Closing Thoughts: Three Useful Devices, Depending on Your Needs
I had originally hoped to do a shorter write up on these Amped Wireless devices, as going into the review I knew I didn’t have all the testing equipment I would like. Ideally, at the very least I’d want to add at least one 3x3:3 dual-band router and adapter to the charts. 9000+ words later, I’m still typing. Whew! In retrospect, I probably should have just skipped doing the three routers/three adapters approach, plus the repeater, and made three separate reviews, as then I could have more easily scaled the number of routers (all tested with one adapter) and adapters (all tested with one router). But there’s certainly value in taking a bigger picture approach like we’ve done here, if only to show how much difference in performance you might experience with certain router/adapter combinations. For the conclusion, though, let’s break things down to discussions of each device separately.
Amped Wireless R20000G Router
Starting with the R20000G router, it’s certainly a capable device. Setup was painless, and impressive to me is that over the course of two months of testing (which lasted a lot longer than I anticipated, as things got pushed back with other reviews taking priority) I didn’t have a single instance of needing to force reboot the router. Granted, I did unplug it numerous times during the test period, but I’ve been through at least six 802.11n routers in the past three years and several of them would drop wireless connectivity on a regular basis. So that’s at least a good starting point—and rather humorously, the Belkin N600 router has a “Self Healing” function you can enable that apparently will automatically reboot the device once per day, “just in case”.
Looking at the technical specs and features, the R20000G is definitely better than your “average” wireless router. For one, it includes dual-band support, which is still sadly lacking on many of the routers you’ll find at brick and mortar stores. 5GHz may not help much if you’re trying to connect from several rooms away, but if you’re in the same room my experience is that 5GHz networking is much more pleasant than 2.4GHz, as there’s a lot less crowding. Case in point: while I could at least detect ten or so 2.4GHz networks in my neighborhood at some of the test locations, I only ever saw one other 5GHz network, and the signal was quite weak so it was unlikely to cause interference.
The more difficult thing to assess with the R20000G is how it stacks up to other dual-band routers. I’d certainly take it over the Belkin N600, but then we’re talking about a $65 part compared to a $160 product. Would I still pay the extra $100 for the Amped R20000G? Well, actually, given the Belkin dropped 5GHz networking on my several times during testing, I’d be inclined to look elsewhere first; $160 is a lot of money, but $65 for a router that crashes quite frequently is not something I’d be willing to buy. Looking at the R20000G’s real competition, for roughly the same price, you could get the Netgear WNDR4500 3x3:3 MIMO dual-band router with DD-WRT support, which certainly appeals to the enthusiast in me. There’s also the Linksys EA4500 and E4200V2, both $170 and both supporting 3x3:3 dual-band with Broadcom chipsets (which I consider superior to Realtek and Ralink chipsets). The ASUS RT-N66U is another compelling high-end wireless router with DD-RWT support and with external antennas, or even Apple’s Airport Extreme. And let’s not forget that 802.11ac routers are starting to show up, though I’d probably wait a couple months for reviews and comparisons to surface before taking the plunge, not to mention the need for 802.11ac adapters.
My final verdict is that the R20000G is a good router, but while RSSI numbers are lower than the two other tested routers, without additional competing routers I can’t give it a clear recommendation. If you don’t want to worry about 3x3:3 MIMO or 802.11ac right now, and/or if you like the idea of US-based support, the R20000G is worth a look. It’s not inexpensive by any means, but it was reliable throughout my testing and coverage was at least as good as other routers that I’ve used. It’s also built quite well and, at least in my opinion, looks nicer than some of the funky routers (e.g. the Belkin and Netgear routers used in this review).
Amped Wireless SR20000G Repeater
If I had a difficult time figuring out whether or not the R20000G was worth your pennies, the SR20000G is even more difficult. For starters, it’s the first time I’ve used a wireless repeater, and I have no other comparison points. Second, for those looking to provide wireless coverage to a moderate sized home (like me), I can already cover my whole house, yard, and even into the neighboring houses with a good router. I simply don’t need to extend my network another 50 feet.
What about outside of extending your network; is there a good use for a repeater? Amped informed me that they see quite a bit of uptake by people with poor signal strength from their all-in-one modem-plus-wireless-router devices. Considering some of those modem/router boxes can probably only cover 3000 square feet, I’m sure they’re right, but I still feel there are better ways of extending your wireless coverage. One simple solution for the modem/router users would be to simply disable the wireless functionality and connect via Ethernet to the modem/router—assuming there’s at least one Ethernet port. That requires a certain amount of technical savvy of course—something I could do, but not something I would recommend to, say, my siblings or parents. (They already call me for tech support enough as is!) Another potentially more painful solution (which wouldn’t be available for all users) would be to either demand a different modem that doesn’t include a router, buy such a modem yourself, or failing that switch to another broadband provider.
Okay, so maybe you don’t want to do any of that. If you just want a quick and easy way to extend your wireless coverage and you don’t care about spending $180 to do so, the SR20000G should be able to get you up and running in a matter of five minutes or less. It’s also potentially useful as a way to create a Gigabit Ethernet network away from the main router without running a cable—for example, at your HTPC location as I’ve done, where you might have a PC and one or more game consoles; another possibility would be to share a network with a neighbor, though I didn’t actually try that. Besides the high price, you’ll also have to deal with lower throughput when connected to the repeater, but if you couldn’t connect otherwise that’s probably a fair compromise.
Amped Wireless UA2000 Directional Wireless USB Adapter
I’ve saved my favorite product for last. While I can only recommend the other two devices with caveats, the UA2000 is something I could certainly recommend to people that want better throughput at moderate to long distances. There really aren’t too many directional wireless adapters around, and the UA2000 is both less expensive at $80 and substantially less ugly than something like this 2200mW adapter. My biggest complaint is that it’s a bit to light, so if the cord is bumped it’s easy to knock the UA2000 down or change its orientation, but if you need a higher performance wireless signal to a specific location it should be possible to come up with a way to overcome that. It’s still expensive compared to other USB adapters, but there aren’t too many dual-band adapters on the market. This one works, it works well, and throughout testing it consistently provided better throughput than other wireless adapters at our two longer range locations.
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