modems available in the market today. One of the competitors in its class is Linksys X2000 wireless N300 modem router. The advantage of this modem is the availability of the WAN port for connection to a cable modem if the ADSL service is not available. You may also consider the same products by TP-link TD-W8970 ADSL gateway with wireless N300 standard. Should you require the fastest wireless DSL gateway , consider the Netgear D6200 wireless ac gateway. Or you may also consider the TP-link Archer D9 Wireless AC1900 ADSL modem router combo.

If you already have a modem (DSL or Cable) with a single connection to the a computer, you may add Medialink wireless N150 router for creating a standard wifi network, solid connection guaranteed.

ByAH

Comparison Belkin N300 Vs Linksys E1200 Wireless N300 Routers

Overview

The title above is not without a reason, given the intense competition in the middle-class wireless routers, the N300 class router where the maximum speed is 300Mbps. Why the demand for this router is very high? Because that many demand for the wireless router at a price below $ 50. For a new generation of wireless router at a price below $ 50 is a standard router that is intended for the small wireless network for small homes and also only for standard networking tasks at least for the needs of such share internet, files, documents, and network printers.

Comparison Belkin Vs Linksys

Two of the N300 wireless routers in class today are competing tightly Belkin F9K1002 and Linksys E1200. How the comparison between the two routers?

Belkin N300 Wireless Router

Indeed router with 300Mbps speed for a small home network is very adequate to be able to provide a good performance at small or quite large home only for standard networking tasks such as share the internet, even if you are lucky to get a router with a good performance then your network is sufficient to provide a good platform for smooth video streaming and online gaming without lag. However, the router with the N300 does not guarantee you a very good performance for a large home and a lot of clients with bandwidth intensive applications simultaneously. For that you need a wireless router that is designed specifically for high definition video streaming and very responsive online gaming. And also keep in mind that the modem and Internet connection to the ISP are also very influential providing good performance on your network.

Let us try to compare the features between the two routers in general, because the easiest way to see the advantages of a product against the others is the features diversity.

Linksys E1200 N300 Router

Wireless technology

Both routers are packed with the same wifi 802.11n standard technology providing the ideal speed up to 300Mbps. Belkin uses an internal antenna with exclusive Multibeam technology for a stronger signal and a maximum range. While Linksys packed with 2x internal MIMO antennas. Which antenna technology delivers better performance? MIMO has been commonly used by almost all wireless manufacturers for providing excellence strong signal and longer distance coverage. While multibeam is exclusive to Belkin somehow have this technology delivers superior connection and coverage.

The simplest way to figure out which one is better is to see how the users provide testimonials how good the signal and coverage each of the router.

Ratings

In Amazon, Belkin N300 router gains the average customer rating  less (3.2 out of 5 stars) than its competitor Linksys E1200 (3.8 out of 5 stars). among several users who are experiencing dissatisfaction with Belkin in some cases are the signal drop due to blocked by someone when passes between the client and the router, the router often drop before being replaced by new one, often lost connection then need to reboot and so on.

While Linksys E1200 also gets a lot of less good reviews from users whom are in some cases such as the router dead after few weeks or months works fine before finally dead and replaced with other routers, hard to work out with technical support, other made a speed test and found that the speed was only 1/4 of the masterpiece WRT54G, very slow to iPad and so on.

Those are some of negative reviews of each routers that make the reputation of the router less good than the positive reviews are indeed more so the average rating to being sufficient. Although the value of these ratings sometimes does not give a true picture of the quality of a product, it may be because users are less fortunate getting a less good quality product.

You can read for yourself here about the positive reviews that can be many pages of reviews which basically correspond to the features written in factory spec. For the N150 class router, you may consider the first rank of Amazon best seller in router category Medialink N150 wireless router, I have discussed this router in the previous article best seller in N150 wirelessrouters.

Ethernet ports are the same which is 4x 10/100Mbps and no USB port which is the cons sides for both routers.

By Ali H

Most Popular Wireless N150 Routers

Why wireless N150 router?

Why you should choose N150 wireless router instead of higher speed one, things like wireless N600 or higher? Of course, it is not without a reason to choose a wireless router with a lower speed; it is about the budget, yes affordable router. Yeah, of course the price is important in deciding to purchase a product; with a minimum budget why should you push yourself to purchase the product that you might not use it optimally? If you just want to build a wireless network for simple networking tasks such as internet sharing and other share documents with couples of computers within the household, why should you build a high performance network? High performance network demands high performance router, premium router which is three times more expensive than standard wireless router, and even more.

