Review TP-Link AC1900: Modem / Router to the top with dual band WiFi
The market for home routers or small office has evolved in recent years, with the arrival of more and more complete and interesting solutions. The TP-Link AC1900 of TP-Link is an advanced modem / router with integrated support for the next-generation 802.11ac WiFi standard and the simultaneous dual band up to 190 Mbps, technologies allow you to transfer data wirelessly with theoretical speeds up to 1,300 Mbps at 5 GHz and up to 600 Mbps at 2.4 GHz. It boasts many other features, some of which we will highlight in our review.
TP-Link AC1900 Router : can be purchased directly from here.
TP-Link AC1900 – In the Box
Inside the box, we find: the TP-Link AC1900 modem / router itself (a little box of 221 x 86 x 168.5 mm), 3 external antennas removable (screw on the device), a 12V power supply, an Ethernet cable, a DSL filter, an ADSL splitter, two telephone cables. The device is a button on / off, a RJ11 port (for connecting to the telephone line), a USB 3.0 / 2.0, 1 10/100 / 1000 Mbps RJ45 WAN / LAN (switchable), 3 LAN ports 10 / 100 / 1000 MB; two specific buttons allow you to enable / disable respectively features WiFi and WPS (a standard which simplifies the setup of secure wireless networks). On the top we find a number of status LEDs that show respectively: the power, connectivity, connection WPS, USB connectivity and operation of LAN connections.
Technologies
Wi-Fi 802.11ac technology is ideal for accelerating the transmission of multimedia content and avoid the congestion caused by the use of several devices. The device creates two networks: a 1.3 Gbps 600 Mbps at 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz (the purpose is used a radio chip Broadcom BCM4360); you can then use the network to 2.4 GHz for traditional applications (eg. web, e-mail) reserving the 5 GHz network for multimedia applications that use intensively the band (eg. streaming HD and 3D, online games).
The TP-Link AC1900 has three antennas fittings allow a complete coverage of the environment, increase the stability of the signal. The producer explains that for the antennas is exploited technology Beamformig, able to increase stability and performance on the medium-long range, by means of homogeneous emission of the signal by 360°. A dual-core processor at 1 GHz dedicated prevents performance degradation in the presence of numerous internal connections to the LAN and the Internet and specific functionality shielding to allow to maintain the efficiency of wired and wireless links in the presence of interference.
Configuration
The procedure for the first configuration is similar to that seen many other times with devices of the same type and can be done in various ways: we connected one end of the Ethernet cable to the device and the other to the computer, typed in the browser default address 192.168.1.1, given user name and password (admin and admin). The browser displays a summary page with basic information on the device (firmware version, uptime, connection speed upstream and downstream, etc.).
Selecting in the left the ” Quick Setup ” you can configure the system in a few simple steps. Prompted the nation, the time zone (for setting the system clock), and asked if leverage auto-detect to automatically detect the connection (it only takes a few minutes). Just finally, indicate the username and password of the ADSL connection, the SSID (the name of the wireless network), the channel to be used and any password. After saving the parameters in a matter of less than a minute, the router is ready and already operating.
The USB ports
The TP-Link AC1900 has USB 3.0/ 2.0 series of integrated functionality allows to use to share local printers and files with devices on the network or remote through the FTP. By connecting such as a hard drive, a digital camera or a USB port of the device, this will be identified in the ” USB setting ” settings. You can provide access to five different users at the same time, enable simple sharing functions (using protocols NetBIOS / SMB supported by Windows and OS X), FTP, as well as activate features DLNA media server.
Function Print Server allows players to share a USB printer connected to the router. The manufacturer provides this regard available utility ( ” USB Printer Controller ” ) for Mac and Windows that allows you to configure and install any printers on the network via various client.
Parental Control, bandwidth control and other settings
Parental Control can be used to restrict access to the internet in susceptible individuals (eg. Children). You can specify the MAC address of the device authorized to change settings, schedule the intervals during which it is allowed access to the Internet to devices controlled by changing the rules in various ways.
For each rule, you can specify the domain name allowed, the schedule to be applied (eg. Only on Saturdays and only in a certain time) and specify in minute detail the rules set traffic by combining Host and Target. The Bandwidth Control allows players to manage the parameters of the line on which it is implemented bandwidth control, specifying the available bandwidth for uploads and downloads on the WAN port.
Again, you can configure rules to control the band specifying the minimum bandwidth and maximum guaranteed upload / download. For the more experienced, the binding allows you to manage the association’s permanent IP and MAC ARP tables, set up accounts with services such as Dynamic DNS dyndsn.org, nip.com or comexe.cn, handy features if you need to have access to Internet devices in LAN, WAN IP in the presence of dynamic public. The item ” Diagnostic ” enables you to perform a series of tests on the Internet, and found to be free, is the WAN connection.
Speed
To determine the speed of the wireless network (not the Internet but the connection itself) we used TamoSoft Throughput Test, a tool that allows you to measure the bandwidth of two TCP (server and client). This tool provides a number of options but without going into too many technicalities allows checking the actual bandwidth available between two connected devices. Routers and devices have been placed at about ten meters apart from each other.
The wireless client used was a MacBook Air 11 ” mid-2013, a Mac Mini server end of 2012; WLAN has been set with WPA2 encryption and choosing a free channel interference. With these old configurations, we were able to get an average throughput of 100.48 MPS; using newer machines (an Asus laptop with wireless Intel G550 AC7260) performance also came to 175 Mbps, highlighting the considerable opportunities presented by 2.4GHz.
Tests 802.11n 5GHz highlight the muscles of new connections with throughput up to nearly 219 Mbps arrived; the tests with the standard 802.11ac showed throughput up to 303 Mbps. Leveraging USB keys 3.0 initialized as NTFS and connected to the USB port of the router faster, we were able to seamlessly transfer hundreds of MB by using the SMB protocol, with an average throughput of 29 Mbps.
As always, explain it is difficult to present specific tests, since these should be repeated over time, in different environments, by moving the machines used for tests at various distances and taking into account many other factors. With specific 802.11ac there are many configurations of communication and many possible different speeds, parameters that depend on both the hardware, operating system is used, the driver and signed by them and exploited devices. In any case, the product has been shown definitely be able to ensure high performance.
TP-Link AC1900 – Conclusions
The TP-Link AC1900 is easy to configure, integrates attractive and provides excellent performance for home and office. External antenna’s dual band supported by dedicated amplifiers allow to improve the stability of the signal and obtain a complete coverage even in large environments.
Review
PROS : Functionality and features excellent, Three detachable antennas, High performance. USB ports 2 and 3 for connecting printers and external memories, Support for guest access to the WiFi network.
CONS : Interface and manuals currently only in English.
- Overall
