SmallNetBuilder

Routing Performance

I put the 2000 through our suite of router tests, with the results summarized in Table 1.

Table 1: Routing throughput

Unidirectional routing throughput tops out at just over 90 Mbps and simultaneous bi-directional throughput comes in at 127 Mbps. Maximum Simultaneous sessions came in at the 200 maximum that we can measure.

Figure 6 shows the composite WAN to LAN, LAN to WAN and simultaneous up/down IxChariot throughput tests. Throughput is very steady, with the periodic downticks primarily due the test method.

Figure 6: WNR2000 Routing throughput

In all, I judge the 2000's routing section to be pretty solid. Use the Router Charts to see how the WNR2000 stacks up against other routers.

Wireless Features

Figure 7 shows the main Wireless Settings screen. The controls are pretty simple— just SSID, Channel and Mode. Note that there are no references to 802.11b, g or N. Just three speed ranges. The ranges are explained in the help text that I have highlighted.

Figure 7: Wireless configuration

Available modes are:

• Up to 54 Mbps
• Up to 145 Mbps (default)
• Up to 300 Mbps

Security options include WEP and WPA / TKIP and WPA2/ AES modes as well as an auto WPA/WPA2 mode. But only WPA/2 "Personal" (PSK) modes are supported. The 2000 also supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) and I ran a few successful WPS pushbutton sessions using the Netgear WN111V2 dual-band USB adapter. The mode resulting from the WPS session was reported as auto WPA/WPA2 TKIP/AES, so I'm not sure of the exact security level.

Figure 8 shows the minimal Advanced Wireless options, which don't include transmit power control. Note that the radio disable is here and isn't schedulable like on D-Link's routers. Note that the 2000 has neither an AP mode nor does it support WDS bridging/repeating.

Figure 8: Advanced wireless configuration