By Ali Hariono
Overview
How do you like two of
most popular wireless n900 routers currently in the market – Asus RT-N66U Vs
Linksys EA-4500? Deciding to purchase which one is better between the two products
is sometimes difficult and confusing. Each of the product has its own pros and cons.
But one thing to remember is that you cannot find the best product since each
year or less new products are introduced into the market with better technology
and features which improve the previous products.
 |
| Asus RT-N66U front view |
Asus Vs Linksys
To understand which of
the two products is better, at least better to meet your need, you need to
understand the features of each product. One feature might be fit to your need
and the other might not fit your business need even though the feature is the
excellent feature.
Wi-Fi speed
Both routers are
powered by the 4th generation of wifi technology (802.11n) with
three spatial data streams where each of the stream delivers the speed of up to
150Mbps. With three spatial data streams, your router can deliver the high
speeds of up to 450Mbps.
 |
| Asus RT-N66U rear panel |
Both Asus RT-N66U and
Linksys EA4500 are packed with the N900 wireless technology, meaning they can
deliver the speeds of up to 450Mbos each of 2.4CHz and 5GHz bands. If you run
the router with both bands are enabled your network can deliver the aggregate bandwidth
of up to 900Mbps totally. You can connect all of the wifi devices that operate
in either 2.4GHz or 5GHz band.
Why dual band is
matter? With dual band support you can use the 5GHz band for delivering the cleaner
band ideal for streaming video and voice since it is less interference than
2.4GHz band. You need a smooth video streaming and lag free gaming using 5GHz
band. 2.4GHZ band is prone to signal interference from other sources of signal
attenuator that uses 2.4GHz band such as garage opener, microwave oven,
cordless phone and more.
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| Linksys EA4500 |
There are many users
are still confused in buying the dual band routers. They have a dual band
router and complain to the store that their computer cannot detect the 5GHz
band which they expect to get a better signal receiver. What the obvious
problem is that their computers do not support dual band. To get the full
benefit of dual band (particularly 5GHz band) feature is that your router and
wifi devices must support dual band.
Asus RT-N66U and
Linksys EA4500 N900 routers are designed for multimedia which is optimized for
delivering video streaming and gaming.
Customer ratings
Initial release of the
RT-N66U
was very disappointed; too many bugs with the firmware, but the updated firmware
then fixed the issue and boost the performance to the top. And you know this
router is now always in the top five best seller product in router category in
Amazon. This router receives best performance review with average ratings of
4.5 out of 5 stars, an excellent achievement. The total number of users that
gave 1 star rating is around 10% of those who gave 5 star rating.
Compare with Linksys
EA4500 which only receives 3.5 out of 5 stars average ratings. And you know
that those who gave 1 star rating are around half of those who gave 5 star
ratings, too bad for product from a well known networking vendor.
Operation modes
The other feature that
you can find useful with Asus RT-N66U is that you can configure it to operate
in wireless access point mode (WAP). Well this is not very important feature I
think. Should you already have an existing wired network in place, then you
need a wireless access point to provide wifi access to mobile devices. There are
many high performance WAP products out there that are designed specifically for
WAP and even have more operation modes including WDS, wifi client, or range
extender such as Linksys WAP610N with dual band support too. This is a standard
WAP device you can use for your homes. However for production environment such
as in offices you may consider high performance industrial or business class
wireless access point such as Cisco Aironet 1140 series or SonicWall SonicPoint.
Asus RT-N66U is ideal
for your small
office network with Windows server 2012 Essentials platform on your single
server, your first server for your business.
Asus RT-N66U main features
·
4xGigabit
LAN and 1xGigabit WAN ports
· Two USB
2.0 ports to allow you share storage and printer at the same time
·
DLNA media
server
·
PPTP VPN
support
·
IPv6 ready
·
Wireless
router or AP operation modes
·
ASUSWRT
for Easy Setup, Signal Monitoring, and Network Application Control
Linksys EA4500 main features
·
Wireless
N900 router with 3x3 MIMO internal antennas
·
4xGigabit
LAN and 1xGigabit WAN ports
·
1x USB 2.0
port for either shared storage or printer
·
DLNA media
server
·
IPv6 ready
·
Cisco Connect
software - Quick three step setup, plus parental controls, instant guest access
and easy network management
There are still
couples of high performance wireless N900 routers you may consider such as
Netgear WNDR4500 N900 with two USB ports and also TP-link TL-WDR4900 with two
USB ports too.
Want to know high speed routers from Linksys and Netgear? Check here Linksys EA6900 Vs Netgear R7000 wireless ac1900 routers.
Want to know high speed routers from Linksys and Netgear? Check here Linksys EA6900 Vs Netgear R7000 wireless ac1900 routers.
For all-in-one ADSL
device for your small home you may consider Actiontec
GT724WGR or GT784WN Wireless DSL Modems.
Ali Hariono
