R7000 Nighthawk vs Archer C7 vs R6250 vs DIR-860L vs DIR-850L

[Elisha]

So I've been wanting to get into the 5Ghz game and eliminate my 2.4Ghz network which consisted of a DIR-651 and TL-WA901ND.
My street is filled with 2.4Ghz networks and no 5Ghz.

I picked up the DIR-850L on Black Friday, DIR-860L and R6250 on Monday, Archer C7 on Friday and Nighthawk R7000 today.

My home network is located in my basement:
Rogers Hitron CGN3 -> Router -> 8 port D-Link DGS-1008D Gigabit Switch

1. Synology DS210J
2. Mac Pro (2x Ethernet)
3. Custom W7 PC (2x Ethernet & Wifi)
4. Gateway W7 PC (1x Ethernet & Wifi)
5. Lexmark Laser Printer (Ethernet)
6. HP MFP (Ethernet)
7. LG 3D Blu-Ray (Wifi)
8. LG 3D Plasma TV (Ethernet)
9. Nitendo Wii (Wifi)

Main floor and 2nd floor:

1. Lenovo Thinkpad
2. MacBook
3. iPad2 3G
4. Asus Transformer Prime
5. Nexus 5
6. Galaxy Note II
7. iPod Touch 4g
8. Kobo Touch

I live in a townhouse so the area size including the basement is about 2000sqft.
The location of the tested routers are in the back section of the basement. The living room and my bedroom is also in the back section of the house on the main floor and second floor respectively.
I'm familiar with the TP-Link GUI owning the WA901ND and the D-Link GUI owning the DIR-651. The Netgear GUI is new to me since it looks different than what I encountered owning a Netgear router a few years ago.

• All routers were updated to the latest firmware and reset to factory defaults after before setting it up.
• 20/40Mhz coexistence turned off where applicable as well and Channel 153 used for 5Ghz.
• Apps used to measure signal strength and throughput were inSSIDer, Netgear WiFi Analytics and Wifi Analyzer.

850L was nice and compact. However the 5Ghz range was not as strong as I would have liked. Upstairs in my bedroom, signal strength was about 55-65%.

860L is significantly bigger than the 850L but has Beam Forming performed slightly better at 60-70%.

R6250 was about 65-75%. It has the least pleasing form factor.

Archer C7 which I believe like the 850L does not have Beam Forming came in at about 50-70%.

R7000 Nighthawk came in about 85-95%.


2.4Ghz on the other hand is a different story. In my bedroom again:
850L -> 80-85%
860L -> 55-65%
R6250 -> 75-80%
Archer C7 -> 80-95%
R7000 Nighthawk -> 95-100%

Unexpected surprise - 850L vs 860L in 2.4Ghz range. The little guy happened to have a stronger 2.4Ghz signal than the bigger 860L.

Biggest disappointment - Archer C7. Even though it has 3x 5Ghz antennas, it could not put out a strong or maintain a decent 5Ghz signal strength and range. Maybe its range is bad because of the lack of any kind of Beam Forming? The Archer C7 also showed very inconsistent link speeds - when sitting right beside the router, my Nexus 5 would drop down to a link speed of 6Mbps @ 5Ghz whereas all the other routers will show between 390Mbps - 433Mbps in the same location.

Best surprise - The Nighthawk is absolutely a beast in the signal department. The 3x dual-band antenna must be a huge contributing factor here.

I know that these routers are not in the same category since the 850L and 860L are AC1200, the R6250 is AC1600, the Archer C7 is AC1750 and the R7000 Nighthawk is AC1900. But in this case, it kinda seems like you get what you pay for with the Nighthawk when it comes to signal strength and range.

I was considering trying out the Asus AC66U and the AC68U but I feel that even though the Asus routers have a crazy boatload of features and performance, they tend to be buggy and not consistent. Plus they are fairly expensive compared to the competition.

Attached is a screenshot of how the Nighthawk performed in the various room in my house. Needless to say that I will be keeping this router and returning the rest.

 

[stevech]

More important than signal strength *from* WiFi access device (router, AP, bridge), is the actual throughput as measured and averaged by one of many methods.

The signal *to* the WiFi access device (from the client) is often the constraint to speed and performance. And those devices often have lower transmitted power. This creates an 'unbalanced link''. Most modes of 802.11/WiFi require that both directions use the same bit rate.

The indicted WiFi speeds (Mbps) are raw bit rates in all products. The net throughput is about 60% of raw, absent interference.

 

[jlake]

Thanks for the run down.

When you get an odd link speed like you did with the Archer, it "usually" means you need to "forget the network" on your android or better yet, give the archer's 5 Ghz ssid a completely new and unique SSID (an SSID that you've never used before). It can be tricky testing when you're connecting to previously used SSIDS on different router chipsets (and wireless drivers).

I've got to the point that I don't even remove/delete old wireless profiles when switching between router firmware with different wireless drivers, i just go ahead and completely rename the SSID to something totally new.

 

[Elisha]

Thanks for the run down.

When you get an odd link speed like you did with the Archer, it "usually" means you need to "forget the network" on your android or better yet, give the archer's 5 Ghz ssid a completely new and unique SSID (an SSID that you've never used before). It can be tricky testing when you're connecting to previously used SSIDS on different router chipsets (and wireless drivers).

I've got to the point that I don't even remove/delete old wireless profiles when switching between router firmware with different wireless drivers, i just go ahead and completely rename the SSID to something totally new.

Interesting point that you have raised there. I initially set the SSID as Archer before my standard SSID and the same poor link speed was present at close proximity.
But it seems like the Archer was in some kind of low power safe mode cause as soon as I started an internet speed test, it would kick into high gear and the link speed would jump to 292-390Mbps and occasionally 433Mbps.
I also tried changing region for the Archer to see if I could get a bit more juice for the 5Ghz radios but changing to Taiwan, or HK didn't make a difference in signal. Auto channel on the Archer defaulted to the lower range and signal was even worse.
But to its credit, it's internal 2.4Ghz range was excellent.

On a side note, the R7000 Nighthawk seems to connect to the 5Ghz SSID by default even if signal is slightly lower compared to 2.4Ghz. I thought that the selection priority was going to be implemented by Netgear in a future FW update but it seems like its already implemented and working consistently.
Also it seems that I can get 100% signal upstairs now with both bands. Seems like Beam Forming is working great after it settled in overnight.

 

[messerchmidt]

the nighthawk 7000 is hands down the best one there. Supports DDWRT as well now thanks to Kong