Tenda is a known brand offering networking products induing WiFi Router. I have tested a few of its products in the past and this time I tried AC6 AC1200 Smart Dual-Band WiFi Router. This is a high-speed WiFi router that claims to offer a throughput of 1167Mbps. It assures uninterrupted gaming and 4K video streaming. I tested this router and here is the review of Tenda AC6 AC1200.
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The router comes with a charger and a small LAN cable. The router has four big antennas pre-installed and they were also covered in plastic sleeves. The router doesn’t have a compact form factor but big antennas make it look smaller. The angular front gives it a stealth fighter aesthetic. It has LEDs at the front for different things including status, 2.4G network, 5G network, WAN, indicators for 3 LAN port and a WPS LED. So, total there are 8 different LED indicators. At the back, it has 3 LAN ports and 1 for WAN along with power connector, a button to enable or disable WIFI and a button that doubles as the WPS trigger and reset. You can hold this button to a few seconds to perform the complete reset. It was proper vents at the back to keep proper airflow for keeping the router cool.
Also see: Tenda Nova MW6 Review
Specifications
- Standard & Protoco: lIEEE802.3, IEEE802.3u
- Interface: 1 x 10/100Mbps WAN port, 3 x 10/100Mbps LAN ports
- Antenna: 4 x 5dBi external antennas
- WAN port: 1 x 10/100Mbps
- LAN Ports: 3 x 10/100Mbps
- FrequencySimultaneous: dual-band 2.4 & 5GHz
- Wireless Standards: IEEE 802.11ac/a/n 5GHz, IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz
- Data rate: Up to 867Mbps (5GHz), Up to 300Mbps (2.4GHz)
- Wireless Security: WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, WPA/WPA2
- Internet Connection Type: PPPoE, Dynamic IP, Static IP, PPPoE(Russia), PPTP(Russia), L2TP(Russia)
- Operating Mode: Wireless Router Mode, Universal Repeater Mode, WISP Mode
You can either set up it by connecting over a wired connection or use the Tenda WiFi app. When you first connect it, it makes a default connection with no password. Network SSID is printed at the back of the router.
It also offers parental control feature. So, you can limit a specific device. You can set the specific day and time to connect the Internet. You can also make the blacklist or whitelist to allow or block a set of websites. You can also enable a guest network with a temporary password for a specific time. If you want, you can also limit the Bandwidth for Guests.
You can also limit the bandwidth of a specific device connected to your network. If you think any of the users are downloading too much and wasting the data, you can limit the download speed. ROuter’s LED lights can also be controlled. If you can turn them off if you want.
The admin section also lets you block devices by using the MAC address. The blocked device won’t be able to connect to your network.
Admin section can also be accessed using the app. Not all options are available, but the important options are there. So, you don’t need to use the system for everything. Just open the app and check.
I ran several tests to check the speed and range of this router. Most of the users are just interested in just download speed, but I also tested Ping and upload. Both 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks impress. My internet plan offers 60 Mbps download and upload. So, it was not enough to test the maximum speed of this router. The good thing is that I was able to get the max out of my network.
When I was using the system in the adjacent room with doors closed, I could see full network strength and proper speed. I could properly stream videos and audio. Download and upload speeds were excellent. When I tried to access the network from a room that was second to the room where I placed the router (almost 25 feet and two walls in between), the network was weak and it also affected the speed. Still, I was able to access social media apps but was not happy with video streaming.
I also used the tool LAN Speed test to perform the download and upload speed test using the packets of different sizes. It constantly offered over 1800 Mbps download and over 250 Mbps upload.
The surprising thing is the lack of a USB port. Most of the routers of this segment offer a USB port. It makes it easier to share files on the network and also share the printer with all users over the network.
Final Words
Setting up the Tenda AC6 AC1200 is quick and easy. There is no complicated thing. You can either setup using the web interface or using the mobile app. That makes it even better. Big antennas offer better signal throughout and cover the claimed range properly. The downsides I could see was 100Mbps wired ports and lack of USB ports.
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