Since the true usefulness of this new generation of router is in the AC performance, we set up a couple of experiments to test how good this new standard is. Because most people who purchase this router will have legacy devices that still run with Wireless-N or G, we tested what would happen when we connected a 802.11n device to the 5GHz Channel setting on the Cisco/Linksys EA6500. We did the same thing that we did in our previous speed test and looked at two different sized packets at the same distance away from the Linksys router.
As always, our results turned out to be pretty interesting:
Test Results: Here we see the Cisco/Linksys EA6500 AC1750 router redeems itself a bit with a fairly strong test results when looking at a typical mixed signal environment. While not as good as the Netgear R6300, the Cisco/Linksys does very well with 1 MB Average Write speeds posting the fastest measurements. Remember, this is a legacy device connected to the 5 GHz channel on the routers. Each router tested shows a measurable increase in speeds. Even if you dont have any AC-capable devices, your existing arsenal of equipment should give you a very nice bump in speed when paired with any of these routers.
Test Results: Netgear still leads the way when looking at larger packet sizes in a mixed wireless-AC/N environment. Speeds across manufacturer continue to show a significant boost in speeds. Remember, this is a legacy device connected to the 5 GHz AC channel on the routers. The Cisco Linksys EA6500 rates solidly in the middle of the pack with very solid speeds.
Next, we turned off the built-in Wi-Fi on our laptop and then paired a Netgear R6300 802.11ac Router configured as a bridge to each of the wireless AC routers in our test suite. We are now ready to see what a true 802.11ac wireless network can do. Again, we used LAN Speed Test to check the throughput of our 1MB and 100MB data packets.
Test Results: Results like this are really why we absolutely love the 802.11ac wireless standard. We see an almost 287% increase in Average Write speed with the Linksys EA6500. Netgear again leads the way, but just barely due to incredible Average Write speeds.
Test Results: Again we see results that are pretty outstanding when compared to standard wireless-n speeds. The Linksys EA6500 shows an almost 300% increase in Average Read speeds and goes to the top of our AC router speed test. Its not apparent why Write speeds are relatively slow when compared with the Netgear R6300.
Comments are closed.