SmallNetBuilder

The N Wireless is another two-antenna design (2T2R) with a four port 10/100 switch. It uses a Ralink RT2880 SoC that produces 80 Mbps of routing throughput. Simultaneous sessions, however, max out at 128. As with other Belkin routers, routing features are basic, with no QoS or content filtering.

The N Wireless properly defaults to 20 MHz bandwidth mode and supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). But its matching N Wireless Notebook Card (F5D8013) does not yet support WPS in its client utility. Offsetting this negative is that there was no significant throughput degradation in WEP, WPA/TKIP or WPA2 wireless security modes. This is the second product (the Edimax BR6504n was the first) using a Ralink draft 11n chipset to earn this distinction.

Wireless best-case throughput in the default 20 MHz bandwidth mode averaged 80 Mbps over a 1 minute test. Switching to 40 MHz mode didn't significantly improve throughput due to high variation.

We were not able to run a full throughput vs. path loss because the router board lacked connectors and couldn't be attached to the Azimuth test system. But a quick walk-around test revealed a solid connection at our most difficult test Locations 4 and 5 with around 6-8 Mbps throughput!

Read the full review.