Initially you subscribe Internet from your ISP and then you were given a modem connected to a single computer only to get connected to the internet. Usually a computer connection is done via a USB or NIC adapter on your desktop computer. When you buy a laptop for your boy, hhmm and then your little girl need a more practical mobile device – a tablet computer, then the most effective way to get them connected to the internet is having a wireless network in place.

You have spent a lot of money for a laptop and a tablet; well you also need to buy a wireless router means more money to spend. Therefore you do not need to push yourself to make a high-performance wireless network which certainly requires more expensive devices. That means more money that might break your bank.

Ok, you need a simple wireless networking which is based on wireless N150 cheaper router, but it works.
How to get started? Of course, by utilizing your current modem. What you need do is to make sure that your modem is a pure modem, a modem that is not equipped with a router or NAT (network address translation). How do you know? Of course, check out the modem part-no and advice your ISP for sure. Or the most convenient way is to Googling in the net by typing the part-no and search to find the spec and check if the modem includes a router or NAT feature. For example Surfboard SB6120 / SB6121 by Motorola which is a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem or SB5101 DOCSIS 2.0 the older version. Just look at the modem's brand and the model no, check on its website and see if the device is the modem (without NAT) or modem with router feature.

Note that Surfboard SB6190 is the newest model from Arris with 32x Channel bonding and the downstream speed is up to 1.4Gbps.

Connection Diagram

Most modem includes one Ethernet port either 10/100Mbps or Gigabit port. Use UTP cable that connects to your computer, unplug it and plug it in into the WAN port of your modem as shown in the following wireless network diagram.

What else you need to do, configuration of your N150 wireless router. Probably you do not know that most wireless routers are designed to work out of the box. Just plug in the modem, switch it on and you will find the router works instantly by default, providing you wireless network in a minimum security settings. You need to configure it later for more advance settings.

What are most popular N150 wireless routers in the market today?
Here are some of the most wanted N150 wireless routers in the market, good performance and value for money.

1. MWN-WAPR150N Medialink Wireless N150 Router

For most people the name of Medialink wireless router is not as famous as the big names like Linksys, Netgear or Belkin. But for its class of N150 wireless routers, Medialink MWN-WAPR150N is very popular and becomes a best seller #1 in Amazon with 4.4 out of 5 stars customer ratings.

Main features:

• Powered by 802.11 N150 technology providing speeds up to 150Mbps
• Internal antenna for convenient design on your table
• Supports all Windows, Mac or Unix
• Industrial wireless security WPA/WPA2

With the price under $50, this is the best value for money you sped, providing solid connection for your laptops or tablets.

Surely you would be surprised if you read positive reviews from the customers after purchasing this product. As many as 3600 customer reviews and more up to oct 2012 provide average of 4.4 out of 5 stars customer ratings, it is a very good achievement for a company which not many people knew before that there is a wireless router from Mediabridge. From those number of reviews, those who give 5 Star ratings are 10 times lot more than those who give one star rating. I guess this is an honest rating so this product deserves a nice appreciation from its users. Not just the router, Mediabridge also introduces Mediabridge wireless USB adapter which becomes best seller as well.

We know that many manufacturers recommend using a wireless router with 300Mbps speed for streaming video. The fact that a lot of users who can use this N150 router for streaming video up to 1080p. Installation and setup is quick with simple instructions that make these products highly acceptable for beginners though.

2. Belkin N150 Wireless Routers

One more thing that is also the best seller on Amazon for this class is Belkin F9K1001 at a price under $ 50. Actually you can purchase this product under $30 in Amazon, much cheaper than the Medialink. Attractive design looks nice on your working table with a very compact internal antenna design.

Main features:

• •Based on 802.11n speeds up to 150Mbps
• Unlike other routers in its class, it is designed with Multibeam antenna for high-powered signal throughout best range and solid connection.
• Three steps easy setup
• Preset with a unique security code to get you up and running safely

Wireless N150 routers are ideal for simple wireless networking in home, allows you share internet access with couples of computers, laptops or tablets.

By Ki Grinsing