Biareview.com - Linksys WRT3200ACM

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amazon Linksys WRT3200ACM reviews

The Linksys WRT3200ACM MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Router takes the honors for the latest edition to Linksys’ WRT router series. Like its forerunners, it allows the user to change the Router’s existing firmware into open-source code that allows for customized settings and enhanced monitoring capabilities. From the perspective of the Wireless, it supports Multi-Input Multi-Output (MU-MIMO) data transmission by sending data to MU-MIMO clients in parallel instead of waiting in a sequential fashion. Another great feature it has is Tri-Stream 160 technology that doubles the 80MHz channel width on the 5 GHz band to achieve more rapid throughput rates; there are no applications yet that take advantage of the increased throughput capability of Tri-Stream. The WRT3200ACM was crowned king in our file transfer tests.

Design and Features

The WRT3200ACM keeps the familiar black and blue coloring and 2.1 x 9.6 x 7.6-inch (HWD) enclosure design seen in earlier WRT models- WRT 1200AC, for example, and WRT 1900AC. It features four flexible, detachable external antennas with LED status indicators on the front panel for the Internet, the 2.4 GHz, and 5 GHz radio bands, WPS, LAN port, USB port, and eSATA, and Source. Then again, the rear houses four Gigabit LAN ports, one WAN port, one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0/eSATA combo port, and Reset, Power, and WPS buttons. The WRT3200ACM is underpinned by a 1.8 GHz dual-core processor coupled with the newest 802.11ac chipset supporting 160MHz MU-MIMO, beamforming, and Tri-Stream technologies. That is an AC3200 router that theoretically can go up to 600Mbps on both bands.

The WRT3200ACM uses the same Web-based intelligent Wi-Fi management console as the EA9500 Max-Stream AC5400 MU-MIMO Gigabit Gigabit Router and the EA7500 Max-Stream AC1900 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router. It can also be controlled using the Smart Wi-Fi mobile app. The Web Dashboard home page contains various widgets on the right and a list of Smart Wi-Fi Tools and Router Settings on the left. The Network Map tool shows all devices connected to the network and total Internet bandwidth usage, and the Guest Access tool allows you to create your SSIDs and passwords to use as a guest. The Parental Controls tool is a tool you use to block Internet access and access to certain websites for one or more of your customers. The Media Priority tool allows you to prioritize traffic networks for specific devices and applications such as online games. Use the Speed Test tool to see how fast your Internet uploads and downloads are and the External Storage tool to share folders on a connected hard drive and set up FTP capabilities and Media Servers.

Router settings include Connection, Wireless, Troubleshooting, Security, and OpenVPN Server settings. The Connections page contains Internet and Local Area Network settings, advanced NAT and Routing configurations, and a firmware upgrade page.

The Troubleshooting page allows you to run network diagnostics and view security logs. The Wireless page is where you specify security settings for each band, change channels and channel widths, and create schedules wireless access. The Security page provides Firewall and VPN Passthrough settings, port forwarding and port activation, and Internet filtering. In contrast, the OpenVPN Servers page allows you to configure ports and set up IP Addresses to access your home network.

Settings and Performance

Installation and configuration of the Linksys WRT3200ACM Router are just as easy as with any other Linksys Router. Essentially, you’d want to plug the Router in, connect it to your host PC, open any web browser, type in http://linksyssmartwifi.com, and the setup wizard would launch, taking you through the Internet setup and not the original wire. You may, if you wished to, bypass the wizard and set up the Router completely on your own.

The 5GHz throughput tests provided good results with the WRT3200ACM performing very slightly below Trendnet AC2600 TEW-827 with a maximum of 569 Mbps in the close-range test in the same room (590 Mbps). Yet the MaxStream EA7500 managed only 495 Mbps, and the Zyxel Armor Z2 AC2600 only 558 Mbps. At 30 feet away, however, Linksys EA7500 topped 298Mbps compared to the WRT3200ACM at 238Mbps, with the Zyxel Z2 managing 251Mbps, and Trendnet TEW-827 260Mbps.

For the assessment of MU-MIMO, we employed three identical Acer Aspire R 13 laptops fitted with the QCA61x4A MU-MIMO chipset manufactured by Qualcomm. The WRT3200ACM averaged at 174Mbps during the short-range testing compared to the Zyxel Z2 (150Mbps) and just short of the Linksys EA7500 (176Mbps), with the Trendnet TEW-827 in front at 238.3Mbps. At 30 feet for the MU-MIMO test, the WRT3200ACM (138Mbps) outperformed the Trendnet TEW-827 (127Mbps), Zyxel Z2 (72Mbps), and Linksys EA7500 (81.2Mbps).

2.4GHz throughput tests, however, were not favorable to the WRT3200ACM. Its 76Mbps were just short of the Trendnet TEW-827’s 108Mbps, the Linksys EA7500’s 97.3Mbps, and the Zyxel Z2’s 97.2Mbps in the close-range test. And at 30 feet, the WRT3200 returned 58.5Mbps, ranking behind the Trendnet TEW-827 (75.3Mbps) and the Zyxel Z2 (69.9Mbps) but ahead of the Linksys EA7500 (52.1Mbps).

Three Acer Aspire R 13 models equipped with Qualcomm’s QCA61x4A MU-MIMO chipset have been the test setups for this MU-MIMO performance. At short-range, the WRT3200ACM has averaged 174 Mbps, higher than the Zyxel Z2 at 150 Mbps but lower than the Linksys EA7500 at 176 Mbps. At 238.3 Mbps, the Trendnet TEW-827 is above them all. At 30 feet in the MU-MIMO test, the WRT3200ACM (138 Mbps) took first place, ahead of Trendnet TEW-827 (127 Mbps), Zyxel Z2 (72 Mbps), and Linksys EA7500 (81.2 Mbps).

In the 2.4GHz throughput tests, things went bad for the WRT3200ACM. It returned 76Mbps in the Trendnet TEW-827’s 108Mbps proximity test, 76.5Mbps in the Linksys EA7500’s test, and 76.1Mbps in the Zyxel Z2. At 30 feet, the WRT3200ACM returned 58.5Mbps, trailing Trendnet TEW-827 (75.3Mbps) and Zyxel Z2 (69.9Mbps) but better than Linksys EA7500 (52.1Mbps).

Transfer speed is put to test with a file folder of 1.5GB that contains a mix of music, photographs, documents, and video files being shifted between a wired desktop and a USB drive on the router. The said tests have proven the WRT3200ACM to bring in speeds never witnessed before. It took 74MBps in the writing test, beating the WRT 1200AC, which went at 73.1MBps, and just simply blew away the Zyxel Z2 at 35.1MBps and Trendnet TEW-827 at 30.3MBps. Likewise, the WRT3200ACM set new records at an 88MBps read, leaving the Linksys WRT1900AC (80MBps), WRT1200AC (76.8MBps), and Zyxel Z2 (51.2MBps) behind.

Conclusion

The WRT3200ACM is a strong choice for those who wish to use custom firmware distributions of OpenWrt or DD-WRT on their Router. The latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi features, including MU-MIMO streaming and beamforming, are present, and it is 160MHz ready for streaming whenever clients are available. The WRT3200ACM tested with excellent 5GHz throughput and file-transfer performance is top-notch. Its 2.4GHz performance, on the other hand, is not so brilliant.