InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology
e2 Conference & Expo - Boston 2013
Dual-Band Router Showdown

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Setting up the SMC Barricade was like returning to an old friend. Take it out of the box. Attach it to the modem, attach your PC, power up the modem, router, and PC (in that order), and Shazaam, it's working!

Setting up the SMC Barricade was like returning to an old friend. Take it out of the box. Attach it to the modem, attach your PC, power up the modem, router, and PC (in that order), and Shazaam, it's working!  SMC's USB adapter is just a tad more complex than the SMC Barricade - you'll need to run a driver disk.  The Apple Airport Extreme can be used as a bridge, attached to an existing router. If you have an 802.11n single-band router or an 802.11g router, simply attach the Airport Extreme to it, use the Airport Utility software to set it up for 5GHz, and you'll have a simultaneous dual-band router.  Apple came late to the table with its newest incarnation of the Airport Extreme, but it delivered a router that is equally capable in both Windows or OS X. The Airport Extreme turned in the second best transfer time in our test - 2.4GHz.  At some point between now and when 80.11n is finally ratified, Netgear will release a rock-solid router with all the expected bells and whistles. The WNDR3300 isn't it.  Netgear's WNDA3100 wireless adapter. Netgear supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) on its WNDR3300 router, but not on the USB device.  While the shift in router design seems to be toward internal antennas, the DLink's Xtreme N Duo Media Router clings to a more traditional design of three external antennas. The advantage is that they are removable and can be replaced with range-increasing alternatives. The disadvantage is that they tend to crowd the back panel connectors.  During our initial testing, file transfer using the Linksys WRT610N at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz lost connection and terminated. Things continued to carry on in that manner.  It possesses slick looks, but the WRT610N was a handful of trouble. When it worked correctly, it was the equal of or top pick, Apple's Airport Extreme in performance, but given our difficulties during testing, it's tough to recommend the WRT610N.  A Linksys WGA600N dual-band gaming adapter.  The WGA600N and WUSB600N adapters are champs if you want to add them to and expand your existing network but, as things stand right now, that's just a two-legged simultaneous dual-band Linksys stool.     


Setting up the SMC Barricade was like returning to an old friend. Take it out of the box. Attach it to the modem, attach your PC, power up the modem, router, and PC (in that order), and Shazaam, it's working!