Alfa AIP-W525H 300Mps 802.11 b/g/n Long-Range 2T2R AP Router – More than 2x coverage range then other router – With 2 Detachable 5dBi Antennas (Electronics)
I wouldn’t say I was skeptical about this router before I bought it, but I couldn’t find much info on google (compared to other routers), so that intrigued me & gratefully it’s turned out to be a great item. Its small size & light weight impress me, for its capabilities. It beats my WNDR3800 in many of my tests & gives my ASUS RT-N66U a run for its money! I put up an external antenna & & higher gain indoor antennas (all omni-directional for suiting my purposes) & this Alfa router did better than those two models from other (and well known) companies. The firmware seems pretty good so far and if you hunt for it, you can find some stuff online that describes some mods. I won’t need to try them, though – because I now have excellent coverage over whole property. NOTE: experiences can vary wildly, depending upon your own usage needs (type of walls, trees, omni v. directional antennas, etc., etc.) – and it also depends on what type of antennas you use. The stock ones worked great, but this Alfa router gives me better coverage than those others mentioned when hooking up to same antennas (yes, the wndr3800 is external only antennas, so if it had option for antennas, it would have done better). This Alfa router also beats (so far) my e4200v1, but it also has no external antenna option off the shelf; so, those are things to keep in mind when making your own procurement & installation testing & decisions. Another thing to keep in mind is that my connection to ISP then goes through a VPN service before it goes out to «THE cloud,» so that can be another factor that might add different dynamics to signal quality, etc. when comparing your own experiences to mine. Lastly, it’s important to note that I don’t have many needs for transfers just within LAN, so I am judging speed primarily on basis of connection to WAN speeds, combined with distances, signal strength & these other factors.