Even before opening the box, it turns out that the Linksys EA6350 AC1200 Router is more aimed at gamers than home office, professional, or corporate customers. This is not an unobtrusive beige box that quietly and professionally manages your network. Instead, it features a gorgeous or flashy bright raw design, depending on your taste. Removing each layer of paperboard reveals the various components of the router, including precisely aligned and individually held antennas (all eight). This is a large router with eight giant antennas that look like an upside-down spider from Darth Vader’s nightmare. Combining them creates a monster router. Combining them creates a monster router. It measures 245 x 245 x 65 mm without an antenna, is a square of 30 cm or more, and is 17 cm or more in height. The kit weighs over 1.7 kg when assembled, making it by far the heaviest consumer router on the market. You can mount it on the wall and hope the power of that tri-band network reaches all your devices. However, it’s a little disappointing to see that this system has only four Gigabit Ethernet connections. Especially since I know that the Linksys EA6350 AC1200 comes with 8 units, I’m expecting at least a little more for such a gigantic machine. Similarly, if you have only one USB 3.0 port, it looks stingy, even if you’re unlikely to need multiple ports. Instead, get an additional USB 2.0 port. Again, given the price of this router, it would have been nice if the router had a built-in front LED to display the status of the Ethernet ports. The port itself doesn’t have a light, so it doesn’t make sense to look behind the device.
Should professional users ignore this router just because it’s designed for gamers and those of us who love movie and music streaming? This is not always the case. Linksys has packed some notable specs into the RTAC 5300, and its promise of “fast, simple, stable” performance will undoubtedly appeal to many network administrators. However, for £382 ($360, about $490), this is a fairly expensive router. Therefore, before spending much money, make sure that the features and characteristics of this device meet your needs. If not, it’s better to spend money on a simpler, business-focused router.
Features
The essential RT- AC5300’s feature (as implied via way of means of the name) is that it transmits 3 Wi-Fi bands, while maximum different routers most effective broadcast.
There are 3 wonderful Wi-Fi bands available: one 2.4GHz band for legacy generation and 5GHz channels for current gadgets. Furthermore, this router helps the maximum latest MU-MIMO generation, which permits it to address several customers on any given band even better. The idea at the back of numerous bands is that older gadgets can also additionally use the 2.4GHz band, liberating up 5GHz channels for more modern gadgets.
Feature Rich admin panel which can be accessed by 10.0.0.1 piso wifi address. Or 10.0.0.1 if used separately
With a growing quantity of 5GHz-successful gadgets on the market, the 5GHz band can also additionally turn out to be congested, ensuing in slower–or much less reliable–connections.
This is wherein the second one 5GHz band enters the picture, supporting visitors’ distribution, with the second band specializing in gaming and 4K video streaming. Of course, gaming and 4K streaming are not a difficulty in an employer setting, however, you may nevertheless use those 3 separate wi-fi networks in a domestic workplace or employer setting, and the 8 huge antennas that supply the Linksys EA6350 AC1200its exceptional appearance are there to assist beam the networks around a building. These can be changed to factor in special directions, so growing community coverage.
Then there may be 1024-QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation), additionally called NitroQAM via way of means of Asus. This is an enlargement of the 256-QAM generation. This is usual in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, intending to grow records throughout, for the identical frequency.
However, whilst the transition from 256-QAM to 1024-QAM can also additionally look like an enormous step, the resultant feasible overall performance development is simply 25%. Nonetheless, this router’s most Wi-Fi bandwidth has to be among the best we have got ever seen.
A pair of Broadcomm BCM43465 processors manipulate 4 of the antennas in addition to the 1024-QAM generation that offers this router its amazing speed.
It has a 1.4GHz dual-middle Broadcom CPU and 512MB of RAM. Other talents consist of WPA-Enterprise and WAP2-Enterprise encryption, adaptive QoS (remember, that is a gaming router, so gaming and media visitors can be prioritized), visitor community capability, VPN servers, 3G and 4G records sharing, and hyperlink aggregation, which mixes several community connections to reinforce speed.
With 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, however, because it is a router and now no longer a modem, one in all of them is special as a devoted WAN port for connecting to your cutting-edge modem. It might be exquisite if a modem were included, reducing the number of containers that had to be connected. However, it does offer the Linksys EA6350 AC1200 a bit extra versatility. It additionally consists of one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port.
Performance
Installing the Linksys EA6350 AC1200 is quick and easy. All we had to do was connect it and connect our laptop to Asus’ newly found open network. Once connected, a web browser will open and display the Quick Internet Setup Wizard. This wizard will guide you through the process of testing and establishing an internet connection. If you want complete control over the hiring process, there is also a manual mode where you can add or remove features. This is a good option if you want to disable some of the more gaming and streaming-oriented features. Otherwise, the Quick Internet Setup procedure has the great function of quickly setting up a router for your network, creating three new wireless networks, and protecting them. Once that’s done, type router.asus.com in your browser to access the router’s configuration interface. This eliminates the need to remember the IP address.
This user interface is easy to use and provides all the information you need about your network. You cannot use your firmware like OpenWRT, so you do not have full control over your router. This can be a problem for certain network administrators.
The Asus RTAC 5300 has strong Wi-Fi coverage, so even large homes and businesses should be able to connect devices with reasonable data transfer rates. Hard drives and USB sticks can be shared over the network via the USB 3.0 port. The Asus RTAC5300 can’t beat its competitors when it comes to USB performance. Unfortunately, it has poorer read and write rates compared to the associated USB 3.0 hard drive. The fact that many of these features are focused on games and media could turn off professional users. If you have a house full of people playing streaming and games, the additional bandwidth and speed of your Wi-Fi connection can be a big plus.
Final Verdict
The Asus RTAC5300 may be the best router you can buy if you have a large home (or business) with many Wi-Fi devices, many of which are for playing games or streaming movies.
The third band reduces data traffic, and game and media-specific QoS features allow you to play games and stream 4K movies without interruption. If that’s not your situation, the Asus RT-AC 5300 is probably over-killed. This is quite expensive and if you don’t need these media-related features, we recommend using a cheaper and more straightforward router. The Asus RT-AC5300 is currently the fastest router in the market. But unfortunately, given the price difference, it’s not twice as much as its competitors. This router is either the most feature-rich router ever created or a waste of money, depending on your needs. It may sound overly simple, but there is no grey area in this price range.
Is Asus RT-AC5300 a good buy?
The RT-AC5300 is a true powerhouse close to claiming to be the fastest router you can buy for the money. But that’s not a big advantage. You would have expected more in some areas about the price Asus is looking for. Using only four Ethernet ports on a router, which costs almost twice as much as other alternatives, is wasteful, especially given that Asus’ proprietary dual-band RT-AC88U has eight ports with NitroQAM technology. I think. There are always people looking for the best, but sometimes it’s better to look for a truly professional solution or deploy many access points rather than a single large router. When it comes to tri-band routers, the DLink DIR890L is close to performance at £260. If you’re looking for something more enthusiast-oriented, the dual-band Linksys WRT1900ACS is a better choice for its excellent overall performance and OpenWRT compatibility-and it’s only £170. Finally, the Asus RT-AC87U claims to offer the same NitroQAM speed for around £300, but with a dual-band architecture with eight ethernet connections.