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Introduction
Updated 3/18/2010: Added Max sessions test results
| At a Glance | |
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| Product | EnGenius 300Mbps Wireless N Router with Gigabit Switch (ESR9850) |
| Summary | 2.4GHz, Ralink-based 802.11n router with WDS bridging / repeating, very fast routing and up and download bandwidth control. Not Wi-Fi Certified |
| Pros | • > 700 Mbps wired routing speed • Supports WDS bridging / repeating • Up and download bandwidth control • External, upgradeable antennas |
| Cons | • Minimal online support resources • Wireless range could be better • No USB print serving or NAS sharing |
Judging from the interest in the slideshow, people are pretty interested in this router. Perhaps it's because the problems with D-Link's DIR-655 have make folks look elsewhere for a decent 2.4 GHz 802.11n router. Or maybe it's the 9850's combination of low price and chart-topping routing speed.
The router is housed in an off-white plastic case the size of large paperback book. There are mounting slots on the bottom, but a vertical stand is not included.
Figure 1 shows the 9850's back panel, which contains one WAN and four switched LAN 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports (all auto MDI / MDIX), reset button, power socket and two little upgradeable omni-directional dipoles antennas connected via RP-SMA jacks.
Figure 1: ESR9850 Rear panel
The front (top) panel contains the LEDs described in the Figure 1 table, plus a switch to initiate a Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) push-button session. All indicators flash to indiate network traffic and are bright enough. But you'll really need to squint to read the tiny icons above each light that denote its function.
Internal Details
Figure 2 shows the FCC ID photo, which is clear enough to identify the key devices as a Ralink RTL3052 SoC, which contains the CPU and 2T/2R 802.11n radio, MAC and baseband processing, Realtek RTL8366RB Gigabit Switch, 32 MB of RAM and 4 MB of flash (on the board bottom). The small devices to the photo left are RF amplifiers.
Figure 2: ESR9850 board
I was surprised that neither the Ralink or Realtek devices have heatsinks, given all that's expected of them. But when I opened my review unit to double check, I was happy to see a flat ceramic heatsink on the RTL3052, but disappointed to find nothing on the Realtek switch. But at the 9850's aggressive price point, I suppose it's no surprise that heatsinking is sparse.
EnGenius doesn't say whether the 9850's switch supports jumbo frames. But when I checked by running an IxChariot test with 4k jumbos, it ran just fine. So, I'm guessing that up to 9K jumbo frames will work just fine.
Features
EnGenius doesn't provide an online emulator so that you can explore the 9850's GUI. But I put plenty of screenshots and commentary in the slideshow and tried to cover the key feature pages.
Here's a summary of the 9850's router feature set
- Static and Dynamic IP, PPPoE, PPTP and L2TP WAN connections
- DHCP server with IP reservation
- Logging (system events only, not traffic)
- Ethernet and WLAN monitor graphs
- NAT firewall with DMZ, DoS protection, PPTP and IPsec VPN passthrough
- MAC, IP and URL / Keyword filtering
- Switchable NAT / Router mode
- Single, range and triggered port mapping
- ALG (Application Layer Gateways) for H323, SIP and more
- UPnP enable / disable
- Up and download QoS: two level priority or bandwidth
And the wireless features:
- Up to four SSIDs, each with separate wireless security
- WDS bridging and repeating
- WEP and Personal / Enterprise WPA / WPA2 wireless security
- Wi-Fi Protected setup (PIN and pushbutton methods)
- Wireless Modes: B only, G only, N only, B+G and B+G+N (default)
- Wireless MAC address filtering
- Tranmit power control (100, 90, 75, 50, 25, 10%)
- Transmit data rate
- Connection control per SSID: WAN, Wireless-Wireless, Wireless-LAN
This is a pretty decent set of controls with all the basics covered, plus a few niceties. Of particular note is the inclusion of bandwidth control in both upload and download directions. Figure 3 shows an IxChariot plot of a test with upstream (LAN to WAN) bandwidth set to Full and download (WAN to LAN) set to 8 Mbps. The resulting nice-and-steady 7.7 Mbps is pretty sweet.
Figure 3: Bandwidth control example
Note, however, that uplink speed is running around 40 Mbps. So it appears that you must give up the 100s of Mbps of routing bandwidth that the 9850 can supply (more shortly) to benefit from bandwidth control. However, with the speed of most broadband connections, this is probably a decent tradeoff.
Also of note are the per SSID wireless connection controls that enable you to control whether clients in each SSID can talk to other clients, wired LAN clients and the Internet. Basically they're using VLANs to separate the traffic, but with simple, easy-to-use controls.
The 9850's feature set isn't perfect and is missing traffic logging and scheduled radio enable / disable (for security). But the biggest omissions are USB print serving and NAS features. The latter, along with built-in Torrent downloading might be the biggest thing that keeps potential buyers away. Too bad, since EnGenius says the 9850 can handle up to 19,000 simultaneous sessions; more than enough to swamp most any Internet connection.
