About half a year ago, I replaced an older router with the D-Link Dir-655 for better wired and wireless LAN speed (in particular, I need the 1Gbps wired connection for transferring large files between computers). Since then I often experienced internet speed slow down, DNS failures and various problems when torrenting. Even if I limited the number of concurrent connections and max bandwidth of the torrent client, the web browser (mainly google chrome, but others were also tested) became very slow to a load a web page and wasn’t able to open any web page eventually. It seems that the D-Link router was congested by the simultaneous connections from torrenting. So I did some research and decided to go for the Asus RT-N66U. I also considered some Linksys routers but I went for the Asus because of its large number of positive reviews. The router was bought from Amazon.
Below are some testing I run with iperf to compare the LAN bandwidth between the Asus and the D-Link.
Setup
Thinkpad W520 laptop: core i7, 16GB RAM, Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6205 supporting 802.11agn, 2×2, dual band delivers up to 300 Mbps, Windows 7
PC desktop: core 2 duo 6300, Asus P5B Deluxe, 4GB RAM, Samsung 830 SSD, Windows 7
Mac mini: core i5, 8GB RAM, Samsung 840 SSD, OS X Lion
Tests
|
Connection |
D-Link |
Asus |
|
|
W520 -> Mac mini (server) |
Wireless |
64.2 Mbits/sec |
120 Mbits/sec |
|
PC -> Mac mini (server) |
Wired |
694 Mbits/sec |
654 Mbits/sec |
|
Mac mini -> PC (server) |
Wired |
935 Mbits/sec |
For wireless connections it is obvious that the Asus is double of the D-Link. The Asus is able to take the full advantage of Intel 6205 2×2 chip (N300 2×2). The D-Link also supports N300. I am not sure why the D-Link only achieved about 64 Mbps.
For wired connections, the Asus is able to achieve 935 Mbps when I used my PC as iperf’s server. I am not sure why it is much slower when the connection is reversed. I also don’t have the numbers for the D-Link so I can’t say that the Asus has faster wired connections.
Anyhow, from my two day’s experience with the Asus, it has been very stable when torrenting. The internet connection for web browsing, video calling and others remains smooth and fast enough. I am quite satisfied with the Asus’ performance so far, even if its price is more than twice of the D-Link.
PS, SmallNetBuilder’s router chart is very useful for comparing routers.
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