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DrayTek Vigor 2850n review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £203
inc VAT

An extremely fast and versatile modem router that’s perfect for office environments

Specifications

802.11n dual band, 4x 10/100/1000Mbit/s Ethernet ports

http://www.dabs.com

Draytek’s Vigor 2850n is the first router we’ve seen which supports the VDSL2 standard, which is needed for high-speed copper connections such as BT Infinity. It also supports ADSL2+, its fourth Gigabit Ethernet port doubles as a WAN port to connect to another modem or router and you can even attach a 3G modem dongle to its USB port to provide a third internet option. You can configure the Vigor 2850n to default to a specific connection method, such as 3G, if one of the other connections goes down.

DrayTek Vigor 2850n

Even though the Vigor 2850n’s built-in configuration utility has a quick-start menu, this is a router for more experienced users such as IT technicians at commercial premises or home users in need of greater networking flexibility than that provided by their ISP’s router. The Vigor 2850n’s configuration menus are clear, uncluttered and easy to navigate, but they present little in the way of advice or explanation, expecting the user to know what the options mean.

In addition to the four Gigabit Ethernet ports, you can connect to the Vigor 2850n using Wi-Fi. We initially tested it using our Centrino 2 laptop on the 2.4GHz band and achieved data rates of 42.8Mbit/s at a distance of one metre, 34.3Mbit/s at 10 metres and 12.8Mbit/s at 25 metres. These rates aren’t exceptionally fast, but they’re certainly above average. We then switched to the less congested 5GHz band and enabled channel bonding. The rates increased dramatically to 59.9Mbit/s at one metre, 61.5Mbit/s at 10 metres and a remarkable 31.9Mbit/s at 25 metres. The 1m and 10m 5GHz scores are beaten by those of Belkin’s N600 DB (see What’s New, Shopper 290), but its rate of 31.9Mbit/s over 25 metres is the best we’ve ever achieved when using our Centrino 2 laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi.

DrayTek Vigor 2850n

When we switched off our Centrino laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi adaptor and plugged in DrayTek’s own Vigor N65 Wi-Fi adaptor (£35 from www.dabs.com) we achieved exceptionally good results. We saw 68.1Mbit/s at 1m, 59.9Mbit/s at 10 metres and 8.6Mbit/s at 25 metres on the 2.4GHz band. When we switched to the 5GHz network and enabled channel bonding we achieved the phenomenal rates of 119.8Mbit/s at 1m, 101Mbit/s at 10m and 30.3Mbit/s at 25m. The Vigor N65 Wi-Fi adaptor and the Vigor 2850n combine to produce the best Wi-Fi speeds we’ve ever seen, and is definitely worth the extra money.

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Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Modem type ADSL/VDSL/3G
802.11b support yes
802.11g support yes
Draft 802.11n support yes
Draft 802.11n 5GHz support yes
MIMO yes
Turbo mode channel-bonding
Stated speed 300Mbit/s

Security

WPA PSK (TKIP, AES), RADIUS
WPA2 yes
Firewall yes
MAC address filtering yes
DMZ yes

Physical

Size 44x165x241
Antennas 3
Internal/external antennas external
Upgradeable antenna yes
Number of WAN ports 2
Ethernet ports 4
Ethernet connection speed 10/100/1000Mbit/s
Other ports USB
Wall mountable yes
Power consumption on 7W

Other Features

Dynamic DNS yes
Universal Plug and Play support yes
DHCP server yes
MAC spoofing yes
Port forwarding yes
WDS Support yes
USB device support yes
QoS yes

Buying Information

Price £203
Warranty two years
Supplier http://www.dabs.com
Details www.draytek.co.uk