Check Price At Amazon
Related Items:
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Slideshow: EnGenius ESR9850
Slideshow: Netgear WNDR3300 RangeMax Dual-Band Wireless N Router
New To The Charts: ASUS RT-N16 Multi-functional Gigabit SuperSpeedN Ro
User reviews
Average user rating from: 7 user(s)
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Better than Dlink DIR 655, But hope that engenius will provide lifetime warranty.
| Simply Loving This router! Hope engenius Will provide life time warranty! |
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ESR-9850 nice replacement for DIR-655
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I moved from a DIR-655 to the ESR-9850 Features: - I rated this 4 because yes it almost has everything except VPN endpoint, Wireless client, third party firmware support. The port forwarding page is different then the DIR-655. In the DIR-655 i could set ports like this 100-200,50 for both UDP and TCP; whereas in the ESR-9850 they split it into port forwarding single ports, or port mapping which is a range of ports. You can still configure the port forwarding needed for either router, just that i prefered the DIR-655 method but oh well it was just a minor annoyance. Usually i would rate this as 3, but considering out of the box it has many features including HNE (hardware network enhancer) and other hardware features, that was why i put 4 instead of 3. The QOS has many features either by application, bandwidth or port capping. This looks pretty good for stock firmware. In the newer firmware they increased the connections from 19,000 to 50,000 ... which rocks :d Performance: - I rated 4 because it handles lan fine. Internet speed seems good as well. Brower loads pages fast but that may also be because i am using google public dns. - the high speed peak i saw was 1.2 MB/s when before using a DIR-615 i only saw it peak at 1.1 MB/s So i do see a little increase. This router is more stable at higher speed then the DIR-615 (yes not mistypo, i do mean 615 because i used that temporarily after my dir-655) - wireless client upstairs now has 5 bars instead of 4. Lan and web browsing was noticeably better then the DIR-615 Reliability - rated as 4 because hasn't crashed on me yet. - If anything, the only thing i didn't like was the port mapping issue which isn't yet resolved for me. Keep in mind i am still using firmware 1.09 so maybe the newer firmware has fixed this but i am not sure. - port forwarding works fine, but port mapping doesn't. But then again it could be because of my setup which is fiber modem > dir-615 as vlan tagger only > esr-9850 |
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ESR 9850 worthy replacement for DIR-655
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So far so good. The ESR-9850 fw 1.09 seems to be an excellent replacement for the vernerable DIR-655 A2 fs 1.32 na. There are few less settings, but consequently that makes it easier to set up. Setting up two UMA phones at home, in conjunction with a mix of 802.11g and 802.11n devices was not optimal with the DIR-655. The 802.11n devices would revert to a slower speed with the DIR-655 and I would have problems streaming movies to my LG BD390. Disabling the 802.11g deviced helpped - but that was a hassle. The ESR-9850 allowed for multiple SSID, which allows me to put all the 802.11g devices on a "-G" network, and the N devices on their own SSID. This seems to have increased the The IP-SEC pass through seems to make the QOS functions of the DIR-655 unnecessary. The LAN-LAN transfer speeds are much higher on the ESR-9850 compared to the DIR-655 - now the network is not a limiting factor. Worst thing about the ESR-9850 - It makes me want to upgrade my Dlink DNS-323 to a synology DS 210 to take advantage of increase LAN-LAN speeds.. |
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Robust LAN to LAN to WAN to LAN
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I had originally purchased Senao ESR-9850 (actually two of them which I'll explain why) to use as a replacement for my aging Belkin N+ routers. Yes two Belkin N+ one was used as the DHCP router and the second one was AP. ESR-9580 offered advance Network Hardware Engine Feature along with a Smart NAT for P2P connections. Now here finally a router that wasn't bottleneck in port throughput speed. I personally move large files from 300mb to over 3GB. Belkin N+, Trendnet TEW-652BRP, DLINK DIR-655, Netgear 834, Buffalo WZR2-300N, Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, are not match in the wired department with Senao EnGenius ESR-9850 Wireless 300N Gig Router. Wireless department even with a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 running DD-WRT 71mW and the ESR-9850 50mW the signal strength is far greater than the DD-WRT enhancements. I've tested P2P using Vuze latest version on AMD Quad-Core using PCI-E Dual Direction Gig card and I must say the performance through ESR-9850 Gig Controller which is made by Realtek which offers 832KB packet buffer. I always stress the importance of having a larger cache buffer on port switches. But anyway LAN to LAN transfers in MB/s is over 150 where the Belkin N+ using the same Gig Controller Chip made by Realtek could only barely give me 30-50 MB/s transfer rate. Now you can see the difference. Wireless now here is the reason why the need to purchase a second ESR-9850 to use as a wired to access point used a wireless connection. ESR-9850 offers Repeater mode where there is no need for a hardwire connection. But using such a mode which is mostly flip/flop method. I needed hardwired instead. So what I did was to disable the