Amped Wireless RTA 2600 Wi-Fi Router

Amped Wireless RTA 2600 Wi-Fi Router-With a typical router with any Wi-Fi device (such as a smartphone, laptop or media streamer, and so on) from low speed Wi-Fi layer will adversely affect the performance of high-speed devices on the same network. But now comes the latest router, MU-MIMO router like Amped Wireless RTA2600. On the other hand, is much more efficient when distributing the data, give any connected device as well as needed, no more and no less. This means that the MU-MIMO router, you can connect several devices at once without seeing a decrease in speed for one of them.

Amped Wireless RTA2600 

The problem is that in order to get the full benefits of this technology, both the router and the connected devices must be mutually supportive. And now there are very few devices that use the MU-MIMO. In fact, Linksys A8500 is currently one of only a few other routers that also support the MU-MIMO. Linksys EA8500 is also faster and has more features than RTA2600 and currently costs $ 40 or less. Moreover, compared to traditional routers (the fastest of which ranges from $ 150 to $ 200), at $ 280 RTA2600 too expensive, does not offer a lot of features, and not as fast.

Design and Hardware

The RTA2600 is one of the most powerful router of the brand Amped Wireless. Features a dual-core 1.4GHz processor, 128MB of flash storage and 512MB of DDR3 system memory. This router also supports USB 3.0 with a port on the right side, with another USB 2.0 ports on the back. This can be used to host storage device. The router has four Gigabit LAN ports and one Gigabit WAN (Internet) port on the back. Also in the back four antennas off, making the back area is quite crowded. Above, the router has an array of LED lights to indicate status, but you can convert all be off (or) through a button that is also at the rear.

The RTA2600 surprisingly compact given its specs. It is only about two-thirds the size of the Linksys EA8500. It is designed also to sit flat on a desk or shelf but can also be mounted on the wall. As a Wi-Fi router, the new router features a multi-user, multi-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) new technology offered by Qualcomm Chip MU / EFX Wi-Fi. On paper, this means that the router is a quad-stream (4x4) router which has a top speed of 1,733Mbps in the 5GHz band, and up to 800Mbps in the 2.4GHz band, so it gets the title as AC2600 router. 

MU-MIMO technology Wi-Fi

In short, the new MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi Qualcomm chip can handle Wi-Fi bandwidth more efficiently, so as to give his superiors data rate for several clients connected at a time. In particular, the existing 802.11ac router (or access point Wi-Fi) technology using MIMO genuine treat all clients the same Wi-Fi, regardless of the client tier Wi-Fi. For example, a 3x3 802.11ac routers, like Linksys WRT1900AC, has a max level of 1,300Mbps Wi-Fi, and iPhone 6 is 1x1 Wi-Fi client with max data rate is only 433Mbps. But when both are connected, the router still use the entire transmission 1,300Mbps to the phone, throw around 867Mbps.

With MU-MIMO, multiple simultaneous transmission of different levels of Wi-Fi is sent to multiple devices at the same time, allowing them to connect with each client dibutuhankan speed. In other words, has a network of MU-MIMO Wi-Fi is like having several different wireless router Wi-Fi levels. Each "router" is dedicated to the client tier in the network, so that multiple devices can be connected to different values ??at the same time without slowing each other down. As with all Wi-Fi technologies, MU-MIMO supports all existing Wi-Fi client, but works best with clients who also support the MU-MIMO. That said, you will not be able to experience the MU-MIMO in full with the existing benefits of client pre-MU-MIMO, though new technologies that help improve performance in my testing.

Setup

Like the previous router from Amped Wireless, RTA2600 easy to set up. Out of the box, even equipped with cable already connected to the network (Internet) WAN port. You just need to connect the cable end to Internet resources, such as a broadband modem, and then plug the router into an electrical outlet and finishes. The router comes preconfigured with two Wi-Fi networks (one from each band), the information printed on the bottom. That's all you need to get up and running. If You want to adjust further settings of the router, you will need to access the Web interface by pointing a browser from a computer connected to the router's default IP address, which is 192.168.3.1.

The default login is admin as password and username. RTA2600 have a granular interface menu on the right, where each item is open for sub-menu item that will display their content in the middle. Arrangement, generally self-explanatory, and there is also a useful context-based. Overall, the interface is user-friendly too responsive. There is one caveat, however router requires a restart for almost all of the changes are affected, and it takes long time more than one minute to restart.

Features

If you want to customize your Wi-Fi network, RTA2600 have that covered. The router has a profound settings for Wi-Fi. There is one major Wi-Fi network for each band, plus four optional guest network. In all, you can create up to 10 separate Wi-Fi network and adjust the settings, bandwidth, security, and so on for each. You can even customize the router and the power output ranging from 100 percent (default) and 15 per cent.

However, some other features of the router bit shallow. As with the dynamic DNS feature, which allows users to connect to the domain router WAN IP address, it only works with DynDNS.com and no other providers. Network storage feature, available when you want to connect an external hard drive to the USB port of the router, only supporting the local file sharing and FTP. No support for streaming media to a media player or Time Machine backup network. Popular features owned Amped Wireless RTA2600 is Firewall, Quality of Service (QoS), Web filtering, and so on are also too simple or require a lot of manual work their program. Overall, compared with the Linksys EA8500, I found the advanced features for less and less refined.

A Mix of Wi-Fi Performance

RTA2600 performance is essentially that of the Linksys EA8500 refused notch. Supporting MU-MIMO, it worked well in my test with Wi-Fi clients on the different levels, allowing them to connect with their speed. For example, a laptop 1x1 802.11ac will be connected to the router at 433Mbps while at the same time, other 3x3 client will connect at 1,300Mbps. While I do not have any problems getting connected clients at the desired speed (as indicated by the software), the actual real-world speed of each connection is not as fast as that of the EA8500. In the 5GHz band, when used with 3x3 clients, routers record 378Mbps sustained copy speed short distance (10 feet). When I increase the range to 75 feet, now print 250Mbps. It is quite fast but noticeably slower than EA8500 and even slower than many AC1900 router.

However, that the strength of MU-MIMO is not the speed of a single connection, but each connection in a mixed environment where many clients from a wide range of Wi-Fi are used together. For this, RTA2600 do well. As I added more clients than a slower speed to the network, the connection speed initial testing remained largely unchanged. In the 2.4GHz band, however, RTA2600 do much worse, with sustained speeds of only 98Mbps and45Mbps for near and distance, when working with clients 3x3 802.11ac. The range of the router is a little shorter than the EA8500, with an effective range of about 150 feet toppings. While I can detect and sometimes connect to the router from a distance of 250 feet, the signal is not strong or stable enough to maintain a solid relationship.

Average speed NAS

Although the powerful hardware and support USB 3.0, network storage performance RTA2600 was not impressive. In tests via the Gigabit connection, the print speed of sustained only 31MBps to 59MBps write and to read. While this is not exactly slow for the router, they are only half of what you can get from Linksys EA8500, which share the same specifications. At this speed, when coupled with an external hard drive, the router can be worked relatively well as a storage server for file sharing relaxed. Because it does not have a streaming media or backup features,it is recommended that you have a dedicated NAS server if you want to to have a viable network storage solutions.