Today, I upgraded my wireless router. My old router was a Linksys E2500. It performed well enough, but didn’t use the latest standard – 802.11ac. I was suckered in by the promise of faster internet service. And who doesn’t want a wider, faster path to the superhighway?
My new router is a Belkin AC1200, and it set me back $154.98
from the Post Exchange. Not a bad price,
but Amazon may carry it for slightly cheaper.
The box claims this little fellow will improve speed up to 2.8 times
over routers running 802.11n. That’s a
bold claim and would represent a dramatic increase in speed if true. I decided to test both routers, at three
different times, and compare the results.
I used a service located at www.speedtest.net. It’s a free site, and the test will check
both your download and upload speed. I was
mainly concerned with download capability and, therefore, didn’t include the upload
results in the chart below. However, if
you must know, my average upload speed saw no improvement. This is likely the result of my ISP restricting
my upload ability and not a router limitation. So, how did we do?
On average, download speed using the new Belkin improved by about
112 percent. That would make this router
just over twice as fast but a little short of the 2.8 claim. However, doubling my speed is no small
potatoes, and I can tell a difference already.
Tonight, I plan to watch an NFL game (replay) and look forward to cruising
around the Net using my new Ferrari, er, I mean Belkin.
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