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Airport Express vs Linksys WRT610N v2?

T

touchu4g

macrumors member
Original poster
May 19, 2012
84
0
Hi, I have two routers in my house, Linksys WRT610N v2 and Apple Airport Express. I do not plan to buy new routers. I am wondering which one is better in your opinion?
 
Apple routers are not known for their performance, just ease of use especially in a Mac Centric network. Typically any $40+ third party router, that you don't need to reset often, will perform better. But better is a bit subjective... what do you mean by better, longer range, n capable, easy to set up, stability, more advanced features.... ?
 
ColdCase said:
Apple routers are not known for their performance, ?
Click to expand...

That's true, but there is one area of performance that the current and 2010 extremes (AE) and TCs perform extremely well in.

WAN throughput.

If you run fibre for your Internet at 100Mbps+ on say IPoE like I do, then most routers cannot function at that speed. My TC is hooked directly to a fibre network. There is no modem. The WAN to LAN through put on this setup needs to be exceptional to handle the speed.

There are only a few routers around that can handle Gigabit or even 100 Megabit Internet and the AE is one of them, and the top of the line ASUS models I believe. Even models with a so called Gigabit WAN do not function even close to Gigabit like the AE can.

I've tested all my older routers (and a linksys with gigabit wan) on my fibre internet and most bottle neck around 50Mbps while the AE just eats up 100Mbps (my current speed).

See for example:

http://digitaldreamer.com.au/nbn-ready-routers-10-routers-tested-for-speed/

The review is getting a little old, but I have both the current TC and last EA and can confirm the current TC is as good as the last in WAN throughput on my fibre link.

So if you need a router to directly connect to a super speed fibre network then the AE/TC is exceptional in performance for WAN to LAN throughput. Other than that it is as ColdCase said generally only good for a mac centric setup.
 
Interesting, wonder if that was why my third party routers were having difficulty dealing with the TWC modem connection (stalling, slow to make connections) where the new TC and older APE just eats it up...... hmmm...
 
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