TOTOLINK A1004 AC750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router Test

We should start the topic by explaining what the AC standard is.

IEEE 802.11ac was introduced to use mainly for the purpose of significantly increasing the speed of wireless Wi-Fi transmission. So far, the most popular radio standard has been IEEE 802.11n, in which many improvements have been made and various methods have been used to speed up the exchange of large amounts of data over the radio network.

The most important thing is that AC devices work in both Wi-Fi bands, i.e. 2.4GHz and 5GHz, while 802.11n devices work only in the 2.4GHz band.

802.11ac has been created mainly for the 5GHz band, and thus the devices working in AC standard offer 300Mbps for 2.4GHz devices and 433/867Mbps for 5GHz transmission. By adding these two values we get 750Mbps or 1200Mbps - that is AC750 and AC1200.

You also need to be aware that the electromagnetic waves are attenuated differently on different frequencies and the 5GHz band does not perform better than 2.4GHz. This fact is mainly due to basic laws, i.e. higher frequency waves are more attenuated and therefore, with the same transmitting power, the waves will be emitted over a shorter distance.

This time the router TOTOLINK A1004 AC750 Dual Band Gigabit Router has been tested.

It was also worth remembering that a router is not only the speed of Wi-Fi, because using a router is not limited only to using the Internet with WiFi. The features the router is equipped with and the ease of configuration of the various options are also important.

The manufacturer once again provided us with a complete set and a very aesthetic device. After opening the box, in addition to the aesthetically pleasing router, we will also find an Ethernet cable, power supply, stand to mount the device and a user manual.

Okay, let's go to tests.

When it comes to tests, software measuring the speed of data packet transfer between the server and the client was used. The router was tested based on the following features:

• signal strength
• wireless performance
• functionality and practicality

Signal strength.

To measure the signal strength, the inSSIDer program was used, HP ProBook450 laptop equipped with TOTOLINK USB 1000UA (AC500)

and Lenovo Z70 laptop equipped with Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 3160.

Default channel 100 (5500MHz) has been set to 5GHz, with 80MHz (AC) bandwidth, and encryption has been disabled.

The wireless performance.

To measure performance we used Iperf, or rather Jperf, a Java-based graphical overlay, an HP laptop equipped with TOTOLINK A1000UA (AC) and a Lenovo Z70 laptop equipped with Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 3160.

Yes in the explanation - iperf is an application to measure the speed of data transfer, based on the client-server architecture and the TCP and UDP protocols.

Therefore, the measurements were taken for both one session and several sessions running simultaneously. The aim was to simulate downloading/sending data from/to an FTP server of several files at the same time - which will probably best show the capabilities of TOTOLINK A1004 750AC.

The measurements were made at distances of 10 and 30m from the router. In addition, to make the conditions as close as possible to home conditions, the router was located behind one partition wall.

There is no way to get as much as 750Mbps - which is rather obvious, but the results are still very satisfactory.

Of course the results are averages.

Generally, in a situation where the router was 10m away (behind one partition wall), much more data could be transmitted.

For 5 sessions at a time, based on the TCP protocol, it is possible to transfer about 600Mbit.

As you can see, the results are very satisfactory. TOTOLINK A1004 AC750 Dual Band Gigabit Router eliminates the concept of network bottlenecks. Thanks to such a high bandwidth, you can easily enjoy the use of the Internet on wireless (and wired) devices, on connections exceeding 100Mbit, which is increasingly common nowadays - without the need for cables ... :)

The throughput was also measured under extreme conditions - the distance above 30m from the router was additionally limited by two partition walls.

This is the result:

Despite the long distance and obstacles in the form of two partition walls, TOTOLINK A1004 AC750 Dual Band Gigabit Router worked very well. The difference between the obtained Download/Upload values based on the TCP protocol is relatively small, while analyzing the UDP results one can see a little more difference between Download/Upload values - but still the results are very satisfactory.

Summary

TOTOLINK A1004 AC750 Dual Band Gigabit Router is a great solution for home and office networks. It is characterized by very high functionality, long range and very high performance.

It was also worth considering that our networks are growing at an alarming rate from day to day. We use computers, laptops, tablets, telephones, TV sets equipped with WiFi and consoles. Many times we also have DVRs, cameras, alarm systems and those that manage the "smart home". In time we will see solutions enabling e.g. refrigerators to order missing products via the Internet - with home delivery.

Therefore, it is very important to have a reliable, efficient device that connects the whole network consistently.

The other arguments in its favour are the 36 months warranty and the price - TOTOLINK A1004 AC750 Dual Band Gigabit Router can be bought in retail for approx. 130pln net.

Routers with similar parameters and capabilities are usually much more expensive than TOTOLINK A1004 AC750 Dual Band Gigabit Router, which we can wholeheartedly recommend to you.

Author:

Leszek Błaszczyk