NETGEAR R6100 Reviewed

[thiggins]

So no comments about the first QCA based AC router?

 

[truoc]

Was really looking forward to this review so thanks for doing it! Was considering upgrading from my rt-n56u, but maybe I'll hold off and get something better down the line considering I haven't really had any issues with it. Hopefully someone else will chime in here with a little more knowledge than me.

 

[arias]

So no comments about the first QCA based AC router?

Thanks for the excellent and detailed review as usual Tim. Like you noted, it's really disappointing to see them use antiquated 10/100 ethernet ports, which sort of destroys the whole point of 802.11ac to some extent if you actually want to have some ethernet cabling on your local LAN. It's like ... uh ... what were they seriously thinking? Well it's a budget router I guess.

I'm really surprised at how behind in market share Qualcomm Atheros is about getting their chips into the latest gen products. Do you have any insight into this? IMO Atheros was the reigning king of wireless technology, at least until they were bought out by Qualcomm. Their chips and open source support was a cut above Broadcom even if Broadcom still dominated market share prior to the buyout. But for whatever reason Qualcomm hasn't kept up with maintaining the wireless perch on the market share they've had. I was looking forward to seeing some Atheros chips in some of these products before deciding what to upgrade to but if Atheros is being relegated to budget routers like this it really doesn't seem like there's much of a choice. Broadcom seems to have all but a clear monopoly now.

 

[thiggins]

I have no real insight into QCA's inner workings. But here are a few observations:

- The good news is that Atheros appears to be intact as a business unit within Qualcomm. Coulda gone another way, with the company disbanded and technology absorbed into other product lines.

- I don't know why Qualcomm is so far behind in 11ac. I suspect it had to do with the Qualcomm buy.

- QCA devices are not going to be relegated to only budget routers. The chipset is coming in D-Link's new top-of-line DGL-5500 "gaming" router. This one will have the StreamBoost auto QoS, which looks quite interesting.

I assume all router manufacturers are trialing the QCA chipset. I'm sure they all would like to have a bargaining chip with Broadcom.

From the limited view, it looks like the QCA chipset could have superior range vs. Broadcom. But need to see it with a Gigabit connection to be sure.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Great review Tim thank you. My only question is that in this day and age why do most cable companies only provide a 100 Mbps modem? I mean really? It is 2013 and Gigabit has been out for years already so why not put gigabit ports on modem's already.

 

[thiggins]

Great review Tim thank you. My only question is that in this day and age why do most cable companies only provide a 100 Mbps modem? I mean really? It is 2013 and Gigabit has been out for years already so why not put gigabit ports on modem's already.

Same reason USB 2.0 is still used. Trying to eke out a bit more profit on products that have very little.

 

[stevech]

Same reason USB 2.0 is still used. Trying to eke out a bit more profit on products that have very little.

Cable DOCSIS could do faster than DOCSIS 3, but the cable plant amplifiers, returns, etc. are bandwidth limited. You won't see 500+Mbps on cable with DOCSIS. It would take a huge percentage of the coax's bandwidth, even if evil empires like TimeWarner could rationalize zillions of $ to upgrade all the amps. Looking today at TimeWarner dropping CBS TV network from their content, we can see where their priorities fall.

 

[arias]

- QCA devices are not going to be relegated to only budget routers. The chipset is coming in D-Link's new top-of-line DGL-5500 "gaming" router. This one will have the StreamBoost auto QoS, which looks quite interesting.

Well that's a relief. I'm glad to hear that they're at least keeping it interesting. Haven't seen that one "killer netapp" yet for 11ac like say the wndr3700 or wrt54g before it but I'm sure you'll be sure to let us know when you see it. Here's hoping it's QCA that gets the nod inside when it finally hits the market.

 

[arias]

Great review Tim thank you. My only question is that in this day and age why do most cable companies only provide a 100 Mbps modem? I mean really? It is 2013 and Gigabit has been out for years already so why not put gigabit ports on modem's already.

Do they really? What cable company is using docsis 3 over a 10/100 port? I'm not aware of any d3 modems that use 10/100 as that sort of defeats the point.

 

[bobsilver]

Netgear R6100 Makes for a great AC wireless Bridge for Home Theater

There aren't many high speed options today to get network to an area if you don't have a cat 5 cable or can't get powerline to work. What I wanted was a 802.11 AC wireless bridge but couldnt think of a product Netgear (or anyone else) made that would do this. The R6100 AC1200 router can be used in this capacity. This is a great $99 solution that coupled with another AC device such as another AC router like a Netgear r6300 or r6250 makes for an excellent high speed wireless bridge for HTPC's, DVD players, Roku's and any other HD streaming device.

See my application review at AVS at http://www.avsforum.com/t/1484545/n...er-is-a-great-ac-extender-solution-and-bridge

Bob Silver
Netgear AV Consultant

 

[buddee]

This actually isn't the first QCA based AC wireless router. The TP-LINK Archer C7 came out way before the netgear hit. There was actually request for openwrt support on the TP-Link back in the end of May and beginning of June.

 

[thiggins]

It was the first one I reviewed.