PC World – December 2015

In addition to its performance, a large measure of the original
WRT1900AC’s appeal stemmed from two things: First, its decidedly retro
industrial design and stackable nature (Linksys offers
a similarly designed 8-port gigabit switch that
can be placed underneath the router—in multiples, I
suppose, if you need more than eight ports. A
companion NAS box (go.pcworld.com/wrtcompanion)
was planned, but later cancelled.). Second, its
friendliness toward the open-source community.
While the reality took much longer than anyone expected to catch
up to the hype, you can now download and install alternative firmware
(go.pcworld.com/altwrtfirmware) on the WRT1900AC that looks and
performs very differently from what Linksys has wrought. It’s not
something I’d recommend to the casual user, but it’s available if you
want to take the plunge. The new model retains that characteristic.
5GHz 802.11n performance
I compared the WRT1900ACS’s performance to a diverse range of midrange
and high-end competitors, as well as the original WRT1900AC.
Both the more-expensive Asus RT-AC3200U ($280 street) and the
cheaper Netgear R6400 (go.pcworld.com/netgearR6400)
outperformed the new Linksys when serving a 5GHz 802.11n client.
The Asus is capable of running three Wi-Fi networks (one on the
2.4GHz band, one using low channels on the 5GHz band, and a third
using high channels within the 5GHz band). If your environment is
crowded with lots of bandwidth-hungry wireless devices, an AC3200
router such as this is probably a better choice.
The Netgear R6400 is a dual-band AC1750 router that can deliver
throughput of up to 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to
1300Mbps on the 5GHz band. It didn’t beat the new Linksys by
much, but it’s a strong value with a $150 street price. The Google/
TP-Link OnHub (go.pcworld.com/tplinkonhub) is also an AC1900
router, but it trailed the field on this benchmark by a wide margin.
60
The router has been
supremely reliable,
even though my
home-run closet tends
to get a little warm.