
N° and issue date : 314 - 01/04/2014
Circulation : 49071 Page : 101
Frequency : Monthly Size : 100 %
ComputerShopper_314_100_19.pdf 7358 cm2
Website: http://www.computershopper.com
If
you'
re
on
a
fibre service from
anyone
other
than
Virgin
Media
,
such
as
BT
Infinity ,
things
are
a
little
more
confusing
.
These
services
are
'
fibre
to the
curb'
(
FTTC
) ,
which
means
there'
s a
fibre cable
to the
green
box
in
the
street
,
but the
last
leg
is
run over
your
copper
telephone
cables
using
a
technology
called
VDSL
.
In
addition
to
a
wireless
router
,
this
requires
an
additional
box
,
which
is the
VDSL
router
.
When
you
replace
your
router
,
you'
ll
need
to
keep
the
VDSL
unit and
opt
for
a
router
with
an
Ethernet
WAN
port.
If
you'
re
with
Virgin
Media
,
your
existing
router
will
have
the
fibre modem
built-in
.
As
you
can'
t
buy
routers with
integrated
fibre
modems
,
you
need
to
leave
the
old router
in
place
,
disable
its
wireless
and attach
a
second
wireless
router
,
choosing
a
model with
an
Ethernet WAN
port
.
Our
guide
on
upgrading
your
router
(
page
106
)
tells
you
how
to
switch
your
ISP'
s
router
,
while
our
table
(
page
108
)
tells
you
the
type
of
modem each router
has.
CHANNEL
TUNNELS
Wireless
signals
are
transmitted on
one of
two
bands
,
2.4GHz
or
5GHz
.
All
devices
support
2.4GHz
,
which
is the
older standard.
This
has
better
range
,
but
suffers
from more
interference
,
as lots of
devices
-
including
wireless
door chimes and
baby
monitors
also
use
this
spectrum
.
With
5GHz
,
you
get
less
range
,
but
less interference
,
which
can
dramatically improve
performance
.
For
the
most
flexibility ,
a
dual-band router can
run
networks
on both bands
simultaneously
,
so
you
can
run
old
and
new devices
together ,
using
5GHz
when
you
can
.
All
802.11ac
routers
can use
both bands
simultaneously
,
but it'
s
rare to see
this
option
on
80211n
models.
Each
band
is
divided
into slices called
channels .
When
setting
up
your
router
,
you
have
to
choose
a
channel
you
want
to
operate
your
network
on
,
although
many
routers
will
automatically pick
the best one
.
If
you'
re
having
problems
with
speed
or
reliability
,
changing
the
channel can
improve
things.
It'
s
important
to
understand
how
channels
work
before
you
change
anything
.
A
channel
is
a
slice
of the
available
spectrum
.
For
example
,
in
a
2.4GHz
network
channel
1
is
a
slice
from
2.4GHz
to
2.422GHz
,
while
channel
2
goes
from
2.405GHz
to
2.427GHz
.
This means
neighbouring
channels
overlap
,
causing
interference
,
so it'
s
best to use
only
channels
1
,
6
and
11
,
which
don'
t
overlap
.
This
has
been
resolved
for
5GHz
,
which
has
a
larger
range
of
non-overlapping
channels
,
so
you
simply pick
the
one
with
the
best
performance
for
you.
Most
routers offer
the
option
of
channel
bonding
, whereby
they
send
the
signal
over
two
adjacent
channels
,
taking
up
double
the
bandwidth .
For
2.4GHz
,
if
there
are
other
ISSUE
314
COMPUTER SHOPPER
APRIL
2014
networks
nearby
, channel-bonding
is
bound
to
cause
interference and can
actually
degrade
performance
,
so
routers
are
required
to
have
this
turned off
by
default
to
gain official Wi-Fi
certification .
Some
routers refer
to
channel
bonding
as turbo
mode
,
while others
talk
about
speed
:
for
example
,
300Mbit
s
mode.
There
are
fewer
problems
with
5GHz
,
so
channel
bonding
is
a
good
thing
. Typically
802.11ac
routers
,
which
typically
refer
to the
technology
as
20
/
40
/
80Hz
mode
,
handle
channel
bonding
automatically.
I'
M
WITH THE
BAND
Most
routers
,
including
all
of
those we'
ve
looked
at
here
,
have
multiple
input
,
multiple
output
MIMO
technology ,
which
uses
several
44
If
you'
ll
be
transferring
lots
of
large
files
,
make
sure
your
router
has
Gigabit
Ethernet
ports
1
,
antennas at
the
same time
to
improve
signal
reception
and transmission
speeds
.
To
take
full
advantage
of
this
,
you'
ll
need
a
matching
Wi-Fi
adaptor
for
your
laptop
or
other
connected
devices
.
Because
of the
limitations
of
USB
adaptors
,
you
won'
t
always
be
able
to
reach
the
maximum
potential
throughput
of
an
802.11ac
router
using
one
.