NAT, DHCP, DNS Relay to force the Repeater into hardwired AP. Sure it worked with firmware 1.09. In firmware 1.10 it didn't work. EnGenius had sent me over 1.09 to fix my issue. Network Hardware Feature, well I must say in firmware 1.09 this feature doesn't seem to be enabled or doesn't function. With firmware 1.10 you can see a huge jump in throughput. LIke it's rocket fuel and just blasted off! I use Face Book daily to take care of my habit the Cafe World. That's a Java Client App, it has it's moments of being sluggish even worst on 802.11g/n than wired. Under Belkin N+ it isn't the greatest. Once under ESR-9850 using 1.10 I load quick and I am able to change items in my Cafe much faster than prior Belkin N+. either wired or wireless. Features well they're okay you get a bandwidth real-time graphical meter that only shows up in firmware 1.09. In firmware 1.10 it not present. It might appear once in a while. I've reported the issue to Senao EnGenius so hopefully they can fix that buy. That's why I only gave features 4 out of 5. So let me just wrap up my review of the ESR-9850, if you're looking for a robust wired router with gig ports, than this is the one to get! If you need fast wireless in 802.11g or 802.11n then this is the one to get. If you do Media Streaming of large HD in MKV, AVI, H264 , MOV, FLV, MP4 than this router is the one to get. Yes I do a lot of HD and SD recording using SageTV and then stream the media over the GIG and Fast LAN to the HDTVs I have. I haven't seen any video or audio sync issues of yet. SageTV has 256x FF and RR and with this robust throughout wow wee it sure makes skipping over material quicker! There is youtube video from me on this ESR-9850 just look-up my screen name tipstir and you'll see all the video review about this router. |
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So far, so good
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I admit, I bought this mostly based on the positive review here, though I was slightly familiar with EnGenius products from their super-long-range cordless phones I've seen for many years. This is my first combo AP/router device, replacing a NetGear FVS114 and a Proxim AP600 b/g. I haven't tried features like multiple SSIDs or bandwidth throttling, but getting all the basics set up went pretty smoothly, though initially I used WPA2 Mixed, and my a/b/g-only laptop refused to connect, which was resolved by changing to AES. G performance and signal strength in one of my usual other-end-of-house spots using an Intel 2915ABG is improved over the Proxim. An unscientific test just copying large files to/from a 4965AGN and a Synology DS110j connected to one of the GigE LAN ports gives me a pretty consistent 65mbps down/62mbps up with the aforementioned G laptop connected but idle. With a small, cheap GigE switch going for $40+, getting a reasonably good router and AP for, essentially $10/ea is a smoking deal. |
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Comment on user review
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Did you use WPA2+AES, which is on by default, its mandated by 802.11n standards, or speed will be deliberately throttled down to 11G speeds, and you'll get no 11n benefit. Did you orient the antenna for best reception? Different antennas give different gains, so it maybe more directional that your old AP. Did you try turning off 20/40 bandwidth switching, which is unfortunately set ON by default, since you have an older wifi client? Cascading routers is another issue, it would be best to test the unit stand alone, then cascaded, as few users will cascade a router. I do not own the 9850, so my ratings just reflect its performance on my ESR-7750, as it shares the same AP chips, but not the gigabit router chip. |
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Fast but somewhat quirky little router
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Be sure to set wireless security to mixed mode when you are experiencing problems with some less recent 54g cards. Wireless 11N is actually slower than 11G, 11G being more than twice as fast compare to 11N on this router. I am using the intel 3945 ABG card, which is not the latest in 11N adapters but still I was a little shocked to see wifi link speed drop to 19 mbps, as you can imagine, at a distance of 4 meters between router and laptop. There were no walls between the two. So that's why I think the router scores 2 instead of 4 o 5. Range isn't really a selling point on this router either. The signal strength drops very quickly to "very low" after moving 10 meters away from the router indoors. Further the 19000 connections that this router supports may come in handy when you connect it directly to a standalone modem. If you connect it to a modem with builtin router you will not see the benefit of this. Off coarse, that is the nature of cascading routers. So you may want to verify that you have a standalone modem if you want the full benefits of this router. If you have a really fast internet connection ( more than 100mbps ) then this router might be worth investing in but otherwise you might as well go with a much cheaper A-Brand router that has better support and is certified. About reliability: When using Utorrent I discovered that Firefox would not load pages all the time and I had to restart firefox. This is not the case when I am using and ordinary switch instead of this router. Maybe my setup is bad, but still I think that's strange. Router must work in cascade just as well. One last thing that I must add is that this router hands out IP numbers quite fast. |
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