For this reason
,
we'
ve
tested
all
our
802.11ac
routers with
a
three-antenna
internal
PCI-E
wireless
adaptor.
There
are
two
different
802.11ac
standards
,
which
are
usually
labelled
as
AC1300
and
AC1750 .
Adding
to the
confusion
,
you'
ll
sometimes encounter
AC1200
and
AC1900
devices
.
These
figures
are
arrived
at
by
taking
the
maximum
2.4GHz
speed
300Mbit s
,
450Mbit
s
or
600Mbit
s
and
roughly
adding
it to the
maximum
5GHz
speed
the
router
supports
(
867Mbit
/
s
or
,300Mbit
s .
In
our
table
,
we'
ve
listed
the
maximum
theoretical
5GHz
throughput
How
we
test
We
carry
out
13
different
tests
on
802.11ac
routers .
Our
test
environment includes
common
problems
encountered
when
using
Wi-Fi
in
an
urban environment
,
such
as
lots
of
potential
interference
on
the
2.4GHz
band
in
particular
.
Our
results
are
representative
of
a
challenging
real-world
environment
,
rather
than one
designed
for
optimal
performance .
A
good
performance
in
our
tests
is
a
meaningful
achievement.
To
test
throughput ,
we time how
long
it
takes
to
copy
a
100MB
file
over
the
network
,
which
gives
us
speed
figures
in
megabits
per
second
(
Mbit
/
s
).
Most
people
connect
to
routers
using
their
laptop'
s
integrated
wireless
adaptor.
In
keeping
with
this
,
we
use
a
Centrino
2
laptop
to
connect
to
both
the
router'
s
2.4GHz
and
5GHz
wireless networks
at
distances
of lm and
10m
away
within
the
same
room
and
20m
away
in
another room.
The
same
tests are
repeated
using
the
same
laptop ,
but
with each manufacturer'
s
own
USB
wireless
adaptor ,
if
one is
available.
All
the
802.11ac
adaptors
are
USB2
,
which
meant
that
,
on
our
laptop
,
speeds
peaked
at
158.45Mbit
/
s .
However
,
the
routers
may
well
have
a
bit
more headroom
.
Testing
using
an
802.11ac
bridge
,
which connects
to
a
PC
via
Ethernet
,
we'
ve
seen
throughput
of
279.6Mbit
/
s .
This means
plenty
of
these
routers
have
a
lot
more headroom
than
you
may
see now
,
but as
you
upgrade
and
buy
a
laptop
with built-in
802.11ac
aerials
,
or
vendors
start
selling
USB3
802.11ac
adaptors
,
you'
ll
see
more
speed
in
the
future.
WIRELESS
ROUTERS
speed
,
although
the
actual tested
speeds
are
a better indication
of
what
you
can
expect.
THE
WIRE
If
you
want
to
connect wired
as
well
as
wireless
devices
to
your
network
,
you
should
pay
attention
to
the
type
of
network
ports
on
offer
.
Most routers this
month
have
10
/
100
/
,000Mbit
s
(
Gigabit
)
Ethernet
ports
,
but
many
cheaper
routers
use
10
100Mbit
s
Ethernet
ports
.
Even
a
10
100Mbit
s
connection
is
faster
than
most
wireless
networks
,
particularly
over
distances
above
10
metres.
However
,
if
you'
re
planning
to use
network
storage
and
will
be
transferring
lots
of
large
files
between devices on
a
wired
network
,
make
sure
your
router
has
Gigabit
Ethernet
ports.
PROTECTION
&
PRIORITY
All
wireless routers
support
Wi-Fi
Protected
Access
2
(
WPA2
)
wireless
network
security
encryption .
It'
s
important
to use
this
,
as
otherwise
anyone
can access
your
network
,
piggy-backing
on
your
internet
connection
or
even
accessing
files
on
your
local
network.
Routers
with
a pre-set
wireless
password
are
secure
from
the
moment
you
plug
them in.
All
routers also have
built-in firewalls
to
protect
your
network from intruders
,
and
all
support Universal
Plug
and
Play
( UPnP )
,
which
automatically
opens
ports
required
by
devices
such
as
media streamers
.
If
you
want
to
run
a
service that doesn'
t
use
UPnP
,
such
as
your
own web server
,
you
need
to
configure
port
forwarding
.
This
passes
traffic
on
a given
port
(
such
as
port
80
for web
traffic
)
to
a
designated
PC on
your
network.
If
you
use
port
forwarding
a
great
deal
but
don'
t
have
a
static
IP
address
assigned
by
your
ISP
,
many
routers
support Dynamic DNS.
This
automatically
updates
your
URL
so
it
directs
visitors
to
your
current home
IP
address .
If
your
ISP
changes
your
IP
address
,
as
many
of
them
do
if
you
switch
off
your
router
,
the
URL
updates
the
new address.
99
2 / 12
Copyright (Computer Shopper)
No reproduction without authorisation
Buffalo Technology
Comentarios a estos manuales